Happy Halloween

Well, another Halloween season, come and gone. And it's a good thing 'cause I have probably gained 10 pounds from the mellowcreme pumpkins and candy corn that's been "decorating" my house this month. :-)

Tonight was the last thing for us in our week full of Halloween events. We celebrated at our Fall Festival where we played games and won candy. We dressed up for school, Jonah on Thursday and Owen on Friday. We made Halloween cupcakes on Saturday with cute cupcake toppers. And we finished it out with perfect weather for Trick or Treating in our neighborhood!

Everybody say, "Happy Halloween!"

As you can tell, we are very into Star Wars right now. Jan bought the set with every Star Wars movie in it, and he and the boys have been watching them for the last few months. So, I thought it was only fitting that we all dress up as classic Star Wars characters...Darth Vader, Yoda, and Princess Leia.

 Mary Claire was telling people, "I be Pwincess Weia" translation-"I'm going to be Princess Leia."
She was sooo cute tonight as she walked up to the neighbors' doors and without one bit of shyness said, "Tick r Teat!" She even got into handing out candy once we got back to our house.
I was glad that our friends, the Bondurants, decided to come over, too. It was fun "trick or treating" with them!

Here's a shot of the group. I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe Halloween!

Oh, and I couldn't leave myself out on this one...

I don't think I blogged about this last year, but our school has Book Character Day on the Friday before Halloween which allows even us grown-ups a chance to dress up, too! Last year, I was Pippi Longstocking complete with the stand-out, braided pigtails! (I can't seem to find the picture I took and downloaded last year. Maybe I'll come across it later and add it.)

And this year, I was Olivia the Pig. (My co-workers, Mr. Peter and Ms.Rachel, were having fun on Book Character Day, too, dressed as Robin Hood and Bad Kitty.) 

See, we grown-ups can have fun at Halloween, too?!

(Now...what to dress up as next year?! Hmm...)

Happy Halloween!

Mountain Memories

(Pardon me while I play "catch up" on our scrapblog.)

Back from the Smokies and back to daily life at the Hensley house...
Here's a glimpse at our 2010 Fall Break Vacation in Gatlinburg.  

We felt as if we were sleeping in the tree tops in the cabin where we stayed. It was awesome!

Jonah clowning around & hugging the bear!

Jan, Jonah, John Owen, Mary Claire and Mimi at the trolley stop in Gatlinburg

 The boys loved the Touch-A-Ray Bay at the Aquarium of the Smokies.

 Mary Claire loved waving at the diver feeding the fish!

 Jonah and his Davy Crockett hat at the Pancake House..."Minnie Pearl style" with the price tag still on!

:-) This made me laugh!

Why does John Owen look as if he's laughing? hehe

Are we having fun yet?

Inside the Missionary Baptist Church at Cades Cove.

After our picnic, this is what ran out in front of our car. I was so excited, I almost didn't grab the camera in time before he crossed the road and headed into the patch of woods. The kids (and grown-ups) loved it!

These are just two of my favorite pictures from the many pictures I took of our trip to the Wilderness at the Smokies Indoor waterpark. We finished our trip to East TN with our stay this resort and had a great time. The food was great, and we had a blast on the water rides. I felt like a kid again screaming on the "Storm Chaser"! We had a great trip, and we are looking forward to a trip back soon for more memories in the mountains.

A Busy Month Begins

We had a very busy 1st weekend for October in which we prepared for & held a yard sale on Sat. with our neighborhood, then celebrated 2 birthday parties with friends, and finished the weekend up with our church activities on Sunday. The yard sale was a success...we made over $400.00! I thought that was pretty good and the best part is we have less "stuff" now! That always feels good. I let the boys have $5.00 each and we rode around the neighborhood on our golf cart checking out the othe other neighbors' "stuff". I told them they could pick one thing out. Jonah wisely chose a "Luigi" from Super Mario Bros. dress up outfit, a former Halloween costume for some other little boy...a perfect fit for Jonah! And it only cost him $1.00! He was so proud, and he has worn it every day since, I think!
John Owen chose to buy a Tennessee jacket for $4.00 formerly owned by his new friend, Scout, who lives in the house directly behind us. Scout even brought his own money Sat. morning and joined us as we shopped at the different yard sales. We had a great time at our neighborhood yard sale!

After a busy work week, we are packed and just about ready to head off to the Smoky Mountains for Fall Break! I just have to finish cleaning. I have this wierd thing about cleaning my house before going on vacation...I know, it's probably stupid, but it sure feels good to come home to a clean house after being gone. The boys are so excited about staying in a cabin in the mountains. Mary Claire even chimes in with, "We goin' to 'da mountains!" My mom is going with us, and we are going to brave the Wilderness at the Smokies indoor water park while we're there! With a 3 to 3 ratio of adults and children, I am hoping we can pull this off successfully! hehe

So, off we go! Next time I blog, it'll probably be with pictures from the trip. Here's a few cute pictures from the birthday party I took Jonah to at the Firefighter Museum last Sat...which, by the way, was a terrific place for a birthday party!!

Pretending to drive the fire engine!

 I love this picture! Don't they look like they are swapping a good firefighter story? :-)

Wonder what all these buttons do? Boys love buttons and gadgets!!

Jonah and Owen T. climb, climb, climb!

A neat place for a party! As you can see, he had a great time pretending and playing and celebrating his friend's birthday!



Animal "Safaria"

(First of all, thanks to Christi and Brandi for sharing your experiences at the Tennessee Safari Park on your blogs!)

"Safaria" is what Jonah called it :-)... so, here's our story of the adventure to the West TN Animal Safaria!

We decided to travel to Alamo last weekend and check the TN Safari Park out ourselves. We loved it!! We took my parents with us as part of our Grandparents' Day celebration, and the safari did not disappoint! I would highly recommend this to others. The crowd was very slim when we were there, and we got to take our time driving through the park feeding the animals and even got a little special attention when one of the workers took us to the "back room" to meet Chucky the cock-a-too and the monkey they called...oh, what was his name? I can't remember...oh well! Anyway, I can't begin to post all of the pictures we took, but here are some good ones along with some short commentary on our experience.

A camel in a cotton field. You don't see that everyday!

A lovely llama! Mary Claire loved the llamas, and she kept saying, "Bye, llama! Love you, Llama!"

I think the llama loved Jonah feeding it food! They walked right up to the window! The buckets were super handy for little ones.

More than one llama was lovin' Jan and beggin' for more! 

Zebras! I think they are one of God's most interesting and beautiful creations. Their patterns are amazing!

Do you think the person who invented hairpieces might have been inspired by the Addax from Africa?

I just couldn't get over how much he looked like he was wearing a toupee! hehe

Three children sooo excited about seeing the animals up close and feeding them.

Well, excited about all except the ostrich! Watch out for that one! I think Mary Claire was pointing at him coming towards the vehicle. That thing followed us the whole way through the park! She kept saying, "Here it comes! O-trich, o-trich!!!"

And she is still talking about the baby "gonkey". How sweet is he!

My up close and personal experience with a llama caught on camera by Jan.

Feeding camels and goats!

"Hi, goat!" she said...

Then proceeded to greet him with a goat kiss!

An encounter of species involving my dad and the giraffe. Almost looks like they are having their own conversation. :-)

Jan, my camera, and the giraffe get up close and personal!

Wow! John Owen got to hold the macaw in the "back room". Isn't he a beautiful bird?

We had a great day! We finished the day with a trip to the local DQ for hamburgers and ice cream. My sweet Jonah summed it up best by saying, "We had 2 adventures today! The "safaria" and going to a restaurant!" :-) Oh, the wonders of a child. Gotta love it.

New School Year

Well, before the school year gets too far along, I guess I better include a post about our new school year.

John Owen began 1st grade and so far, seems to enjoy it. He's doing great, I think! (Especially with the adjustment we have had to make to HOMEWORK!!)

His class tree!

His apple!

Getting straight to work! :-)

I wasn't able to take Jonah on his 1st day of preschool (his 3rd year of preschool), so my mom took him. Believe me, he was pretty happy with his "Mimi" escorting him to school! She snapped this picture of us together before John Owen & I had to leave for school. She then took some pictures for me of him in his class and emailed them to me. Thank goodness for moms! (Thank you, Momma.)

Jonah & Mommy

Jonah coloring with classmates

My sweet Jonah

We've hit the ground running, as I am sure everyone has.

My prayer is that God will watch over us all this next year with His divine protection and guidance along the way. 

It's Safe to Say It...

But I think we've bought our last box of diapers at the Hensley house!

I simply cannot believe it. I have been buying diapers for 7 years straight. That's right, an almost 5-year-span of birthing 3 babies and then the years that followed in changing their diapers until they learned to use the good ole' "potty" have finally reached an end! A few weeks ago, I decided to entertain the interest Mary Claire showed in using the potty, and I readied myself for potty training...a jar of potty treats, a doll who is also "potty training", a brand new package of big girl panties, and we were ready! I tried my best to make sure I had a few days to give this my full attention, and to my surprise, she has done very well with it! Going "#1" in the potty was learned very quickly and we're making good progress with "#2". :-)  I think now it is safe to say that I won't be putting diapers on my Wal-Mart list anymore!!!! YAY! I wish everyone could hear the way she yells, "I did it, I did it!" after she "goes potty"! She even congratulates and praises me when I go potty! :-) "Yay, Mommy!"

Another milestone I am thankful we have reached, and I am sure my wallet will be thankful, too!

Here's a picture from the swim lessons we took with our friend, Faith, a few weeks ago.

I like the way they sat together on the chair for their snack. I can just picture them in the years to come doing this same thing. No doubt talking about "girl stuff", and probably mortified at the thought that Mommy would dare mention their potty training days on a blog! hehe

Wrap It Up!

Friday was my official last day of sumer vaca from school! We spent our last week doing "last minute" swim lessons for Mary Claire and taking her to Kindermusik Camp. I guess you could say it was "Sister's Week!" At least that's how I explained it to her big brothers. After all, she's done her fair share of watching and waiting on them in the things they have been involved in.

Friday afternoon, Jan decided to take off from work a little early and treat us all to an afternoon at the movies. As I was frantically getting everyone ready for this, I noticed the right side of my throat felt a lttle sore, but didn't let that slow me down...Off we went!

We enjoyed the movie...Side note: This was Sister's 1st movie! (I wasn't sure about taking her in because she's only 2 and neither of the boys was this young when they sat in a real movie theater, but being the sister of 2 older brothers has led her to experience some things a little earlier.) She did great! I wish I had had my camera to snap a picture of her sitting in that big seat with the tub of popcorn in her lap.

By the time we grabbed something to eat after the movie, I had begun to feel worse. It wasn't just my throat hurting now...I was beginning to feel kinda achy. So, upon returning home, I took 2 Ibuprofen and told Jan I was going to lie down. I managed to put Mary Claire to bed, but Jan put the boys down. The night that followed was awful! Saturday morning found me in pain and very feverish. My mother drove me to the minor med in Cordova where the doctor diagnosed me with a bad case of strep! Yep, that's right. Strep throat. That's how I have wrapped up my summer vaca! Happy to report, though, afer 24hrs. of my meds and some rest, I am feeling more like myself and am anticipating my return to work tomorrow.
It looks like it's gonna be a busy and very HOT 1st week of August! (Have you seen the temps in the forecast?) We'll be spending our afternoons by the pool for sure!

I know many people will be beginning a new school year soon, so best wishes to everyone for a wonderful 2010-2011 year! Here's a few pictures that I don't think I've posted from our Summer 2010!

My little "fishes" have spent countless hours at the pool this summer. They can't seem to get enough of it!

Mary Claire in her "Learn to Swim" suit which I highly recommend instead of arm floaties for little ones. Two of mine have learned to swim faster this way. "Little Miss Independent" can swim away from me in this suit without me being too much of a nervous wreck, and she's just 26 months old!

I know I've posted about the boys' swim team this year, but this is a shot of John Owen competing in his first backstroke race. He did so good! Jonah even got his own write-up in the local paper for being the youngest competitor at the swim meet. I have it laminated and have already put it in his scrapbook. We are so proud of both of them! 

This red flag will be one way we remember our beach trip of 2010 and the 2010 Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill.

Our only family shot at the beach. As you can see, the wind was blowing pretty hard and while it felt good, it didn't make picture-taking very easy.

I took a picture like this one last year andit is amazing to see how much they have grown since!

(Plus, this way, you can't see how MISERABLE Mary Claire is that her feet are actually touching the sand!!!)

See what I mean?! Oh, precious memories! :-) I'm laughing, she's screaming and crying about the sand.

I think that years from now when I look at this picture, I will still laugh about it. Maybe one day she will, too.

I snapped this shot of our "clan", and everytime I look at it, my heart sooo wishes we weren't short one special person.

Mrs. Sue, Mamaw, I wish you had been with us at the beach, and I wish you were here right now. We miss you. I don't think Jan or I have truly processed the reality of what has happened to our family this summer.

Mary Claire made a couple of friends at the beach this summer, but none as special as John Henry from Texas! A special kiss for John Henry!

Maybe subconsciously, they sympathized each other...he being the youngest of 4 sisters and she being the youngest of 2 brothers, I don't know!

One of my favorite pictures of Jonah at the beach!

Mary Claire, that John Henry might like you, but I know someone else who loves you unconditionally and thinks you are the most beautiful girl ever!! If you are ever unsure of who that person is, just look back at this picture...it's written all over his face.

Well, I guess that just about wraps it up! Summer vacation has ended, another school year is beginning tomorrow.  I will openly admit that 2010 has been somewhat of a hard year for us although I will not recount all the details here and now. Who would have dreamed we would experience such things in a relatively short amount of time? But we go forth from this day with the confidence that God is there with us even in the hard times. I believe our relationship with Him is deepened in those hard times. I know not what tomorrow holds, but "let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God." (Isaiah 50:10)