Trick-or-Treating 2008

After leaving the school, we headed to Marna's house. When we arrived we started getting out of the car when Marna pulled up and we all headed inside. Lilly and Sophia were upstairs getting on their costumes and came down to greet us very soon. Before long, everyone started to filter in so we all headed outside to play. In Marna's front yard, they had hung a rope swing and the twins were anxious to get on. Since it was wobbly, I got on first, trying my best to keep my balance and hanging on for dear life, and then John handed me the twins one by one. Emily didn't want to miss out, so John plopped her up their also. I felt very unsteady and like my fingers were going to fall off from gripping so hard, but it was a ton of fun!!

After swinging, we played in the front for a while longer with all the kids. Since it turned out, Emily was still having issues from where she ripped her costume earlier at recess, she took it off while she played, and Katrina worked quickly to stitch it up or the evening. After a while, it was time for dinner, so we headed in, fixed plates, and then headed to the back with the kids to eat. Luckily all the kids had good appetites despite all the junk they had eaten at their parties, so we were able to get a good dinner in them before trick-or-treating madness started.

Once the kids were done eating, I started changing diapers, making a potty run for Emily, and getting all of them in to their costumes. Once all the kids were dressed, I also put back on my Dorothy ruby red slippers to make my costume complete and we headed out the front to take a few group pictures.

Once we had gotten in a few pictures, we all headed down Marna's street to the first house. Ansley and Bailey both wanted to walk and were so cute prancing along in their costumes. Although we drug behind the group since the older kids were much faster, Ansley and Bailey finally made it up to the first house with their buckets. Although Emily had already been to that house, she went up to the door again to make sure they were taken care of. The next house we went to had a dog that was dressed up as a pirate and Bailey though that was the best thing she had ever seen!! She was also encouraged by how much the lady made a fuss over how cute she was and how cute she thought the Wizard of Oz theme was, that when the dog went back inside the Lady's house, Bailey was ready to follow it inside. It was hard to get her to understand she was not staying with the dog, but after showing her candy, she was quick to follow me to the next house.

We made our way around the bottom of their street and headed back up. At one house not far past Marna's, Ansley decided she was ready to inspect her goodies. In her normal independent fashion, she plopped herself right down on the drive way and started pulling stuff out to take a look. Daddy sat with her and helped her look, before we all headed to the next house. Before long, it was getting colder and later so John took the little ones home and Emily and I pressed on with the group.

We made it about 3/4 of the way up Marna's street when Katrina offered to let me use her tennis shoes since she had on several pairs of sock and I was killing my feet in the heels. Since mine were gone (they were in the stroller that John had taken when he left) and I was pretty desperate, we made the switch. It was quite the relief to get those off =)

When we made it to the house at the top of the street, the lady oohed and aahed over Emily and Sophia's costumes as they came up to the door. However being the drama queen that Emily is, once Sophia had moved on to the next house and Daddy and I were still there with just her, she asked the lady if her costume was beautiful because she needed to know that just her costume was beautiful. It was so funny and the lady was tickled. Just for Emily, the lady went on and on about how beautiful she was.

After that, we made our way back down the street and gave the kids the option of going down the side street or going back to the house. Surprisingly unlike the past year, they were ready to head back. For that part of the trip, Emily stretched out in the waggon.

When we got back to Marna's, the kids looked over their candy, ate a little, and then got ready to go. Emily, Sophia, Lilly, and Christian headed with Daddy and Katrina for a spin the night party and I headed home to crash.

Ansley's and Bailey's Class Halloween Party 2008

Around 3:30, Emily and I left her room and headed up to Ansley and Bailey's class for their party. When we arrived, they were seated so we made a place on the floor beside them. The teachers handed out plates and the girls immediately dug in to all of their goodies, with the icing on the cookies and the cupcakes being their favorite parts. They also were nice about giving pieces to Emily, however she was pretty fully from her party and really just wanted to play since she was well in to her sugar rush. Once they were pretty well done with their feast, Mom arrived and they were excited to see her. They finished off any icing they could find and then I whipped them down so play time could begin =) The little ones played while I helped Emily with an unfortunate costume malfunction. Everyone had a great time. Since it had warmed up a little bit, we took off their costumes to give the little ones a breather.

Bailey and Pirate Jess decided to smile for the picture and then we said our goodbyes so that we could head off to Marna's house in time for dinner and trick-or-treating.

Emily's Class Halloween Party

At 2:30, I showed up at Emily class. The kids had just gone to art and I was there to help Mrs. Annette with the decorations for the Class Halloween Party. Since I thought Emily would like it and we were heading straight to Marna's afterwards, I came in my Dorothy costume. When I arrived, Mrs. Annette told me that Emily had accidentally stepped on her dress on the play ground and it had ripped along the middle since it was delicate fabric. Luckily, she was able to get some safety pins from Mrs. Taylor and do a temporary fix to save the day =) After the decorations were up and the food was out, the kids headed back in from art. Emily was excited to see me and we went to the bathroom so we could get her dress on for the party. When we came out, I helped her fix her plate. She was very excited about all the goodies. Especially the cupcakes and the chips. I helped her to her seat and her and her friend Jackson "Batman" wanted their picture taken. Too cute =) Us parents that were there helped other kids get their plates and helped pass out the drink while the kids enjoyed their goodies.

Before long, Ms. Doyle came in to visit. She was dressed as Mr. Brad (the general manager). The kids got a big laugh out of that one!! After all the kids were done with their snacks, it was time to start the pin the face on the pumpkin game. The kids all took turns getting blindfolded and putting a piece of the face on. They loved it. In addition, they also enjoyed going through their goodie bags and seeing their treats. (Like they were not high enough on sugar at that point =) Ha Ha) Since it was about time for Ansley and Bailey's party to start I mentioned to Emily that I needed to go to their party also and that she had the option of staying at her party, that was really about done, or going with me. She chose to go with me, so she said he goodbyes and we hurried up to the little ones party.

Julie's Halloween Costume Party

On Thursday night, October 30th, Dorothy ("me") made her grand appearance at Scott's house for Juile's Halloween Party. When I arrived, two other couples had gotten there, and Juile was busy putting the final touches on the food. Julie made introductions and we all visited as others arrived.


Amy arrived, followed shortly by Angie (disco woman). As it turned out, the two of them came without their husbands also, so it worked out that John was home with the kids. All of us girls chatted away for a while before the festivities began. Julie, being the great hostess had planned a few party games. First we started with a competition to see who could remember the most people in the room. Although, certain ones of us knew each other, it was a challenge to guess all the names. Not being a name person, I defiantly did not win that one. Next we moved on to a Halloween word jumble, working in pairs. Angie and I teamed up and did very well, but Amy and Scott took the prize by being the fastest and by getting one of the last ones everyone was struggling to figure out =) For the final game, we voted on costumes. For sexiest, there was Wonder Woman; for scariest, devil man; for most original, Fonzie; and for best costume, Dorothy. I was quite shocked to win, but I have to say, it had to be the shoes =) After our games, we all enjoyed visiting and taking pictures for a while. Before we knew it, it was getting late.

Canning Soup in GA with the Fuller Sisters

On Friday morning, October 24th, I dropped the girls off at school, headed back to the house, did some laundry, and then packed my bag for Helen. Around 9:30 I was headed down the road and ready for the weekend with the Fuller sisters (Aunt Margie, Louise, Linda, and Sandra, plus Uncle Tommy and Aunt Jane and Mr J). I was able to make good time and arrived in Helen not long after Aunt Sandra. We visited for a while and before long, Aunt Margie and Aunt Louise arrived. We helped get them unloaded and then we all had a late lunch. After lunch we ventured out to the grey building and started pulling out our individual buckets so that we could pick our ingredients for our soup. Once we pulled out all the buckets and labeled them, we started pulling out bags of various ingredients from the freezers in the barn and the grey building. We had one main recipe that were were working from, but as people decided they did not want something or wanted more or another item, the recipe was tweaked. Once we had unloaded all the frozen ingredients into the buckets, we headed back inside to start chopping the okra. Right about the time were finishing chopping the okra, Aunt Linda arrived. Everyone was excited to see her, but gave her a hard time about missing out on chopping the okra and said she was up next for the peppers. Before long, dinner was ready and we all enjoyed dinner and visiting. After dinner, Mr. J and I took off for Corneallia to Home Depot to pick up some items we needed for the next day's canning fest. While we were there we decided to pick up a couple more turkey cookers so we had additional burners for canning. When we arrived back at the house, we found the sisters were out in the barn and had removed all the frozen veggies from their bags in order to help with the thawing process. In addition, we also decided to go ahead and put the salt in jars (1 tsp in each Qt. jar) to save time in the morning. After the jars were done, we put some additional heaters out there, since it was a cool night, in order to hopefully help the veggies to thaw overnight.

The next morning, we all got up around 6 in order to get started with our canning early. We knew it was going to take a long time to get everything done and needed to start early. After we all got dressed and ate breakfast, we headed out to the grey building to check the frozen veggies. Unfortunately they did not thaw very much overnight, so we proceeded to thaw them in cookers, combine everything back in the large tubs, and then start canning. Since there were seven batches (the 5 sisters, Uncle Tommy's, and mine) it took a little while to thaw everything. Once we got the first couple of batches thawed (Aunt Margie's and Aunt Linda's), there tubs were taken to the sheltered area behind the barn where we had set up to can and they started putting their mixture in the jars and then in the hot water bath while we were working on thawing some of the other batches. Before we knew it we had thawed all the batches and each person was able to work on getting some of their mixture into the jars and then putting their first batch into the hot water bath. We were set up so that each person had their own pot and were able to get about 10-14 jars in each load. However it took 1 hour and 30 minutes per load after they came to a boil so with approximately 50 jars each, we were still in for a long day. Just as we all got our first batch in the hot water baths, Uncle Tommy and Aunt Jane arrived. We were all excited to see them. We all helped them get started and then got back to finishing getting our mixture in jars. Once all of the mixture was in jars, we were able to just switch them out as the day went on. The first period went pretty fast since were were still working on filling jars, cleaning up some, and visiting so when Aunt Sandra's first batch came up (she was the first one to have a batch done) it seemed so quick. Mr. J and I helped her get them out of the water, add some cool water (so that when the new jars were added they would not crack), and then get a new batch in the cooker.

The day was filled with visiting, switching out jars, keeping up with times of when the next batch would be done, and just having fun. Mid afternoon when I had just gotten my jars switched over and it seemed like a good time to slip away, I made my way over to Betty's IGA in Helen to pick up some Nora Mills grits since we were out of them at home. It was such a pretty day for a drive and when I arrived back at the house, it was about 30 minutes until my batch was ready to come out.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with finishing up the canning, cooking, visiting, and Aunt Linda and Mr. J playing with his new grill, the "Egg". That evening we had a great dinner and then everyone goofed off that evening.

The girls

One of the cutest twin pictures you will ever see

Boo in the Zoo

On Saturday afternoon, October 18th, we made our way to the Greenville Zoo for the Annual Boo in the Zoo event. I talked with Daddy on the way over since we were meeting him and he mentioned that the traffic coming in to the main entrance to the Zoo off Washington St was unreal and that he had to park out off of Washington St. Since we knew that, we came in the back way and were fortunately able to get a place down at the parking lot at the playground that is down past the airplane. Since a cold snap had come upon us, we lucked out that the little girls costumes were warm and tried to bundle Emily up. We then headed towards the Zoo and met up with Daddy along the way. I had taken a couple of pictures with my little camera as we got out of the car, but then decided to switch over to my big camera. Unknowingly to me, I accidentally left the memory card out of the camera, so we do not have pictures from inside the Zoo =(

When we got over to the gate, there was a line but it was quickly moving. At that time, I went ahead and put on my ruby slippers (3" heals) in order to complete my costume. I was not sure that I would make it long, but I though I would give it a shot. Once we got in the Zoo, the kids had a great time going around to the different booths that were set up. Even Ansley and Bailey enjoyed holding out their bags in order to have their prizes put in side. Instead of saying trick-or-treat(which she could not say) Bailey would roar for her candy. Just too cute!!!!! The girls thoroughly enjoyed the trip and I surprisingly made it to the end of the booths before taking off my heals.

After leaving the Zoo, we went over to the playground to play for just a couple of minutes, but since it was getting colder we had to call it a night.

Fall for Greenville 10-12-08

On Sunday afternoon, October 12th we made our way downtown after the girls woke up from thier naps. When we arrived, we parked and headed over to the game area in order to let the kids ride a few rides. Emily and I waited in line while John and the little ones walked around. Even though it was the last day and it was Sunday afternoon, there was surprisingly a large crowd. After we got our tickets, I got a call from Daddy that he had arrived so we met up with him before heading to the first ride. The girls wanted to ride the carousel first, so Daddy and I took all of them on it while John took some pictures. They all had a great time and even attracted a lot of attention from the news cameraman who kept filming them. After our ride, we looked around for a few minutes and Emily decided she really wanted to ride the large ferris wheel. There was a large line, so we had to take turns holding a spot in line while some of us walked around with the little ones. The little ones were able to get balloons which was a highlight for them and enjoyed playing with them until they floated away. After a while, John was almost to the front of the line with Emily when she decided she wanted Daddy and I to go with her so we traded off and the three of us went on the ride. She really enjoyed it and after the ride was over, we headed to Bertolos, the pizza place, to eat dinner. Even though normally we would have eaten at the booths, we decided it would be easier to sit down with the kids. Everyone dug in and after scarfing down a lot of pizza, they were ready to head out to see what else was happening. We headed up to the fountain outside the Hyatt where the girls had a blast dancing to the band that was playing, stepping over the stones in the stream, and playing with some older kids who had a ball. As it got later, we headed back towards the ride area where Emily used up the last couple of tickets on the way to the car.

Ansley's first night in a toddler Bed

After returning from Fall for Greenville, we got the little ones ready for bed. This was Ansley first night in her toddler bed. She didn't know what to think at first and since we were unsure what she would think, we still had the crib set up in the room. At first she went over to the crib, but then she seemed to be interested in her new bed. The transition was a success!!

The next night she did the cutest thing. In her room, she had a flower lay necklace and a pair of neon yellow sunglasses. I heard them up and when I walked in, Ansley had her lay and glasses on. It was too cute!!

UMOMC Fall Party at The Welcome Ranch Oct 11, 2008

On Saturday, October 11th, the Fall Party for the Upstate Mothers of Multiples Club was held at the Welcome Ranch in Wilamston, SC. Since the party was at 12:30, John stayed at home with Ansley and Bailey, while Emily and I headed to the party. When we arrived, there were some people there so we headed over to the picnic area to visit. The kids all played around while we waited for the rest of the group to arrive and for the riding portion of the party to begin. After playing with the other kids and it warming up some, Emily took a rest on a rock. It was just too cute =) Luckily, I brought her a short sleeve shirt so we went and changed her shirt real quick and before we knew it, it was time for the introduction to the riding portion of the party. All the kids were excited and after hearing the rules, they quickly files over to the riding ring and got in line. For her first turn, Emily was very excited and asked me to come with her. So we hopped up on the horse and had a great ride around the ring. She loved it so much, she was of course excited to get right back in line to take another turn. The next go around she was all by herself on another horse and thought it was absolutely fabulous!! When the ride was over, she even talked the head lady in to carying her back over to the end of the line. Pitiful, but too cute =)
After a couple more turns, Emily was ready for something to drink so we were walking over to the picnic area when we happen to see Julie, Scott, Kate, and Emily coming so we went over to say hi. The girls all wanted to play a little and then we headed back to the line for more riding. Before the riding portion of the party was over, Emily even rode Chocolate, the miniature horse. It was amazing how big she looked on him, compared to when she had ridden him at her 2nd birthday.

Of course it was hard to get all the kids to want to move on from the riding portion, but once we got all of them over to the picnic area, we started with pizza, snacks, and drinks. Although Emily had already eaten lunch, she impressed everyone with her ability to eat 4 pieces of pizza. After the food and cupcakes were done, the kids played some more while the party people got set up for the next portion of the party. First the brought in the trick horse who did things like bow. After the trick horse, came the donkey. Which was a big hit for all the kids and finally a bird who took turns sitting on their heads. The kids absolutely loved it!!!