November

 In November, we went to Blue and Gray Days at the Carnton Plantation. This is something that we had been planning since the summer! Pretty much when we found out about it, we knew we wanted to go.

 The kids met Abraham Lincoln and since then, they've been on a first name basis and talk of Abraham like they've known him all their lives. William enlisted in the army. We saw a woman making thread from all sorts of crazy things. We were able to see and hear about a lot of cool things that were popular or available during the Civil War.

 We saw reenactors and got new hats for the kiddies!

 And saw a kind of lame reenactment of the Battle of Franklin.

 We took a tour of the Carnton House which was converted into a Confederate Hospital. There were still bloodstains on the wood floor. Before we left, we walked through the Confederate Cemetery on the Plantation. The owners donated the land for the Confederate soldiers who were not given a proper burial due to the fact that they fought for the losing side. There were thousands who were buried on this property. It was very sad to look at these headstones and also see how many were unnamed. We had a lot of fun going to Blue and Gray Days, however, I'm pretty sure we still are wanting to go to a more exciting reenactment.

 Thanksgiving was really relaxed this year. But before William and Lily were out of school, all of the Kindergarten classes had a Thanksgiving feast! Lily was so excited. They had their long "table" that just about went the length of the whole Kindergarten wing.

 Lily was Princess Pink Peach. They decorated their vests, made necklaces, and head dresses. I had so much fun helping out in a lot of the Thanksgiving activities at school. The Kindergarten teachers are so great to work with and the children are all wonderful and hilarious.

 

It is no secret that I love the fall in Tennessee. I was definitely sad to see it go, but I'm looking forward to the Spring now!

Pumpkins 2012

 I figured that before Thanksgiving, I should put up the pictures of our carved pumpkins from 2012! We got them from the pumpkin patch on Fall Break and we waited until the weekend before Halloween to carve them and have a family Halloween Party. We had Grandma, Grandpa, Savannah, and Zachary join us. It was full of yummy junk food and watching Igor and Hocus Pocus. It made me feel a little old to realize that Hocus Pocus came out almost 20 years ago. We had a little mix and match with our pumpkins this year. I carved William's, Matthew carved Lily's pattern on my pumpkin and also carved his own, and Savannah drew her own pattern and carved Lily's. Zachary helped take the tops off of the pumpkins and helped William and Lily get the "ew..nasty" part out of the pumpkins!

We lit them up inside and Lily had to get this little pose in before we moved them all outside.

Howdy!

 For our anniversary this year, Matthew took the whole day off and we decided to be tourists of Nashville. We had plans to go to the Grand Ole Opry House and the Ryman Auditorium to take tours, but the Ryman closed early for an awards show so we didn't get to see it. But, the Grand Ole Opry was awesome. We got to play on stage!

 Okay, not for real. This is a painted background with instruments that only have like 2 stings. We rocked it though!!

 We got to see where the members of the Grand Ole Opry get their fan mail. We also learned that their all in alphabetical order except for one.. Little Jimmy Dickens. They had to put his lower so he could reach it.

 Here is one of the many dressing rooms they had.

 This painting is in the "Green Room" where the performer's family waits.

And then we finally got to go on the stage.

 We got to stand on the legendary circle of wood that was taken from the side of the Ryman's stage. All the stars have stood or walked on this and they were able to have it even after Nashville was flooded. It was pretty cool to have stood where greats like Minnie Pearl did as she yelled "Howdy!" This was one of the trivia questions on the tour and I totally surprised Matthew by knowing who said that!

Matthew and I had SO much fun touring the Grand Ole Opry. We were the youngest people there. Matthew was worried that we would be the only people there to tour it, but much to his surprise, there were tour groups from Germany and France that were there. See? Told you it was cool, Matthew.

All we did was take a tour, but I'm pretty sure we'll be planning to go see someone play there soon. 

Henry Candy

 Matthew did some work for the Southern Ground Music and Food Festival here in Nashville. It's a two day event full of southern food and Country Music. Matthew got tickets to go to one of the concerts for free! So, we were able to see the Zac Brown Band live and MAN! where they fantastic live!! They had all sorts of booths selling cowboy hats, band stuff, and one where they were making wanted posters for free. Of course, we got in line. We got our picture taken, and then we had to come up with an outlaw name. I let Matthew pick what he wanted to name us and I really hate what he came up with. Henry Candy.. the lamest outlaw name known to man. The woman who printed it off asked if that was Matthew's real name. I just stared at her and Matthew, of course, said that it was.

 I wasn't able to get a good picture while we were sitting out on the grass, but I got this pretty clear one while we were walking back, exhausted, to our car.

 

The concert was on the Riverfront, so we walked over the bridge and I was able to take some fun pictures of Nashville at night!

I'm so glad we were able to do this. Especially for the cool Henry Candy picture.

Fall Break

 Having kids in school makes me realize how much I love having them home! I counted down weeks and days until Fall Break, which was a full week! We saw Hotel Transylvania with Grandma, Grandpa, Jamie, and Katie. We had a movie day at Jennifer's house. Not to mention that the kids and I went walking everyday in Jennifer's neighborhood. Some days we lounged around because there's no school, we can do what we want! The whole week ended with a BANG! We went to the Shriner's Circus with John and Krystin's fam where we saw some cool stuff. The coolest thing by far was the motorcycles. I think that was every one's favorite. But there was a guy shot from a cannon (which brought on the fear of, "I sure hope he lands on the net..."), women who were hanging/spinning from their hair, and cool elephant tricks AND dog tricks. It was a good experience for the kids to see the circus, but to be honest, I don't think we'll do it again.

 We went to the pumpkin patch (where Lily had her field trip) to pick out our annual pumpkins to carve.

 

 This farm has so many fun things to do! William and Lily went through the hay bale maze a couple of times. We listened to a man playing the banjo, we saw all of the animals and William actually touched them! There were so many pumpkins to choose from, but I'm pretty sure we got some good ones.

Now that Fall Break is over, we're counting down days for Thanksgiving break. It will be here before you know it!

The Haps: William

 William has been super busy since school started! He absolutely loves his teacher and does an incredible impression of her. He also has two girlfriends again this year. One of the girls does know and the other one doesn't know yet. But he thinks both of them have beautiful smiles.

 William completed his first ever project in school. He had to make a timeline of important events in his life. We went through some pictures and he chose to do a baby picture, one from when he broke his arm, one seeing Thomas, and one from the very first day of first grade. William then had to present it in front of his class and talk about his life.

 William went on a field trip on the same day Lily did! I was super bummed that I couldn't go with both of them, but my dad was able to go with William. And I honestly think William had more fun with Grandpa! They both went to the Morning Glory Apple Orchard. They got to taste fresh apple cider and William picked an apple off a tree. He was excited to show me his cool apple cup too.

William has also started losing teeth!! He lost his very first tooth and got $2 from the tooth fairy. Since then, he has already lost another and has one on the top loose too! 

The Haps: Lily

 Little Miss Lily is fantastic! School has been such a great thing for this little one. After about the first week of school, Lily started missing being at home with me and she would cry about going to school. I had lunch with her a couple of times before I realized that visiting her was too hard. Lily's teacher came up with a solution to stay at the school after having lunch with Miss Lily Lou until school got out. We love this and it has become a weekly thing to have lunch with my kids once again! Lily has gotten into the routine of school and looks forward to going everyday. 

 I was able to go with Lily and her class on a field trip to the pumpkin patch! This was her very first field trip and very first time on a school bus. She's big stuff now. It was a lot of fun to go on a hay ride, pet some animals, pick a pumpkin, and the kid's got to pump water out of a well.

Lily is excelling in Kindergarten. She knows her letters, letter sounds, and all 40 of her sight words. She loves writing and coloring. She is a hard worker when she wants to be and we are so proud of her accomplishments. Lily loves her new friends at school and loves being in the same class as Taylor. When she comes home from school, she tells me about her day, is excited to show me the work in her folder, and sings me songs that they learned. And of course I love that she does.