Description of Pure & Simple Photographic Gorgeousness!

My brother and his family live in a little piece of paradise. . . their property is spectacular this time of year.  I was over earlier this week and fell in love with the ginkgo tree.  It is nothing short of spectacular.  As awesome as I think it shows in these photographs it is 10 times more spectacular in person.  Problem is. . .it's on the verge of losing all its leaves.  Apparently, according to my sister-in-law, when they go, they go! All at once apparently.  Her guess is that it will be a bare tree by this time next week when we enjoy our Thanksgiving feast at their home.  Hopefully she is wrong because I would LOVE to take our family photos with this gorgeous tree!  But, just in case, I went over this morning to try to capture it's beauty, along with the beauty of Kalli and Scrawny as you can see thumbing through the pics.

Enjoy a little "photographic gorgeousness"!!!

Got A Hankerin' For Some Cane Syrup? Bring Your Best Jackass!

This week proved very interesting.  Between volunteering at Zach's preschool on Wednesday to traveling to Calvary, Ga. to tour a cane syrup making "plant" I would say I haven't been bored.

One of my brother's good friends, Charles Harrison, is the President of the Calvary Lions Club.  Each year they host what many people have heard of and gone to. . .Mule Day.  Calvary is a very tiny town, apparently no stop light even exists there but somehow it draws a huge crowd each year for this event.  I've never been in attendance myself but I've heard of people who wouldn't think of missing it each year.

My brother volunteers to help out Charles with the making of cane syrup that they sell at Mule Day.  They also use the syrup as prizes to games and contests they host like "Who's Got The Best Looking Jackass".  When David told me about it I was intrigued and, of course, wanted to bring my camera.  I really was interested in meeting the people too.  Apparently they take a couple years to warm up to strangers according to my brother but I was sure they would warm up to sweet little ol' me right away.  Ha!  Not really.  Not by a long shot.

We arrived in Mr. Honda with Papa driving and me in the passenger seat.  The boys were being spoiled by Grammy in the backseat.  When we pulled up it was definitely not as "grand" as I was expecting.  I thought the buildings would be larger and I didn't really expect the smell that I smelled when I got out of the car.  When I found my brother I immediately whispered, "WHAT is that smell?"  He pointed out back to a very small pond and said, "probably that!"  No telling what had been dumped in there.

Whenever I came across a person I always spoke very cheerily as I walked by.  Never got a cheery response.  I toured the cane syrup making building and the corn meal building.  There were two men that were standing in the cane syrup making building the entire time I was there and they never spoke a word to me at all.  I guess my charming personality did not make a difference.  Even though they looked at me from head to toe they did not find me worthy enough of them to speak I guess.

Anyways. . . on to the plant.  I've posted a few pictures and will explain as best as I can. . .

The cane is put into this machine (maybe a grinder?) behind my brother.  It squeezes out the cane juice and spits out the stalk apparently. The cane juice goes in a hose on the ground and around to the cane syrup making building. . .

Here's a close up picture of the machine that squeezes the cane juice out. . .

Here is the shoot that gets rid of the cane stalk after it's squeezed. . . 

then it comes through the hose into this building and they do something with it (sorry I guess I wasn't listening close enough!)

then. . . my brother was the bottler!

and. . . the final product ready to give away or sell!

What an interesting day.  I enjoyed seeing Charles again. . . he is the same same same!  Always happy and smiling and laughing.  I think it was a fun trip for the boys and for my parents.  Zach and Chase loved walking around with Uncle David.  Here are a few more special pics. . .

to learn more about Mule Day go here:

http://calvarylionsmuleday.com/

Or better yet. . . visit it TOMORROW!!!!!!! 

What to do with ALL this candy???? Steal it? Resist It? Feed it to the cat?

Halloween was a blast but with it comes MUCH unwanted temptation for Mom.  I'm here all day staring at the huge bowl of candy on my kitchen counter.  My child is at school.  He'll never miss just one or two pieces that I eat right?  But will he miss them if I eat one or two pieces each hour he is away?  I looked it over thoroughly today and the boy got the GOOD candy.  Chocolate out the wazoo. . . sweet tarts. . . tootsie rolls. . . the works.  All the candy that is right up my alley but oh not so good for my hips and thighs.  What's a mom to do?  I could give it away because it's really not good for my son to eat either.  I could put it on a very high shelf in the pantry so it would be a pain to get down and eat.  I could be an adult about this and put mind over matter and give it to him sparingly and then never give into temptation myself and keep going to the gym every day without even a thought about the scrumptious delicious candy sitting there staring at me.   Well, I'll let you guess what the outcome of this situation will be. . . .

In the meantime I will fill you in on our fun Halloween holiday.  The boys had so much fun!  On Sunday afternoon we had a great time carving our pumpkin.  Daddy did most of the work of course but the boys had fun nevertheless.  As you will see from the pictures Chase Parker was more interested in his socks than carving the pumpkin.

On Monday Zach had a great time at school. His class wore their costumes to school and went trick or treating before having a halloween party and pizza lunch.  Everyone was adorable in their costumes!  I was happy to volunteer to help and had fun taking pictures of course.

After dinner the boys got into their costumes and let me take a few pictures outside.  They are not the most cooperative but I got what I could.  I love my little Superman and my Foreman of Birdwell Destruction Company.  What cutie pies they were all dressed up!

Halloween night came and it was time for Cooper and Cassidy to go trick or treating with us around our neighborhood.  Before they arrived though Grammy and Papa and David, Deke, and Aaron came over bearing treats for the boys.  They were spoiled rotten.

The Harrell twins and our boys had a blast together.  And, the adults always do too.  Chase Parker did surprisingly well staying up til 8:30!  He loved walking around with the big kids.  It was definitely a happy halloween.  Hope yours was too.

Enjoy some pictures. . .

and finally, some Instagrams. . .