Thanksgiving Feast

The kids had Thanksgiving parties at school before the break (we get the whole week of Thanksgiving off down here). Chuck was off so he finally got to make it to a school activity.

Audrey walking into the party with her class. They made these cute shirts at school too.

They also made these cute place mats.

Tried to get a nice picture with Mommy & Daddy but she wouldn't stop snacking to smile.
Shortly after Audrey's party it was time to head over to Carter's classroom.

My two adorable turkeys!
The kindergarten classes had a Thanksgiving Feast. The school provided the turkey and rolls and each class was assigned different things to bring. It resulted in an enormous amount of food. The left overs were donated to a local shelter.

Carter was so excited to see that Daddy made it!
All the parents met in the classroom. We then walked together to the fellowship hall for the feast.

Carter enjoying his delicious meal. He also made his place mat.

Georgia Aquarium

The other week we let the kids skip school and had a family day at the Georgia Aquarium. We took Carter to the Chattanooga aquarium when Audrey was just a couple months old. Since then we knew we wanted to see the Georgia aquarium. Plus it was on our list of things to do before we move. We had a fabulous time!

Family pic with the fishies

They loved how colorful the fish were at the tropical tidal wave exhibit.

There was a play area for the kiddos. They went down this whale slide numerous times! We had to make them stop to move on.

They were entertained for at least 10 min. by the informational touch screens. Especially, since Dory and Nemo were on them.

The ocean voyage was the best part. Carter and Chuck had to study all the different fish in the exhibit. It was awesome to see the sharks and whale sharks up close. The kids loved the moving walkway we went through it twice.

Carter liked the fake shark as much as the real ones. Carter also loved all the touch tanks. He touched; sharks, sting rays, sea anemone, star fish, shrimp and a horseshoe crab.

Of course, they make you go through the gift shop to leave. Audrey kept picking out the giant $50 stuffed fish. She even tried putting one in the stroller in hopes it would come home with us.

The kids had a great time and the middle of the week was the perfect time to go. It wasn't crowded at all. I'm glad we went and got to see the whale sharks. Overall, I think I liked the Chattanooga one better.

Jingle

The kids are already starting to receive presents in the mail! Great Grandma Aprahamian sent this cute husky named Jingle. The kids love him! You read a story about him and he barks & sings in response to certain phrases.

They have a couple of the phrases memorized and think it's so fun to get him to bark. It's so cute to watch their reaction. Thanks Great Grandma!

The search continues

As many of you know, Chuck had his second interview with Children's hospital in Milwaukee the other week. To be honest we were so sure we were going to get the contract and not have any major surprises with it and sign on. We were already making our top 10 list of houses to look at.

Chuck was able to have lunch with us before leaving for the airport and this is the fortune he got. Another good sign :) Then, in the last 45 min of his second day of interviews he was hit with a deal breaker. They want the new hires to spend a week EVERY month covering the hospital in Marshfield. That's 3 1/2 hours away! This isn't just for a couple of years either. The Marshfield contract is for 5 years! After 9 years of working as hard as he has to become the best pediatric surgeon he can be there's no way we can do that! It will be exhausting on him and on us as a family. We are tired of not having Chuck around and are looking forward to taking a job that allows him to be around A LOT more, not away for a week every month.
So, needless to say our hearts were broken and the excitement died. Yes, we knew about the Marshfield contract but we were told it was going to be a group commitment. They led us to believe is was going to be an equal division of time there between the group. Instead they decided to make the new hires take the majority of the responsibility. They are hoping to hire on 2 more people and we'll be shocked if anyone takes that job.

Now we just need to keep searching. He has a second interview with Grand Rapids and he will need to decide if he won't get bored being in private practice. We find ourselves having to look at more cities that we didn't want to have to consider, like Peoria and Indianapolis. Those are both academic groups. We no longer can say we'll be decided by Christmas. We really don't know how this is all going to play out right now. What we do know is that these jobs will allow us to be a family and that's what's most important to us. We'll keep you posted.

Noah's Park

Avondale Park has been renovated and is finally open for use. The kids love it! It's across the street from Noah's house so the kids call it Noah's park.

Noah, Carter & Audrey spent a lot of time sitting on the rocks watching the stream of water.

My monkeys hanging on the equipment

Audrey & Noah are always quite the pair when they're together. They have the same high level of energy and need to run :)

Trick or treat

Carter helped me make a Halloween themed dinner before heading out to trick or treat. Here he is wrapping up a mummy dog. As always, he did a great job.

Carter thought it was so fun to have a Halloween dinner. He has a mummy dog, homemade mac & cheese brains and green beans (not creative but the kids needed a veggie). He's drinking blood (cherry pomegranate crystal light) with an eyeball floating in it out of his skeleton cup.

Audrey saw me taking Carter's picture and decided to come sit down

I managed to get a picture of all three of them in costume. It's not the best picture of Sasha in her costume but at least she cooperated to get this one.

My storm trooper and princess Belle

Taking a quick break. The kids had a blast trick or treating. It's fun to see how much they enjoy seeing all the decorations. The bonus was that Chuck was able to come with us for the first time. The first year I took Carter Chuck was in the hospital with pneumonia and last year he was on-call.

School parties

Halloween day the kids had parties at school. Carter also had a parade in the gym.

It was fun to see all the kids in their costumes. I was surprised at the variety too.

After the parade Carter had his party in his classroom. They got all sorts of Halloween themed treats, craft and games. Carter got the blue ribbon for pin the eyes on the jack-o-lantern.

Class picture

After Carter's party was over it was time for Audrey's to start. I'm always amazed to see this many 2 year olds sitting so nice and quiet. They are getting ready to bless their food.

Digging into all her goodies

Showing me her helping hand she made earlier that morning

carving pumpkins

The day before Halloween we carved pumpkins.

Carter was real helpful this year. He scooped out one of the pumpkins all by himself and did a real good job. He also helped copy the patterns onto the pumpkins.

Audrey even got into scooping the seeds out. It wasn't long before she moved on though.

They decided to carve Audrey's baby pumpkins by themselves. Carter got the stem off and then they just cut a bunch of holes in it :)

Carter with his R2D2 and Stormtrooper pumpkins
Chuck carved those

Audrey with her Belle pumpkin
I carved this one

Our pumpkins all lit up

Sprinkle for baby Amelia

A couple of weekends ago we had a Halloween themed sprinkle for Ashley. We had a good time and she got some nice things for baby Amelia. We can't wait to meet her in just a couple more weeks.

The spread of goodies and adorable pumpkin diaper cake made by Laura. Laura and Meredith did a great job preparing all the tasty treats.

Group shot of the kiddos in costume. They were all in a good mood and played so well together.Pumpkin paintingThe mommies. I didn't remember to get a picture of the adults until Kate had already left. Carter took this picture for us.

Afterward, we walked over to Avondale park to let the kids run off some of the sugar they consumed. They had a blast trying out all the new play sets.

They had some sort of antique car show going on. The kids wanted to pose by this car because it reminded them of Grandpa's corvette or as Carter calls it, "Grandpa's red car."

Girls day

The mornings that Audrey has ballet are our girls days. Carter had almost 3 years of just me and him time. Now that he's in kindergarten it's nice to have some alone time with Audrey.

After ballet we usually run errands together. I love that she already likes to go shopping with Mommy! Then it's time to grab some lunch. Her favorite lately is getting soup from Panera.

There was a sweet lady that saw me taking Audrey's picture and offered to take one of the both of us. Gotta love Audrey's serious face. She doesn't like to smile for strangers.

She saw people getting pink smoothies at Panera and kept asking for a pink drink. This girl loves all things pink! Since she ate her soup well I treated her to a pink milkshake on our way to the park.

Sasha love

The kids continue to love, play with, harass, spoil, etc. Sasha. It's so funny to watch Carter and Sasha kung fu fight each other. I have yet to catch it on video or get a picture of it.

She's been listening to Carter more. The only commands she'll do for him are sit and shake but it's an improvement from ignoring him.

She still ignores Audrey :)