Charleston Gettaway!

A few weekends ago we decided to make a last minute trip to Charleston to watch my dad's team play in the ACC tournament. The tournament was originally supposed to be held in Cary, NC but thanks to our lovely Governor and HB2 it got moved last minute to Charleston. Luckily Charleston isn't too far away and one of my best friends from growing up lives there. 

We arrived just in time for the semi final game. Beth and Sean met us at the game and we were hooked up with VIP seating. We were playing Notre Dame so it was going to be a tough match. We ended up winning 2 - 1! I guess that means we have to spend the weekend in Charleston, darn! Beth and Sean were so nice to host us in their mansion. Saturday morning we woke up and headed to the farmer's market. We spied some cute firefighters and ate some delicious crepes!

We then headed over to the battery park right on the water to check out some guns and cannons. Finley loved hearing all about the pirates and things that happened during the war from Sean.  

Unfortunately it was super cold while we were out there! 

We walked around for a little bit and also checked out all the cool houses nearby. 

Charleston is just so beautiful! It's one of the few nice places in South Carolina. 

Saturday afternoon we were able to go and take my dad to visit my his cousin Mary and her mom Helen, my great Aunt. Helen hasn't been doing very well, so we ended up visiting her in the hospital as she was recovering from hip surgery. We were so glad that we had a chance to see them though! 

Later that day we met back up with Beth and Sean and went to this cool park beneath the big bridge. 

Finley was dying to play soccer so we all had a fun little pick up game while trying not to hurt one another. 

That afternoon Beth also had a very fun Christmas craft for Finley to make. Isn't she the best host ever? 

They made these adorable reindeer's out of the palm branches from the palm trees. 

We sure made a lot of them! Beth's brother Ryan was also in town for a wedding that weekend so we all went out to eat at this delicious BBQ joint. It was so good!

Sunday morning was a little warmer so we headed to a park near the stadium to play some more soccer. Ryan joined us too and we played another pick up game. 

We got to the stadium super early and were able to indulge in some free VIP food before the match. 

Unfortunately the team lost in PKs against FSU. We were so bummed because we totally out played them! I guess it just wasn't our week for PKs! We still had a blast on our getaway weekend and were so proud of our Tar Heels! Next, onto the NCAAs!

Go Green Hornets!

This past fall David and I were able to coach Finley's soccer team the Green Hornets. 

This year we didn't have any of our returning players from the spring. It was a whole new group of boys and one boy we knew from several seasons ago.

We started off the season a little rocky, dropping two games, but went on to either win or tie the rest of our games!

The boys made it all the way to the finals of the tournament against an undefeated team. 

  

 We played our best and the game went into penalty kicks!!

Unforunately we missed a couple of our PKs and the other team won the Championship. We were still super proud of our team and as runners up the boys earned trophies! Woo Hoo!

Finley was a strong asset for our team this season. He played goalie, defender, and striker for us. He ended the season with several great saves, a lot of stops on defense, and three goals. Below are two of his goals that Abuelo was able to catch on film. 

We had so much fun coaching this team! We hope that a lot of the boys will come back in the spring so we can make another run at the Championship. Go Green Hornets! 

Halloween Fun!

Pumpkin Patch:

Our very favorite strawberry farm opened up a pumpkin patch for the first time this fall. We were very excited to check it out and see what they had in store.

We got to ride on the tractor out to the pumpkin patch.

And then search through the patch to find the perfect pumpkin!

It was surprisingly challenging to find ones without bad spots on them. But we did find two that we felt would work well! The farm also had a fun apple chunking activity. We were able to purchase a bucket of apples and then using a sling shot aim them at targets across an open field. It was a lot of fun and we even hit a few of the targets.

 Finley told Grammie that he was dying to bob for apples so we brought home some apples from the farm to use. Bobbing for apples is surprisingly hard! During the process Finley ended up losing a tooth that we didn't even know was loose! 

Trunk or Treat:

A few days before Halloween we attend our churches trunk or treat. This year Finley decided he wanted to be Harry Potter. So of course we all had to dress up as characters from the book. I was Hermione Granger and David was Ron Weasley. 

We even found a fellow Hogwarts student Luna Lovegood at the trunk or treat! 

Pumpkin Carving:

We kind of waited till the last minute to carve our pumpkins this year. While David was at work on Halloween Finley and I went to work on one of the pumpkins.

We went with a soccer ball this year for this Messi loving boy!

Halloween Party:

Since Halloween fell on a teacher workday this year one of our friends decided to host a fun Halloween party at her house before the trick or treating. 

The kids did a few crafts and played don't eat Frank!

Had mummy races. 

And played a pass the pumpkin (like musical chairs) game. 

Finley ended up winning the pass the pumpkin game and his little besties helped him celebrate in quite the fashion by cheering him on and tackling him to the ground.

We ended the party with a doughnut eating competition followed by feeling some gross items in mystery boxes!

Trick or Treating:

After our traditional dinner of mummy hot dogs and apples with caramel it was time for some trick or treating. 

David and I took turns walking Finley around the neighborhood and we even made a stop at his teacher's house who also lives in our neighborhood. 

We had a fun and sugar filled Halloween and we hope you did too! Happy Halloween!