Yo Ho, Yo Ho! It's Halloween, Matey

This year we decided to begin a new tradition in the Sanders household by having everyone dress in a particular "theme". Our theme for this first year was pirates. Everyone wore a pirate costume- even Remy (who wore his for all of two seconds so I have no picture). Olivia loved her pirate costume, and I could not have found a costume that better matched her personality. Here is a picture of "Captain Brian" and his crew. Unfortunately, my camera was not cooperating, so most pictures ended up on the fuzzy side. Yes- that's right- the camera was having issues, not the operator of the camera (my story and I'm sticking to it).

Trick-or-treating was held on Thursday the 30th in Blackshear so as not to coincide with the Friday night football game. As usual, we went to Granny Buie's house and trick-or-treated in her neighborhood. Owen dressed up, but couldn't go trick-or-treating because he had an ear infection and didn't need to be out in the weather.

Ava was Cinderella and Claire was Tinkerbell this year. These two "princesses" were Olivia's trick-or-treating companions. I love this picture of Ava and Olivia that was taken before we set off on our quest for candy. What a cute pirate and princess! Also notice Olivia's Dora treat bag (given to her by Mrs. Shari). She has been calling it her "Dora purse" and carrying it around the house playing with it ever since she got it. I think it was fun for her to see what it is really used for.

Olivia received a good bit of candy. I really had to keep an eye on her because she would stick the candy- wrapper and all- into her mouth the minute that she got it. In this picture, she is knawing on a Hershey bar and wrapper.

Here is a picture of Olivia pillaging and plundering (aka trick-or-treating). Once she realized that she got candy when she said "trick-or-treat", she did not hesitate to walk up to the front doors of various houses and try out her new phrase. At the end of the night, we sorted through all of our "pirate booty" and realized that we had lived up to the pirating tradition. Yo Ho, Yo Ho! A pirate's life for me.

On the Move

Well, it's official- the days of Owen sitting around passively are over. He is now on the move. Don't get me wrong, he is still an angel, he is just a curious angel these days. Brian and I have to make sure that we always have an eye on him. He can get into things quickly. For example, one morning this week I was getting Olivia ready for daycare. Owen was already dressed, so I put him on his playmat in the living room. As I was pulling Olivia's hair up, I heard a noise coming from my bedroom. Sure enough, Owen had crawled the entire length of the house.


I don't think that it will be too much longer before Owen starts pulling up. He is already pulling to his knees and trying hard to find his footing. Because of his progress, he has been moved out of the young infant room and into the older infant room at daycare.







It kinda makes me sad that my baby is growing so fast. Everytime I turn around, he is doing something new. With Olivia I couldn't wait for her to start moving, but with Owen I'm in no hurry. I guess I know that I'll miss the "baby days" when they are gone, so I'm going to savor them while they're here.

Wedding Bells

I would like to take a moment to congratulate my cousin, Jessica, and her new husband, Franklin. They were married yesterday in a lovely afternoon cermony. My sisters, my cousin Bailey, and I were the bridesmaids. We told Jessica that she had a bunch of "pros" for bridesmaids (because we have done it so many times). Bailey, the youngest of us, was the flower girl in my and Hannah's weddings. We had fun teasing her by saying that if she didn't do a good job as bridesmaid this time that she would be demoted back down to flower girl next time. Everything was just perfect, and we are all happy to welcome Franklin into the family.

Fernbank Museum

On the final day of our Atlanta trip, we visited the Fernbank Museum of Natural History. We saw all sorts of really cool stuff. Olivia had a fun time in the children's interactive area. She especially liked the bubble and the lightening exhibits. The museum also had dinosaur bones and life-like replicas of dinosaurs. Olivia liked these as well.

Centennial Olympic Park

While Cassie, Owen, and I were touring the World of Coke last weekend, Brian took Olivia across the street to Centennial Olympic Park so that she could play on the playground equipment. After the tour, I headed across the street to meet up with them in the park, and I could not find them. Apperently, Brian had decided to take Olivia to the Olympic fountains to play. On the way, however, Olivia had gotten sidetracked and ended up making friends with a little boy who had a soccer ball. Have I mentioned that Olivia is definitely not shy? She had so much fun kicking the ball around with this kid.

Eventually, we did get to the fountains. These fountains form the shape of the Olympic rings, and have water jets that come on and off intermittently. Olivia didn't want to get wet, so Brian and Olivia got into one of the rings when it was off. Olivia tried to run out of the ring while the jets were still down, but they suddenly came on right as she was running over them. The look on her face was priceless.

The World of Coke

After visiting the Georgia Aquarium (and a fun meal at Johnny Rockets) on our fall break trip, Owen, Cassie, and I decided to visit the new World of Coke building. I had done the tour several years ago at the old building site, but I wanted to see what the new building and tour were like. It was pretty much the same as it used to be. I actually think that I like the old building and tour better. We went through the building quickly because both Cassie and I had seen all of the memorabilia before. The one major difference that I noticed was that the new building has a larger "tasting" section. In this area of the tour, you can taste all of the Coke products from around the world. I did not try them all. I made that mistake last time. I am posting a picture of Owen and me in the tasting area. He is going after my plastic tasting cup. Perhaps in a few years I'll let him have a Coke.

The Largest Aquarium in the World

Sunday was the second day of our fall break trip to Atlanta. We got up fairly early and went to the Georgia Aquarium- which is the largest aquarium in the world. We were there about twenty minutes before the aquarium opened, which worked out well for us. Not only did we get a fantastic (and free) parking spot right beside the building, but we also got to enjoy the aquarium with a relatively small crowd.


The main attraction at the aquarium is the whale sharks. There are only six aquariums in the world that have whale sharks, and the Georgia Aquarium is the only one of those outside of Asia. There are a total of four whale sharks at the aquarium, and they can be found in the massive Ocean Voyager tank. We were lucky enough to have Cassie with us. She recommended that we visit this tank first because it tends to get crowded quickly. We are sure glad that we did! You can probably see from our pictures that there were very few people in the exhibit. The kids were able to sit in front of the tanks for as long as they wanted. Owen especially seemed to like watching the fish swim around.

Other highlights of the aquarium for us included the beluga whales, the clownfish (Nemo), and the otters. Olivia also enjoyed the "touch" exhibits and got to feel a shark, a ray, a starfish, and a shrimp. The aquarium was the best part of our entire trip, and we will definitely go back again.