Snow White and her ferocious red dragon

I am biased, she is gorgeous!

Carson was checking out her makeup.

Isn't that a ferocious looking dragon? That is exactly what he wanted to be ~ a scary red dragon. I thought it would help him with his fear of things dressed up, not so much!!!

I love this picture.

Oh the crazy candy sorting that happened when we got home!!!

Fall Fun Fest

Our church hosted a Fall Fun Fest. This is our first fall at the church and WOW ~ this event was much more elaborate than I thought it would be.

There was face painting ~ a fire truck putting out a fire for Car and a glittery dolphin for Laney

Laney rode a pony when she went to the pumpkin patch with Aunt Shannon and Uncle Aaron, so she was totally an old pro at this!!

Laugh if you must, but this picture brings tears to my eyes! There was a cake walk game (a circle of numbers on the floor, you walk around them until the music stops, they pick a number from a hat and the person standing on that number wins). Carson played this game for over 10 minutes trying to have his number called. The ladies running the game offered him candy twice if he wanted to quit, but he was determined to win...I think this picture says so much ~ the hands, the face ~ I felt so bad for him, yet I admired his "stick with it" attitude. He's such an example to me sometimes!!!

And, of course, before we could leave, there had to be a football toss!! Look at that arm :-)

Bits and Pieces of the last few weeks

I love this picture! I bought the kids Word of Life Quiet Time books for this year because our church doesn't send home anything for them to do during the week (we were spoiled at our last church!). We try to do this every morning after breakfast. This is Carson HARD at work...I love his face, oh the concentration!

If you know me well you know I hate nothing more than spiders. We have this beautiful spider that has decided to call our backyard home. Unfortunately this picture doesn't really do justice to her intricate web and the food she's wrapping up. She currently has moved to the swingset and has quite the egg sack hanging with her...yikes, babies!

We attended Franklin College's homecoming this year. The kids had a great time seeing where we used to live, eat, go to classes, and hang out. They were pretty bored during the game, even with a mini football and pompom to play with. So, we headed to the park behind Matt's fraternity house for a while to get some wiggles out. It was a fun day!

The Colts had a Monday night football game last week and Car desperately wanted to watch it with Matt. So, he took a bath and curled up in the chair to take it all in...I don't think he even made it to kick off!! I offered to go put him in bed and Matt questioned what it was hurting for him to just stay there...I guess we ALL miss those sweet cuddles that are so quickly disappearing from our everyday routine :-(

Okay, this is totally hilarious and wrong all at the same time. Carson has decided that when Delaney is home during naptime (Monday and Friday b/c she doesn't have school) that he doesn't have to nap either. So, the other day I told them that as long as they were being quiet I didn't care if they were playing in her room. I went to check on them and found this!! If her hair wasn't over her shoulder I don't know that you could tell them apart...I laughed so hard I almost cried.

A day at the park

Indiana weather is bizarre and when you think you should be freezing and staying inside, we're out running like wildmen in the park...here are my wildman and wildwoman!!

My cookie obsession pays off...

Sometimes, while working late in the evening, I have a NEED for chocolate chip cookies, not Chips Ahoy, I mean straight out of the oven chocolate chip cookies. The other night, last Tuesday night to be exact, I had one of those cravings (no, I am NOT pregnant). Wednesday morning as we heard the trash truck approaching, I thought...I have fresh cookies. I darted into the kitchen, grabbed the ziploc bag with the cards in it (yes, I'd saved it for a day like this), and filled it up with cookies. We went out and (I feel like I should be able to insert a drum roll here)...it was OUR crew!!! They seemed excited and the kids were thrilled!

We love trash day....

Carson has always had an obsession with the trashmen, I can't say I blame him, I remember watching them collect my trash from an early age. We stand outside in our jammies and watch them get our trash. We have our "normal" guys and then the "mean" guys ~ the ones that throw our trash can around! Our normal guys have come to appreciate our cheerleading style of watching them. They begin to honk the horn 5 houses down and wave the entire time, kind of like it's a parade.

One of our "normal" guys has gone out of his way to develop a "friendship" with Carson. He brings the trashcans up to the garage and is always waving bye from 5 houses down. Well, a few weeks ago he brought the trashcans up to the garage and gave both of the kids $1. We decided to use the money to buy chocolate chips and make them cookies. We had a great Tuesday making cookies and cards for them. As you can guess, the next day was the "mean" crew. I put the cookies in the freezer, explained 15 times why we didn't give them to the other guys, and we waited....for an entire week, only to miss the trashmen b/c we had to take Delaney to school. At that point, we had to eat the cookies to heal our broken hearts!! I was left with some cute cards too b/c they said, "Injoy your cookies."

Game time

The competitive spirit runs thick in the Dillard genes (and possibly in their spouses too). Shannon and Aaron came over for a visit when we returned from FL and the visit turned into a Don't Break the Ice competition...notice who has the hammers...is it the child that the game belongs to? NO, it's the adult males...how does that happen?

Sun and sand

I think the easiest way to tell about our vacation is with pictures...enjoy your journey!

This is when the DVD player still worked. It went on this horrible skipping hiatus....which you can imagine only caused a few whines from the backseats and a few mumbles and grumbles from the front seats.

There was a lot of time spent in the sand. Delaney adjusted to the ocean water fast, so her and Matt went out farther and farther in the water and jumped the waves....screams of excitement could be heard on shore!! Carson didn't adjust so fast, so we spent lots of time sitting and letting the waves come up over our legs. In my opinion, that was just as much fun, except that we wound up with LOTS of seaweed in our bathing suits...in places seaweed just shouldn't be!!! :-)

There was some alligator spotting ~ okay, they were supposed to be there. They were the main attraction at a restaurant we ate lunch at one day. There was also some after dark crab hunting...after we had hopped the kids up on some sugary ice cream to keep them awake and happy!

There was also plenty of opportunity for cousin bonding time. They shared donuts, giggles, morning cartoons, and ice cream. The hardest part was sharing Grammy and Grampy!

There was time for playing and making new friends. Delaney is quite the social butterfly around other children. She won't talk to an adult she doesn't know even if we say it is okay, but I don't know that I mind that right now. She made new friends everywhere we went. She tried to rule the roost a few

times...notice the look on the

father's face....I think he's thankful he has a boy!! Carson wasn't as much into making friends, but he was a DARE DEVIL on the play equipment. He might not have liked the water much, but he saved all his tricks for dry land!! He only left with 2 minor wounds :-)

We watched the lifeguard run people off of the beach b/c of the CRAZY waves that the hurricane was causing. Amazing to me how the actual storm was SO far away and the waves we saw were enormous (compared to what we'd seen earlier in the week). They were bad enough that for one day we weren't allowed on the sand at all and then we weren't allowed in the water for the next two...bummer!

Luckily, when the ocean wasn't available, the pool was, so we continued our crazy antics there! Delaney was a true fish in that water, demanding that she be able to do things alone. She quickly learned her boundaries, only to test them frequently. Carson was more of a "hang on someone" or "sit at the edge" kind of guy....I like that about him :-) He did love to be a lazy guy and lay in the green float he's holding on to...he just needed a drink and someone fanning him....HA!!

And then, one day, we woke up and it was all over. We went to say goodbye to the ocean and were filled with mixed emotions. While I was excited about the idea of sleeping in my own bed, I was not excited about the car ride ahead. Carson was mad, pretty much just to be mad...he has yet to lose that attitude since we left Florida, maybe we should go back and see if the "old" Carson comes home with us this time!! Delaney was an emotional wreck...you'd think she was 13!! She just couldn't imagine not seeing the ocean for a year and what would happen and would it all be the same and would she remember it and on and on and on and on...she wore me out in the first 45 minutes in the car! While we were excited to get home and see Lion and Twix (the cats) we were sad to join the people here living reality, because, well, reality bites!!!

Grandparents Day

We decided to surprise all of the grandparents with pictures of our gorgeous children (you know, the ones that are fighting behind me ~ screaming and slapping involved, thank you very much!). We tried somewhere new and it was great (Portrait Innovations)! Hopefully we'll be going back for Christmas cards too. Included are just a few of my favorites out of the 88 taken.

An evening at the zoo

Probably should have done these in the opposite order...oh well. Go down to the next post and then come back up :-) I never claimed to be perfect!

Matt and Delaney on the free train ride

Car and I enjoying the train

We have this wonderful book that we read every night before bed that tells about an animal ~ some special skill or trait that they have and then compares that to how God develops that skill or trait in each of us. It's awesome!!! That week we had learned about meerkats and how they are good helpers to their meerkat friends, so we took extra time to study them that evening.

We had not read about goats though....Delaney is obviously terrified of them.

It didn't take long for them to warm up to the goats though.

May I brag?

Why, thank you for continuing to read...I thought I'd scare some of you off with my title. We are members at the Indianapolis Zoo and in the late summer they always have jazz nights where the zoo is open late for members and they feature a free event every week. We decided to take the kids on a night when the free feature was train rides. The kids always ask to ride and we always say no b/c it costs money. So, we rode the train!! YEAH!!

Am I bragging b/c we let our kids ride the train...well, no. I am bragging b/c I am so proud of Delaney. She started K4 a few weeks ago and she has grown leaps and bounds in that time...however, the growth has all been socially. She told my mom they don't learn anything in K4, and for her, bookwise, that might be accurate. She has been reading for over 6 months now and she is getting really good at it. While at the zoo she stood at this sign, totally determined to read every word on it. I, being the good mom that I am, never in a hurry, took the time to stand with her and use my best teacher skills to help her sound out the 3 words she couldn't get on her own.....I love seeing things through her eyes...she's amazing! Yes, she frustrates me to no end some days and she has horrible mean streaks where she is a beast to her brother. She is self centered and very impatient....wonder where she got those amazing qualities from. Apples do not fall far from their trees!!! But she is mine, a beautiful gift from God, and she is amazingly and wonderfully made!

The 1st Day of School....what?!?

Finally, the day we've talked about all summer...the first day of K4. Matt took the day off work (trying to burn up as much vacation as possible before his last day....today!!!). We had a lazy morning together doing nothing but eating cinnamon rolls and reading books.
She already has the school girl attitude going on....I won't let her know, but it looks SO cute!
The big girl (mommy, not Delaney) was rewarded with ColdStone. I didn't cry at all until we were sitting there eating ice cream and she was talking about everything she had done and all of her new friends. Then, all of a sudden, she was really big stuff and I hadn't witnessed anything that she was talking about. I didn't even know those kids (luckily I know her teacher).
I was very worried about how Carson was going to handle it. On the first day, we went shopping after we dropped her off and then we went home, played Slap Jack (his favorite game), and he took a nap. We had to wake him to go pick Delaney up. He listened to all of her stories with great interest. The second day he was a little bit whinier, but he also had spent the morning with his best buddy Sawyer, so he might have just been more clingy b/c he hadn't been with me the whole morning. We'll see how next week goes when we get into some sort of a routine. Matt also starts his new job on Monday, so we'll be adjusting to a new schedule there too....when it rains, it pours!