Lifting my spirits... Halloween Style!

Monday was a pretty depressing day. I had to take the van in for some repairs, and it turned out to be more extensive than I thought. That left me feeling pretty bummed, so I decided to have some fun for FHE, and decorate our pumpkins. While at Wally-World getting pumpkins, I noticed a fun-looking Haunted House Gingerbread Kit, and had to get that, too. We had lots of fun making our "potato head pumpkins" and the kids thoroughly enjoyed making and eating the haunted house! Seeing them having so much fun and enjoying the family time together sure lifted my spirits!

Megan was in a baking mood on Sunday, so after church she made up a batch of sugar cookies. She had TONS of fun cutting out and decorating Halloween cookies. I thought I would share pictures of them, too, since she was so proud!

Woohoo! I'm a big fat loser!!

And I love it! It's been a bumpy 2 months, but I have lost enough weight to win the Mayfield Family Biggest Loser! Not nearly where I want to be, but I do weigh less than I did a year ago, and I am still working on losing more. I've learned that I love Yoga, and in the process helped my back as well.

Sorry to toot my own horn this morning, but I'm very excited, and thankful!

Day at the Greenway

It was so nice to see the sun shining today, so after church we loaded up the kids and headed out to the Greenway. I told the kids we were going out to take pictures, and got tons of static, but in the end they all cooperated... I told them they could wear their hoodies! :) It was a fun, although cool and breezy, afternoon. We went off the beaten path and followed a trail down by the creek for a little bit. I took around 180 pictures, but thought that I would just share my favorites with you!


Sorry this next one is blurry... but I still love it!


During our walk, we saw signs like this, identifying different trees:


We all got a chuckle, though, out of this sign, and had to take a picture of it!

Mourning...

I decorated the front porch for Fall a couple of weeks ago. I was so pleased with my cute white pumpkin:


Isn't it cute?? I thought so, and someone else must have, too, because when we got home from Destin, the pumpkin was GONE!! Someone stole it right off of my porch.

I did find these two wonderful huge pumpkins, though, at Scott's Orchard this past weekend... for only $5 each!


So, while I love my two new pumpkins, I still miss my little white one... and I am appalled and somewhat ticked that someone would take it right off my porch. Oh... and don't you just love that bumpy gourd in the first and second pictures? Kayti picked that out for us. If someone decides to take that off my porch, there may just be war!

BTW... stay tuned... we will be decorating pumpkins for Halloween soon, and can't wait for everyone to see them!

Last Day... :(

We did something totally different today for our last day of break... breakfast at IHOP, and bowling! This is actually the first time we have ever taken the kids bowling. I know... big shocker... but I am NOT a bowler. The last time I went with my husband I ending up in a puddle of tears because I was doing so horribly (ok... found out the next week that I was pregnant, so I am blaming pregnancy hormones on the meltdown!). So, believe it or not, it was actually my idea to go bowling. I thought that the kids would enjoy it, and it didn't bother me if I failed epically in front of them. Kayti hates bowling, but she was a good sport about the whole thing.


We all pretty much stunk it up our first game, so we called it our "practice round", but at one point and time I was actually winning, so I had to take a picture of the score board... that is my big "52 " up there!


We played 2 games, and I got 2 strikes and a couple of spares as well. We had a great time, and just love the shoes!


Since Kayti was such a good sport about the whole thing, her Daddy treated her to a trip to Booklegger, her favorite used book store.

We had a great day and we hate seeing fall break end. Barry is off work for a few more days, and then we probably won't see very much of him for the rest of the month. Things at his work are gearing up for a big project that is coming up the end of the month. The kids start their soccer tournaments next weekend, so life is going to be busy again. I've enjoyed this relaxing weekend, and loved spending it with my sweetheart and kiddos. They are the best!!

Day at the Farm

This Fall Break has been a lot of "spur-of-the-moment" kinds of days. I decided Friday night to take the kids and spend the weekend up at the Farm with my parents. We loaded up Saturday morning, and headed out, making a few stops (Krispy Kreme for breakfast, and Scotts Orchard). We surprised my Mom and Dad and enjoyed a rather lazy Saturday. We made some yummy chili for dinner, and enjoyed the company of my sister and her husband, and my nephew and his son. We went to church with them this morning, then headed back to the farm for lunch. We were so happy to see the sun come out this afternoon, so I grabbed my camera to try to capture some of the changing leaves.


Mom and Dad have two new babies at the farm... two of the horses had babies! One was born a couple of weeks ago, and the other one just a few days ago. Megan has been dying to see them, so after lunch we headed out to the pasture to see if we could get them to come down to the barn yard. Thankfully they did, and we were able to get a few pictures.


This is Ebbie and her baby (born a few weeks ago). Ebbie is an older mare, and so gentle. The kids love to ride her when they get the chance, and Ebbie has been good to let anyone pet the new baby.


This is Midnight and her new little one (born this week). Midnight was given to my parents after being rescued from an abusive situation. She is very skittish and is VERY protective of her new baby. She charged another horse, some cows, and my nephew, all of whom got too close to the baby for momma's comfort.

While we were out looking at the horses and cows, I heard something that I haven't heard outside at the farm in a while... running water! The springs and creeks are running again after several years of drought. It was beautiful so see and hear.


One last random picture to share:


This is my nephew, Eli, with Josh. They are not only cousins, but birthday buddies as well. I got really tickled at them eating tomato soup together this afternoon... no spoon needed, just add crackers!

We headed home late this afternoon. Not too sure what tomorrow will bring, but we are looking forward to our last day of break.

Day at Destin

Since we took a family vacation over the summer, we really didn't have the money to go somewhere for an extended time over fall break. We thought we would at least take a day trip somewhere, and asked the kids where they wanted to go. Naturally they all said the beach, but when I looked online at the extended forecast for Destin (our favorite beach destination!), it was supposed to be raining every day. That bummed us all out, so we ditched that idea. No one really came up with anything better, though, so Tuesday I took another peak at the forecast and saw that Thursday was supposed to be bright and sunny, with a high of 89! Perfect!! I ran the idea past Barry, and we made last minute plans to head south after school on Wednesday. We snagged a hotel reservation nearby, and planned on getting up Thursday morning, spending the majority of the day on the beach, then heading on home in the afternoon.

We made it to our hotel safely, and had a decent night's sleep. We were all pretty excited, so sleep was a bit difficult. When we woke up Thursday morning, we were greeted with foggy, cloudy, even rainy skies, and Barry giving me dirty looks! This was our view as we headed into Destin across the Mid Bay Bridge...


Isn't that beautiful?! HA!! Of course, it was very humid as well, and my lense kept fogging up on my camera... so maybe that shot is a bit of an exaggeration! But, we did have a few rain drops fall on us, and Barry couldn't help but give me a hard time for just checking the weather channel instead of local news stations!

Thankfully, though, the clouds and fog lifted, and we were blessed with a beautiful day. We hit the outlet mall first, and scored some great deals on some clothes for the kiddos. We then headed for the beach, and enjoyed our day! It was beautiful, and everyone had a ball. We all look like lobsters this morning, but none of us mind too much!


We didn't build these... just admiring someone else's handiwork!


That is a crab in the gull's mouth. We watched him dive-bomb the poor thing right out of the water. The sandpiper is trying to fight him for it!

Just a few more of the waves on the shore:


We really wanted to stay to see the sunset on the beach... one of our favorite scenes. But, we didn't want to get home so late, either, and we were all pretty wiped out as well. So, we decided to travel home a different way, sticking pretty close to the shoreline so we could pull over to enjoy the sunset, and snap picutes. Well, the further west we headed, the cloudier it got, so we missed out on a beach sunset. But. I was able to grab a few pictures of the clouds and sun...


As an added treat to our day, we met up with Nate and Alisha, and the Smith family while we were there. It was fun spending some time with them, and we hope they are having fun today!

We made it home pretty late last night, but everyone slept well! Today we are all being pretty lazy. Kayti paid me quite a compliment this morning when she told me that I didn't look quite as much like a tomato as I did last night! Thanks, Kayt! Gotta love that girl!

Finally

I finally got around tonight to posting something on my kitchen/cooking blog, Kim's Kitchen. It's been over 2 months since I last posted there, and decided that I should update!

Super Hero/Villian Day

So today's theme was Super Hero/Villian Day... and here is what the kids came up with.


Kayti was "ThunderKlap of the Young Women Justice League"... good thing YW camp was a super hero theme this year, or she may not have had a costume!


Josh was a very last minute Mojo Jojo from the Powerpuff Girls. He and a friend had thought about both wearing their 'fro's again and being the "Fro bros", but last night some of the girls at churc told him that they were going as the PpG's, and he should go as MJ... so he came home and pulled this together late last night.


I am really loving the fact that they came up with these on their own, and I didn't have to run all over town trying to help them come up with some ideas!