The Birthday Boy

Devlyn was so proud to tell me that Mrs. Montgomery (his teacher) asked for his size today to order his school spelling bee t-shirt. He'll be representing his 1st grade class in the first annual Sycamore Creek school spelling bee! The invite/informational sheet we received today spells out the rules. He'll be competing against 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th graders!!! I'm a nervous wreck already. I still remember the word I lost on in my elementary school spelling bee!! It was "phase", I went too quickly and blurted out "f" as the first letter :(. We're so proud of him already for representing his class - my heart swells thinking about watching him compete in the school spelling bee! His birthday presents are all laid out at his spot on the breakfast table for tomorrow morning :). I let them choose what they'd like to eat for the day on their birthdays (within reason). Devlyn has requested donuts for breakfast, a lunchables to pack for lunch and an early dinner at sushi blues for his birthday supper. Sounds like fun to me! I'm going to meet his class at the cafeteria tomorrow with cupcakes during lunch :). 7 years old - what a great age - his whole world is just starting to open up!

Halloween 2012

Best Halloween yet for the Raleigh Upchurch's! It was pretty cold here so it felt really Halloweeny.  The boys had long underwear on under their costumes : )   Of course, Weebsie was complaining of being hot half way through - human heater that he is.  Started the evening out with a stop at our neighbors Carmen and Daniel's house.  They have a great tradition of handing out candy for the kids and adult beverages for the parents!  Usually it's beers but this year they stepped it up and had shots in test tubes - something called "Birthday Cake" vodka...hello!  As we headed down the street to the Hilburn section of the neighborhood 5 houses on Sprague Rd. had pooled their resources.  They were having a street party and met all the little kids at the curb with massive bags of candy for each one.  Talk about spoiled - the kids didn't even have to walk up to the houses.  Then it was on to "Corky's Lounge".  It only took us 10 years but we finally sniffed out and got in good with the fun people in the neighborhood.  One family's garage is always the party lounge - refills, appetizers, a roaring fire, a million kids and plenty of candy.  Got a few pictures of the neighborhood ladies while were were there.  None of the pics came out too well but I was thinking of all the Mom's names and listen to this, Kari, Kristy, Corky(not sure what her real name is!), Christina and Kristin.  Kkkkkkkkkccrazy.  Noone else with a "K" name is allowed to move in!  Devlyn was Sonic the Hedgehog and Blake was Luke Skywalker.  Blake opted to bring his gun rather than his lightsaber and he took great pride in explaining to me that Luke Skywalker has both.  He had that look in his eye that said, "If you don't believe me, I'll pull out the Star Wars book and show you right here and now."  That kid is a Star Wars encyclopedia right now - he and Devlyn know the minute details of characters I've never even heard of before.