Itsy Bitsy Spider

We had a busy, fun day on Monday. Cory had been in Cleveland, Ohio for 4 days so needless to say Rafe was ready to see his Daddy. We talked all weekend about Cory coming home and helping us put the spider on our house for Halloween. Of course when Rafe woke up at 6:00 ): that was the first thing he talked about! Cory and Rafe went to Lowes to get straw and flowers and then we pulled everything out. It seemed really weird decorating for fall when it was 85 degrees outside! Rafe said 100 times, "Whew, I'm hot!", but he didn't give up. Rafe even earned some allowance money. He was SO EAGER to vacuum out Cory's car from the straw and Cory, of course, did not object! Rafe vacuumed for about 30 minutes and I have to say he did a great job. I don't think it has been that clean since we bought it.

Before we left for Rafe's soccer game Rafe and Cory built a ramp for his remote control jeep. Rafe (and Cory for that matter!) love playing with it now that we have a long drive-way. Some of the pictures of his jeep Rafe insisted on taking. (You can see his finger in them). Next we were off to Rafe's soccer game. Unlike the first few games when Rafe said he was going to play and then refused when we got there, Rafe gets out of the car now saying, "I'm not gonna' play soccer, I'm just gonna' run through the tunnel!" That is exactly what he does. If Rafe sees Coach Greg coming off the field he hides behind our chairs so he doesn't see him. During the game last night Cory took him to a vacant field and they had their own soccer game with a boy from another team. It is amazing how aggressively and confidently Rafe plays when it is just one-on-one! However, as soon as the game was over Rafe was out there on that field giving high-fives and RACING through the tunnel to get his snack. I have never been able to get a tunnel picture because he runs through it so fast. This was the best I could get! I am thinking about seeing if we can do the tunnel and snack BEFORE the game and maybe Rafe will stay on the field!!!

We are going to be very busy in October, but extremely thankful for all of the opportunities. Rafe will now have soccer on Monday and Thursday nights and church choir and bible study on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. I am very glad to be back home and involved in a church that we love so much!

Haunted House!

Well, Rafe's birthday has come and gone, so we all know what that means! It's time to bring out the Halloween decorations. Wednesday Rafe and I stayed in our pajamas ALL DAY decorating the house! It was great. We pulled all of the decorations down from upstairs and got to work. Rafe and I had a ball placing everything in the house. It was so much more fun this year since Rafe helped me decorate. He told me where he wanted things and we would put them there. We have been buying additional decorations (aside from the two HUGE boxes we already had) since they started coming out in the stores. Rafe was especially excited about the candles that drip red "blood" wax. We light them every morning. (They are not going to last until Halloween.) Here are just a few pictures of the house that I could take while Rafe was asleep. There will be a lot more coming after we get the outside of our house decorated!

This is what Rafe picked out at Target this week

with some of his birthday money!!

Rafe's Party!

On Sunday afternoon we celebrated Rafe's birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's with his friends. Everyone really seemed to have a good time. Rafe enjoyed the skee-ball and, of course, his Superman cake. We decided it would be easier for Rafe to open his birthday presents at home. It worked great to get him out of Chuck E. Cheese's!!! We did not get in the door good and he was ripping into the boxes. He LOVED everything and had a hard time deciding what to play with first. Pop even got arrested as a result of Rafe's new Police Officer costume. It was really nice to be back in the Upstate so we could have a party with his family and friends. Thanks to everyone that came. You really made Rafe's birthday special.

Rafe's Birthday!

What a GREAT day we had yesterday on Rafe's 4th birthday. Who would have thought, but I actually had to wake Rafe up to open presents!? He was SO excited to see all of the balloons and decorations in the house. He immediately tore into his presents and started playing. Next we picked Gram up for doughnuts before school. I told Rafe we would make anything he wanted for his special treat at school and he chose Superheroes popsicles!

Now for the funny story of the day: Gram and I went back to Rafe's school for his birthday party. I read a very cute book, If You Give A Moose A Muffin, to his class. While I was reading I asked the children if they knew what "jam" was? (I totally set myself up for this!) Rafe immediately said, "toe jam!" I could have crawled under a chair! I did not know what to do. Luckily a little girl chimed in and said, "My grandmother said jam was jelly." We left it at that. That was CLASSIC Rafe!

After school we went to the mall to Build-A-Bear. We had a wonderful time building a pirate turtle on skates! Rafe pulled it all over the mall! We ate lunch there, (Rafe had his favorite, "sawcheez pizza") and picked up his big chocolate chip cookie.

Last night Rafe had a soccer game (if you call it that!). Once again Rafe had a great time cheering on his team and finding every excuse he could not to set foot on the field. After soccer we went to Moe's and then back to our house where his grandparents came to have cookie and ice cream and, of course, more gifts.

Needless to say we were all exhausted after such a busy day, but I would not have changed any of it. It was so nice to be able to celebrate Rafe's special day with our family. We had not done that since he was one! We are so happy to be living close again.

Now Rafe is gearing up for a busy weekend. He is going to the USC football game tomorrow and then his birthday party with friends is Sunday. We are looking forward to all of it!

Rafe is turning 4!!

Tomorrow night at 9:27 p.m. my little boy will officially turn 4 years old. I still cannot believe this. His birth was something I will never forget and the last four years have been magical. Thank you, Snookie, for being who you are. You truly are a treasure. You fill my heart with love and pride. I love spending time with you and get really sad thinking about how fast the days are flying by. Here are a few things I want to remember about you as a 4 year old....

*You love anything and everything related to Super Heroes, Batman, the Joker, etc. Your favorite is Batman, although lately you are loving Superman.

*You love to catch any critter and put them in your bug box. You were really good at catching critters when we lived in Charleston.

*You LOVE to dress-up. We have a costume box FULL of costumes. You usually put one on first thing in the morning and still wear part of it (helmet, gloves, etc.) wherever we go that day.

*You cannot get in the car without taking some sort of toy from your room.

*You started playing soccer in August. You enjoy practicing, but decided you liked the view from the sidelines better during the games!!!

*You LOVE to dance. I must say you have some good moves. We are going to have to work on them before you get older!! We have a talent show most nights before you go to bed. Your favorite song is "Play that Funky Music, White Boy".

*Your favorite holiday, by far, is Halloween. You start planning what you are going to be in January and can hardly wait for your birthday to be over so we can start decorating the house!

*You love to go to school. You enjoy playing on the playground with William and staying to eat lunch on Thursday's with him.

*You are EXTREMELY funny. You are very quick witted to be 4 years old!

*Your favorite color is green

*Your favorite foods are okra, steak, chicken soup, yogurt, "sawchez" pizza, ice cream and nachos.

*Your favorite drinks are orange juice, sweet tea and Sprite

*You love Buck and enjoy helping me feed and bathe him. You would love to have a cat, but we have not convinced Daddy yet.

*You love "viveos". Your favorite movies are Peter Pan, Toy Story, Chicken Little, Monsters, Inc. and The Incredibles. You will probably be an actor one day. You can quote movies quite well!

*You love for Daddy to do "magic" every night before you go to bed. It is amazing what he can pull out of your ear!!

*You go to bed around 8:30 every night and are up before the roosters on the farm! (usually around 6:00!!)

*You love to play baseball. We have nice baseball games with Daddy, Pop and Gram.

*You have met many new friends since we moved to Greer, but when asked who you most like to play with you immediately say, "Caroline"

*You love the Gamecocks and enjoy going to the football games.

*You love to ride your new bike and scooter. We usually go outside after breakfast and ride around the neighborhood*Your favorite places to eat are Moe's and Miyabi's

*You love going to church and seeing your friends. You are learning so much in your Sunday School class. I am very impressed!

*You love to torment Buck by chasing him around the house with your dump truck. He even jumped on your bed to get away from you.

*Your favorite places to go are Monkey Joe's and Chuck E Cheese's

*You love to get in the dog pens at Pop's house and get on top of the dog house like Lilly.

*You love to help anybody to anything. I guess I should take advantage of this now while you are so eager!

*You have adjusted well to a new house and new friends. We left all of our buddies in Charleston in June and moved to Greer. You are now enjoying getting spoiled by your grandparents.

I love you so much. Happy Birthday!!

Let the Celebrations Begin!!!

Well, Rafe's official birthday is tomorrow, but as Cory likes to put it, Rafe has "birthday week!" Today we started the celebration by going to one of Rafe's favorite places: Monkey Joe's. We had a great time running around and jumping. Rafe NEVER gets tired there. Next we went to Chick Fil-A (another favorite) for lunch and ice cream. Tonight Gram cooked two of Rafe's favorite foods: roast beef and rice and gravy. He ate like a 4 year old!!! Then he got a puppy dog cupcake. It was too cute to eat, but Rafe managed to get it down. After supper we had our weekly baseball game with Pop and Gram. Rafe is becoming quite the hitter!! Of course this is JUST the beginning of a long list of pictures that will be coming each day. Here are just a few from the first day of "birthday week" Enjoy the birthday music!

How Precious!

Tonight while we were eating supper Cory and I were talking to Rafe about his birthday. I asked Rafe to tell me 3 things he really wanted for his birthday. (I knew they would probably all be a surprise to me. That is usually how it goes!) This is what he said:

1. "I want a Build-A-Bear". This is easy. I was already planning to take him on his birthday!

2. "I want that vampire costume, Mommy. I'm going to be a vampire for Halloween." This came as a COMPLETE surprise since the Superman costume he wanted for the last 4 weeks came in the mail yesterday!

3. "I want a baby brother or sister." How precious is that? Those of you who know Rafe understand how much he desperately wants a sister or brother. He doesn't understand that we can't just "get one" in a week. Hopefully it will happen for him soon. Continue to pray for this with us!

New Music!

Rafe decided we needed to change the background music on our blog. He helped me come up with a few of his favorite songs. Check back next Thursday for some new music on Rafe's special day! Enjoy!

Hot Dog!!!

As October approaches, our house is consumed with talks of Halloween, costumes, decorations, scary masks and CANDY! You would not know Rafe's birthday is in exactly one week from today. All he wants to talk about is Halloween. It is by far his favorite holiday. We read Halloween books and listen to Halloween music year round (not to mention playing dress-up). Since we have been talking about Halloween so much Rafe is ready to start decorating the house. I told him we were going to celebrate his birthday first and then we would move on to Halloween. Yesterday morning we were eating breakfast and I said, "RAFE, your birthday is in 8 more days!" He said, "Then we can get out our Halloween decorations!!" How sad is that??!! With all that being said, Buck is NOT exempt from dressing up! While Rafe was at school this morning I found a wonderful Halloween costume for him to wear. It is a Hot Dog! We call our Grandaddy Hot Dog, so I thought this was perfect! Of course as soon as Rafe got home from school we had to put the costume on poor Buck. When Buck saw me getting it out of the bag he started running from us. Luckily for him it does not go over his head, but he still pouted the WHOLE time he was wearing it. Rafe has never been so excited. He wants me to leave it on him until Halloween!! Now that Rafe is taking his nap I have released Buck from this torture. We will give him a break for at least one more week and then he will probably be in this costume every day until October 31 ...... HOT DOG!!!

Baby Bob

Today Rafe and I went to another class at the Greenville Zoo. This one was all about orangutans, and particularly baby Bob. It was really amazing to watch them and learn a lot of interesting facts about them. Once again they had creation stations set up around the room for the children to explore with. Rafe's favorite was the pool full of styrofoam peanuts to dig in! We made an orangutan puppet and Rafe's snack was cheerios, the orangutan's favorite!! Rafe also enjoyed playing on the new playground at Cleveland Park. It was amazing and very challenging. You will see in several of the pictures he was pretending to be Spiderman!

Craft Day!

It is amazing how much you can get accomplished in a day if you get up early! Rafe decided to have one of those days when he woke up today at 6:15! We both love to do crafts so we had fun doing two this morning. We made frozen bananas and bath tub crayons. Rafe's favorite part of the frozen bananas was licking the bowl and with the crayons he loved putting the "mush" (as he called it) into the ice cube tray. He said, "I love being messy!" The hardest part of it all was waiting for them to freeze. Luckily the bananas were done in 30 minutes, but we have to wait on the crayons for 2 days. (that is an eternity to him) We will send more pictures of the crayons after we play with them!!

Future Actor???

Rafe LOVES movies. After he has seen one about two times he can quote every line. Here are some of his favorites:

Bats and Bugs

After breakfast yesterday morning, Rafe and I went to Cory's new office to help him hang pictures and take his new refrigerator. Thankfully Rafe is computer-friendly because we ended up being there a lot longer than we anticipated!! Rafe was very happy to play on Cory's computer and then enjoyed carrying all of the boxes to the dumpster. For being such a good helper Cory bought Rafe the Batman outfit for his Build-A-Bear. We could not get home fast enough to rip the Buzz Lightyear outfit off of him and put the new Batman outfit on. It is too cute!
When we got home from church this morning, Pop and Gram brought Rafe another surprise: a praying mantis. Before Rafe would touch it he had to put on his "bug" t-shirt that LuLu gave him. We put it in his critter box and then collected sticks and leaves for his new "pet". Rafe was a little hesitant about touching the praying mantis and normally he is not. In Charleston he would pick lizards up by their tail and think nothing of it. I think they have bitten him so many times that he "grabs" with caution now. By the way, we think the praying mantis is really partial to Cory. (the one in our family that is not really an animal lover!) It jumps right to him if his fingers are near!