Happy Halloween!

I took Cameron to my brother and Sis in laws house to trick or treat. I walked the neighborhood with her and my niece while my parents and bro/sil passed out candy. There were soooooo many kids!! I know, "Well duh!" you say, but again, this is new to us as well. Cameron went house to house ToT'ing once when she was 4 with a little friend of hers. Someone had opened the door with a scary clown mask on and it ended the fun for Cameron. Every year after that when I have tried to take her, she is too afraid to go to the door. So, we went to church festivals on Halloween instead, where scary costumes weren't allowed.

So even though the festivals had lots of kids in attendance, it was nothing like the cluster of kids we saw tonight! I loved seeing all the kids in their costumes. And Cameron was with her cousin and I think that made her feel safe so she didn't have a bit of problem TorT'ing this year.

Cameron also attended her first Halloween party (at my bro/sil house) last night. She has been having so much fun here in Michigan! We usually have one night of Halloween for a couple hours, but here she has had 4 Halloween celebrations. She loves it!

School Halloween

Today was the big Halloween party and parade at school and Cameron woke up WOUND UP this morning. This was a very new experience for her because they did not celebrate Halloween at her school in Montgomery. It was only a half a day and it was packed full of Halloween goodness! She had so much fun, and SOOOOO much sweet stuff!







The picked pumpkins in a field by the school earlier this week and painted them first thing this morning.





Careful concentration as she strings some beads for her necklace.





Since I still don't have a job, I decided to occupy some of my time making these for her class. If you have been following my blog for a while then you know I always make things for Cam's class, but I have never had to make 30!! Usually I am making something for 15-18 kids. Well they have much bigger class sizes here in Michigan so I needed 30. I was so ready to be done with these things. They came out cute though and then kids really liked them. They hold a baggie of candy corn mix.

Wiard's Apple Orchard

Cameron has never been to an apple orchard before and today was a perfect day to go. We went to

Wiard's Orchard in Ypsilanti. It's a huge place with lots to do for the kids. Cam played on blow up/jumpy things, fed some animals, rode on a fire truck, did a hay ride, played putt putt (for the first time), went through a maze, saw some giant bunnies, played on the play ground, and even picked a bag full of apples. We had a lot of fun!

It's Official

The Alabama house is sold!! I have such mixed feelings about the whole thing. I know it needed to be sold, no question about it. I am glad to have the money as a result of the sale, because I really need it right now. It was our home though. :( Cameron was just turning 2 when we moved in so we spent 6 years there as a family.

And now..... well, our beloved dog, Kapser passed away right before the move. Cameron and I are in Michigan. Travis is in Alabama. None of us have 'home' right now. Who knew 6 years ago we would be where we are right now. I think it truely is for the better, but that doesn't mean it isn't sad.

Meet Jinx

Isn't he cuuuuute?! This is my mom's kitty that she adopted a few weeks ago from the Humane Society. He has been fostered from birth and is just 3 months old. He loves to snuggle and be held all bundled up in a blanket. It took a little bit for him to adjust, and now he is all over the place! He loves to play with toys and especially with my cat, Oly. He is just adorable.

Halloween Camping

For the past several years my family has gone camping with a large group of other family and friends for the campgrounds big Halloween weekend. This year, Cam and I were able to join them for the first time and it was a blast!! The hold it at the September because in Oct. the campground shuts down their water/sewer hook ups. The campground was full (more than 100 campsites) and the decoration that people put out were great!



On Friday night they have a Halloween scary movie and popcorn. On Saturday they did games/prizes, crafts and a hay ride during the day. The trick or treating started at 6:30 after the costume contest. Everyone puts their chairs and candy out along the roads for the ToTers to go to. We only walked half of the park and I think Cam had 5 pounds of candy. My parents had like 500 pieces of candy and they were out before it ended at 8:00.




We were taking pics of Cam and my niece and nephew. After we got a good shot, I told Cam to pretend to scream and snapped this pic. She had no idea J was doing that behind her. Her reaction when she saw the pic was hysterical!

My SIL's parents bought pumpkins for the kids to carve. For the past several years we have painted our pumpkins or bought craft kits that you stick on to dress up the pumpkins. Cameron can not stand to touch the pumpkin guts. The last time we carved a pumpkin she had rubber gloves on up to her elbows and a spoon with a long handle and she still spazed out about it. So imagine my surprise when she told me she wanted to carve a pumpkin this year. She said she would gut it herself. Well, that lasted a good 3 seconds. She stuck her hand in twice and was done. Thankfully she had her eager cousin there who just couldn't wait to get her hands in the pumpkin.

Once it was all cleaned out (and the pumpkin seeds were bagged because she wanted to toast them), I had stenciled out a cat face that she wanted onto the pumpkin. I used a push pin to give her dots to trace with the knife. Once she started carving I knew it would be a matter of seconds before she gave up on it, calling it "too hard to do!!" She has zero patients I tell you. So I ended up doing the carving. Next year we will go back to the stick on kits.

The finished pumpkin.

First Day Of School

Off she goes! I was concerned about how she was going to adjust to being at a new school, but I think because everything is so different than what she is use to, it is actually more exciting for her than it is worrisome. She has been begging to ride the bus since kindergartens and hubby preferred that she didn't. We took her and picked her up. This year she is riding the bus and LOVES it.

She also had to wear a uniform to school and was not allowed to wear any jewelry except post earrings and silly bands. Now she can wear regular clothes and all the bracelets and necklaces she wants (which she has always loved to wear).

They did not have recess at her previous school either. They don't have gyms in the schools so unless the weather was bad they did gym class outside, but other then that, playing outside was a once in a while treat from the teachers. Here she has '3' recesses. Really it's 2 but she considers it 3 because her lunch recess is split. They go out for a bit, come in for lunch then go back out. Then she has one in the late afternoon.

She even likes that school here starts an hour later than it did in AL. I don't know why it matters to her since she has always been an earlier morning riser. She doesn't however like that it means getting home an hour later than she use t0. :)

So she is doing good and adjusting just fine. Big relief to Mom.

Happy Birthday!

We left to go camping the night of Cameron's birthday. We took her to Denny's for a birthday dinner, where she had a birthday breakfast. :) On Sunday my brothers family came out for the day and we had a little party for her. She was so excited to open the Squinkies I bought for her. We have been looking everywhere for a store who had them in stock with no luck. A couple days before her birthday I was able to find some and with out her knowing. I love it when I can surprise her!!

Side note: If you have young girls in the family and do not know what Squinkies are, google it now and start looking for them in stores. I am 100% sure they are going to be impossible to find at Christmas.

She wanted a Littlest Pet Shop theme to her 'party' so I picked up some plates and napkins. To make things easy since we were camping, I bought a blank premade cake and put those little nasty sugar things on it. I had bought her a new LPS series toy that she had not seen before and put that on the cake.

She got a lot of good stuff!

Game Ball

Cameron was given the game ball today after the game. She made an out at first, caught a line drive and a pop fly! And as usual she belted a couple to the out field.

Water Park Fun!

My brother, sister in law and I took the kids to a water park today. Nothing fancy, but inexpensive and A LOT of fun! It was a great day!



Here is Cameron floating along in the lazy river.



John(my brother) and Cameron coming down the water slide.

Here is a picture of the 2 big water slides.

Cameron sliding down one of the small slides in the play area.

This is a big play area that has water running everywhere. That big giant bucket fills with water and then dumps down on everyone. One of Cameron's favorite things.

Another one of the little slides.

Wheeeee Go Karts!!

Cameron loves to play Mario Go Kart on the Wii and DS, so imagine how excited she was to be able to drive a real go kart for the very first time. I took her to the batting cages today to get some hits in before she starts fall ball and they had go karts there. She just made the height limit to be able to go by herself. She was slow, but she did great and had a blast!

Kitty House

Cameron wanted to make a little house for Oliver the cat. She asked my dad to bring home a box from work and with a little help from mom with the cutting, this is what she created. He seems to like it.

More Than She Bargained For

A couple weeks ago my mom had gone for a stress test that was required in order for her to have a certain procedure. A couple days later when she got the results, it wasn't great news. They detected a blockage to heart and she was going to need a heart catheterization done. She met with the heart doctor and he told her she could do the volunteer work for Make a Wish, go camping for the week and then they would do her heart cath. In the meantime he gave her some new meds to take.



She did the Make a Wish weekend with no problems and the day after it ended we left to go camping for the week. Her feet were really swollen and she lacked energy. The lasted a couple days and we thought it was just the weekend catching up with her. Then she started complaining of being cold all the time even though it was really warm out and she grew more tired. We then thought it had to do with the new meds she was on. By the 4th day she was cold, tired, had no appetite and a little trouble breathing. My dad tried to get her to go to the hospital just to make sure everything was okay, but she is stubborn. She thought maybe she had pneumonia. 5:00 the next morning my dad was taking her to the ER. She was in pain and really struggling to breathe.



They weren't positive why she had fluid around her lungs and decided to do her heart cath a week early since she was already at the hospital. I went and sat with my dad and we all figured she would have the heart cath, they would fix the blockage and in a day she could go unfortunately it did not turn out that simple. They found 3 blockages and she was going to need a triple bypass.



The surgery was scheduled a couple days later and she did great. She had the surgery on a Wednesday and was out the following Monday. I am so glad I was here to be with my mom, lend support to my dad. She can't lift anything for like 2 months and can not drive either for that length of time so it is also great that I am here to be with her and help out while my dad is at work.



It was a big ordeal, but it runs in her family. Both of her parents and one of her brothers have had heart bypasses and her other brother has had a stint put in. I am glad it was caught and fixed and she can go on to heal.

"I........ Have Made Fire"

This is the very first camp fire I ever made and yes, I am very proud of it. My dad was at the hospital with my mom for the night so Cam and I were at the campground by our self so it was up to me to build the fire. I learned from my dad who makes great campfires!!