Fall Festival

This afternoon was the fall festival at my school. I had to work the last shift at the popcorn booth, so this gave me enough time to take the kids around to all of the other booths before reporting for duty. Olivia really enjoyed all of the games and activities. Her favorite thing was the horse ride. When we pulled up, she saw the horses immediately and wanted to ride. I didn't know how she would do on the horse. I actually thought that she might be intimidated once she got on it and want to get down. To my surprise, she loved it. The look on her face as she was led around on the horse was one of pure joy.

In addition to the horses, Olivia also enjoyed all of the games. She won a lot of prizes. Brian was especially thrilled that she won a 2-liter Mountain Dew in the ring toss. Since we were limited on time, we didn't get to visit all of the booths. I guess we can do the other things next year. Owen will be bigger then, too, so he'll be able to do something other than sit in the umbrella stroller (like he did this year).


Before leaving the festival, we let Olivia ride the horse one last time and then took the kids to the petting zoo. Olivia got to pet a calf, a duck, and a goat. The goats were very gentle, and she was able to hand-feed one of them. The Ag. teacher was working at the petting zoo and commented that most kids her age had been scared of the goats. He also said that maybe we should get her one. I don't think that's going to happen. Reecee would not like sharing her backyard with a goat! Who knows, though, maybe when Olivia is older we'll get her one to show.

The Walker Reunion

Here are a few pictures from this year's Walker reunion. This is the family of my Papa Walker and his brothers and sisters. It is always nice to get together with extended family- many from out of town- and catch up (and let's not even talk about all of the delicious food). I remember going to the Walker reunion when I was little and playing with all of my cousins. Now they all have kids that are Olivia's age, and she plays with them.

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.