Halloween/Fall Festivals

This year we were fortunate to go to several different fall festivals around late October. This worked out great because the morning of Halloween Dada left to go out of town for work for a few days and Mama was not too excited about taking two little guys out trick-or-treating by herself.
The first fall festival we went to was in Fort Mill when we went to visit Mimi and Pop. A big shopping center throws an annual Fall Festival each year for kids where they get to have a lot of fun, get a lot of candy, and participate with several vendors in the area.
Dada and Hunter got to build a birdhouse together. Home Depot supplied everything from the tool belt apron to the wood and nails to build the birdhouse. It was a fun father-son project!

Very proud of his finished product!

He and Peyton got to make their own pizza at Fuel Pizza. They got to knead the dough and put on the sauce, cheese, and pepperonis. Fuel Pizza then cooked it and the boys had a great lunch all for free! Hunter said that was his favorite part of the fall festival. I would have probably said decorating the cupcakes from SAS Cupcakes and eating them! Just walking in to their store was like eating a whole day's worth of calories! It smelled soooo good!


This year pumpkins seemed pretty scarce. We have in the past even gotten our carving pumpkins at Wal-mart or a grocery store but this year we really couldn't find any that looked decent and wasn't too expensive. So we resorted to going to a pumpkin patch we have gone to before. A local elementary school gets pumpkins from a farm and lays them all out over a huge area for you come and look through to buy. Of course our boys thought there were hundreds to choose from and they had so much fun exploring through all of the pumpkins!

The boys with their pumpkin in front that we finally agreed on.

These were some cute little rice krispie treat pumpkins I made for Hunter's preschool class. I also made some bones by cutting the ends of Pillsbury breadsticks and rolling them up to look like bones after they were cooked.


The boys in their Halloween costumes...our little Clemson football players! Thanks to my cousin Derek! He had bought them football jerseys about a year ago but it was too big on Hunter. This year the pads, pants, shirt and everything was perfect for him! Thanks Derek!

Peyton wouldn't go for the pads on him and the pants looked a little bit more like baseball jersey pants on him but he was still cute!

Do you know how hard it is to get two boys this age to look at you and smile these days?

These are a few friends that we ran in to at the Fall Festival at church. Above is our cute little tiger Deacon!

And here is Hunter with his friends Shark and Puppy (aka Sam and Troy)!

Even though we had gotten our pumpkin a couple of weeks before Halloween, we didn't actually carve it until the night before Halloween. We just didn't ever seem to have the time to do it, but we just couldn't let Dada leave without getting to carve a pumpkin with us! So jointly we all pitched in and got a cute Clemson Tiger Paw pumpkin!

Peyton VERY excited about the "paw"!

Then on Halloween evening, we went with Tinkerbell or I guess I should say...Rebekah and her mama and dada to downtown Clemson. All of the stores and various Clemson vendors came outside their stores and set up College Avenue as a trick-or-treating area. It was great because it was before it got dark and it felt very safe. It was definitely what we needed since Dada was not with us. Thanks to the Smith family for letting us hang out with you guys on Halloween! We had a great time and the boys have LOADS of candy left!

Hunter's First Riding Lesson

Like I mentioned in the last post, for Dada's birthday, he got to celebrate at a horse ranch. Last year was Hunter's first time on a horse and he LOVED it! So when we saw a Groupon came on our email about a horse riding lesson for cheap, we were not going to pass up the opportunity to see Hunter smile like that again! So Saturday morning of Dada's birthday, we drove to Greer to Clear View Farms which was located on a beautiful road facing the mountains.

We took a picture of their entrance sign because below Clear View Farms, it says Hunter Jumper Equestrian Facility...how fitting for our Hunter!
After arriving at the farms, Hunter was introduced to his horse for the lesson - Tigger! Both of my boys liked hearing that I think! The instructor told Hunter that before each lesson, the riders make sure that the horse is groomed and ready. So she let Hunter actually brush the horse himself! He really enjoyed getting to do this!
While Hunter brushed, Peyton decided to introduce himself to Tigger. Although Peyton LOVED Tigger from the arms of Dada, he wanted nothing to do with actually getting on Tigger! I really like how it looks as if Tigger posed for this picture! haha

After Tigger was groomed and all of the riding equipment was assembled and placed on Tigger, it was Hunter's turn to get on. He looked so cute in his riding helmet! I was worried that since he hadn't been on a horse in about 11 months that he may be afraid, but he was not hesitant at all! It was as if he did it daily!
The instructor knew that we really weren't too serious at this point in bringing him weekly for lessons but instead just another chance for Hunter to ride a horse. So she was great with him and walked him around the farm holding a lead rope but still having Hunter hold the ropes as well.


We stopped at various spots around the farms to get some great pictures of him and his smile!


Hunter liked the thought of getting close enough to the jumps to look as if he really were jumping them with Tigger!


It was such a beautiful day for his lesson and the scenery around the farm was even more beautiful!
She also showed him how to trot for quite a while with Tigger as well. I think Hunter really liked that!
It was a sad time saying goodbye. I'm sure he would have rode all day! Tigger did allow him to give him a hug though before leaving.
He was also able to feed Tigger a snack before heading home. I know Hunter had a great time and I hope we are able to go back to the farms one day to let him ride again! I know it made Dada's birthday even better to see Hunter that happy!

October Birthdays!

October was a fun birthday month in our house! We celebrated Pop, Amanda, and Dada's birthdays!
Pop's birthday came first on the 18th. We actually even gave him his gift back in September because we just thought it would be cruel to make him wait that long to get it since we already had it. Aunt Amy went in with our family and we got Pop a HP Touchpad (very similar to apple's IPAD). HP has decided not to sell the Touchpad any more so they quickly got rid of them by selling them for a great low price. We were so excited to pick up one for Pop! I think he was very surprised and excited as well!
The night of Pop's actual birthday, we met in Greenville to eat at Smoke on the Water. It was our second time celebrating a birthday at this restaurant and both times have been very good! A great meal with some great company! We love you Pop!


Our second October birthday we celebrated was Amanda Smith's 30th birthday. We celebrated a few days earlier than her real birthday but we wanted to do it on a day that I kept Rebekah. It was so cute how excited Hunter, Peyton, and Rebekah were when we were waiting on Amanda to get there to pick Rebekah up and see her "surprise party!"

We had gotten a couple of balloons at the Dollar Store and there was no doubt which balloon Rebekah thought her mom would want for her birthday - a "Melmo" balloon! What a cutie!!

We did have a great party with a cookie cake and decorations but for some reason we could not get her to smile with her mommy to get a picture with her card she painted for her.

And our last birthday of the month was DADA on the 29th! Happy 31st Birthday Dada! Of course you can tell by their outfits, Dada's birthday was on a Clemson football game day. Even though I'm sure Dada would have liked to have slept in on his birthday, we woke him up for a breakfast casserole breakfast and then headed to Greer, SC to a horse ranch for Hunter to have a horseback riding lesson (more details and pics to come).
Instead of sleeping in for his birthday, the boys got him some Clemson workout/lounge pants and I got him something that he had been wanting for work - a new blue tooth headset for conference calls. As you can see from the picture above, our boys are all about Clemson and the paw! They both wanted to love on the tiger paw!
Well we definitely have another photographer on our hands...Hunter! This was his first attempt of taking a picture with one of our cameras and he did great - centered and all! I wanted a picture with the birthday boy as well so that is how Hunter got his first photography job! We love you Dada and hope you had a great birthday!

Peyton's 1st Haircut!

After thinking that Peyton's hair wasn't going to grow, he finally began to have a few hairs hanging down over his eyes and ears. So we decided that it may be time to get his hair cut. It took me a long time to say let's do it because unlike Hunter, Peyton actually did have a little curl to his hair (which I thought was cute). So like Hunter, we took him to Greenville to Jelly Beans. This place is great but VERY pricey! That is why Hunter has only been there twice and now Peyton once. What is great about Jelly Beans is that for a kid's first haircut, it is only a penny! Although Peyton was not so sure about his hair being washed while he lay there like a Prince, he did let them wash his hair while I held on to his tight squeeze.

He was able to ride in a cool car and look in the mirror at himself. The lady who cut his hair was GREAT! She had definitely done this a few times. She was quick and able to work around all of his moving around.

His hair looked great but he looked sooooo much older when he was done!

I'm sure if he could really tell you about his hair cut, the only thing he would talk about would be the balloon! He LOVES balloons and was so excited to get one after he got his hair cut.

After he was finished, he paid for his own hair cut by putting his penny in the piggy bank!

Strike 1!

Like I wrote in an earlier post, we have been bowling a few times recently with Dada's co-workers that he used to work with. Hunter has really enjoyed getting to go and this past time, he got his first STRIKE!! He was so excited! We attempted to take a picture with Dada's cell phone with the scoreboard in the background but it didn't really work. At least we captured his smile after the strike!

Hunter's First Field Trip

The middle of October, Hunter got to go on his first field trip with his preschool class. It was to Denver Downs - a local farm and pumpkin patch. It was great because even Peyton and I got to go with him. The last couple of years we had considered going as a family but it was just too expensive. So when this opportunity came, we were very excited to be able to go at a group rate!

The preschool divided into different groups and rotated around the farm to various activities. Hunter's first activity was to go down the big tunnel slide. It looked like a big barrel and it was very fast! I was proud of him for going up that high and sliding down. He said he had fun but he didn't want to do it more than once! haha

They had all kinds of farm animals to feed - goats, pigs, cows, and sheep. Although the kids were given some food to feed the animals, Hunter was not so sure about sticking his hand out to an animal's mouth.

Instead of sand boxes, they had corn boxes! I'm hoping Peyton didn't try any. At one point, I know I had to fish one piece out of his mouth!

So this is what Hunter and Peyton would like their Dada to build them! :) They both LOVED this tire/horse swing. It was great because they had these hanging over huge stacks of hay bales.

I tried to get a picture of them just sitting on the hay but they were too interested in playing with the hay.

Ride 'em cowboys! My little bull riders!

Towards the end of our field trip, we got to take a hay ride to the pumpkin patch and each of the kids got to pick their own pumpkin. Although they didn't have too many big pumpkins in the patch, they sure did have a lot of small pumpkins just their size! I'm so thankful we were able to share Hunter's first field trip with him. We had a great time!