An Early Present

Rafe received a long awaited "early" birthday present on Saturday. Cory and Rafe went to the lake with some friends, so Pop and I went cat shopping. When Rafe got home his cat was waiting on him. Rafe has been telling Cory and me he wanted a cat for his birthday for a year and he has NOT forgotten it. He was also specific about the kind of cat he wanted: an orange cat named Garfield! Well, I found one and he is PRECIOUS. Although Cory is NOT a cat fan he did admit he was a sweet kitty. Who knows, maybe Garfield will even grow on him.

Rafe absolutely loves his kitty. They play hard together and then cuddle together when Garfield is completely worn out. I know they are going to grow up together and be big buddies. Buck even likes Garfield, but the feelings are not mutual! Garfield spits, hisses and swats at Buck when he is on the porch and Buck does not even look at him! It is too funny.

Here are some pictures with Garfield from the weekend. I am sure there will be lots more!

Open House

Today was Open House at Rafe's school. We had a wonderful time visiting his classroom and meeting new friends. They have a farm theme this year and Rafe made a "pig" cupcake. It must have been great, he didn't offer me a bite!! We are looking forward to a GREAT 4-K year!

All ready to go in and meet his friends

Rafe and his best bud, Nolan

Making his "pig" cupcake

Yummy!

Rafe and Mrs. Hamilton

Buck to the rescue

Yesterday before soccer I popped Rafe a bag of popcorn. We played some games and then I went upstairs to get his clothes. When I came back down he met me at the kitchen door and said:

"Well, I have some good news and some bad news. The bad news is I spilled all of my popcorn. The good news is Buck cleaned it ALL up, kernels and all!"

Rafe was SO funny telling me this story - he is so animated with his eyes and hands. I just hope the "good" news doesn't turn bad with all that popcorn in Buck's belly!!

Fun Weekend!

We had a wonderful family weekend. Saturday we went to Carowinds with Pop and Gram. Cory and I used to go all of the time, but we have not been since Rafe was born. We all had a ball. Rafe has NO FEAR of rides. The only problem was he wanted to ride everything and he was not tall enough. (maybe next time!!) The worst part of the day was the heat, however I hung right in there. If someone had told me we would be there when they opened and leave when they closed I would have laughed at them! I am glad we did, though. Rafe had so much fun.

Rafe on his first ride, the swings. Needless to say this

was NOT a ride he wanted to do again!! Wonder why??!!

One of his favorite shows, Scooby Doo

Rafe caught the tiniest frog I have ever seen

Fixing an icee

Last night we went roller skating with our church. This was Rafe's first time to put on roller skates. It took him a few minutes to warm up to the idea of doing it. (despite being SO excited about it) Once he saw Cory out there he decided to try it and he LOVED it! He did a great job. He even started dancing out there with his buddies. They were quite the entertainment. It definitely took me back to my middle school days. That place had not changed a bit!

Rafe and his buddy, Riley

Rafe and his buddy, Hudson

Hudson, Andrew and Rafe

Rafe's favorite movie

This is Rafe's new favorite movie. I must have crawled under a rock in 1984 when the movie came out because I have never heard of it. This was one of Cory's favorite childhood movies and, being the movie fan he is, he bought it for Rafe last week. Since then we have watched parts of it every day and even added the song to our blog. It is a really good movie about a boy's imagination but there is one part that scared Rafe a little bit. The boy had a fight with a wolf but Rafe will NOT let us skip that part now. Last Thursday night he stayed with Pop and Gram and made them watch some of the movie with him. When Gram was putting him to bed he told her he thought the wolf was going to come in his room during the night. He said, "Gram, don't close my door. The wolf may come in here and DON'T repeat after me!" How funny was that!

A Sunday Breakfast

Yesterday morning I made Mickey Mouse pancakes before church. I fixed Cory's and Rafe's first and while I was making mine Cory decided he wanted to make himself another one. This is what his looked like:


and this is what it SHOULD look like:

I am just so thankful I had already made Rafe's because he would NOT have been happy if his pancake had turned out like this. This reassured me that Cory's place is not in the kitchen. Maybe he did this on purpose!!

Catching Up!

I feel like last week just flew by and I did not get a chance to blog so I am going to do one that sums up our week. Last Tuesday Rafe helped me "clean" out the pantry. He got all of the boxes out and played with them. Before we put them back we played "food dominoes" with them. Funny how something so simple can be so much fun. We must have lined them up and watched them fall a million times. He had a ball! (and no it was NOT his birthday. He put the hat on Buck and then put it on himself for the picture!)

We have started buying the baby some "pink" clothes. Rafe really enjoys putting them in her closet and I joke with him and tell him they are really for him. He had a little fun of his own with a hat and bib. Isn't "he" lovely??!!

Last Thursday Mrs. Hamilton, Rafe's new teacher, came by to visit with us. Luckily this visit went MUCH better than the visit last year with his teacher. Last year he was extremely shy (to put it nicely) and would not talk to her. Let's just say this year Rafe had NO trouble communicating with his teacher. I was the one ready for him to STOP talking. Some of his stories were getting quite embarrassing!! We are really looking forward to a great school year with her.

Friday we had a playgroup at our house with Rafe's cousins, William, Charlie and Jay and his friends, Nolan and Caleb. They all had a great time and even Stewart (William's daddy) joined in on the fun. All of us mom's were glad Stewart decided to come. The boys had a great time wrestling with him while we chatted!

My Sweet Rafe

Yesterday Rafe was listening to music and playing in his room. He came in my room and said, "Mommy, when my sister gets older, I am going to put on a black suit, she can put on a dress, and I am going to dance with her." I almost started crying. How sweet is that?

I am definitely not ready for them to grow up, but I am really looking forward to the day they can dance together. This little girl is very lucky to have such a wonderful big brother!

It's a GIRL!

We are thrilled to announce that in December we will be adding a GIRL to our family! I still cannot believe it. I was so sure we were having another boy! Mostly thankful she looks healthy with 10 fingers and 10 toes!