Trick or Treat!

The very best part of Halloween

Is getting more candy than you've ever seen

I've got my scariest costume on

I scare myself with I'm all alone

Trick or Treat, Trick or Treat, Give me something good to eat

Trick or Treat, Trick or Treat, Give me something good to eat

- Trick or Treat by Geof Johnson

This year Little Miss was a Spider Witch (of course most of the costume came off within the first hour) and Little Man was a Knight with a Sword! Or as my father in law said, Little Man was immortalized as "Sir Huge Glowing Sword Who Will Challenge and Fight All Comers" and Little Miss as "Will 'O Wisp, black gypsy/witch who really just wants to dance/shake/boogeydown". Too true!




I decided to add a witch hat to my outfit and Ryan was Bob the Builder.




Instead of the usual trick or treating this year, our subdivision had a Halloween block party. We did it at a house down the road and had a great time. We ate hot dogs, chips, dip, candied apples, and chocolate dirt with worms! They had a DJ and the kiddos danced the night away (with Little Man chasing some of the other boys around with his super cool glow sword!).

At the Halloween Parade

Little Miss's class had their Halloween Parade today! Of course that pretty much means that the teachers dressed the kids up, paraded them down the sidewalk, and we all snapped a ridiculous number of pictures :) The kiddos dressed up in their costumes and filed out of the church with their classes. Each child came up to Miss Karen who asked them what they were wearing and what their name was. It was too cute. Little Miss was an adorable Spider Witch. Little Man got to dress up before school this morning. Since his class is so young, they don't get to participate in the Halloween parade but they did dress up and take some class pictures before continuing with their Halloween inspired day! After the parade we all went inside to Little Miss's classroom and had a small Halloween party.

Pumpkin Carving

FUN, FUN, FUN is all I can say about Pumpkin Carving this year!

The kids are just getting to that age where we can actually do fun stuff :) This year we decided that we'd try pumpkin carving with them. The kids had their pumpkins from the Pumpkin Patch and I bought some push in Jack O Lantern face pieces. That turned out to be a grand idea! The kids picked out which pieces they wanted and only needed a bit of help to get them pushed in. They turned out great!


Ryan and I decided to try our hand at carving this year. Ryan cut off the tops of the pumpkins and the kids watched him scoop out the guts. Little Man especially love the innards and kept asking if he could eat the seeds.

I cut one pumpkin and Ryan did the other. I used a template from a book that I bought and carved a black cat jack o lantern. It looks really good all lit up. Ryan drew on a scary face to carve.

Look how cute they turned out... We had such a good time making our Jack O Lanterns this year!

Miss Spider's Tea Party

One of Little Miss's bestest friends had her birthday party today. She had her big party at the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch this afternoon and then a special friend party this evening at Let's Pretend in Grapevine. The theme was Miss Spider's Tea Party. It was a Mommy and Me type party and the girls had so much fun.

The girls each dressed up in their Halloween costumes (Little Miss is a Spider Witch this year). We all got there and took our seats. Then the wait staff brought out hot tea for the moms and "chocolate soup" (chocolate milk with marshmallows) and hot tea for the girls. The next course was a peanut butter and jelly finger sandwich rolled in sprinkles along with a fruit kabob, a cookie, and a small cupcake (talk about loading them up with sugar!). The girls loved it all :) They were so cute drinking out of their tea cups and acting so prim and proper. We moms dined on hot tea, turkey sandwiches, scones, and individual apple pies.

After "dinner" Miss Spider came out and talked about spiders, made balloon animals/wands for all of the girls, and read us Miss Spider's Tea Party by David Kirk. After that we decorated mini pumpkins and then we danced! Finally, all of the girls there lined up in their costumes and we paraded down Main Street for about a block or so.

Little Miss and the Birthday Girl had a great time!

Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch

Today we took our annual trip to the Flower Mound Pumpkin Patch. One of Little Miss's best friends decided to have her birthday party there this year so we decided to make that our trip to the pumpkin patch.

After the eating and present opening part of the party, we got a private hay ride to a secluded area where each of the kids got to pick out a small pumpkin to take home. The kids loved the hay ride and had fun picking out which pumpkin they wanted. Before we left we picked up some wonderful homemade kettle corn.

We're going camping

I got my gear in my pack
I got my pack on my back
Today's the day I'm going camping
Just got the go ahead sign, The weather's gonna be fine
Today's the day I'm going camping
I'm gonna pitch me a tent, Won't have to pay any rent
It looks like ev'rything is "A O.K.", As far as I can see
I think it's gonna be a perfect camping day
~ Going Camping by John Denver

The weather has been beautiful and our first camping trip was great so we decided to try camping with our friends again. This past weekend the group of us decided to try out Twin Coves Park on Lake Grapevine.

We loaded up our gear and got to the campground around 1 pm on Saturday afternoon and set up the tent at site #23. "Twin Coves is a very nice park on a small cove on Lake Grapevine. Sites are level, spacious, with lots of trees, and most have a view of the lake. A majority of the campsites are 100 to 500 yards from the water." Our campsite this time was a bit less primitive than last time :) We had electricity, running water, a great picnic table, and a nice view of the lake. We were able to park the cars right next to the site as well - which was quite a nice change from our last camping adventure :)

We spent Saturday afternoon playing t-ball, throwing the frisbee, playing on the nearby playground, and throwing rocks in the lake. Saturday evening we cooked hotdogs, cheeseburgers, and corn on the cob on the fire. After dinner we busted out the chocolate, graham crackers, and marshmallows to make s'mores!

Sunday morning we woke up for a breakfast of breakfast burritos, poptarts, and croissants. Then most of us headed down to the lake for some fishing. After lunch the kids played at the playground with some friends they had met and then it was time to pack up and head home.

We've had so much fun with these last two trips that we are already planning our next two night camping adventure!

The State Fair of Texas

"Our state fair is a great state fair,
Don't miss it, don't even be late.
It's dollars to donuts
That our state fair
Is the best state fair in our state."

~ Driving at Night from Rodgers & Hammerstein's State Fair

We decided to try out a big family trip to the State Fair of Texas this year and what a time we had. All in all there were 8 of us at the fair this year ~ Ryan, me, Little Miss, Little Man, Gramps, Nana, Grandpa and Meme. We all met up at my in-laws house and carpooled to the fair. We got there around 3 pm on Sunday afternoon.




Once inside, our first stop was watching the authentic Aztec dancers. The kids were fascinated and they even did a dance where they let people join in. Little Miss was game but Little Man wasn't so sure so he stayed in the stroller :)




After we left the Aztec dancers we strolled through the car show building and as we left we came across the Marine marching band. We followed the band to the marching field and took a seat in the bleachers to catch the show.

Next we hit the Birds of the World show. It was fun to see all of the birds and the kids loved being able to see them up close at the end of the show. One of the trainers asked Little Miss what her favourite bird was and of course she said the Scarlet Macaw because they are so colourful.









After that we headed over to the Midway to check out the rides! We've never let the kids ride a bunch of rides but this year they are a bit older and really wanted to ride so with the tickets purchased by the wonderful grandparents :) we let the kids ride whatever they wanted. We started off with two different car rides that the kids loved - one that they rode together that went up and down while they rode in a circle and the other that spun them around the circular track that they were on. Then they rode on the swings (which Little Miss told us was her favourite ride), followed by the very fast dragon roller coaster (Little Man LOVED this one), and we ended with the merry go round.

After the Midway rides it was time to eat! We all sat down to eat while the kids ate and danced to a local band.

Our last stop at the fair was the exotic petting zoo. We got to pet and feed a giraffe, camels, a zebra, goats, llamas, sheep, and pigs. We all had a great time doing that :)

We had such a wonderful time at the fair this year!

Little Miss Turns 5 !

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday Little Miss...

Happy Birthday to you!

I get kind of nostalgic on my kids birthdays! I truly can't believe how fast time passes when you have kids. From this super cute little bugger making faces at me in her carseat to the beautiful, intelligent, and amazing little girl that comes out with some of the most insightful and hilarious comments every day. What an honor God has bestowed on me to be able to learn from her and watch her grow into the awesome kid that she is.

So my baby has turned 5! This past weekend we had a wonderful Tinkerbell birthday party at the house. We rented a Tinkerbell bounce house, bought some Tinkerbell plates, cups, and napkins, and Little Miss picked out a super cute Tinkerbell cake. All her friends came over to play in the sandbox, jump in the bounce house, have hotdogs, veggies, fruit, and cake. Once the playing and eating were done we opened up the presents. This year's presents consisted of Barbies, Barbies, and more Barbies! Little Miss had a grand time and we spent the rest of the afternoon opening all of the Barbies :)