The LCBCrew: November 2025

October. The beginning of the very best time of the year (in my opinion)! This month brought Scarowinds, Wicked the Musical, the pumpkin patch, a special trip to the mountains to ride the train in Bryson City, an impromptu Billie Eilish concert with Lil, and a fun day in Gold Hill. At school, I got to be mystery reader for Crew, we could finally go for lunch, we celebrated Briggs as his class' very first dragon of the week, and the kids had culture night (I don't have pics but Lily and Charley also had their first musical theatre showcase at school!).

And of course... Halloween! This was the first year Lily went trick-or-treating with friends and had a great time (they did a group Mario costume). So I told Charley I would dress up with her, and then Hogan joined in... we were Dorothy, Glenda, and the tornado. ;) And the boys were Black Panther and Mario. Fun Halloween.

Ready for our photo shoot with Katy Cook!

Acorn collecting time of year.

The morning the new Taylor Swift album was released.

Briggs as Tanner.

Lil and her friends off at Scarowinds (I did not chaperone, but I got pics). I was surprised she wanted to go, but she had a great time with friends.

Fun step back into time, discovering Princess Story Play on the old ipad.

Wicked! So good.

Getting Glenda's signature.

Meanwhile... lol.

New Taylor Swift movie with Sutton and friends.

The new Hall Family Farm.

We gave it a try. I was really hoping for this awesome pumpkin patch experience... it was mixed. The hayride was fun. And the corn maze turned out to be really fun (at least for the boys, and I think the girls enjoyed wandering around themselves). And the pizza was good. There was just so much other stuff there it felt big and commercial, and the pumpkin patch was almost empty at the beginning of October. Oh well, still some fun memories made.

This series makes me crack up. I call it "Trying for the perfect pumpkin pic when everyone keeps looking away or goofing off." Watch Lil's face as we go.

And then we got it. ;)

TCBY to celebrate our dragon of the week (huge honor getting picked first). Proud of you, B!

Found these notes B made. He had filled a shoebox with them and was going to pass them out to people that walked by. :)

First lunch at school this year.

Crew looked so old (and little if that's possible) buying his school lunch.

Crew's teacher got a kick out of this. She was testing him on his sight words and he was spelling them all correctly and then admitted "Well I'm kinda cheating because I can see them through the paper." Ha! At least he was honest. ;)

Charley and Quinn at Scarowinds. The no-boo necklaces made it fun but not too scary.

Halloween puzzle time.

It's so fun watching Crew's soccer (and that tongue of concentration). ;)

Mystery reader for Kindergarten!

Susanne's beautiful farm. She opened up her farm dinner invite to kids this year and we brought the girls. It was fun to share it with them!

In love with Crew's robot!

Kindergarten work. :)

Making care bags to have on hand in the car.

Smores!

Briggs' Children's Theatre field trip to see Invisible Boy.

When you have to stop by Publix with Mom before school to get something for her PTA stuff... you get a cookie. :)

Train!
Lily and some friends walk from First Ward to Seventh Street Market for pizza and then next door to their Children's Theatre class. It was my week to walk, so B and I parked at Imaginon to get them from school and he was so excited to pass the lightrail on the way.

I have been wanting to do this trip for a long time. We are going to be taking the train from Bryson City to the Nantahala Gorge. Stopping for pizza on the way to the mountain house.

Mountain ballet. Love.

I brought this 100 piece puzzle of Grandma's, and B did the whole thing himself!

Mountain morning snuggles.

All aboard!

Grandma brought the kids little sketchbooks... such a good idea. The girls drew almost the whole time.

Home and going to pick up Tanner. About to get a Charley ukulele serenade otw. ;)

Last minute it worked out to take Lily to Billie Eilish. She was so excited and grateful (I was actually excited too, and to be honest Lily turned me into a bit more of a fan after seeing her).