Jason's 5th Birthday!

 Our little Jason Oliver turned 5 on a Tuesday, October 17th.  It was already a busy day for us--band practice, baseball practice, dance practice AND girl scouts that evening!  After we all made it home around 7 PM, we finally got a chance to do presents and eat some cake!  Jason got some awesome clothes and pajamas from Aunt Carrie (he has worn the dino pjs almost daily since and says that the fleece pants are soooo soft and now his favorite!).  Tim and I got him a Lego set with a rescue boat, buoy, octopus, and Jeep.  We also got a Dream Tent with the dino pattern, which he LOVES!  It is already set up on his bed and he puts his dream light under there and just enjoys the star show.  Even though our celebration was quick, Jason will get to have a grand old time on the following weekend for his big birthday party!

Make a wish!

Fall Festival 2017

 We've been carrying on with this tradition of attending the fall festival parade for a dozen years or more.  We always grab the same spot--in front of the abandoned houses across from the BB&T--and each year it feels like we add more people to our group!  This year, we welcomed friends Emma and Sam to their first parade, along with other teacher friends and their kids.  All the kids were eager to grab the candy that was thrown from the parade entries while I just hung back in my folding chair and prayed for no rain.  It was neat to see Garrett and Caroline in the marching band again this year.  
After the parade we all headed to the high school where the marching band did a free performance of their competition show and we played silly games, visited the petting zoo, and ate hot dogs and funnel cakes :)

Visiting the "haunted house" while waiting for the parade to start

They swore they saw something in the window and made a mad dash back to us!

Marching band directors

Abby!

Garrett at the very end (most left)

The trailer got a new wrapping job! We're very proud  :)

The theme of the festival this year was "there's no place like home".  Most of the floats had a "Wizard of Oz" theme.

Homecoming 2017!

 Big surprise, Garrett decided to ditch HoCo this year.  I wanted him to go (senior year, last chance and all) but he said "It's expensive, no fun, my friends aren't going, and Abby's going out of town that weekend."  So he was out but Caroline was IN!  She and her friend Bella along with Bella's brother Giancarlo and friend Melanie headed to HoCo as a friend group.  Caroline and Bella got each other corsages for fun and we took some pics over at Bella's house.  Then Bella's mom fed everyone, drove them to the dance, and Caroline had a sleepover to spare me the dreaded midnight pick up call.  Sounds like they had a great time!

Yes, Caroline is really that tall now.  And Bella really is that short.

Caroline, Bella, Giancarlo, and Melanie

The "serious" pose

Back to "fun poses"!