Halloween Happenings

I love Fall! First up in Fall, Halloween. What a perfect kids' holiday. Candy, costumes, wild kids.... what more could they want! We did some crafts and a little decorating a few weeks back.

Holidays are a perfect reason for baking. We love treats around here. We all made some fun Halloween cupcakes!

And of course there's pumpkin carving. And while I was snapping pictures of this happy little girl, I didn't notice all the fun she was having banging those spoons around was leaving gashes in my table. Nice.

Roasting the seeds has become a tradition around here. But I'm not sure why, nobody really eats them. I think we just all like the idea. "Yum, roasted pumpkin seeds with seasonings on them after we carve our pumpkins." Well, they smell good anyway!

Sydnee has a parade and party at her preschool. The kids got to wear their costumes and walk through the school showing them to all the kids, parents, and teachers. She is always so shy at school. She seems to love it, but she gets all quiet and is a perfect angel there.

She also had a party Friday morning at her dance class. They did a cute little dance for us to Monster Mash. Look at all those Rapunzels!

Dewberry Girls

I got to take the little girls to Dewberry Farms on Friday with playgroup. I love that place - perfect fall outing! First things first, off to the pumpkin patch. They only got to choose from the miniature pumpkins, but it didn't see to bother Paige or Syd.

Just one Paige!

There are slides, rides, swings, and bouncers. Plenty of fun to play!

Sydnee is such a great big sister! She is always taking care of Paige. There were not seat belts on this train ride, so I told Syd to put her arms around Paige to make sure she didn't get up. She rode the whole ride with her arms around her, smiling and taking care of her "baby." I hope they continue to be best friends!

Syd loved feeding the goats and seeing the animals in the little barn.

Paige wasn't so sure. She stayed back even from the baby chicks. And when I did find her close up to a stall, there was nothing in it!

We had a great time with our friends at Dewberry. Now we've got to find a time to take the big kids, they are excited to go!

Discovering the Zoo

On Columbus Day the kids were out of school and the weather was nice. We took advantage of it and headed out to the zoo. I love days like this. When we can slow down from all the practices, appointments, homework, etc. and just enjoy some time together.

While we were at the giraffe exhibit, this one came up as close as it could get to us. It was neat to see him that well, we love the giraffes!

Sydnee loved the petting zoo, but Paige wasn't sure about those "doggies" as she calls anything with four legs. It took some time to her to warm up.

As always, my sweet Shaye was a big help and took care of little Paigey when she got tired at the end. We rely on Shaye so much. She is a wonderful big sister and a great helper!

The Original Mud Run

The Original Mud Run comes to Houston twice a year, Spring and Fall. The race benefits MS research. We ran it on October 8th, and hopefully we'll get to do it again! It was so much fun!! It's a 10k race filled with obstacles, 21 I believe, that vary from climbing cargo ropes, to jumping off walls into mud pits, to balancing on tightropes over water. There was even one called "over and under" where we had to go completely under the mud. It was crazy fun, but I couldn't see a thing when I came out. It took several minutes to clear my eyes since we had nothing to wipe off with. My least favorite was probably the big cargo net we had to climb up. It wasn't as bad as it looked, but with some many people climbing it the rope would swing and sway. When I got to the top, which was probably 20 feet up, I had to throw my leg over to come down the other side, and thought for sure I was going down head first!

Husbands couldn't come since the kids had activities to get to, and I wish we had pictures of the obstacles. I ran it with two great friends - Nora and Brooke. It's not often us adults get to jump in the mud and play! I loved it.

Fall Sports

Sports have been going about 8 weeks. Seems like school started and the business began. Jaxson has football practice every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and Shaye has soccer on Tuesday and dance on Friday. Then we have two games every Saturday. Whew! Somehow it all works with Sam working most days till 7pm. Shaye is a great soccer player, and we love to watch her. She plays forward most of the time, and has really learned to run.

Jaxson is playing with the Texans again. He got to play flag last year in kindergarten, but in first grade it becomes tackle. He was really worried about that at first. It took some getting use to, but he can get his own pads on now, and get his helmet on and off. It was brutal in the triple digits of August though. I was dying on the sidelines, I felt bad for those little boys in full pads. But it has cooled, a little, and he loves playing with the boys and coaches he knows.