Pink Is My Favorite Color.....

And it is a good thing!

Our Baubles and Bubbles fundraiser is coming up in two weeks and our monthly meeting on Thursday night was a "work night". In addition to going over the logistics, we stuffed 300 goody bags that will be passed out and then packed them into cars, including the entire back (with the middle and back-back seats put down) of my Explorer. I had picked up my friend, Stephanie, so we could deliver our "monkey cart" for the garden basket we have been collecting donations and we delivered the bags and with LOTS of help unloaded them at the event chair's house.

This is how the back of my Explorer looks with 200 pink-tissued goody bags (unfortunately the picture doesn't do it justice! And, let me add that these goody bags are FILLED and filled with good stuff!):

Playing Around

I just didn't get a chance to post these last week. Ben, Maggie and I were playing around in the living room and taking some pictures. Thought I'd share....

The End of the "Social Season"

Last night was our last "official" holiday parties! I picked Ron up from work and we headed over to Palmetto Health Foundation's office for the Christmas social. It was nice to see Nan, Paula, Leslie and Dennis while enjoying some yum-i-licious crab cakes and hors d'ourves. Afterwards we headed to Flying Saucer to grab a table early for our dinner-date with Stephanie and Rick.

It was "glass" night and we were determined to get a "Santa Glass" as soon as they started at 7! We ordered one, but actually got 2 from "waitress who didn't listen" (kind of like "he who can't be named" from Harry Potter but in a German get-up and less evil, unless you count "accidently" bringing things not ordered and charging for them....)

Stephanie and I opened our gifts -- we gave her a Vera Bradley wristlet in Mod Blue Floral and I got a set of AWESOME multi-color glass bracelets from one of my favorite stores, Handpicked.... I love them! (If you look real close in the first picture of me and Steph, you can see them!) It was a fun way to end the "social season"! (BTW --- hope you guys have a safe and fun trip to TN! See you next week!)


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Fun on a Friday Night

When Ben made Cocky Spur last Saturday, Ron spotted a black bear that he loved (at Build A Bear). He already has one huge grizzly named "Rufus" that he made several years ago. While at the beach last Sunday, he decided to make a "Rufus Jr", one ofthe black bears. The sales person was very annoying and so he decided to just not make it.

Last night after we dropped of one of Ben's friends who'd spent the afternoon Ron wanted to go make "Rufus Jr" so we headed back out to Build a Bear. We has a blast helping Ron make his new friend....who Ben also LOVES!

Stuffing Rufus, Jr.....I love the way Ben is looking at his daddy!

Putting in the heart (no idea who the two kids are).

Introducing Rufus, Jr......or, RJ.

First Saturday of November

We woke up to a fairly cool morning today and it was such a nice indicator that fall is here, even though the temps don't always show it in the afternoons.

Clay was asked to sit on an OA council meeting for the region today and so after Ron dropped him off, we took Ben to his first soccer game in several weeks. (He's been out because of us being sick and when we went to practice last night it was cancelled --- the field was being used to detonate a Civil War cannonball found in a neighborhood down the street from where we live!) The game was fun, he won and made a couple of really good passes.

After the game we went to lunch at a terrible, horrible new restaurant out near our house called Qdoba's. I'll suffice it to say that it was so bad, I can't even describe it. And we decided to head towards the Harbison area after eating. This turned out to be a whole lot more fun than we had anticipated.

Our first stop was Columbiana Mall where we checked out what stores the mall has and stopped at Build-A-Bear for Ben to add a new "baby" to his collection. Ths time a sweet, soft puppy that Ben named "Cocky Spur". From the mall we headed over to Toys R Us because Ben spotted Darth Vader outside the door. As it turned out DV was there with Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, a slew of Stormtroopers, R2D2, a wookie (?) and Geoffrey the Giraffe. After all this the boys humored me by stopping at High Cotton's Christmas Open House before we headed to Cayce to pick up Clay.

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Fun Sunday

Ron had to work today and Clay wanted to get in a few hours at EdVenture so we headed downtown this afternoon. The boys and I wanted lunch somewhere different and so, as we pulled onto Bull St. we remembered the Greek Festival was going on. Clay knew where the church was located and we, fortunately, found a parking space.

After gyros and Greek fries (chicken fingers for Ben) we wandered around a bit before heading on to EdVenture for the rest of the afternoon.

Ben loved playing at EdVenture. We spent some time at Bubbloosa.......and Timbuktu, since they will be closing soon,

...and attended a concert by Osrisi, an African drumming group.

Ben even got the opportunity to play with them. (I'm hoping to upload a video when I figure out how.) It was such a wonderful way to spend the afternoon together.

Ben does a little shopping at the "Pig Market".

Pretending to be a fireman ready to go.

Kristie!

Our friend Kristie is working on her MLIS (Library Science Masters) degree and she has to come down to USC for class every now and then. This was one of those weekends, so she came early, on Friday night, to visit with us. She got here a little after 5 and we headed dowtown with Ben (Clay was going to the Northeast game) to meet Ron for dinner at Flying Saucer, a great German-food place in the Vista.

Me, Ron and Kristie

Serious.....


....and silly :)

We had a great time catching up with Kristie since we haven't seen her since we moved. We're looking forward to next month when she comes back for the whole weekend and brings her son, Levi, one of Clay's best friends.

I have no idea what Ron was doing!

Keeping Ben entertained with my camera.

Harry Potter and Three Hours in B & N

We've never gone to one of the B&N Midnight Parties for Harry Potter before and we figured that since this is the last book, we should probably experience it. We pre-ordered our book a few weeks ago and stopped by last night to pick up our wristband before heading to dinner. We arrived back at about 9:00, which gave me a chance to peruse books, the boys complete the Trivia, have pictures made, enjoy a frap, and make snitches before getting in line at 11:00 for the 12:01 sell start. I am not even going to go into the story of the linebreaker and why I will not go back to the B&N on Forest Drive because I want to dwell on the enjoyablility of the event.

We did enjoy talking with strangers, people watching and just participating in the mayhem. The boys had a good time and the biggest argument of the night was whether Clay or I should get to read the book first. (I voted that since I was paying, I should get too!) Clay won....he agreed to get up and take Maggie out this morning so I could catch up on sleep from the week and I felt too guilty not letting him read it first. Actually,I have reading to do for my class next week and didn't want to be too distracted. I did tell him that he needs to HURRY!!

The boys and their snitches.

Me and Ben in the big long line.....we all had our pictures taken in the glasses, but they're polaroids and I don't have a way to get them on here.

EdVenture Adventure

We finally ventured (haha!) over to EdVenture, the kids museum, tonight for family night. The place was packed for the $1 admission, but we got a good overview and checked out a few of the exhibits. Ben and I are really looking forward to going back and exploring. Clay, however, will be there tomorrow. He's volunteering for their MAP (museum apprentice) program and has his orientation/training. But, back tonight.........

Ben and Eddie, the World's Biggest Boy

Ron and Ben get a little excercise while playing an interactive volleyball game

One of my favorite games as a child was "Operation", nothing like a giant game board challenge with Ron....he won in case you were wondering

Dr. Johnson, DMD someday maybe?!

Mr. Cool tries out a VW Bug...one of the cars he'd love have when he can drive

Ben and Clay both had to slide down the fireman's pole

BINGO!! Ben found the Lego's!

Climbing the rock wall

The boys had a good time on our EdVenture Adventure!

Weekend Recap

Another weekend gone, a new week started and we're getting closer to school...yikes!!

After spending all day at the pool on Friday, the boys and I were in no mood to cook on Friday night, so we've sort of started a little Friday night tradition of heading out to Sandhill when Ron gets home for burgers at 5 guys. After dinner, we walked around a little (bought my birthday present, but the girl wrapped it and I can't open/use it until Thursday....at least its a good one to look forward to!).

On Saturday, we slept in, cleaned the house and did a little laundry before heading back to the pool for the community party. That was fun....the boys got to swim and we got free burgers! That's a deal!
We had tickets to the Blowfish game so after showers (why? I don't know....it was even hotter and stickier when we left for the game). After 30 minutes of baseball we came to a unanimous family decision.....we are SO NOT baseball fans! All of us were bored --- with a capital B. We left there for Barnes and Noble (and a raspberry mocha frap...nothing boring about that) and then Kroger. We were finally hungry and wanted our "Mexican fiesta"....we go buy Jose Ole tacos and taquitos and chips and salsa and eat while we watch a movie. Or, in my case, read.

We found this cute little shirt at Old Navy and got it for Ben to wear to the Blowfish game. We are all about themes around here :)

The weekend rounded out last night with dinner and a movie with my good friend, Wendy. Her parents live in Columbia and she called on Friday to see if we could get together. It was so good to see her and hang out. I've missed her, Nancy and Suzy! We saw "License to Wed" and it was pretty dog-gone funny. Wendy, thanks for coming to see me while you were here......I had a great time! Oh, and I'm so glad you still have my back...hahahaha! (Be sure to send me a picture -- I forgot to take one with my camera)

Aliens, Storm Troopers and Jedis....Oh My!

I'm sure we are the only people who drop their moving process to go to a museum on a Saturday morning! We literally got up and left the work to head downtown for breakfast at Capital Cafe and then to the SC State Museum to see the "Aliens" exhibit. Normally we wouldn't have done this, but the exhibit was free for members and they were having some special guests --- Star Wars and Star Trek characters.

If you get a chance to see "Aliens", it is terrific. It was very different than what I expected....it was a lot of science and a little science fiction. Ben was excited to have his picture made with a Storm Trooper, a Jedi and a Sand Trooper.

They gave us these cool Alien headband bopper-thingies when we got there....we insisted that Clay wear his, even though he informed us it was "embarassing"....we countered with "you've lived here for 24 hours; you don't know anyone!"

It took two of them to lift this real meteorite...I did it with one hand :) (Seriously!)

At least Ron is smiling as he checks his weight on each planet of the Solar System. Maybe he's wishinghe lived on Neptune or Jupiter or somewhere!

An Alien visitor!

I'm not sure what Ron's face is all about....the Storm Trooper was a little dirty, but he didn't smell bad or anything :)

Pool Party

This afternoon our apartment community held the summer pool party. The boys and I headed over and hung out; Ron joined us when he got home. We had some really good food and the boys had a blast swimming, while I talked to our friends and neighbors.

Ron enjoys a burger, while Ben is the official "drawer" for door prizes. Way to go, Ben! His first one was a rental discout for us!