Collecting things

Chase likes to collect things and put them in his pockets.  Some of the things he 'collects' come from our house.  Some come from Betty Ann and Don's house.  Some come from school.  Many things come from nature.  And some even come from a store (i.e. marbles from a display toy that I didn't discover until we got home).  Needless to say, we have had many conversations about not taking things that don't belong to you.  And paying for things before you take them.

Here's what came out of his jacket and pants' pockets last night:

He's such a boy.  :)

Happy Halloween!

This morning was Chase's classroom Halloween parade and party.  He was very excited to wake up this morning and find out that it's finally Halloween.  (Although he keeps saying that it's not REALLY Halloween until it gets dark).

His school had a parade around the playground.  Here's all the kids lining up before the parade.

Halloween birthday party

Last weekend Chase and I went to my co-worker's daughter's 1st birthday party.  With her birthday  being so close to Halloween it was a dress up party.  Chase was over the moon about being able to wear his dragon costume.

He ran around the yard yelling, "RAAARRRRR!!!"

There was a costume contest and one of the awards was Charlotte's favorite costume.  Chase won.  That's my boy.

Charlotte apparently saw stars in her eyes when she saw Chase (I mean, do you blame her?).  She was more than willing to run over and have her picture taken with him.

I was such a proud mama.  Not sure if I'll feel that way about all the little girls that (I'm sure) will have crushes on my little boy.  But I do right now.

 

So cute.

Fall Festi-bal

Chase's fall festival (or "festi-bal" as he called it) was last week.  The parents were invited so I was thrilled to participate.

I had to get a picture of Chase with his best school bud, Jacob.  They are seriously inseparable.  

All the kids decorated their own candy or caramel apple.  It was interesting watching many of the kids lick the sugary goodness off their spoon then go back into the shared bowls for more.  Oh, well.  Germs won't kill ya, right?  Sometimes it's just better to not see or know these things.

After decorating apples was pumpkin decorating which was also fun.

It was interesting that Chase ran off to play with his friends while I was there but as soon as it was time for me to go to work he ran up to me and wanted to come with me.  I ended up slipping away when his back was turned.  Definitely a fun day.

Happiness

It's these smiles

And this happiness

 

That makes my heart swell with love for this little boy.

P.S. If you look closely, you can see the pocket of his shirt being weighed down with several different rocks.  Such a boy.  :)

Little Masseuse

We have now entered into Pregnancy week 27.  It has actually started going by a little faster than it was initially (the nausea didn't help).  In fact, until I got my BabyCenter email yesterday I'd forgotten if it was week 26 or 27.  I guess this is how it goes with baby #2, huh?  Overall I've been pretty lucky.  I know there are people out there who are dealing with swollen ankles, being bedridden or many other pregnancy-related complications.  I try to keep that in mind when I start to complain.  My 2 complaints at this point are being dead tired at the end of a work day and my back aching.

Luckily I have help from both Matt and Chase with giving me back rubs.  Chase has watched Matt and is now quick to run over when he sees me getting down on all fours to stretch.

He usually throws his whole body over my back.  Which is actually more helpful than you would think.  :)

Pullen Park

Last weekend, the weather was beautiful and we wanted something fun (but different) for us to do as a family so we headed out to Raleigh to Pullen Park.  It's been many, many years since I've been there but I knew they had a train so I figured Chase would be in heaven.  Which he was.   The train was a hit (we rode it twice)

as was the carousel:

 

I even got to ride.   :)

It was a very fun (and cheap!  only $1 per ticket!) day.  We will be back for sure.