Happy Halloween!

Wishing you a fun and spooky day!

Boo in the Zoo

 

A few of our favorite pictures from Boo in the Zoo last weekend:

 

Instead of saying "Trick or Treat" at each treat stop at the zoo, Leah would turn into a fierce pirate and scrunch up her face.  She'd exclaim, "Trick ARRGHH Treat!" and every single time, the adults handing out the goodies would burst out laughing.  You just don't expect such a sweet, innocent little girl to have such a mighty pirate voice.  It's my absolute favorite part of Halloween so far this year:



Leah's "Mean Pirate" Face.

The kids had a blast at Boo in The Zoo, and our two little pirates are ready for more Halloween events ahead!

Pumpkin Fun

 

We've been enjoying lots of fun with pumpkins this week.  We brought a pumpkin to Luke's kindergarten class, helped the children to scoop out seeds and carve it, and then roasted the seeds for them to have as snack the next day.  The class had a contest to guess how many seeds were in the pumpkin, and Luke helped me sort and count all 629 seeds! 

 

  Leah and I also visited the pumpkin patch yesterday, and she took her turn checking to see how tall she is this fall:

 

 

 Leah picked out several small pumpkins for a special project that we had planned.  For the first time ever, Mommy was brave enough to use glitter, and from my little pumpkin's enthusiastic reaction, I see many more sparkly crafts in our future!

First, we sized up our pumpkins.

Next came the glue...

Finally it was time to sprinkle the glitter!

Almost done!

Our pretty glitter pumpkins!

This morning, we carved our family jack o' lantern.  Luke drew a prototype for us, which Daddy carved onto our large pumpkin.  Our artist's requirements were: vampire teeth, triangle eyes & nose, and a frowny face:

 

Helpful assistants.

 

Making "yucky" faces as they scooped out the guts!

Here's to a great job by our jack o' lantern team!

Halloween Costume Reveal

 

 

The children are pirates this year for Halloween.  Yep, all three of them.  Thanks to a great authentic Jack Sparrow costume from Disney World that our neighbors passed down to us, Luke has wanted to be a pirate for months.  Luckily, Leah just goes along with the flow and looks up to her big brother so much that if he says that he is going to be a pirate, then she wants to be a pirate, too.  And poor Winnie just puts up with it all (although I think she may have protested a bit more if she knew how excited I was to search the internet and find a coordinating doggie pirate scarf for her!):

 

 

 

So far, our little pirates have been happy to model their costumes, but somehow were still surprised when they checked out each other's outfits:

Wait, you're a pirate, too?

 

We've been practicing our fierce pirate faces, complete with eye patches:

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And perfecting our friendly pirate expressions, as well:

I'm not sure how many more years I can get away with my children agreeing to coordinate costumes, but it certainly makes this holiday-loving Mama very happy to see my little pirates together! 

 

A Trip Down Memory Lane

Each time we visit our alma mater, it's a trip down memory lane for Mark and me.  We hold a special place in our hearts for the university that brought us together, and there are many wonderful things about WFU that make it feel like home each time we return.  Some of our favorite things about Wake Forest, then and now:

 Festival on the Quad: 

It may be an annual family event for us these days, but we had many parties and celebrations on the quad during our college years, too.

WFU Athletics:

True and loyal fans, we always enjoy cheering for WFU athletes, and have dreams of future scholarships someday:

The Deacon Shop:

There's never enough WFU apparel in our house, and we picked up this cute little kid as a souvenir:

Wait Chapel:

-After all these years, and seeing it literally thousands of days and nights, Wait Chapel still takes my breath away.  This majestic symbol of our university served as a backdrop to our family game of catch and races on Friday afternoon. 

The Demon Deacon:

There are smiles, high fives, and hugs all around each time we greet our beloved mascot!

Campus:

I know that I am biased, but I think that Wake has one of the most beautiful college campuses that I've ever seen.  I love the red Georgian brick, the pristine landscaping, the multiple outdoor areas to sit, read, and study.  Our children made themselves at home as we walked around campus, proudly donning their WFU shirts:

I was exactly half my age when I lived in this freshman dorm!

View of Reynolda Hall at night.

Here's an interesting tidbit about our recent trip to Wake Forest. 

We realized that Luke is now closer in age to the current freshman class at WFU than Mark and I are.

Yikes.

The funny thing is that when I look at students, I completely lose perspective of the age difference.  How can they be so much younger than me, as I am certain that I look exactly the same as when I attended Wake?  Perhaps it is because everyone that I’ve met here has been about this age (18-22), and so time seems to freeze each time I step onto campus and enter “the bubble”.  Maybe the smells, the sights, and the sounds of WFU are all so familiar and comforting that I am lost as memories rush back to me, and this nostalgia transforms me into a younger version of myself. 

And then, the following true story occurs.

After spending a gorgeous afternoon on campus, our family approaches our parked car.  Seeing our license plate, a student leans his head out of the driver’s window of his nearby car and shouts, “Hey, where in South Carolina do you live?”

“Greenville,” I reply.

“I’m from Charleston,” he responds.  “I was trying to figure out who you guys were…”

“Oh, you don’t know us,” I call out, momentarily flattered that he mistook Mark and me for peers. This totally validates my theory that we haven’t aged at all since we have graduated.  Somehow I overlook that I have two kids (and a dog) in tow, and am buckling them into car seats in our family SUV. 

“We’re old…” Mark banters. 

“Well, you’re not that old,” the student laughs, and drives away.  I am left standing in the parking lot, contemplating what just happened.  Did he mean, "You don't look old enough to be parents," or was it more of a "You're not as old as my grandmother," type of sarcasm there? 

That's the beauty of returning to a place that you once called home.  It's easy for the last 15 years to effortlessly slip away in your mind as you walk down memory lane.  For a moment in time, you are young and innocent again.  And then your illusion is shattered, and you are jolted back to the present in an instant, when Mr. Charleston reminds you that there’s nowhere else in your life that you’d rather be.  Old and all. 

Dear old Wake Forest, thanks for a great weekend of family fun.  How blessed are we to reap the gifts that you have given us, over and over again, as we share you with our children!