Fall break fun

It's been a while, so this could be epic.  I apologize now.....

Last weekend we went up to Charlotte in North Carolina.  Paul had bought a bike from eBay, for a very bargain price, so we went and picked it up.  It is quite old, with most of the original parts, but luckily it does not need too much work.  Plus paul is used to working on bikes and knows exactly what he is doing.  On the way back we stopped at the Spartanburg International Festival.  My fried Liene put me on to this.  They have been running this festival for about 28 years.  There were copious stands representing 33 countries.  Liene was manning the Latvian stand.  We said hello, had a quick look around, they headed back to the car.  If it had not been so hot we may have stuck around a bit longer, but it was warm, the boys were grumpy, and we were all tired from being in the car so long.

Oliver and Isaac have both been off on fall break for the last week, Oliver on the Monday and Tuesday, Isaac all week. We all went to Gymboree on Monday.  I had promised the boys they could play iPods while Seb did his session, but they were far to busy watching and encouraging Sebastian to take part. They were able to come and so the bubbles and parachute part which they absolutely loved.  They were really well behaved, and a privilege to call mine. 

Decorating pumpkins

Tuesday we chilled around the house, and went out after dinner to watch Oliver play baseball.  His team won again!

Wednesday Oliver was back at school.  Isaac, Seb and myself met up with our friend Tracey and her Isaac at Monkey Joes.  This is a big building with about 8 bouncy castles/houses/slides in it.  We went the week before, and Seb was not very keen.  But with his big brother there, he was all over it.  By the end he had been in every bounce house, and was even going down the very big slides all on his own.  It is so nice once he gets used to places.

2 Isaacs + Sebastian = Monkey Joe's fun

From here, we headed to our friend Anna's house for some lunch and a nice catch up for me.  Again the boys were awesome, really well behaved all day.  Both boys fell asleep on the way to get Oliver.  This was the first time in about a month that Isaac has fallen asleep in the day.  My boy is growing up.....   When we arrived home, the package from Grandad had arrived.  This contained loads of lego base plates, the boys spent the afternoon setting up their city.  Lego is huge in our house at the moment.  Oliver had another baseball game on Wednesday night.  They won again.  They have not lost a game all season...... 

I was supposed to have my exam on Wednesday.  Unfortunately my assignment scores were very low, so low that if I had got 100% in the exam, I still would have failed.  I chose to not put myself through the stress of revising for an exam I was not going to pass, especially since changing my degree.

Ouch!

I was practicing with Oliver at baseball on Wednesday night.  When I awoke Thursday morning, I noticed my ring finger was all swollen.  I managed to get my wedding ring off, then I noticed the shape of my engagement ring.  It was all bent!  But in such a way, it had made my finger swell up.  I tried to get it off using some lotion, but it would not budge, and managed to cut my finger.  Paul came home at lunchtime, and had a go at reshaping it while still on my finger.  He did this at various times during the evening.  The cuts are pretty deep, but the swelling has gone down.  I am waiting for the cuts to heal before I try and get it off again.  This has happened before with this ring, and we managed to get it repaired.  I will wait to get it off my finger before we decide what we are going to do (new ring, new ring!!!)

Friday, Oliver forgot his lunch box.  I didn't know what to do with the boys this day, so this gave me a few ideas.  After we had dropped Oliver's lunchbox back at school, Seb, Isaac and I headed to Conastee park for a quick play.  From there we headed to Dollar Tree for my monthly pilgrimage of arts and learning supplies for Seb and Isaac(I will do a post about homeschooling soon, I am just lining up all my resources).  I love Dollar Tree.  I got loads, and the joy is everything is a dollar.  I spent under $20!  The on to Bi-Lo, for the food shopping, where I spent significantly more.....  Paul came home from work early, to watch the England Football game.

Yesterday we took a walk round our subdivision (estate) in the morning.  I love walking round.  It makes our front garden seem not so messy.  Lots of people had Halloween decorations out, which the boys enjoyed.  In the afternoon we headed to Fall for Greenville. This is a foodie type festival held down Main Street in Greenville.  It is in its 32nd year.  They close off the whole of Main Street and a lot of the side roads.  There were tents from over 40 restaurants this year, 3 live music stages and a kids area.  We arrived about 4pm.  Man, it was busy.....and we don't do busy.

Busy!

But it was manageable, as there were breaks in the crowd in between the stands.  The boys enjoyed the kids area, and went on quite a few of the bouncy castles.  We headed further down the street towards Falls Park and got some food. The boys all had pizza from Mellow Mushroom.  Paul had a slider and I had some Irish nachos from Fitzpatricks Food and Spirits.  These were crisps covered in salsa with gooey cheese.  They were all yummy, and reasonably priced.  There was not an empty plate.  By now all the boys were tired, and it seemed to have got busier.  I think we arrived at just the right time.  It felt like the daytime people were leaving as we arrived, and the evening crowd arriving as we were leaving.  As I said, we don't really like things like this, but we really enjoyed Fall for Greenville.  I think we will be back next year.  

Today we attempted to go to IHOP for breakfast.  Because we wanted to watch the formula 1 first, we didn't end up leaving till 11.  By this time, all the churches were kicking out, and both the local IHOP's
had people waiting outside.  So we went to Frankie's fun park instead, where the boys got to play a couple of rounds of minigolf and some arcade games before heading into Johnny Rockets for some lunch.  Paul has headed off on a drive event this afternoon, so it is just me and the chimps till Tuesday.  

I knew this was going to be an essay!

Rockie Cows

Hey!

So this week has been spent seeing friends, doing Uni work, and generally just getting on with life.

Oliver had his first baseball game this week.  I bumped into one of our neighbors there.  Their son plays in the same league as Oliver, so they will face each other at some point.  Oliver's team is called the Rockies, after the Colorado Rockies.  I had to go and hunt out some purple socks for him this week.  I eventually found them at Sports Academy.  This also gave me a chance to check out Trader Joes, the shop next door.  This is a supermarket/speciality shop.  Lots of organic and natural products.  This is obviously reflected in the prices.  Except the wine.... Lots of good, cheap wine.  Cheapest bottle I saw was $2.99!  Think I will be back there...

Any who, despite Oliver's team losing all their practice matches, they one their first game by one run.  Thank goodness I was sitting next to someone who was keeping score.  He has 2 games a week, so Paul and I are going to alternate taking him.

Isaac had his good friend Edmund round on Thursday.  His mum, Christy, had baked some pumpkin bread, which she brought with her.  It was delicious.  Isaac and I polished it off!  Of course, I had to get the recipe from her.  I had a go at baking it today, and it came out really well.  So tasty, and a whole lot of it.... I shall enjoy munching my way through it.

Seb had Gymboree again Monday.  He loved it, listened to the story and pointing out everything in the book.  He joined in with the activities, and even tried some of the actions for the songs.  He was the first at the end of the session to get some stamps on him.  I fact he ended up covered.  He did not cry once.  I am so proud of him, he is doing so well, and I am really looking forward to tomorrow.

I had my change of direction confirmed by th OU this week.  I am now working towards an Open degree.  I did a post about this earlier in the week, but did not promote it.  If you want to know about my journey so far, you can find it here.  My next course will begin in February.  It is an intense course, so I plan to relax a bit between now and then.  Still unsure if I am going to sit the exam for this current course, will all depend how my final assessment goes.

Saturday morning we headed to South Greenville Fair which is held each year in Simpsonville.  They had loads of animal competitions, tractors, old bikes etc.  It is a small event with not many people, but a great event all the same.  The boys loved seeing the animals, and sitting on the old tractors.  We even bumped in to some people we knew!  Well worth going along to, if only for an hour.  Thank goodness we went in the morning, as the heavens opened in the afternoon.   

I have spent a lot of my spare time this week reading blogs and watching TV (It is nice to have spare time...).  I have recently found some awesome blogs to follow, some through Circle of Moms, most through Expat Blogs.  My favorites are Ashley Quite Frankly, Reedy Review, Life of a British Expat in America, and of course Femme au Foyer.  A lot of the big TV networks have their big shows beginning at the moment.  Dancing with the Stars is back, first elimination tomorrow night.  Castle, my ultimate favorite is back for a new series tomorrow.  Sleepy Hollow is quite good, clever concept, all about the headless horseman and Ichabald Crane.  Will be interested to see how it develops.  I am looking forward to seeing what else starts this week!

It's a busy week for me this week.  Gymboree Monday, apple picking with a friend Tuesday, friends round Wednesday morning, then looking after Jack in the afternoon.  Possibly more friends round on Thursday and Friday. Not forgetting the 2 baseball games.

  Busy, busy, busy