A dancing bear, a mean old witch, and a baseball head!

Here they are, the 2012 Garola Gang Halloween costumes!  All 3 from yard sales and costing less than $10!  My kind of holiday! Thanks Gran for the bargain finds!  They sure did have fun!

 

 

                                 baby Sloan the chicken!  This was Cade's costume and she wore it well!

                                                    The dancing bear showing her claws! Rawr!

   The mean old wotch (that's what she called herself) She may not be old or witchy, but she's got mean down pat!

                      Cade the baseball bobblehead! Him dancing in this mask seriously cracked me up!

                                                             The fabulous 4!

                                             Our buddies Aaron and Samantha joined us for the bluff!

                                  Look at Aaron's costume!  He was an MVP baseball trophy!  I loved it! So fun!

The She-Devil

Ok maybe that title's a bit harsh, but not much! This sweet face........

is only that! Her cuteness is the ONLY thing keeping her alive right now!  This child is having some severe issues! She is trying me and testing me like nothing I ever experienced with big bro and sis!  And folks, I'm tired!  I'm old and tired, and she wins.  She wins a lot of the time.  I give into her incessant whining and temper tantrums WAY more than I should.  And she knows! This one's smart!  She doesn't do it for her sitter. She doesn't do it for her daddy, only for me.  She's like a vulture. She senses my weakness and my tiredness. I'm her prey.  She swoops in when she sees I have no strength left.  So please, if you see me looking haggard chasing her through the Aquatic Center parking lot like I did last week, pray for me.  If you see me arrive late to my morning duty like I did this morning, have pity on me.  If you see me wearing shoes that are different shade of red than my shirt and my hair looks frazzled, it is and so are my nerves.  If you see me spanking her in my driveway, know I'm trying.  I really am, sort of.  I never knew anything that weighed 26 pounds could be so powerful!  It's time for me to take back my role as queen of this castle.  I've somehow become jester; and this small, curly headed terror wears my crown. But not for long!  She WILL be whipped into shape by her third birthday, I hope. 

Raider Love

Where have we been you ask? Well, we've been running ourselves ragged all over the place, burning our candle at both ends! I'm not sure how this year is so much busier than last year. Maybe I'm just one year older and require more sleep! Maybe it's the fact that both of my children's homework load has doubled this year? Maybe it's my almost three year old that is giving me a run for my money in ways that neither of my other children did? Maybe it's this very "energetic" class I spend my days with? Not quite sure where time goes, but it does! None the less here we are! Healthy, Happy (most of the time), and Busy! It seems to me like so far our fall has been filled with school activities! Here we are at our Raider best!

                                         Grace and Cora with their boyfriend, Marshall!  He's content being shared! :)

                                              Cade, Colson, and Jack cheering the Raiders on!  They're great cheerers, we won!

 My favorite part of school functions is running into my former students!  Can you believe this most precious ever Emma New was in my first grade class???? Am I that old? We love ya, Em!

    Another of my former first graders turned Upper School cheerleader taught Cora's group at the SCPS cheer clinic a few weeks ago!

          Cora and her buddy, Addisyn! After this cheer clinic they actually got to cheer at the Varsity game with the big cheerleaders! Video coming soon, maybe!

OMLETS!

Yay! It's official! One of our hens is earning her keep! We're not sure who, and it was found under a tree, so she didn't get it quite right, but it's an EGG! Rob was getting ready to mow and he saw all 3 of the girls under a tree causing a fuss over something. He went over and viola---an egg! I'm hoping that whoever laid it was explaining how to do it to the other two in chicken speak! How egg-citing!

                                       Everyone wants to pose with this cute little egg!

                        And just in case you wanted to get a closer look at Cora's cute outfit as well...

Clara for President

Look's like someone's made their presidential candidate decision early...

Sweet, Crazy, Clara

I'm just not quite sure where this girl came from! She has the eyes and hair of her big sister and the smile, fun-loving personality, and charm of her big brother; however, she is definitely cut from her own mold!  She's the craziest, nuttiest, goofiest Garola kid yet.  She's always making some kind of mess and getting into some kind of trouble. We're not quite sure if it's the lack of supervision freedom that comes with being the third child or if it's just God's sense of humor, but we'll take it! 

She woke up crying at about four o'clock this morning, so I just climbed in her bed with her and fell asleep.  I woke up around seven to her pudgy little hands holding my face and her wet lips pressed into mine.  She gives me a wet kiss and says pointing to the window, "Mommy, we can wake up now. The sun is happy!" 

Chickens

I never thought it would be possible to love a chicken, but this girl is super sweet

                                                         

                                             Ellie treating herself to some grass

 The girls waiting on Clara who comes every afternoon bearing treats! Today's chicken treat...barley!

 

                          These two are usually competing for top dog (or top chicken)

        Georgia cheerleader feeding chickens in sparkly shoes

                                  Not sure who's happier, the girl or the birds?