'Twas the Night Before Christmas

And all through the house....

We were hacking and coughing and blowing our

noses out!!!

We have a house full of sickies!

The boys came down with the flu last Friday...

I have an upper respiratory and they said Scott

has a virus...

We have had to postpone Christmas with Scott's 

Mom and Dad and all of his family until we are all better

and we have called off my brother and all of his family...

So we will be spending Christmas day at home...

which will be kind of nice.

The kids will have all day to lay around and play with

their loot that Santa will bring!

The boys have already opened their traditional

Christmas Eve Present...

Austin has been waiting patiently all day long...

NOT!

But was excited to see he got a new 

Duck Dynasty T-shirt...

Are you a Duck Dynasty fan?

Austin LOVES that show and quotes 

Uncle Si on many occasions.

Jackson is so meticulous about opening 

his presents...

He takes his sweet time...

and examines every little detail...

We also tried to do a little fun activity.

You would think a little ginger bread house would not 

too difficult...

We got everything out and were ready to go...

Jackson was really getting in to the decorating...

and eating a little along the way...

And then disaster struck!

The entire thing fell apart...and would not stick back together!

Jackson has enjoyed licking the icing off of the house and eating all of

the candy.  He does not seem to care that it fell apart.

I guess it is too humid for the walls to set...

We could have run the air conditioner today.

And tomorrow, instead of a white Christmas...

we are hoping we don't have a whirling Christmas.

There is a possibility we could see a Tornado Watch

at some point tomorrow and they are saying south of us may

actually see Tornado Warnings...

Yikes!

Hope everyone has a Very, Merry Christmas!

Holiday Ho Ho Ho....

Well...did you think we fell off the face of the earth?

Not exactly....but we fell like we have been around the world...

But we are BACK!

And hopefully we will get to 

deck the halls and enjoy a little

fa-la-la...

I set the kitchen breakfast table 

today, not exactly for a meal...

but to keep up from piling stuff on it!

We have been in dump and run mode around here 

and have got to get control of it before

we are all wrapped up in paper and bows!

Come on in and take a look...

I found the cute Santa chair covers at

the Dollar Tree...

I had looked high and low for them last year

and came up empty handed,

so last night when I saw them,

I scooped the up on the spot!

The place mats are from Old Time Pottery...

The Sleigh cupcake holders are from Crate and Barrel

that I found a couple of years ago...

I didn't have any cupcakes today so I

used some red and green Skittles...

I sat them on some lime green salad plates 

that I found at Big Lots.

The glasses are from Kohl's this year...

They were in the St. Nicholas Square line...

I grabbed the last four that my local store had...

I thought they looked like swirling snow.

Cambridge pearl handled flatware...

My happy little Santa napkin rings that I was 

gifted last Christmas are making their debut

of the season...

My mother kept walking by the table and

saying 'black napkins'...

I thought they would bring out the black in the plaid...

she didn't really approve.

The table is set, now we just need to slow

down a little and enjoy some

family time.

Hop on over and check out all of the other 

beautiful holiday tablescapes at 

Between Naps on the Porch

Be Prepared...

While this week I am preparing for 

Thanksgiving and eating way too much dressing...

Toni over at 

A Bowl Full of Lemons

is getting ready to host a little linky party

for Emergency Preparedness

With the recent events on the East Coast,

it never hurts to be prepared.

And after the Tornado outbreak 

from April of 2011, I know all too well

how bad things can get when you go without power

for a few days.

I can't wait to see all of the good ideas that

people come up with to help us prepare for the worst

and pray for the best!

Trick or Treat 2012

This year since Halloween fell on a Wednesday night,

our annual Halloween Party at our friend Nancy's house

was on Tuesday night.

Jackson and I made some Mummy cupcakes to take to the party.

He was such a good helper.  We made them together and then

he helped me decorate them, too.

A few mummy eyes never made it onto the cupcakes,

but Jackson said they tasted really good!

There were some spooky characters at Nancy's house!

Here is a picture of Jackson and Carolyn.

They are about three weeks apart in age and will be starting

Kindergarten together next year.

Finally was able to get a cute shot of some of his little friends.

Carolyn was a pirate, Kate was Little Red Riding Hood, Jackson was a fireman

and Caleb was also a Pirate.

We had so much fun at Nancy's and the kids got lots of candy

from the Mom's and Dad's at the party.

When Halloween falls on a Wednesday it always seems

so rushed and out of sorts, but we were not going to let that stop us!

The Spirit of Athens was having Trick-or-Treat on the Square

from 3 until 5 o'clock, so we picked Austin up from school

and headed up to the square.

It was so much fun!

All of the street poles were still decorated from the Storytelling Festival

that was held there last weekend so the Square was so festive!

The boys little Halloween buckets were filled with goodies and a 

minimal amount of candy!

Jackson was ready to go!

Bring on the candy!!!

We hit up Limestone Drugs, first stop!

I thought I was going to loose both of them to 

the Ice Cream Cone counter,

where you can get an ice cream cone for 92 cents.

Then they were off!

Austin was so good and walked all around the square with 

Jackson and would help him open the doors and remind him 

to say "Thank You" for is candy.

We saw Minnie Mouse in Village Pizza

and got some candy and then really wanted

some of the best pizza in town!

But we had more places to stop!

Jackson was quickly distracted by the train in the 

window at U.G. White!

This hardware store has been in business on the square

since 1917!

They had a bunch of hay bales with 

pumpkins and mums out front.

Perfect spot for a quick pic!

I couldn't resit taking his picture next to the fire hydrant

as we waited for the light to change and us 

cross the street. 

Looking pretty serious as we worked our way around the square

to trick-or-treat for some more candy.

A quick shot of the court house while we waited on the next corner...

Everyone was so excited to see the kids and had lots of 

yummy goodies for them.

Jackson had a lot of fun and was very polite and would only take 

one piece of candy, even when they told him he could take more.

It only took us about 30 minutes to buzz around the square

and we were back in the car and headed home!

The weather was just beautiful and

we had a lot of fun making a special Halloween memory!

Hope your Halloween was

Spook-tacular!

TV BEST Robotics Competition

On September 15th,

Austin started a six week project with several

other students from his school.

They competed in the 

Tennessee Valley BEST

(Boosting Engineering, Science and Technology)

Robotics competition.

Six weeks ago they were given a box of parts and shown

a "playing field" of objectives that they needed to design a robot

to be able to accomplish.

Last Saturday, October 27th was their competition...

There is a lot more involved than just building a robot.

In order to compete for the BEST award,

they have to prepare an Engineering Notebook,

a CAD/Solidworks Notebook,

an Oral Marketing Presentation,

a Marketing Book with also includes an

Interview from the judges

The picture above is of our marketing booth.

Kayla and Ashley were all dressed up for the 

theme of the competition...

Warp XX

The inside of their booth looked like the inside of

a Space Elevator.

The kids named their robot ASTRO.

It is an acronym for something, but I can't remember 

off the top of my head what it stands for.

In the picture you can see the 10 foot pole that the

robot had to climb.  There were "game pieces" on the floor that

the robot had to pick up and carry up to the top and

put in the bucket on top.

Here is another shot of ASTRO trying to make the bottle

exchange.  Overall the kids did an outstanding job!

There were a lot of robots that could only climb up and 

down the pole, but not play any of the game pieces.

Some robots never even made it off the ground.

At the end of the day the kids racked up with awards.

Here is a list of their accomplishments:

1st Place Oral Marketing Presentation

1st Place Mascot Dance Off

2nd Place Project Engineering Notebook

2nd Place SolidWorks/CAD Design Award

2nd Place Game Day T-shirt Design

3rd Place Exhibit and Interview

3rd Place Most Photogenic Robot

3rd Place Most Robust Robot

4th Place Overall Robot Performance

and the big one of the day

2nd place BEST Award

All of their hard work paid off and the kids

were so excited!

They will advance to the

regional South's BEST Competition

at Auburn University in December.

Serving Up Some Halloween Fun!

 Halloween is fast approaching and I am 

falling so behind...

I thought I better set a quick table before I have

to pack these away in a cabinet until next year!

Come take a look and see what we are serving up

some Halloween fun on today.

I just set a table with some old favorites and

a few new things to scare up a fun dinner for the boys.

I used my old stand by white dinnerware 

with a scalloped edge, but today I took a walk

on the wild side and turned my

salad plate on an angle...

daring, I know...

But I have to admit...I like it a lot

better when I turned it a little.

Looking back, I feel like I use these plates for everything,

so I was trying to switch it up a little...

The little appetizer plates were a find from Zulily

I have bought several clothing items there for Jackson, but

every now and then they throw in some housewares.

This little set of 4 plates was $12.99.

After looking around the Internet and seeing a set on 

EBay on a Buy It Now Auction for $39.99,

I grabbed the set for $12.99 and did a little happy dance!

Each plate has a different scene in the middle.

Too Cute!

The little Spider Web napkin rings were a find at the Dillard's Clearance 

Center this past summer...for a mere .25 so they came home with me.

A couple of them had little spiders attached to them,

but they gave me the creeps so I took them off.

Black glasses were a find from Old Time Pottery this summer also.

Placed the dishes on some ruffled black place mats

from TJ Maxx and we were ready to go.

Orange Cambridge Flatware was also an Old Time Pottery find

last year.  I used it in my very first little tablescape...

You can see it here.

Little Pumpkins sit on their spider legs ready to light the table

when night falls.

I used this little spider web cupcake stand for a centerpiece,

but had to snap this picture very quickly...

my little helper came in and was sneaking my 

cupcakes off the table.

Hope you enjoyed looking at my

little Halloween table.

Hoping I can scare up another table or two before it is 

time for us to 

Trick-or-Treat!

Thank you for stopping by,

come again, anytime...

I'll be visiting with the lovely ladies at

Between Naps on the Porch
and
Let's Dish with Cuisine Kathleen

Have a wonderful weekend!

Cruising for a Cure

Last Saturday, Scott, Jackson and I took off

to Lawrence County for the 

annual Joe Wheeler EMC

Cruising for a Cure.

Every year where Scott's brother works they have an

antique car show to help raise money for the 

American Cancer Society.

Unfortunately, this usually falls right in the middle of 

Austin's Robotics season and we are unable to go...

but this year we snuck off.

Austin stayed at practice and got lots of 

things done for their competition coming up

in a couple of weeks.

The only problem was...

Scott can only drive one car...

which means I had to drive one...

YIKES!

While technically, one of the cars is mine...

I never drive it...EVER!

We headed over around 8 o'clock 

and made it just fine.

Everyone drove their cars into the shed out back where they usually

have all of their work trucks.

It was a beautiful fall Saturday morning

so it was nice to be out and about.

I snapped a few pictures but for some reason

completely forgot to take a picture of my car...

oops!

Scott has worked really hard on his truck and I think it is 

just beautiful.

Mama and Papa found a car like he had when they were dating.

We also found one for Austin.

He has now caught the restore fever and is ready to find

an "old ford" and restore it.

He keeps going back and forth from a

Mustang to an old truck...

We found this red one for him and it was even for sale.

I thought this was funny...

he apparently couldn't find him a second driver so 

he just hauled it behind him!

One of the things they had there for the kids was 

riding in a bucket truck...

Scott and Jackson got all harnessed up

and took off.

Up, up and away!

He took them all the way up.

I think they were about 60 feet up in the air.

Jackson thought it was so fun!

When he was back down on the ground he said

"That was fun...not scary even a little bit!"

We had a lot of fun and won a couple of door prizes,

but didn't win the big prize.

We headed back to Athens around 2 o'clock

and then headed up to check on what the kids had done

that morning at robotics.

We had a fun day and I was

glad that Scott was finally able to show off all

of his hard work he did on his truck.