November Happenings

November has not been quite as busy as October although it's definitely apparent we are gearing up for yet another busy season in Christmas! Still, there have been plenty of important events to write about. The first being the baptism of baby William Clements in Birmingham. Suzanne and Jacob made the trek the first weekend of the month to attend the celebration. By all accounts, young William finds Jacob quite humorous, a clear trait he inherited from his father!!!!

About a week ago, we hosted Pawpaw at our house for his birthday; hard to believe that Pawpaw is only 39, the exact same age as Nana, Bebe, and Pops! Nana was out of town so Suzanne and KK collaborated on the feast and Johnny (KK's boyfriend) and I helped eliminate the food. A good time was had by all.

Lastly, another adventure at school which had its own Thanksgiving feast. This was an event that only a select few parents got to attend and we did not make the cut. However, our super spy Nicole Parnell caught a shot of the Little Pilgrim chowing down on a piece of turkey. We were unaware he liked anything nutritious.

Apparently, Jacob had more than turkey at some point during this day as evidenced in the picture below.

This final pair of pictures is my favorite of the bunch. Patrick has reportedly become interested in superheroes. We are not sure how this fascination took its roots. He really likes Batman! Jacob was given a superheroes cape a couple of years ago and has rarely worn it. Patrick cannot get enough of it. We caught him playing in the "kitchen" with it on the other night.

Next stop is Grenada for the real Thanksgiving feast!

Free For Fall (Part 2 Many To Count)

Halloween is long gone but it has remained hidden in the depths of my camera for the last 10 days. The Brister hosted several ghouls and goblins this year for a Halloween celebration. Nick Mills was nice enough to build a trailer to take us around the hood for some trick or treating after dinner.

One of the highlights of the night for me was taking pictures of our guests making their "scariest" face possible. Introducing the cast:

Lila "White Fangs" Parnell

Bennett "The Beast" Parnell

Jacob "Monster Mouth" Brister

"Friendly Bear" Patrick Brister

"Eerie" Elise Parnell

Myrt "Scary Fairy" Mills

Baker "Blood Sucker" Mills

"Roaring" Reece Richardson

Porter "The Pouncing Pirate" Richardson

After hiding in the closet for about 30 minutes because of fear of all the scary creatures in our house, I decided to come out and take a few more pictures while the kids were trick-or-treating. All in all, we had a blast.

Free For Fall (Parts 4&5)

Suzanne made a comment today that rings true now that I think about it. Halloween is almost as busy as Christmas these days. The fun continued this past week, specifically Monday and Wednesday. Suzanne and I paid separate trips to school on Monday. Su was treated to a mother's tea with Jacob's class and I attended "Dad's night" around dinnertime. We both pretty much knew the routine as Jacob had been singing the songs and reciting the catchphrases in the days leading up to this event. It was nevertheless good to see him perform with his classmates and meet lots of new moms and dads. I can't remember if I had posted this but this year's 3 year old class is almost entirely new. The kids were split up three ways and just Jacob and one little girl were holdovers from last year. It took him a while but the teachers tell us that Jacob is adapting to his new friends. He does see old friends like Mason and Gavin regularly on the playground. Now he likes to talk about all of his "friends."

The second batch of pictures are from Wednesday night; the Beau Chene Boo-fet. This has become an annual trip and this year we tabled with the Mills and Parnells along with Nana, Pawpaw, and KK. It was pretty hectic so I did not get many good pics. The first one cracks me up, though, more than any in quite a while. Suzanne had a great idea to make J&P "Thing One" and "Thing Two" from Dr. Seuss Cat In The Hat fame. The costumes turned out well, too, except for one problem. Patrick CANNOT STAND his wig. As in, he will not put it on for one second. I had the bright idea to hold his arms down and put the wig on while Su snapped a quick photo. The end result is the picture that you see. It makes me laugh, I do believe I'll make it my Facebook profile picture!!!

Happy Halloween!

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Free For Fall (Part 3)

Part Three of the Free For Fall installment takes us to Old Mandeville and the Our Lady of the Lake Festival. This was our second consecutive trip to the festival but this year Nana and Pawpaw came along and Suzanne stayed back to take care of house business. The most interesting part of the trip was showing up at 10:15 only to find out the festival started at 11! We managed to find things to do to buy time and stayed about two hours. Jacob won many tickets playing various carnival style games. This year Patrick joined us on the train ride, which is perhaps the slowest moving train in the history of the universe.

 

 

 

 

 

Free For Fall (Part 2)

Our next event in the Free For Fall 2011 lineup was a stop in Poplarville, Mississippi and The Blue Jack Ridge Farm.
We were invited by Mason Lamonico, Jacob best bud at school (even though they are not in the same class this year). This farm was a bit more "touristy" than the first one, but I actually enjoyed it more. The theme was geared more toward Western style games, complete with a saloon. The highlight of the overall farm, though, is the corn maze, which we actually went through.

There was also a petting zoo. Jacob is proving to be a much braver boy than I ever was at his age. Check out the slide in one of the pictures below. He went down that with Mason several times without hesitation. It probably took me until seventh grade to do something like that! He also went on a ride (by himself) through the air. I would call it a slow "Tilt-A Whirl" type ride but again neither Su nor I ever expected he would do this alone. Very proud of our big boy for trying new things! My personal favorite moment was when the free roaming pig decided to try to come try to take a bite of Jacob's snowball.