Trunk-Or-Treating (two times)

We've been trunk-or-treating twice this week already! On Sunday evening, I took Kate back to the church we visited for this same event last year. It didn't take her long to catch on.
Once she figured out what she was supposed to do, she was LOVING it.


I believe we saw this Cat in the Hat guy last year.


Our little angel


Feeding her sucker obsession ... LOL!
__________


On Wednesday, we met Di and Jamie for trunk-or-treating at another nearby church. Kate wore her ballerina outfit, and Jamie was a princess. (Jam wasn't too keen on wearing her cute horse costume--LOL!) The girls looked adorable and had a blast!


Candy, candy, candy!


"Hey, this is fun!"


Kate loves saying "trick or treat!"


"Why, I don't mind if I do!"


They are both pros now and are ready for Saturday!


Checking out her loot in the car ...


... and dumping it all out on the table at home (a tradition, of course)!

Kate is so funny. She keeps asking for her "trick or treat," meaning her candy. Yesterday she kept picking up random pieces and saying, "try it?" ha!

Operation Christmas Child 2009 in Atlanta

ATLANTANS COLLECT GIFTS FOR SAMARITAN’S PURSE AND THE WORLD’S LARGEST CHRISTMAS PROJECT

Nov. 16-23: Atlanta Hopes to Gather 100,000 Gift-Filled Shoe Boxes for Hurting Children Overseas

ATLANTA—It’s beginning to look like Christmas in the metro area, as local businesses, churches and homes prepare to serve as collection points for Operation Christmas Child. Soon, with the help of Atlanta-area volunteers, the sites will be brimming with festively wrapped shoe boxes full of gifts.

Through Operation Christmas Child, the world’s largest Christmas project, Atlanta-area residents are packing shoe box gifts for children in more than 100 countries suffering from natural disaster, war, terrorism, disease, famine and poverty. From here, the shoe box gifts will be sorted and sent using whatever means necessary—sea containers, trucks, trains, airplanes, boats, camels, even dog sleds—to reach suffering children around the world.

Operation Christmas Child uses tracking technology that allows donors to follow their boxes to their destination countries, where they will be hand-delivered to children in need. To register shoe box gifts and to find out where they are delivered, use the EZ Give donation form found at www.samaritanspurse.org.

LOCAL COLLECTION SITES*

Operation Christmas Child—Atlanta Processing Center
2800 Vista Ridge Drive, Suite 200
Suwanee, GA 30024
770-777-9342

First Baptist Church of Atlanta
4400 North Peachtree Road
Atlanta, GA 30338
770-234-8300

The Church of The Apostles
3585 Northside Parkway NW
Atlanta, GA 30327
404-842-0200

Briarcliff Baptist Church
3039 Briarcliff Road NE
Atlanta, GA 30329
404-633-6103

Calvary Chapel Alpharetta
200 James Road
Alpharetta, GA 30004
770-442-8167

Life Care Center of Lawrenceville
210 Collins Industrial Way
Lawrenceville, GA 30043
678-442-0777

Life Care Center of Gwinnett
3850 Safehaven Drive
Lawrenceville, GA 30044
770-923-0005

Mount Zion Baptist Church
1525 Scenic Highway
Snellville, GA 30078
770-972-5020

Mountain Park First Baptist Church
5485 Five Forks Trickum Road
Stone Mountain, GA 30087
770-921-1452

In 2008, the Atlanta area contributed some 75,000 boxes to the Operation Christmas Child effort. This year, organizers hope to collect 100,000 gift-filled shoe boxes from families, churches, schools and civic organizations in the area.

Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child, a project of international Christian relief and evangelism organization Samaritan’s Purse, headed by Franklin Graham, has delivered more than 69 million gift-filled shoe boxes to needy children in some 130 countries.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO GET INVOLVED:

• PREPARE—Enlist families, churches, scout troops, community groups and businesses to take part in creating shoe box gifts for needy children worldwide.
• PACK—Fill shoe boxes with school supplies, toys, necessity items, hard candy and a letter of encouragement. Step-by-step shoe box packing instructions are available at www.samaritanspurse.org.
• PROCESS—Sign up to join Operation Christmas Child volunteers at collection sites in Atlanta as part of the effort to prepare millions of shoe box gifts for delivery to underprivileged kids on six continents.

*National Collection Week is Nov. 16-23. Collection hours will vary by location. For more information or to find even more drop-off points, visit www.samaritanspurse.org.

For more information on how to participate in Operation Christmas Child, call 770-777-9342 or visit www.samaritanspurse.org.

MEDIA NOTE: For complete media materials, including media kit and high-resolution, downloadable photos, visit www.DeMossNews.com/OCC.

—30—

Halloween Craft: Footprint Ghosts

BOO!

Are you skeeered?

When Jasper sent us a fun footprint ghost, I couldn't get over the cuteness. I just loved it! Then I saw Caleb's footprint ghost on Sheena's blog--and I knew Kate had to make some, too. They're super easy and adorable. Not scary at all!

Goblins in the Garden

After church on Sunday, I took Kate to Goblins in the Garden, a Halloween event at Atlanta Botanical Garden. (Tanna had some errands to run and also needed to go to his parents' house to fix their computer.) We met Steve, Diana and Jamie there, too. Kate wore her angel costume--you may remember it from last year. I bought it on clearance after Halloween, and she wore it at Christmastime. It's a size 3T/4T, which is hard to believe because it is tiny. But I digress ...

Before we even made it to the botanical garden, I could not believe the crowds. The traffic was all backed up, and loads of people were walking in from various directions. It turns out that the parking garage was "full" and they weren't letting folks turn in to the driveway. The bad thing is, you did not realize this until you already were in line to turn in--so you'd have to sit through traffic light after traffic light and hope for a chance to pull into another lane. And THEN try to find street parking in the nearby neighborhood. And this is after all that money that was spent on the new parking facility @ ABG. (Can you tell I hate parking issues?)

ANYWAY, when I finally got to a point where I could turn in, I thought I'd just turn around in the driveway. I had to go somewhere, and that seemed like the best option. I had an inkling that there may be some spots opening up in the garage because cars were coming out, but no cars were going in. I thought it might be worth taking a look. Long story short (believe me--I can't believe how long this is getting already) ... there WERE parking spots in the garage, and I got a really close one.

So we get out and head over to the entrance to meet Di, Steve and Jamie. I could not believe my eyes. I should have taken a photo. The mob of people trying to get in at the garden entrance was unbelievable. If we hadn't been meeting friends and if we hadn't just been through an ordeal to park, then we would have left. But we stayed and braved the crowds.

The weather was gorgeous and (of course) we enjoyed the company, but it was too crowded to participate in any of the activities. So basically, we just walked around and left. I wish I could recommend this event. Maybe in years to come, it will be offered over a few days (and not just a few hours) so that not everyone will be there for the short time that it lasts. Getting out of the garden parking area and driveway was another ordeal, but we finally made it. LOL!

Anyway, here are some photos ...


We saw Lee Anne, Sam and Keith


Kate and Samantha. Kate loves lollipops ("suckers"). Here, she is holding two--one opened and one still in the wrapper.


Wheeeee! The girls loved playing on the slide. Not sure who Tinkerbell is there.


More slide fun


On our way out, we stopped by Kate's school's scarecrow exhibit. It is looking pretty rough. Look at all the grass growing all over it. Gross.

Boo at the Zoo, 2009 Edition

OK, so I will be honest and say I was having a bad attitude about Boo at the Zoo not being at night this year. I still prefer it as an evening event, but we had a spooktacular time on Saturday morning. We saw lots of friends and cool costumes. My favorite was a little girl dressed like a chef (awesome costume, complete with fun accessories)--and her little sibling (I assume) was a chocolate-chip cookie! No photo, but take my word for it--they were so adorable! Anyway, here are some photos we DID get (because these are people we know) ... in random order ...

Blabla's Halloween Party

We have had a very full weekend! One of our many activities was stopping by Blabla's Halloween party. It's funny because I had kind of forgotten about it, and Tanna mentioned it late Friday night. I guess the free food and beverages made an impression on him last time. LOL!

Blabla has a party like this every spring and fall. They really are a lot of fun, so be sure to pop in if one is going on and you're in the neighborhood. Really, you should stop in just to see the whimsical store, party or not. I dare you not to come home with something!


Ready to party!


Walking that way


Eating junk food and having fun


Coke ... yum


See you next time!

Fall Photos

Earlier this month, I took Kate to Portrait Innovations for some fall photos. Here are a few of my faves. :o)

Pumpkin Patch, Take 2

Earlier this week, we went to a local pumpkin patch. We live ITP (inside the perimeter, which is 285--something I never caught onto until I'd lived here for a while). Anyway, the big pumpkin patches all seem to be OTP ... too far away for an after-work drive on a weeknight. And our weekends have been pretty full lately. So we hit an urban pumpkin patch at a nearby church. We went to a different ITP patch last year. Equally as fun. There may not be hay rides and such, but there is plenty of sincerity, as Linus would say.


"Each year, the Great Pumpkin rises out of the pumpkin patch that he thinks is the most sincere. He's gotta pick this one. He's got to. I don't see how a pumpkin patch can be more sincere than this one. You can look around and there's not a sign of hypocrisy. Nothing but sincerity as far as the eye can see!"


At an urban pumpkin patch, pumpkins grow on pallets.


Ummmm ... yeah ... that would be Peachtree right there behind us--just a hop, skip and a jump away from rush-hour traffic (not shown in photo).


What cuties! I love these people!


We enjoyed the little photo scene. See Tanna's shoe? Kate wore this cute black pumpkin dress I picked up at a consignment sale. It is size 3T and fits her well. It will probably be too short for next year, but we'll see ...


Kate kept trying to pick up all these big ol' pumpkins. That girl is strong!


Urban pumpkins


Tanna was off paying for our defective pumpkin. When I picked it up, the stem came right off in my hand, and it started oozing (gross). Anyway, I said we could just get another one ... meaning that we would pay for that one (it was only, like, $1.50) AND get another one, too. Tanna thought I was just going to put the other one back after I "broke" it. (It really did just come right off in my hand.) But he thought I was going to try to pull a fast one. On the church! Can you believe that? Anyway, due to this misunderstanding, we only got our defective pumpkin. I already put it out with the trash. But Kate has her little pumpkin from last week, too. So she is all set.