It's the holiday season...

The family, along with Pap, made our annual pilgrimage to the Christmas light show after we stuffed our bellies full of Thanksgiving fixins'...what a fluorescent extravaganza it was to a 6 year-old little boy who still "believes" by the way. The night was unseasonable warm, so we walked around while snapping pictures...no jackets required. Christmas carols even played throughout the park to get the guests in the holiday spirit! Then the very next day, Old Man Winter showed up and the temperatures dropped to the 30's. If one looks very closely, Jarrett can be seen in and among the light displays. These pictures showcase just a few of the many displays that make even the adults feel like kids again. We even spotted a picnic table with J-man's initials carved into it, but I promise, we DID NOT do the carving! I had to snap a pic though since he thought it was really cool to see his initials!

A night under the Big Top...

Even though I really worry about the care of the animals, I took Jarrett to Ringling Brothers' Big Top for an extravagant night of performers, exotic animals, and entertaining clowns. He had a great time and made some lifelong memories. It's amazing that the price of the tickets was quite less than the price of the trinkets and snacks that they sell at every place that a kid could possible see. J-man talked me into a $20.00 light-up, spinning circus toy and a $10.00 Boom-a-Ring, but he "had to have them!"  Oh well, the circus only comes to town once or twice a year!

A majestic 47 year-old African elephant

J-man watching the pre-show

J-man with his $20.00 light-up, spinning toy

Halloween Ghosts and Goblins and...Billy the Exterminator!!!

J-man is lookin' awesome dude!!! He had a rockin' good time for trick-or-treat in his Billy the Exterminator costume!! He even stuck out the tongue and threw up the rocker sign because he was feeling it baby!! He loves the show and loved pretending to be Billy. Rock on!! One of our neighbors told him he had some wasps that have been terrorizing his property...ha!ha!

Here is Jarrett playing around as I shopped for costume goodies. If I had a daughter, I guess this is what she would look like...hilarious!!

J-man was a pirate last year. In this picture, he has some weird mouth going on...Aaarrgg Matey!

and another year...

 

Lemonade

Jarrett's first grade class performed Lemonade for a rather large audience of excited parents, families, and friends. Thanks to Mrs. Kauffman for such a great job with a bunch of six year-olds!! To me, it would be like herding cats to get these kids to do anything, but J-man's teachers are just great at what they do. In Lemonade, the kids played many of the characters from the classic fairytale stories with a new twist...how to turn a crumby day into a great day...in other words, how to make lemonade out of lemons. We can all use a reminder on that lesson. J-man was pig #3 of the Three Little Pigs. He said his lines like a professional. In fact, all the kids did a fantastic job and were super cute with their imaginative costumes. This was another successful year for the class program!

Last year, his Kindergarten year, he was a goat in the "Whack-a-Doo Zoo."

King's Island trip...

Jarrett visited King's Island for the first time last weekend with his mama, daddy, and pap. He had a great time. The park was decorated for Halloween, and starting at 7:00, they began the Haunted Hunt...oh boy was it interesting! Fog machines placed all over the park cranked up the creepy factor because we couldn't see more than a few feet in front of us. The playhouses were transformed into haunted houses, creepy music played all over the park, and gory scenes were set up in open spaces. Apparently people love to pay to be scared because, contrary to what we expected, the park was packed!!! The wait for rides averaged 1.5 hours, but it was OK with us because J-man is still too short to ride those "high thrill" rides that were most popular anyway!! But, he loved, loved, loved the rides he got on. He enjoyed the games he played at the midway and he won a stuffed Taz which he renamed "Crush" because he thought it suited it better. He was even super excited about staying in a hotel...mama had to get a pic of J-man with the Shoney Big Boy beside our hotel because it's one of the last of its kind still around...ha!ha!ha! All in all, we a had a SPOOKTACULAR weekend of fun, good food, and good company!!

Funny warp good times...

J-man and mama had many, many belly-aching laughs playin' with mama's new funny warp app on her phone. We tried and tried to get some of Boss, but the app wouldn't recognize his face lol..here are some of the good ones...

Beetle Juice...

J-man and I noticed Boss acting a little funny while he was resting on the couch. He kept wiggling his ears and twitching his body a little. Then, we discovered that he had a rather large beetle right on the end of his nose. At first he didn't likey the beetle, but then he just laid back down and decided he could go ahead and hangy outy I guessy...aaaahhhh good dog!

It used to be a date....now it's a get-together...

J-man spent some fun time with mama Friday night. These fun, little precious nights together used to be our "dates," but this time he let me know that dates are for girlfriends and boyfriends, and we now have "get-togethers" instead. LOL! We went to the cheap $2.00 movies to see Nanny McPhee (little "c" and big "P" as she says several times in the movie....ha!ha!). We both really enjoyed the movie and he looked at me at the end when the children's dad returned from war and was clearly touched by the happy ending...oh, my precious little man. For the price of admission AND concessions, we still paid less than the big, fancy theater in town. Then, we walked to Starbuck's and enjoyed a salted caramel hot chocolate for me and a kid's hot chocolate for J-man (they make them the perfect warm temperature for the little people's mouths). After tossing pennies in the fountain outside and making wishes, we headed home for bed because Jarrett had to get up early for his Saturday morning bowling league...nighty, night!

Spelunking at Carter Caves...

Jarrett's class is studying habitats for their science unit and he decided to choose a cave as his habitat. So, mama and dad decided to take him to Carter Caves in Kentucky to enrich his understanding of everything cave-ish! As we traveled to the state park with The Ant Bully playing in the background, the GPS took us on the longest possible route to the welcome center, including a couple miles on a gravel road that seemed to be made more for horse-drawn wagons than vehicles. At least we experienced some "country" scenery. Finally, we pulled into the welcome center with some time to spare before the cave tour, so we checked out the gift shop. I got a little creeped out when I looked up to see the "ghostly" figure in the middle window at the top of the building. Turns out it was a cardboard cut-out...pheeewww!

We had a fun time picking out little treasures for my Jarrett to take home. He found a pouch of polished rocks that he thought was uber-cool and a super groovy spelunking hat to guide him through the cave. Problem was, he left it in the van...oh well! I also snapped a funny pic of him trying on the raccoon hat, but we didn't take it home because mama is a little creeped out by the whole idea of killing an animal for commercial benefit. He also found some color-changing pencils that he "really needed."  

Eventually, we trekked the additional 3.4 miles to the cave entrance to meet our very knowledgeable tour guide, Derek. My Jarrett was too shy to get a photo op with Derek although mama tried really hard to talk him into it. The tour took about 1.5 hours and we navigated about 225 steps through the 3/4 mile cave. It was really cool and Jarrett said he "had butterflies in his belly" when we started out because he needed to "overcome his fear." Apparently it didn't take long, however, because he was the most well-behaved kid there and asked the tour guide very good questions. Mama and dad were proud. Here are some of the pics mama snapped on the tour.

A cluster of bats hanging from the cave ceiling and a lonely little bat separated from his bat family

Daddy and Jarrett deep under the earth in Cascade Cave

A 30 foot underground waterfall...thus, the "Cascade Cave"

Jarrett walking on a bridge between the caves

Cave Diamonds that fascinated Jarrett

 Jarrett and other tourists looking over the "Reflecting Pool"

Jarrett learned many facts about the cave habitat and saw spiders, crickets, salamanders and bats oh my! After our fun and educational visit to Carter Caves, the family relaxed and enjoyed a scrumptious meal at Cheddars before we headed home to watch Marshall take on Bowling Green. What a day!

So much to do in so little time...

Wow! The school weeks seem to end before they even begin. I can't believe how fast Jarrett's Monday-Friday flies! When we get home, it's dinner, homework, a quick family activity (if we're lucky), bath, prepare for the next day, and in the bed fred. This week, Jarrett squeezed in a few fun evening activities before we hit the hay. We caught a fun volleyball game at mama's school and our team won. Yay! We also went to the library to check out some books because Jarrett is a reader now...whoo hoo! He loved the "crooked tree" that he discovered and wanted his picture with it...so cute.

Of course we also had to spend a little Boss time, so we took him on a walk to check his "pee" mail. Ha Ha. We walk past this memorial arch almost daily and I finally snapped a pic of my Jarrett in front of this local landmark.

As always, so little time and so much to do...

The annual family reunion at Bulltown

On Saturday, we drove to Bulltown to attend the annual family reunion. The day was a comfortable top-10er at a perfect 75 degrees with gorgeous sun and a light breeze...spectacular!! Thanks to Aunt Sissy for scoping out the perfect picnic shelter spot, a picturesque setting overlooking Burnsville Lake. Jarrett had a blast playing with his cousins on the "private" playground that accompanied the reserved picnic shelter.

The enormous spread of food was as impressive as the weather. Dad, the grillmaster, cooked up some good ole dogs and hamburgers to go with the tables and tables of salads, desserts, side dishes and more. Here is Dad sharing a secret with Jarrett after his grilling mission was complete...

We really appreciate all the hard work that went into preparing such an occasion. Jarrett made lasting memories with family, played horseshoes and saw his first Katydid bug....ooooooo!!

All the "wonderland" at Billy Bob's...

Today we got to hang loosy goosy with Auntie and cousins Kate and Arin at Billy Bob's Wonderland, and boy was it won-der-ful. Jarrett probably ran five miles through the fluorescent extravaganza.

Not only did he squeeze all the monies worth of tokens he could out of any willing adult, he ate pizza, fries and cake while downing cupfuls of Dr. Peppa baby!

At the end of the day, he can count his blessings to have such precious little cousins to love. Miss Kate, the princess indeed, is always ready for a good time with her big cousin. She's all girl with plenty of might to hold her own. Arin, the big ol' baby boy, is such a personality too. After a big belly full of baby food and pizza crust, he knows how to relax and go with the flow.

Oh, and can you say prizes? Oh yeah! J$ made out of there with flashing sunglasses, tattoos, girly bracelets for Kate, and a spider that crawls down the wall! Oh baby!!!!!!