Happy Halloween!

As I write this, my little monsters are both asleep (but for how long is anyone's guess), the Halloween decorations have all been taken down (OCD alert), and I feel pretty pleased with how the last few days have gone. 

Crazy Halloween Glasses

Halloween? I LOVE candy!!

On Tuesday, I spent all day at W's school. We started the day with a Halloween costume parade. Then, I volunteered to read a story and do a craft. We read the Big Pumpkin and everything that I remember about teaching pre-k was revisited. They are so wiggly! As room mom, I also put together a party for W's class at school. We did some Halloween bowling and some pumpkin decorating. 

It was such a busy day, and I couldn't have done it without mom's help watching Ev. 

It was a great fun to see how Wyatt acts in his school setting. (Like a Boss.)

Steg at School

Clip Art Bowling that I made with cranberry juice containers - thanks, Pinterest!

Bowling at the Halloween Party

Halloween day - another whirl wind! Gabby and Pop Pop came over with some taco soup and corn bread. We had a great dinner, then we took our Stegosaurus trick-or-treating. Ok. He doesn't get manners yet. When he got candy that he didn't like (like Milky Way), he had a melt down. With stomping. It was very dinosaur-like behavior. I just stood on the sidewalk and asked folks "Hey - who's kid is that???". Katie and Brad dropped by for dinner, too - just in time to witness another candy induced flip out. 

Whew. I better go ahead and eat the rest of his trick-or-treat candy before he wakes up...

 

As fun and busy as things have been, I'm glad to see October draw to a close. 

With November at hand, W and I are going to spend some time focusing on being thankful. I am already looking forward to some time together with family and little Houston cousins.

Ev's Sip & See

Aunt Katie and Gabby were good enough to host a Sip & See for Everett last weekend, and it was a doozy! Sip & See is, I suppose, a southern tradition for folks to get a chance to meet the new baby after his immune system is a little stronger and the mom is no longer in the "have I showered today???" phase. 

Katie and Mom put together an awesome spread. We had a cheese tray, hummus served in a hollowed out pumpkin, a candy corn & peanut mix, bundtinis, a Pecan and Prailine bundt cake, a take on tea sandwiches, and plenty to drink. 

 

 

 

Katie had her house decorated with all of her fall goods plus lots of pictures of Everett. It was darling and since she had cider brewing, it smelled amazing. 

Ev made the rounds at the party. I think I only held him one time. Mom handled all of the diaper changes. I handled the Cabernet. ...Which means that I, of course, forgot to take pictures DURING the party. Here are a few, though! Thank you to everyone who came and helped make our day so special. 

 

 

 

 

 

Pumpkin Stuff

This is our third trip to the pumpkin patch with our friends, the Petersons, and each year it gets better. This year, Dub was really into everything. He loved the bounce houses, he loved running through the rows of pumpkins like a crazy man, and he even picked out his own pumpkin. He had a great Sunday, taking in our fall tradition.

We had a cold snap last weekend, so it actually felt like fall. Little Ev is smaller than Wyatt was at this same age, so we didn't have any jackets for him (has since been remedied). We bundled him up the best that we could. He spent most of the pumpkin patch time tucked into the stroller.

 

Reminds me of a picture of Aunt Sue sitting on the sea wall. Very similar faces!

Heeeeaaavvvvyyy!!

Snotty picks a pumpkin!

Riding the Train Car. Tight fit, Dad!

Loving Daddy time!

Jason is going to be gone on actual Halloween, so we wanted to carve our pumpkins together. It was Dub's first experience with gutting the pumpkin, and he was into scooping out the innards with his spoon. Just look at the concentration on his face. We scooped out and cleaned the seeds, then we toasted them and ate them. Jason carved the face on our pumpkin, and we showed Dub how you light a candle and put it inside the pumpkin and it makes a spoooooky glow. At that point, Wyatt started screaming like a girl - "it's scary, it's scary" and running around. The only scary thing was his behavior...

 

The next day, we went out and planted some pumpkin seeds in our pots.  Wyatt told me he was going to grow a pumpkin to make pumpkin pie. Where does he GET this stuff?  I wish there was some way that could work out for him...but we planted the toasted pumpkin seeds, so I'm positive that's not happening. Maybe next year.

 

 

Next week we have plans to go to the State Fair and we are celebrating Ev's birth with a little party. I love the fall season so much! Looking forward to what's next.  

Heritage Farm

 

There is a little place in Plano called Heritage Farm. On Fridays they put on special programming, so we drove over to take in the E-I-E-I-O of it all. We met our friends D & A there, which got everyone all amped up and excited. 

We listened to a story about a little scarecrow boy read by a real farmer, 

then we visited the stations around the farm. 

We started with planting seeds. Dub got to dig a hole, drop some pumpkin seeds in, top it off with soil, then water it. Then he tried to manage everyone else who was working on planting. And when we had to curb that, he decided planting was for the birds.  Off to explore the hut.

Our second station was the apple orchard. The genius staff planned a game of tag that involved picking up some apples from the orchard. Running some energy out of toddlers is always a good idea, in my book.

From there, we were able to grind up corn and feed the resident chickens and turkeys.This mainly involved throwing the corn pieces towards the animals because mama was afraid that the crazy beasts would peck some fingers. W also was able to pick up eggs in the hen house. 

A tractor hayride was next - at that point we were all getting kind of hot and ready to wrap things up. For some reason, W hates hayrides. I always think he's going to love the experience and he always tries to get off of the thing like a coach passenger on the Titanic. We made our scarecrow craft, then we hit the road. 

It was a neat experience overall - one that provided the best nap in weeks. :)

Thanks, too, to Aunt Susan - who watched Ev so that W and I could spend time together.

Johnny Appleseed Day

Sometimes I get out of the baby haze and manage to do something "educational" for Dub. On September 26, one of TWO days every year that Johnny Appleseed is celebrated, we did a few related activities. I created a board on Pinterest because there are so many great ideas already in existence, and I just used my favorites to create an apple themed day. 

We started by slicing apples, dipping them in pancake batter, and putting them on the griddle. Dub helped make the batter and helped use the toothpicks to dip the apple rings, so I thought he would love the final product. I think the look on his face says it all, don't you?

 

We read some books about old John Champman and about Apples in general - a way to kind of spark up interest. Then we made our own applesauce from scratch. 

 

And we finished up the day by inviting our friends Stephanie and Andrew over for some fingerpainting and apple coloring.

 

 

I tried to teach him the Johnny Appleseed prayer song, but that didn't go over too well. (Right now, he's stuck on Raffi's "Brush Your Teeth". :) However, he liked helping around the kitchen and painting stuff, so it was all a success in my book.