A Whole Pile of Pages

I have a ton of scrapbook pages to share today. I am almost done with the challenge I've been working on, and I'm hoping to be officially done before Thanksgiving.
This first page is about our recent trip to the orchard. I asked for a sticker in the bakery, and I ended up using it as my title.
This layout is about my 30th birthday last fall. Nora was here, and she made me the beautiful and tasty cake.

This page was for a challenge about using one random picture. I reached into a big envelope of photos and pulled out this one. I had been wanting to scrap about my years as a teacher, and I have a ton of school scrap supplies left over from scrapping about my classes through the years, so it was perfect.

This layout is about Drew's Halloween party at the library.

I loved these pictures of Drew in the leaves, and I was excited to scrap them.

This is a layout about Drew playing at the park near my parents' house. These pictures are from our trip last Easter. Drew had had a very rough couple of days with a skinned up face and a burst eardrum, so it was so good to see him have a little fun at the park!

This layout is about Drew's trick-or-treating this Halloween at Zoo Boo and at Jim's Mom and sister's houses.

These pictures are some that Kristen took last Spring when she watched Drew for me one morning while I taught. I love the top one of Drew and Nathan!

This last page is one that I've been wanting to make for a while. Drew plays Peek-a-Boo in such a funny way (with his hands over his nose and mouth, instead of over his eyes), so I was glad to be able to get a few pictures to document this little quirk of his!

I hope this hasn't been scrapbook overload! I also have some pages from a mini album I'm making about our trip to Washington, DC, but I will wait and post the whole album when I get it done.

A Few Random Bits of Hawkins News

I wanted to share a few of the everyday happenings around our house recently. Drew has been very interested in trains for the past couple of months. He loves Thomas and enjoys playing with his growing collection of Thomas trains and watching his Thomas DVDs. The other day, I stepped out into the living room and found that Drew had taken all of his other little vehicles and stuck them together like he does with his trains. They made quite a long line across our living room! I've been scrapping a lot, and I will try to share some more layouts soon. I also subbed at our school yesterday and will be there again for three days this week, so that is keeping me busy. Jim is still working a lot since our November weather has been so nice. We are enjoying a Saturday with him today since he has the day off!
We also recently found a very good recipe for Cheeseburger Soup. Jim and I both really like it, and I've made it twice in the last few weeks!
We are looking at a busy next several weeks leading up to Christmas with my subbing, Thanksgiving, a trip to Greenville, Federal jury duty for me, and then the normal busy schedule of December and Christmas.
Hope you are all having a nice weekend!

Westview Orchard

Beth and I took the boys to Westview Orchard a few weeks ago. Due to our recent computer problems, I just found these pictures this weekend, so I am sharing the a little belatedly now.
Drew and Joseph had a great time climbing on the hay pyramid. We let them eat their doughnuts there.

Yum!

They also enjoyed riding the little metal tractors.

Drew couldn't reach the pedals while sitting on the seat, so he improvised.

There were several wooden vehicles to climb and ride.

These two Thomas fans gravitated to the big wooden train.

We rode out to the apple trees in a wagon. We didn't pick any.

We took advantage of the pumpkins and hay bales to take a few pictures. The boys were pretty tired by this point and weren't too interested in pictures.

The boys loved the animals. The goats were climbing everything!

A ponyDonkeys

We really enjoyed our afternoon at the orchard!

A Few More Scrapbook Pages

I've been scrapping and scrapping these last few weeks! I'm still trying to do as many pages as I can for the contest at Letsscrap
This first page is about the Tiger game we went to a few weeks ago.
I took these pictures last week when Mom was here. She brought Drew some puzzles, and when she gave him the first one, she asked if he was up for a challenge. He started calling his puzzles "challenges." In fact, we did a "challenge" together this morning!

I did this page with some of the pictures I took when we carved our pumpkin together a few weeks ago.

This is a page about our trip to the Toledo Zoo this past summer.

This page is about Drew's Easter Egg sidewalk chalks. He enjoyed drawing with them, but I think he liked organizing them in the carton even better!

This page is from our trip to St. Louis this past summer with my parents. We stopped to see the Arch on the way out of town.

You can click on these layouts to see them in better detail. I have about 20 more pages to finish this month to reach my goal, so I'll be back sharing more soon!

Fall Leaves

I took Drew to a little park near our house the other afternoon and was thrilled to see this little tree with beautiful bright yellow leaves. I took Drew over to it and took a few pictures of him as he played in the leaves.
Throwing leaves.

Rolling in the leaves.

Bending to pick up more leaves.

I'm glad we went there the day we did because now, just a week later, the trees are just about bare!

Our Little Cowboy

Jim's niece Jennifer and her husband Dave have two boys, and we have been enjoying their boxes of hand-me-downs throughout Drew's life. They gave us a pair of cowboy boots in one of the recent boxes, and when I saw the boots, I decided that Drew should be a cowboy for Halloween. We started trying to gather the rest of his costume. Jennifer loaned us the vest and hat, and my mom gave us the bandanna. We looked everywhere for a little pistol and holster, with little luck. Mom was able to find one at Wilson's in Greenville, and she brought it up with her when she came last week.
Drew got to celebrate Halloween throughout the week this past week. We started at his library story time on Tuesday morning. The children got to come in their costumes, and their teacher read stories about Halloween.

Drew's buddy Joseph was there, and he was a dragon.

After the stories, the children went to the children's librarian's counter for their treat bags. Drew was thrilled with his huge bag of treats!

Checking out the treats.

On Friday evening we went to Zoo Boo with the Scally and Ollila families. Here is Drew with Joseph (who had changed from a dragon to a tiger).

Our family.

The boys and the dads. Drew walked the entire way through the zoo! We had brought the stroller along since Drew had been a little shaky when we tried the boots out at home, but he did great!

Getting some candy at a treat station.

We went out for burgers afterwards at Bagger Dave's. The boys were mesmerized with the train that drives around along the ceiling.

We took Drew trick-or-treating on Saturday evening. We started at Grandma Esther's apartment.

She had some little candy bars in a candy bowl, and she told him he could take a few and put them in his bucket. He kept going over to the bowl and throwing a few more pieces into the bucket. By the end, he had over 20! We put most of them back.

Drew and Grandma Esther.

We went to Aunt Sharon and Uncle Larry's house next. Drew's little cousin Lilly was there, so we were happy to get to see her! Sharon and Larry completely indulged Drew's love of all things Thomas, and they gave him the new Thomas movie, a Thomas coloring book, a Thomas sticker book, and a big pack of twistable crayons. He was so excited!

Drew made himself at home then by enjoying some snacks and watching about half of his new movie!

We had a great Halloween this year. It was fun to celebrate it with our family and friends!