Fall Break Fun

Even though this week is really feeling like fall, our school's fall break was 2 weeks ago.  It was still pretty warm during all of our break.  Since the kids were out of school Wednesday-Friday, I was ready to have some fun with them.  Kelly and I were back and forth on what we wanted to do, but we settled on taking the kids to the Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, NC.  We always love getting back to N.C.!   We used to live just 5 minutes from the Great Wolf so its fun to see everything again. I still miss it all.   The girls love going there and this summer they filled their reward jars and told us they wanted to go to Great Wolf Lodge again as their reward.  Since we didn't finalize our stay until that Tuesday at lunch the girls were clueless that we were going.  I mean we barely knew ourselves!  We love being spontaneous and love surprises so this was right up our alley.  We made our reservation while Kelly was in for lunch and then afterwards I started packing for me and all the kids.  We decided not to tell them, to just pack it up and then surprise them.  Kelly had a meeting that evening so the girls came home and we just hung out at home.  Kate actually fell asleep early.  They never even paid attention to me hurrying around and taking things to the car.  When Kelly got home we loaded them into the car and said we were heading on an adventure.  I think Cohen was caught off guard and was a little scared.  She said, "I don't think I want to go anywhere if we have to leave so late."  We assured her it would be fine and then told her where we were going.  She was excited but still hesitant about leaving so late.  It was getting close to 10:00.  She ended up falling asleep pretty quick which was another reason we liked going at night.  They all 3 slept the whole trip and even though we woke them up when we arrived there, they had no trouble falling back to sleep in the hotel room.  It was a fun little surprise for them.
They all woke up Wednesday morning excited and ready to go!  They loved putting on their wolf ears and howling.  We had breakfast and made our way to the water park.  We stayed there all afternoon only stopping for a quick lunch break.  They all LOVED it!  Cohen rode every slide multiple times, Kate could ride everything but one, and Bryce was limited to a few slides but he loved the ones he could ride.  It was such a fun day.  Kelly and I love slides too and we would take turns riding with Cohen and Kate and playing with Bryce.

Later that afternoon after we had finished at the waterpark, the girls were begging to get the magic wands and play the quest games around the hotel.  If you haven't been to the Great Wolf Lodge I highly recommend it.  The waterpark is great but they have so many other fun things too.  The quest games you can play are very neat.  Its almost like a big scavenger hunt for kids to play.  They get a book with their wands then get started.  The game is played on the 2, 3, and 4th floors of the hotel and you are given hints on where to go until the quest is complete.  Several quests make up a book and your progress is saved forever so even if you don't finish on this one trip you can pick back up on your next visit.  A good way to keep you coming back!  The girls definitely didn't finish but we were up late doing it and then up early before leaving again on Thursday.  It was fun for them.  I loved that the hotel was all decorated for Halloween.  I love Halloween and all the fun that comes with it.  The kids even had a trick-or-treat at the hotel.  It was just all a lot of fun and perfect for our little fall break getaway!
When we go to N.C. we have to see some friends.  We all met for Japanese, another favorite for the girls, and it was so yummy.  This used to be a frequent lunch spot for me and my friends when we all worked together.

clearly Bryce was over pictures

After dinner it was more quest games for us...Bryce chose to play on all the decorations which included knocking this witch's pot over...wonk wonk.

Thursday we had to pack up and leave.  We decided to do some fall activities and head to our favorite apple orchard.  Sug, Pop, Aunt Sara, Savannah, and Addison met us there.  I was sad to see that the U-pick for the season was over but this place has so many fun things to do that we still had a blast.  And the donuts...hello!  That is really why I go.  Between those and the apple cider slushies I am in heaven.  I refuse to miss this fall tradition.  Kelly and I started going to Sky Top before we ever had kids!  It is crazy to think how many years we have been going.  I love it love it!

 After the orchard we headed over to our other favorite spot nearby, Elijah Mountain Gem Mine.  The girls specifically ask to do this each year and they seem to still enjoy it now as much as they did the first time we did it.

Friday of our break was spent celebrating Bryce and having his 3rd birthday party.  You can read all about it here.
Saturday Cohen performed at the Royston fall festival.  She did a great job!  Later we headed to Athens for Georgia's game against Missouri.  It was another Dawg win!!! 7-0 and we are having a ball!

Sunday we celebrated Uncle Adam's birthday.  We do a lot of birthday celebrating in October :)

Sunday night we had our first Halloween party of the year!  So much fun!  Cohen had asked me a few weeks earlier when Nat would have her Halloween party.  She said, "I look forward to that like I look forward to Christmas!"  Pretty big deal I would say.  The girls were excited to get all dressed up too.  We had some Halloween switch ups to our costumes.  Cohen had been set on being Jojo Siwa for Halloween and we even ordered a costume back in August!  Well here we sat mid October with no costume and after several calls along the way I had the order canceled because ridiculous wasn't even the word to began to describe that.  So on to plan B.  Cohen was now Little Red Riding Hood.  Kate had wanted to be a wolf all along but a scary wolf.  Well I never found a good costume for that so we settled on a butterfly.  Well when Cohen switched to Little Red riding Hood we searched for Kate a wolf costume in our own stash and came up with something that worked.  It all worked out and the kids had a blast all night.  They ate, painted pumpkins and played.  Bryce sported his tractor costume that I had worked hard on and he even won best costume.  HE was proud of that little ribbon too!  Such a fun time with our friends.  I'm like Cohen, I look forward to that each year too.   Every month/season has so much fun for us to look forward to.  I would say we had a very fun break!

Super proud of his ribbon!

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Happy Birthday to Bryce!

My sweet baby boy just celebrated his 3rd birthday!  I can't believe how fast these 3 years have flown by.  I find myself saying that sentence about all 3 of my kids all the time.  It does seem like Bryce was just born though.  I can't even put into words the joy this little boy brings to us on a daily basis.  Bryce is just special and there's no other way to put it.  He is this happy, outgoing, friendly, lovable, and hilarious, little boy.  He is such a talker and it is so fun to hear what he is going to say next.  I don't know that he meets a stranger and he will definitely want to know right away if you have a lawn mower, weed eater, chainsaw, leaf blower, hedge trimmer or tractor!  And yes, he owns every one of those things himself!  He makes life entertaining for sure!  I love that he is all boy and having had 2 girls before him it is all new and fun for us.  Each day with him is certainly a blessing and watching him grow and learn is so much fun.  I love my days with him and I'm trying to soak in every second!  For his 3rd birthday you can guess what kind of party Bryce wanted...a lawn mower party!  I thought that might be hard to pull off but it wasn't.  I found a super cute invitation on Etsy and some cute little lawn mower ideas on Pinterest of course.  It was funny because Bryce didn't realize how much fun his birthday would be and how we would stretch out the celebrations.  He loved every minute though.  I think he really got into opening up his presents and he got so many fun things.  I could write a book on all the cute things he says and does right now but I will stick to the highlights!  A huge thank you to everyone who helped make his birthday special and his birthday party.  He is definitely one loved little boy and he doesn't even realize how lucky he is to be surrounded by so many awesome people who love him.
At 3 years old here is a little about Mr. Bryce:

• ALL BOY!  Loves anything with a motor & all things lawn maintenance.  His favorite toy is probably his tractor that he will ride around the yard all the time!
• This boy LOVES his Georgia Bulldawgs!  We have raised him right!   He will walk around our house singing all the Georgia songs, yelling Go Dawgs, and acting like a football player.  
• Loves to sing and dance.  Eric Church's song "Give Me Back My Hometown" is by far his favorite!
• Loves to carry on a conversation with anyone.  He is a people person for sure!
• Bryce is around 32 lbs, wears mostly 3T clothes and is in a size 8 shoe.  
• Unbelievably smart and loves preschool.  He loves his friends, loves learning songs, and everything about his "church school" with Sug.
• Even though he is super smart he is not yet potty trained.  A lot of that is our fault because if there is one thing I hate its potty training and I just can't bring myself to get it done.  Our on the go life also thinks diapers are more convenient.  All tips are welcome!  At this point our motto is we will get it done before kindergarten...lol!
• Loves to play the iPad and loves to watch Blippi!  If you have a boy you probably know exactly what and who this is!
• Bryce is back & forth on taking naps and usually when he does have one we have a harder time at night.  But no matter what he will wake up in the night most nights and creep into our bed.  Sometimes we hear him but most of the time we don't!  
• loves to brush his teeth...he chipped his tooth back in the summer but so far we haven't had any issues.  
• he loves to eat and is a pretty big eater.  He has a lot of favorite foods, some healthy some junk food but for the most part I am happy with how well he eats.

Happy Birthday to Bryce.  I love you so so much!

 Bryce had his birthday breakfast at Burger King!  It was only fitting that he celebrate with some of his favorite people.  This has been a morning tradition for him since he was born!

Since Bryce's birthday fell on a Monday we continued with our weekly meal at my Mama's.  We love our Monday family nights.  Bryce wanted "vanilla cake" so that's what he got.  He really blew out candles all day.  I had sang to him with candles in his PB&J...3 times we sang and blew out the same candle.  I did video that and on the last time one candle fell out and without skipping a beat he picks it right up, lit and all!  Didn't think twice!

Bryce's lawn mower party was on Friday.  We had a family cookout for him.  The lawn mower food was so cute!  Sug made this cute fruit lawn mower and I had made some lawn mower rice Krispie treats.  I wish I had taken more pictures but I didn't .  He had a blast though and we loved celebrating with everyone who came!