Spelling Bee

A couple of weeks ago, Dalton was chosen to be one of the representatives of his school to compete in a Spelling Bee in LaGrange against other schools. He competed against first graders from 5 other schools. He was given a word list to study and we worked on it diligently almost every night. He did a great job studying for it! The big day arrived for us to travel to LaGrange this morning. Dalton and the other first graders were sent to a separate room to participate in the spelling bee while the parents were sent to wait for our kids in the school's lunchroom. Dalton was tripped up on the first word he was given. He was given the word "pail" and he said that he started out spelling, p...i... then he realized his mistake and corrected himself to correctly spell the word, but it was too late. The kids were not allowed to start spelling the word, then start over again. It was a great experience for him though. He learned a ton of new words through all his studying that he wouldn't have learned at this point in his first grade career. We are very proud of him!!

On the way home, we stopped to celebrate his participation in the spelling bee and all his hard work with a dessert from Applebee's. Dalton loves anything with chocolate or ice cream so we both shared and dug into Applebee's Triple Chocolate Meltdown. Mmm-mmm!!!

Pajama Day

Colby with his teacher, Mrs. Lora

One of the highlights of the year I think at Colby's preschool is Pajama Day. The kids and teachers dress in their pajamas and bring their teddy bears and have fun activities with their bears. Colby brought two of his favorite bears, which he has creatively named, Big Bear and Little Bear. Who knows what all they did because asking Colby what all he did during the day is like pulling teeth. Ha! A typical conversation about school with Colby (or Dalton for that matter) goes something like this...
Me: Colby, what all did you do today?
Colby: Nothing
Me: Well, what did you learn today?
Colby: I don't want to talk about that right now.
Me: Well, what was your favorite part of the day?
Colby: Playing on the playground and snacktime

Nice.

New Addition

We have a new addition to our family. Meet Body Self. He is a lemon and white beagle who was added to our family about 3 weeks ago. We've been wanting to get a dog for a while that the boys could grow up with. They've been begging for a dog or cat, but we're not really cat people so...well, we got a dog. It's been a lot of fun despite all his chewing on everything including us. I've realized though that having a new puppy is much like having a new baby. We have to get up in the middle of the night a couple of times and teach him about pooping and peeing outside. I think we've been buying tons of carpet cleaner and paper towels in bulk. Ugh! Body is super cute though and we love him. He's already grown so much that he is almost twice as big as he was when we got him 3 weeks ago. He's a fun addition to our family!

Football, Football, Football

Shane and I before a game

Shane in action

We've been knee-deep in football around here for about the past 3 months. We've had flag football games, UGA football games, and Covenant Academy football games. Back in the summer about a month before school started Shane was named as Covenant's varsity football coach. It was very out of the blue since it was so near when the football team was to begin practicing football for the year anyway. Shane was excited but a little stressed out about being the head coach on such short notice. Covenant is in it's 2nd year of having varsity football and the first year of having a senior class so the guys haven't had a lot of experience to draw from. Throughout the season, the team has had around 17-19 players and many, many injuries. Despite this, they finished 3rd in their region out of 6 teams and made the playoffs in just their 2nd year of a varsity program. They play their first ever playoff game tonight against a team they lost to in overtime earlier in the year. GO RAMS!!

Dalton and Colby with the ram mascot at homecoming

Dalton had a chance this year to play flag football at Covenant's intramural program for 1st and 2nd graders. I let him choose to play either soccer or flag football and he chose flag football. I think his dad being the football coach had something to do with him wanting to play football because he didn't know a thing about football and doesn't even watch it when it's on tv. He learned so much though throughout the season and seemed to really enjoy playing. He even caught a few passes and completed a few passes as well when it was his turn to be quarterback.

Dalton hiking the ball

"I'm open!!!"

We've also been going to all the home UGA games despite Georgia having a not so successful season this year. It's always fun to go to the games and do a little tailgating. This year for Georgia's homecoming game all 4 of us went to the game. This was Colby's first ever UGA football game. The boys really enjoyed all the excitement of it all. Go Dawgs!

Halloween

This past Wednesday our church hosted its annual Fall Festival which included lots of games, food, inflatables, and of course, candy. We love attending this activity every year and this year the weather for it was abolutely perfect. There were estimated to be about 5,000-6,000 people in attendance. Whew! The boys had tons of fun dressing up and playing games and getting candy. Dalton dressed up as a police officer, and Colby was Dash from the Incredibles.

Then, Saturday, we went trick or treating with some friends in their neighborhood. The weather was a little drizzly and misty, but the boys hardly noticed it in the efforts to knock on doors and get some of their beloved candy.

My Handsome Boys

High Falls

Our family went to High Falls recently over Labor Day. We were trying to think of somewhere fun to go as a family so we decided to go to High Falls since the boys had never been. It was beginning to get late in the afternoon when we arrived so all we really did was hike on one of the trails and played a little in the water. The boys had a good time. Their personalities on this little expedition shined through as well. They are so different. Dalton was all about following the trail, looking at the map, and making sure we were following the directions around the park correctly. Colby was all about having fun by playing in the water, getting wet, walking all over the rocks, and taking risks. We had a lot of fun and the boys keep talking about it asking when we are going back.

Colby playing on the rocks. It was hard to get him to stop long enough to smile for a picture.