To My Fellow Moms!

Mother's Day has fallen on the heels of an emotional week.  I'm not sure if it was last week, or the sermon I heard today, or just some alone time with Him that has made me focus on all the wonderful women in my life that support me, love me, laugh with me, and cry with with me.

Everyday I am overwhelmingly thankful for my boys.  On the significant days and the insignificant days I'm so blessed that God picked ME to be their mom!  I'm thankful for my awesome husband who helps me to raise them to be the awesome kids they are.

But today, I'm also thankful for my fellow-moms out there!

• My fellow Jesus-Lovin' Moms who help me stay on track, remind me of scripture, pray for me and my family and serve as great role models for my kids.
• My fellow Sport Moms who sit in the cold, the rain, the wind (hopefully, eventually, the heat) and cheer with me!  Thank you for getting excited with me when my kids do something well and for letting me cheer along with you for your kids.
• My fellow Safety First Moms for keeping their kids in booster seats (so mine aren't the only ones!) and for making sure that mine are safe in their cars! 
•  My fellow Homework Moms who can talk through 3rd grade math with me and allow me to see that I'm not the only one who isn't clear on how you add to subtract.
• My fellow Pinterest Moms who pin a lot of FANTASTIC dinner and activity ideas.
• My fellow Crafty Moms who give me tips and ideas on how to make my house a home.
• My fellow Moms with All Boys who understand the toilet stench and the fear of future daughter-in-laws.
• My fellow Caregiver Moms who discuss all the kid ailments that come along and give tips and tricks.

So thank you to all my fellow Moms!  You make this day special... so special that there should be a Mother's Day Part II - Celebrating Friends Who Make Us Great Moms!  I encourage you all to celebrate this new holiday!  No pictures of the family today... just a little Pinspiration that sums up the above!

Give Thanks Board

Yesterday was November 1.  How did that happen???  Where did 2012 go?????  I realized it WAS November 1 when all my FB friends started posting what they were thankful for.  AND then I realized it was time to pull out my "Give Thanks" board! 

So about my Give Thanks board....

1. I got the idea last year from Pinterest, of course.  (Here's a link Jellybean Junkyard where I found a GREAT tutorial.)  Instead of using a piece of wood, I used a big ol' canvas from Michaels - gotta love 40% off at Michaels!!
2. I started making this much too close to November 1 last year so by the time I completed it, it was December 1.  :(
3. I'm squeal-out-loud-excited to use it this year!!

Last night I ran downstairs to our storage closet and pulled it out, printed up some 2012 tags, and tried to hang it up on the door.  Struggling with the hanging it up part but I'll get that figured out.



And here's a sample of our 2012 cards.  I'll keep you posted on what we are all thankful for. 



Day 1 (if you can't read it) - Jordynne's 16th Birthday (Traci), Helping with Backpack Buddies (Kevin), God (AJ), Friends (Tyler).  (I need to figure out how to focus with my iphone's camera!!)

Halloween Wrap-Up

Everything Halloween in one picture-filled post!  So many great Halloween memories to share.  Let's start with the crazy afternoon of class parties....

Tyler's Class Party: I didn't realize I had volunteered to be the homeroom mom for Tyler's class... but I am.  I wasn't able to take many pictures because I was busy playing a dice jack-o-lantern game. I had some great parents who volunteered to help out thankfully.  The kids made popcorn monster hands, played a dice jack-o-lantern game, played a Hershey kiss math game, ate at a snack station, and made a toilet paper jack-o-lantern craft.


Tyler with his monster popcorn hand.

Mr. Schermerhorn's first class party.  Ready to lead the dice game!

Mrs. Sullivan has this class in line!

AJ's Class Party was led by FIVE homeroom moms.  I didn't realize I volunteered for his class either... but here I am!  This one was pretty simple since I was only in charge of one station - the craft station of course!

Here we are, hard at work making paper plate ghosts.  Kevin is such a good sport!

One of the other moms took this picture.  Not exactly sure what is going on but certainly looks like AJ is up to no good!

And then there was the AFUMC Trunk-or-Treat! I absolutely love the idea of a trunk-or-treat. This is my third year planning it at AFUMC. Each year I stress out and each year it's awesome. A little colder than I would have liked this year but at least there wasn't any wind. The boys love this event too. We decorated our trunk but again, since I was busy running around, I don't have a picture of it.  This picture is courtesy of one of my favorite photographers - Stephanie. What would I do without my awesome friends....


Don't let the Luau in the background fool you - We were freezing!



I don't have a picture of the trunk but this Storm Trooper was part of festivities. Thanks to Kevin and Debbie for making him happen!

 

And then we Carved our Pumpkins..........


Real Men Eat Pumpkin Guts

He's So Brave



Tyler did a lot of the carving of his pumpkin this year.  He's getting so OLD!!!
 

 Trick-or-Treat!!!  Like every year, this night is so much fun.  Weather was much better than it has been in years past.  We got together with the neighbors for dinner.  Jack-o-Lantern pizza... OF COURSE.

So, funny thing about the costumes this year.  We were all going to be "classic" Halloween.  AJ - a skeleton, Tyler - Frankenstein, Me - a Mummy (because I'm their "mummy"), and Kevin - a Vampire.  We couldn't find a Frankenstein costume that Tyler liked.  AJ found a pretty cool skeleton costume that he chose and Tyler loved it and decided they should be twin skeletons.  I fought it for about 10 seconds and then gave in.  It should be their choice, not mine.  They showed their friends their costumes who also thought they were cool.  So this is what happened....

Skeleton - Party of Five

Peek-A-Drew

Strike-A-Pose-Skeleton-Style

Happy Halloween!!!

Whew!  I'm exhausted!!