Trunk of Treat

 So on the way home from Jett's school party I decide the Pollards need to participate in the church Trunk or Treat.  I had no idea what I could put together last minute but thought about all the tailgate stuff I had from football season.  Boom! The Grove a Slice of Heaven on Earth.  I threw on my mom's vintage Eagle's Eye Ole Miss sweater and got it together in under and hour.  

 Jett was a pirate.  He didn't like dressing up and really wanted to run wild in the open gym, but he was kept at bay and Cullen took him home after a little while.

 My cousin, Brad, came as Ron Burgundy from Anchor Man.  It was pretty spot on.  We Browns love to dress up.

And there it is, Halloween 2016 in the books.

Jett's School Party

 I signed up to bring cookies for Jett's school party.  I broke out my Martha Stewart skills and used royal icing.  I was pumped to get to do homeroom mom things.  

 I get to the party and realize I have grossly over estimated what the party would be.  I envisioned a precious party with kids donned in pumpkin everything and decorations everywhere.  That was not the case.  Someone even sent red plates rather than orange of holiday themed.  In fact I was the ONLY parent who sent something home made.

 I let the teachers know that next party I was getting together and it would be themed.  

Jett and Caroline, one of my teachers' little girls.  

Hansel and Gretel

Cullen and I went as Hansel and Gretel for the Halloween workout at our gym. We wound up winning the costume contest.  The polyester didn't breath and by the end of the workout Cullen had to unzip my corset before I overheated.  It was a lot of fun and a great workout...even better we came home with loot for winning the contest.

Granny Fran's Dinner

 On the Sunday closest to what would be my Grandmother's birthday we celebrate by keeping the tradition she started alive. She kicked off her holiday season by cooking dressing and having a Thanksgiving style meal.  

 My brother and his wife try to make it up each year and my brother normally provides entertainment.  This year he showed off his Halloween costume.

It's a great time to soak up family time before the hustle and bustle of the holidays.  

"GoWiath"

Each year around Halloween our church allows the Mission Friends to dress up as their favorite Bible character.  Last year Jett and his friends went as the animals on the Ark.  It was easy it was cute.  This year I teach class on Wednesday so  I have been out of the loop for what to plan and prepare. I was stressed as I drove to school thinking of what I could tell Cullen to put on him, when I suddenly remembered my mom has a costume trunk she stocks year round with costumes she finds on sale.  One call and she had him dressed as Goliath.  Jett loves the story of David and Goliath.  I know I've told it at least 100 times to get him to go to bed.  So she rushed over after work and made Jett- "Goliath"  He can't say an "L" sound to save his life.  

Jett's Hair Uh Oh

The whole family needed hair cuts. We all went for trims.  Jett had a bad experience.  He had a meltdown like I've never seen before.  My hair gal always works us all in on the same day.  I love love love his long hair, but it was getting a bit Bozo the Clownish.  So we talked about trimming and she worried he'd have a mullet.  As I stood going back and forth about what to do, she just started cutting.  Jett went crazy.  He wanted his curls, he wanted his hair big, he wanted to get down.  He yelled it was bad, and he was not happy, he cried he didn't want to look like this, this was bad.  I teared up and I knew this might be the haircut I never got past.  I vowed not to post a pic of him for a few weeks while it had time to grow.  The curls in the back were gone.  The sides were short and he didn't look like a baby boy anymore.  We tried not to make a big deal about it, but I swear I couldn't work the next day because I was so worried people at school would make a big deal about the huge change.  I didn't workout that afternoon so I could go see if he had made it through the day without tears.  It was traumatic to say the least.  

Wise Family Farms

 Jett missed his school field trip to the Pumpkin Patch.  He had never been before, and I'm not one to let him have a first without me.  So we loaded up one Sunday afternoon after nap and took him to Thaxton.

 He didn't care one thing about the pumpkins or the games he was all about the slide.

 We jumped on the trailer and headed to the patch.  We went late and he happened to find this pumpkin.  We all got one and he was happy.

We of course couldn't get a family picture but these will work.  We managed to make it out without having to ride the train cars.  He petted a bunny rabbit on his way out of the barn and was excited.  Pumpkin Patch trip- done.  

Celebration Village

And you better believe we found a train at Celebration Village. This kid was not so happy about the shopping day with Sadie and Mama, but once he saw the train he was more interested.   He was super excited to name the parts.  Now once inside he said all the people were making him angry.  He said all the vendors had garbage and he wanted to go home.  We came, we saw, we went home quickly, but not before he picked out a Christmas train outfit for my mom to buy him.  

Commodore Football

Mea Mea came to watch the Commodores play so we stopped by to see her.  Jett didn't like sitting still, he didn't like sitting in his seat. He loved when his Daddy let him go to the field and see the soccer girls.  We made it to half time and we were done with our football experience.  

Jett and the Dentist

 Look at that head of hair.  I love love love these curls.  This was him mesmerized at the dentist office.  

 So our name got called and we headed back.  He didn't like the chair and they couldn't get the tv to work in his room. They stalled for time which made my boy anxious.  He was not a happy camper.  They tried to brush his teeth, they tried to count them, but the went for backups and brought in Dr. Ross.  She was FABULOUS.  He loved her.  He let her count the teeth, he let her hug him.  He didn't let her brush his teeth, but he did warm up to her.  No Cavities!!  When we got in the car I asked Jett if he was good or could have been better.  He said I was okay.  I will do better on Saturday.  

This kid is gonna make me lose my mind.  Truth be told he could have been a LOT worse.  He was pumped about his three prizes.

Sadie took him to celebrate with dinner at Kirks.

Lawson's Birthday Party

 Our sweet friend Lawson turned 4.  He had a monster truck themed party and it was a blast.  

 Jett was more into playing in the back yard play places and getting dirty- for the record the tags came off this outfit that day and those pants were forever ruined after those stains.  

 These are two of Jett's sweet friends from Sunday School.  He loves Mary Collins to death.

And here is the birthday boy with Jett.  He got a big boy bike and was super pumped about his new watch.  The Wynnes are moving back to the Delta and we are going to miss them so, but we have loved getting to know them while they were Pontotocians.

Fall Break at the Beach

 My mom took us to the beach again this year for fall break.  She loves the beach but not so much the heat, October is the best time for her.  We headed to Gulf Shores after work on Thursday and made it to the condo, the grocery store, and bed before 11:00.

 We woke up Friday morning to play in the sand and enjoy the waves.

 And this time Jett was super excited to make volcanos over and over again.  We got a call during nap time that day that Cullen's parents' home was destroyed by a fire.  I knew he needed to go back to be with them, so we took him to Daphne to get a rental car and Mom and I stayed with Jett.  Our hearts were heavy for the Pollards and our family and friends kept us updated as they stopped by to check on them and love on them while we were out of town.

 We opted to not tell Jett that there had been a fire.  His little mind is always questioning how things happen and he would have worried about everything the rest of the trip.  Instead on the way home we told him DD and Papaw would stay at our house for a little bit and they could play until they moved into a rental.

 We went crab hunting but didn't find anything.  Jett was cold and wanted to go back in once he figured out we weren't good hunters.

 Our last morning on the beach was chilly. My mom thought I might freeze Jett to death and made sure he was bundled up.   He told me at my mom's prompting he might turn in to an ice cube.