Poppell Farms Field Trip

This past week Olivia's Pre-K class took their first field trip of the year. They went to Poppell Farms. This trip had originally been scheduled for mid-October, but had to be changed due to bad weather. Brian was going to chaperone, but the rescheduling (and a mandatory conference call) left him unable to attend. Fortunately Cassie was in Blackshear for Halloween and stepped in at the last minute to go with Olivia's class on the field trip. All of the pictures and details of the trip were provided by Cassie. Olivia's class participated in a variety of activities- they saw farm animals, took a hay ride, played on the bouncy thing, and rode the cow train. Each student was also allowed to choose a small pumpkin to bring home. Olivia told me that she picked a "perfect" pumpkin, and she was very excited to show it to me when I picked her up. Olivia was especially excited that Aunt Cassie was able to go with her. From what I hear, everyone had a great time.

Halloween in the Merry Old Land of Oz

We kept with our tradition of having a family "theme" for Halloween this year by dressing as the characters from the Wizard of Oz. This was a no-brainer given the kids' absolute obsession with this movie. This year's theme was made even more elaborate by Cassie and Quincy- who dressed as Glinda (The Good Witch) and Elphaba (The Wicked Witch). Once again, we met up with our family at Granny Buie's house and then went trick-or-treating in her neighborhood. The kids did a great job of going house to house this year. All Brian and I had to do was pull up to a house in the golf cart, and the kids hopped out and went up to the house on their own. We didn't have to get out of the golf cart much at all. Like last year, we got lots of positive comments about our family costumes. Once it got dark, we went back to Granny's house to help hand out candy to those who were still trick-or-treating. Cassie and Quincy were there holding down the fort, and they had it rocking. They took passing out candy to a whole new level by creating a "Wicked" theme at Granny's house. They even had the "Wicked" soundtrack playing in the background. They were a definite hit, and several people came up to get a picture of the good and wicked witches. Below are some of the pictures we took. As you can probably, we had lots of fun with this theme. Everyone did a good job of getting into character.

The Georgia/Florida Game

My two favorite college football teams are Georgia and anyone who's playing against Florida. The Georgia/Florida rivarly is legendary. Although Georgia hasn't won this game since 2007, they were favored to win this year. I love college football, but I haven't really been able to go to a game since I had Olivia. So, when my dad called last week to ask me if I wanted to go with him to the Georgia/Florida game, I jumped at the chance. (I mean, are you kidding? Go see the Dawgs whoop up on some Gators? Yes, please.) The GA/FL game is always played in Jacksonville, so daddy and I loaded up early on Saturday morning and made our way to EverBank Field. We arrived early enough that we were able to walk around and check out the "scene". We waited for the players to arrive and we cheered for them as they got off the buses. We actually had a really good spot for seeing this (check out my photo of quarterback Aaron Murray). After watching the players enter, we went into the stadium ourselves. I was surprised to learn that Anna and her husband were also at the game and were sitting near-ish to us. I went and talked to them a bit as we watched the teams warm up.



















As kickoff approached, the stadium began to fill with fans. Georgia got off to a slow start, and the score was 17-3 Florida for a good part of the first half. Georgia began to show improvement before halftime, and then made a comeback during the second half. Georgia ended up winning 24-20. The movement from being behind to winning made all of the Georgia fans really excited. The stadium was LOUD, and it was awesome. I'm surprised that I'm not hoarse from all of the cheering I did. When the game was over, the stadium erupted. The fans were cheering all of the way out of the stadium and into the parking lot. To say that the atmosphere was festive would be an understatment. It was so much fun. I know that it will probably be awhile before I get to go to another Georgia game. But, if I only get to go to one game every couple of years, I'm glad that THIS was the game I got to see.

And as a sidenote- Brian was also excited for the win, even though he is a Florida State fan. (No, I don't know how it happened that he likes the Seminoles, but at least he's not a Gator).

Racing for Pinks

This morning was the Racing for Pinks 5K and fun run. I love this local race because it raises money for a good cause (victims of breast cancer) and because there is usually a lot of participation. Speaking of participation, guess who came and did the fun run with Owen and Olivia? Yep, it was my sweet nieces Ava and Claire. Ava rocked it- she ran her mile in 11:11. Claire and Olivia came in shortly thereafter. I ran the fun run with Owen. Well, "run" might be too strong of a word here. I was doing all I could to get him to walk. My good friend Amy was also doing the fun run with her daughter, Molly, so we stuck with them. This actually helped because seeing Molly pass him inspired Owen to pick up the pace a little. Even so, we still finished very close to last place. It was fun, though- and all of the kids received medals for their efforts.

Prior to the fun run, Quincy and I ran the 5K. This is Quincy's second 5K, and she did a really good job. She finished about 10 minutes quicker than her previous race. I also set a new PR with a time of 24:47. This is the first time that I have ever come in under the 25 minute mark, so I was really happy with my run. My time was also good enough to earn first place in my age group. I received a "Racing for Pinks" running towel as a prize. It was a fun morning and a great day to run a 5K.

Historic St. Augustine

Established 42 years before Jamestown, St. Augustine is the oldest town in the U.S. This town has a rich history- from exploration by Ponce de Leon, to the founding of the city by Juan Pedro Menendez de Aviles, to the development of the city as a playground for the rich by Henry Flagler-there is so much to see, do, and learn about in St. Augustine. Likewise, there are no shortage of museums and exhibits here. Brian and I had visited before, so we had already explored many of the sites. Our goal for this trip was to give Owen and Olivia a dose of the history without boring them to tears. I think it worked- before we left, Olivia came to the conclusion that "everything in this city is about it being old". We did visit many "old" sites- the oldest jail, the oldest pharmacy, the oldest schoolhouse, etc... However, the thing that the kids liked the best was the old fort- El Castillo de San Marcos. We visited the fort twice. On the first visit, the kids had a blast checking out the rooms, grounds, and bastions of the Castillo. We returned at the fort the next day to watch a reenactment of a military exercise where the "soldiers" fired a cannon. Owen was really into the cannon firing and he watched the whole production intently. This kind of surprised me because the reenactment was entirely in Spanish (this was a Spanish fort, after all). He really liked when the cannon fired and said that it was "cool". In addition to visiting the fort, we also took a narrated trolley tour and spent some time in the old quarter. As a bonus, we also ate a nice, semi-fancy meal at the Colombia restaurant (Spanish food- yummy). We had a great time on our little trip to St. Augustine. Seeing as how we live a short 2.5 hours away, we will most certainly be back.

Alligator Farm

We have just returned from our fall break mini-trip to St. Augustine, Florida. We stayed two days / one night in this oldest city in the U.S. There are many many many historical attractions in this town, but the first thing that we did had nothing to do with history- it had to do with wildlife. We visited the St. Augustine Alligator Farm. As expected, there were tons of alligators, crocodiles, and other animals at this zoo. As a matter of fact, the zoo has an exhibit for all 23 species of crocodiles in the world- even the endangered gharial. I couldn't help but think of the tv show "Swamp People" as we were walking through the park. I kept waiting for someone to yell "Choot 'em"- and some guy on the boardwalk finally did. In addition to seeing the various species of crocs, we also got to see "Maximo"- the largest croc in the park (15+ feet). We also attended a bird/reptile show where we got to go to the stage and pet an anaconda. Everyone in our family touched the anaconda except Owen- he wasn't having it. Visiting the Alligator Farm was a pleasant way to spend the morning, and was nice kick-off to our St. Augustine trip.

Homecoming Parade

This past week was Homecoming week for the high school football team, and there was a parade on Thursday. The parade route was close to our house, so the kids and I walked down to see it. We ended up in a spot that was right at the beginning of the parade- so we loaded up on candy. I guess that the kids in the parade were really excited about throwing the candy and wanted to unload it all as soon as they could. Owen and Olivia got so much candy that we couldn't even carry it all. We stuffed my pockets and Owen's pockets with candy- and then Olivia began putting candy in her shirt (see picture). I tried to convince her that she had enough, but she kept stuffing. Note to self: Bring a plastic bag to the Christmas parade.