Annabeth in Wonderland and Shark Boy

What a busy and great weekend! Our babysitter, Sara, went away to college this year but she was home for a long weekend. We begged and pleaded with her (really, we just asked) to hang out with the kids on Friday night and she said yes. Curtis and I went to dinner at Ouisie's Table and ate on the patio. It was such a nice evening and we were actually a bit chilly out there even with our sweaters on. Praise the Lord and amen. We were pretty stuffed but didn't want our date to end, so we had dessert at Crescent City Beignets. Yum!

Late Saturday afternoon our church hosted a fall festival, AKA First Fest. We have traditionally had this on Halloween night, but we have a Sunday night service so things got shuffled around this year. Here are the kids before we left for the church. Annabeth was Alice in Wonderland and Jackson was a shark. Annabeth adores her big brother, as you can see.

The preschool choir had their first performance at First Fest. The kids were hilarious singing in their costumes. It was a lot of fun to watch.

Jackson seemed a little distressed when he sat down on the risers.

Annabeth was SO GOOD! Lately we have spent a lot of time banished in the car while big brother and daddy do their thing, but not this weekend. I did not bring her a snack but when we opened up the stroller there was a bag of Cheerios. I really think the Lord put those there for us because they got her through the choir extravaganza.

This is Avonlea Smith, AKA Little Red Riding Hood, who was born just 2 weeks after Annabeth. I had to get a picture of Red and Alice looking cute in their strollers.

This is my dear friend, Christine, and her little girl Preslee. Many of you bought t-shirts that helped Christine and her hubby raise money for Preslee's adoption. Isn't she the cutest thing ever? Thank you for blessing this wonderful family. They are in the process of starting a non-profit to help other families who are adopting. Isn't that awesome? This is the first picture we have together with our girls.

Annabeth did not let her big dress stop her from having fun in a bounce house.

This is Amber, one our preschool staff members, and Joey dressed as Pastor Gregg and Kelly. So stinking funny.

Family portrait. We left shortly after and headed to Chickfila. I hadn't eaten there in at least two weeks, which is unheard of. Late last night a bunch of us girls went to see a movie. I love having friends who will do random things at the last minute.

For tonight, our pastor encouraged everyone to "light the night" in their homes. So we did! We turned on all the lights in our house and got ready to love our neighbors.

I swept the porch and got rid of the topiary that has gotten old and gross.

I put out my little red table and it looked great. But I would really miss it inside so I moved it back in tonight.

These two are my loves.

As soon as we came inside from our photo session, AB poured a glass of water on herself. By the time we went out, she also had chocolate on her dress.

This pic of Abe makes me laugh. She looks like a very intense prairie woman. That Alice dress could be many things. I had her carry a rabbit so it would be more obvious.

Mom flew in from her conference in Spokane, WA, and came straight to our house. I had begged her to come over and do this with us. (We didn't trick-or-treat growing up.) She wasn't very comfortable with the idea at first, but once she heard our pastor asking us to light the night, she got on board. She and Annabeth manned our porch with the candy while we went along our street with Jackson. We met so many neighbors. After 2.5 years I'm very glad to know some more names.

Mom met a couple of ladies who did her Bible studies, so that's fun. Although I think she felt compelled to explain why she was doing this. Bless your heart, Mom! I love you so much!

By the way, Annabeth really enjoyed putting the candy in all the kids' bags. I think she may have helped unwrap a few things before dropping them in. Oops.

Some church friends in the neighborhood - Jenn, Nathan and Peyton - stopped by to say hello. It was fun hanging out on the porch with them. It was a nice evening even though I was burning up in that sweater (which is cuter in person!) and Jackson was sweating profusely in his fleece costume.

Shark boy and Davy Crockett.

We capped off the night with some Chinese food and then we watched a video of Jackson's choir performance. The best part of the whole weekend was watching Jackson watch himself. His whole body was shaking with excitement and he could not contain his glee. He giggled and laughed without restraint for the first five minutes. We actually tried to record that, thinking we could send it to AFV, but he stopped as soon as Curt got out the camera. Blast!

Curtis is asleep beside me and I'm sure he'd appreciate it if I'd stop typing. So goodnight! When we wake up it will be November.