Birthday beginnings

The birthday frenzy continues! Riley had a blast at Pump It Up again on Saturday and Kyle had just as much fun at a separate birthday party at Romp N Roll too! Unfortunately, was cold and wet all weekend so t-ball was cancelled, but that gave Riley even more time to enjoy with Bebe and Eric as they shopped Toy-R-Us for Ri's 5th birthday and had a nice dinner out together!

Kyle had a fun play date with his buddy, Cerys on Sunday while Tracy and Riley shopped for a new leotard to get ready for Riley's gymnastics birthday party this Saturday!!

The weather has finally cleared up and the kids enjoyed playing tennis today - we hope there are a few more nice afternoons for biking and tennis still before the real winter comes in!! Between Halloween events and Riley's birthday party events, we will have TONs of pix coming soon!

Riley at dance with her teacher, Ms. Amy.

Ms. Amy commented this week how impressed she is with how much Riley retains!

We've always said, she has the mind of an elephant!

Kyle under the parachute at Romp-n-roll

The following are beach pix from our vacation to Emerald Isle in September... it took me this long to get them off my camera and organize them!

You're My Hugabuga!

Fall is officially here and it began with our annual trip to the Ashland Berry Farm to pick pumpkins! For the 1st time in 5 years, the weather was perfect for pumpkin picking and fresh donuts! The Lamberts and O'Sullivans joined us and we had a great morning on the tractor, in the fields and running through the maze/obstacle course!

The week was a busy one! Riley is loving dance and tball is still... fun! Actually, her shyness is getting better and she is starting to really nail the ball. Kyle is still upset at every practice and game b/c he doesn't get to play, but a Cars sticker book seems to have distracted him pretty well.

On Friday we visited the local airport to watch the planes come in... however due to wind, we only saw one plane take off. None the less, the kids had a blast and we had time to catch up with old friends. That afternoon we celebrated Emory's 4th birthday with the Sprouls! Saturday was the neighborhood yard sale and we are now free of all baby items!! Riley also had the 1st of a month and a half string of Saturday b-day parties! Pump It Up was as much fun as always and then she headed off to tball. After church on Sunday, Tracy, Ri, & Kyle headed up to Kings Dominion while Eric watched the Steelers WIN!! Go Steelers!

Needless to say, the week before was just as busy but we also took a trip up to Arlington Cemetery, plus Tracy was out of town the entire week. Wait, the most exciting news - we can officially say that Kyle is potty trained! He requires very few reminders and loves his Cars big boy pants! ok, ok, enough - on to the good stuff... pix!

Riley, year 5, at the pumpkin patch - to check out the past 4 years:

http://thesurrattpack.blogspot.com/2008_10_01_archive.html

Riley and Eric on the tractor
Kyle with his Women, Ivy and Cerys

Kyle doing a happy dance!

Riley and Aiden (courtesy of Amanda!)

Tracy, Eric, Riley, Lexa and Kyle

The annual pix at Ashland Berry Farm

Ri playing ball in front of our house

At Arlington Cemetery

Play Ball!

Still behind, busy, but happy! Tracy is heading out of town for work this morning so Eric is on his own as Mr. Mom!!
Here are a few pix until there is more time to catch up on all the fun!

Riley and Lexa have begun to play t-ball! They are too cute, but have the attention span of nats!

They are also the only girls on the team

Kyle cries at the beginning of each game and practice b/c he wants so desperately to play!

Pink, pink, pink! Riley seems to have a bit of stage fright - after hitting, she kind of shuffles to base instead of running... it is extremely frustrating to Tracy... however, Tracy is working on being a better mom and just laughing like everyone else:-)

Kyle has a lot of buddies out at the field. John, Duffy, and Aiden are on the same team as the girls so Ruthie, Ben, Kate, and Ivy are out at the games and practice.

They look like they are concentrating... but normally they are playing in the dirt or twirling!

childrens museum with Mommy, Daddy, Ri, and the O'Sullivans

Ri making a masterpiece at CmOR

Beach Bums

No excuses, no excuses... I'm just behind! However, so much has been going on in the last few weeks, I'll probably have to post pix and stories every couple days to catch up!
Our first adventure was down to Emerald Isle for the week of Labor day and Darcy's Birthday! Happy Birthday Aunt Darcy!!! We had some beautiful days, a couple over cast and one that poored cats and dogs all day! The kids had a blast - even on the rainy day and the adults did as well! We had a FABULOUS vacation and all three kids loved the sand and water (however Darcy & Tracy are still petrified of sharks and we did see a couple!)

Enjoy the pix - courtesy of Aunt Darcy - I still haven't downloaded my pix!!

Ri & Lexa on Papa's boat in the OCEAN on the way to Cape Lookout

Tracy & Kyle on the boat

Loads of sand play!

We docked the boat in the middle of the ocean and collected seashells!

MonkeyMan!

Kyle loved the beach more this year than ever!

Lexa played so well with Kyle!!

Lexa and Ri - topless!

Oh such summer fun...

The summer days are nearly over and we have been so busy, I've had no time to post pix! The last few weeks have been filled with trips to Kings Dominion and visits to the pool! Playing with Bebe, Grandma, Papa, and loads of friends! Most importantly, little Lexa Marie tured FIVE!! Happy Birthday Lexa! We had tons of fun at Lexa's pool party and had another birthday party at Pump it Up the same day. Looks like birthday season has arrived!

Through all the fun, we have also had a couple doctor visits - for Kyle of course! These visits included swimmers ear and a nasty cold and then just this week he was diagnosed with Celulitis and is on an intense antibiotic... if there is something to catch, Kyle will find it! He is more or less healthy now and more or less Potty Trained! Eric and Tracy rotated shifts at home with his this past weekend and sure enough, he's got it! He just LOVES his big boy pants - especially "race car" and "pablo" (say that with lots of extra p's and b's - hilarious!) He has also enjoyed the M&M's and candy corns that come along with going potty in the big potty. But never fear, if Kyle forgets the candy, Riley will be first to remind everyone that if you do the potty dance, you get candy! There has been loads of potty dancing going on in our house!

Next week is the BEACH!! enjoy the pix -

Riley, Lexa and Kyle running through the water spritzer at KD

Lexa, Riley, Kyle, and Cerys waiting patiently for a ride
Ri & K sporting super cool glasses they made at Lexa's party

Gabe (Lexa's future husband), Lexa and Ri after swimming at Lexa's bday party

Birthday Girl!

Chillin out back!

At romp-n-roll with Caroline

Kyle and Kate taking a drive at KD

Kyle at the Dr. - his left eye is all swollen from a bug bite/celulitis

the girls playing nicely as we wait... for the doctor... again...

Safety Check

The summer is going by much to fast but Tracy and Kyle got to take a couple days off from it all and sit around the house... Kyle spent the last part of the weekend and the first part of this week fighting another virus... he is doing great now, but struggled with a high temp and sore legs. It was strange, he would complain of his legs hurting when he first woke up, but after a hour or so, he was running around as fast as ever. The sore legs went away with the fever and all are healthy at the Surratt household! During all of this, Kyle discovered the movie "Cars" and now asks 3000 times a day to watch, "race cars on TV"!

On Friday, we spent the morning with Cerys and then off to playgroup at Duffy & Kates house. The kids had a blast - in fact they had so much fun, they both napped! Which was great b/c after naps we went to the inflatable palace for some jumping birthday fun for Ruthie and Madeline! To top off the night, Bebe came over to hang with the kids while Eric, Tracy, and Darcy went to see the Wailers - fun night for everyone!

Saturday was just as much fun beginning with a family pool outing and then over to the O'Sullivans for dinner. Enjoy the pix!

Cerys, Kyle, Riley, Kaitlyn, and Caleb watching... you guessed it, CARS!

Kyle and Cerys enjoying a beer, I mean dessert!

Some of us found the accidental placement of the empties amusing:-)
Ri working on a master piece on her new whiteboard
The final product - the Birthday Girls!

Kyle hanging with an orange fish

Crazy face! She had soooo much fun at the Inflatable Palace and wants to have her birthday party there as well.

Josh, Kyle, and Riley - these three had to have gone down the slide together 20 times!

Up, Up, Up he goes!

Helping Hands

Such a fun week again! Aside from Riley getting her "very first splinter" tonight, the week has been great! First, we got an unexpected visit from Papa as he set off for his first disaster with FEMA! But when we left off last week, we were in the middle of "kids give back" week with our church.... Riley had a blast all week at VBS and playing with Caroline in the morning and going back to school with Cerys in the afternoon. Tracy is very thankful to her wonderful friends for helping ship Ri around for the three days Tracy was at work - Ri would have missed out on a lot of fun without all of them!! On friday Tracy, Kyle, and Riley joined the entire "kids give back group" at Ashland Convalescent Home to deliver their wonderful hand print paintings and sing songs. After visiting, which all the kids really enjoyed, we had a fun picnic at a playground near by.

The day wasn't over...after naps we went to the Childrens Museum with the Bests! On Saturday the kids hit the pool with Eric and then Riley, Tracy, Darcy, and Lexa spent the afternoon at Kings Dominion riding the "big rides"! The girls LOVE the Flying Eagle and the ScoobyDoo! That night Darcy and Lexa spent the night and hung out with our kids while we went to the neighborhood adult pool party!

We also visited Eric at work and had lunch with him and swung by Tracy's office to say Hi too! Loads of fun, but not many pix...

Kyle and his buddy Ruthie at CMoR

Riley hatching from an egg
Little Butt!