The Growing Caldwell Family

Sissy made her choral debut at church for the Ingathering service. She was very excited! The director led them in some warm ups. I think it was a good experience for her and she felt proud of herself, which is what really matters. Those little voices are sweet to hear. Here she is practicing after school. I think she is so darling up there!

Charlie keeps working hard at swimming. He almost has freestyle down but he doesn't want o keep his face in the water. Once he does that, he can move to level 2! He has done well with Coach PJ who has a lot of patience with him!

We got together at Mom and Dad's to watch LSU play Alabama. The food and the company were great, even if the game wasn't the best.

We had a fun dinner out at Rio Bravo with the whole family! The mariachi band, tortilla dough, and lively atmosphere make it a top choice for the kids. The food is great which helps too! The band played Des Colores, a song we like from Music Together and the kids enjoyed hearing a song they know well. I am so grateful that we are near my parents and sister and get to spend a lot of time with them! I am very grateful they choose to spend so much time with us!

Sissy loves gymnastics so much and has been working hard to improve her skills. She was asked to come on a Saturday and show what she knows as they work to identify the right class for skill sets. This was her first try climbing that pole! With a little practice, she will be able to climb all the way up to ring the bell. She paid attention well and worked hard, which thrilled me! She isn't quite ready to move up, which is just fine.

Sarah Graves' class has parents and grandparents come as Mystery Readers. Aaron recently volunteered and boy was she excited! Her face lit up when he came in the classroom! I think all the kids enjoyed hearing Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. There were lots of questions and they imagined the meals they would like to have falling from the sky.

Charlie dressed as Catboy from the PJ Masks, Sarah Graves was Princess Jasmine, and Olivia was a Cabbage Patch doll! We went to our neighborhood block party before going to trick or treat. Our neighbors put together an awesome haunted house in their garage. SG was nervous at first, but once she did it, she was a pro going through it a bunch! The kids love going door to door to get candy! Livy was happy to be along for the ride. We walked a good ways and Sissy fell asleep on the way home. Charlie was excited! Sissy perked up when it was time to sort candy. Everybody was excited to look at the candy! We had a fun Halloween and I am so grateful we were all healthy and had good weather to enjoy it.

Halloween day Sissy and I got down to carving pumpkins. I was so proud of her doing it. Scooping out the insides was very gross to her and she did not like the smell at all, but she kept with it. She is very sensitive to smells and usually chooses to get away from it, but she hung in there and enjoyed carving the pumpkin!  She made the bat and I did the face. Charlie decorated his in a funny face!

In the midst of the Halloween excitement, Aaron and I celebrated our 9th anniversary. Nine years have flown so quick and we are still have a good time! Mom and Dad gave us a huge gift and kept the kids overnight. That is the first time we haven't had a child with us overnight since SG was born! I slept in until 8:30 completely uninterrupted! It felt as good as I dreamed it would all those long nights awake with Charlie. The kids had an awesome time going out to dinner, window shopping for toys, pitching a tent in the den, making s'mores, telling ghost stories (Charlie's all started with a long, long day ago :) ), sleeping in the tent, and a pancake breakfast! I know Lovie and Pops were exhausted!

The kids were so eager to help make the treats for their parties! I really struggle in letting them take a big role in these projects. I want it to look nice to serve to people, but I don't want to hover and kill their pride. It is a fine line. Charlie unwrapped the candy and handed it to Sissy to put the hat together. They make a good team! It was awesome to see their pride telling people they made them and they looked really good! They tasted awesome, too!

I also had the joy of going to Sissy's Halloween party! Kindergarten is a bit more rambunctious than preschool, but they had a good time. The kids were happy to have time to visit with one another and I think they enjoyed seeing their teachers relaxed and having fun. SG with one of her friends, Mallory With her teacher, Ms. Rice Proud of her fall wreath craft she made. These are the treats that Sissy and Charlie made for their parties - witch hats and monster faces! These were fun to make and I liked seeing their pride showing their friends that they made them.

Not only did we go to a Halloween party, but the next day we had 2 birthday parties for dear friends! Our weekends are pretty low key and suddenly we were party people! These sweet boys, Miles and Max, turned one! Sarah and I have been good friends since we met over 8 years ago working as interns at Home Depot! So happy to celebrate this milestone for her sweet babies. The kids were really sweet to the birthday boys and tried hard to be gentle and remember how to treat babies.  The boys had smash cakes with whipped cream frosting and decorated with their favorite treat, blueberries! They quickly dug in and decided they really liked it! Next up was a construction themed party for our buddy Cooper turning three! The day of the party Cooper decided he was more of a firefighter! Decorating hard hats was a big hit! After two parties in one day we were pooped, but we had fun doing it!

The weekend before Halloween we went to a Halloween party hosted by one of Sarah Graves' friends in kindergarten. We have known the family from church since before we had kids and now our girls enjoy playing together in kindergarten! The kids were thrilled to wear their Halloween costumes and I was surprised but Charlie kept his own the whole party. The bounce house and playing with other kids' toys was definitely fun.