Dewberry Farm

Jaxson's kindergarten class took their field trip to Dewberry Farms this week. It is a really cool place. Much more than any other pumpkin patch I have been to. Thank goodness for the cloud cover because it was another 80 degree day.

Jaxson, his friend Jonah from Bartlesville, and two other friends from school.

Jaxson and his teacher, Ms.Bojko. He loves her! She is lots of fun and had nothing but great things to say about Jaxson during parent/teacher conference.

A friend watched Sydnee for me, but of course little Paige came along!

Not just petting goats, but performing goats..... :-)

There were lots of fun play toys. This is the zip line. They also had go carts, huge trampoline-like things, and much more.

Let Freedom Ring

On Tuesday Shaye had her first performance for third grade. They have been working several months on Patriotic Songs for their Veterans Day Concert. It was fun practicing the 50 states with her.... I still remember the alphabetical states song up to Connecticut! :-)

Shaye invited Sam's grandpa and dad to come as veterans. Pappy has not been feeling well, but she was excited to have her Papa there. The veterans were called up to stand behind the kids on the last song.

Being here in Houston is definitely different. It was an adjustment that half of the the people in the audience did not know the Pledge of Allegiance, or the National Anthem when we were asked to join in. It's quite a melting pot here!

Wildlife Park

For playgroup a couple of Fridays ago a few of us went to Bayou Wildlife Park in Alvin. Somehow, though I lived 40 minutes from Alvin growing up, I did not know this place was here. It was said to be a place where you see the animals and ride on a tram to drive around and feed them. Sounded fun, Sydnee was looking forward to it. Boy was it an adventure!

When we first got there, Sydnee was scared of this deer. So here I am holding both babies while trying to keep the deer from walking off with my leg. This was in the beginning...

Above, is Sydnee with her cute friend Peyton Brooks. She has been to play at his house a couple of times, and just loves hanging out with him. She laughs at everything he says (yes, I might be in trouble!)

Below, the kids are waiting to go in the petting zoo area of the park.

I didn't catch the name of these big half deer half elk-looking things, but they were huge! They were one of the first animals we came to and they were a little scary.

Wow! I didn't realize how close they were going to come to us. And even more shocking, was how brave Sydnee was. When I saw all these animals heading our way, I thought she would be terrified for sure.

There was a buffalo, which Brooke happen to reach out to touch just as it flung it's head back, and there was a beefalo. That's right... half cow, half buffalo. I didn't get a picture of it, but it looks about the same.

Again, this animal was huge! This is not a good ol' Texas longhorn because those horns are actually alive. I heard the lady say they have blood in them, and the animal could bleed to death if a horn got injured.

But I didn't hear much else because I was laughing so hard. These camels were overly friendly. They were so big it was scary how close they came.

And when this one reached in to eat the food off Sydnee's lap, she finally gave the reaction I expected in the beginning...

My poor Sydnee. She still says today "I don't like camels!" It was so funny though! They were all over everyone.

So by the time we got back to the lodge this little deer was the easy stuff. And Sydnee couldn't get the thing to leave her alone after giving it some food.

It was just a small backwoods kind of place, but it was so fun! I think us moms enjoyed it more than the kids. We laughed the whole time and let out a few screams. I am definitely looking forward to taking the whole family sometime!

Halloween Fun!

TRUNK OR TREAT

With Halloween on Sunday this year, the ward party was all we really had planned. Which was fine with me, the kids always end up with way too much candy, and that was again the case.

Our vampire princess. Believe it or not, we could not find a pair of those plastic fangs that are always everywhere! We looked at several stores for her, and they were nowhere to be found.

Tr

The character's official name is Tiana, but if you asked Sydnee what she was she answered "Princess and the Frog!" She was dead set on being her even before we shopped for costumes.

She was such a good trick or treater. She would say "trick or treat" to everyone, and always "Thank you!" It was so precious.

Dessert Commando. Jaxson can't stand anything on his face, so he was only in his helmet and face shield for this picture, and he never wore the goggles at all - just like his Grandpa, just like me.

It was too hot to make little Paige wear the pumpkin costume I had that was her size. So a pumpkin shirt had to do.

Enjoying their loot.

Not perfect, but I think this is the only picture we have gotten of the whole family since Paige was in the hospital.

Not only was Sunday Halloween, but it was our ward Primary Program too. Shaye and Jaxson did great on their parts, and it turned out to be a wonderful meeting, as the primary programs always are.

PUMPKIN CARVING

We saved the pumpkins for Sunday so we would have some activities to do as a family that evening. Shaye chose a more playful design this year, and Jaxson went with a spooky pumpkin. They scraped them out, and Sam carved them up.

CANDY APPLES

Have you ever had an apple from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory? A friend of mine in Bartlesville introduced them to me on one of our shopping trips in Dallas, and now there is one right up the street, it can be trouble! They are awesome... but they are also 7 dollars an apple and I'm sure a million calories. We made some of our own on Sunday while the kids passed out candy to the few trick or treaters we got. They were a good imitation of the others, very yummy! We covered them in caramel, rolled them in chocolate chips, and drizzled them with white chocolate. So good!