This is it: Halloween 2010

Ok, seriously, last post about Halloween. We did trick-or-treat, despite the holiday falling on Sunday. Aren't my little trick-or-treaters cute? I just loved this photo. We really went all out this year: we decorated our yard with Halloween lights, decorated our front window with Halloween stickers and hung ghosts in our tree. Alex just loves Halloween, and it's fun to feed that excitement all month! As I mentioned before, Roger was home this year to trick-or-treat with us. We all went out together down our street. As we made it back up, we decided to divide and conquer. So I volunteered to stay at the house to pass out candy while Roger took the kids around another street. Alex is so funny though. He isn't one to stay out, going to every last house to get candy. He likes to trick-or-treat for about an hour, and then he's ready to call it a night. I think he enjoys handing out candy almost as much as collecting the candy. But that's Alex -- he's very kind and generous. When the kids got home, they did their annual candy dive. Addison was much better this year...she didn't get into nearly as much candy as she did last year! Last year she was opening candy faster than I could take it away from her! But they had their splurge, and then we put them to bed. It was a school night, after all! And Halloween 2010 is over. Already looking forward to next year. Love this time of year!

Halloween Eve

Halloween was really fun for us this year. As I was thinking back, we moved into our house in April of 2007. So we've celebrated 4 Halloweens in this house. I can't believe that! And this is the first Halloween in four years that Roger has been home celebrating with us. That was really nice. And to top it all off, Alex was healthy! That was a miracle. He is usually sick every Halloween. I don't know what it is with the end of October, but it doesn't usually agree with Alex. Saturday morning, we decided to carve pumpkins. Thankfully, Roger helped carve. Last year, I carved all the pumpkins and was so done by the time I got them all carved. Saturday night, we headed over to church for the annual Halloween party. It was really fun! The church was decorated, we ate, the kids hit pinatas. And then they "trick-or-treated" around the church. They went from classroom to classroom collecting candy from gracious members who were passing out the treats. For a lot of the kids, this was their only trick-or-treating, as Halloween fell on Sunday this year. We all had a really fun time and we're already looking forward to it next year!

My sister, niece and nephew came by the party and trick or treated. The kids really enjoyed doing that together. When we got home, we lit our pumpkins. Addison wasn't too crazy about the "scary pumpkins." But we managed to convince her to take a picture. But if you notice, she won't take her eyes off those glowing orange things. So funny!

Halloween Spooktacular

I'm almost caught up on all our Halloween celebrations. Usually every year we make it out to a pumpkin patch. And we've been spoiled in the past with plenty of time during the week to do that. This year, with Alex being in school, we didn't get to a pumpkin patch as a family. Addison enjoyed Pumpkin Days at her preschool and Alex enjoyed Country Critters with his kindergarten class. And both came home with pumpkins. We did do a couple other things this year as a family to celebrate Halloween.

The Saturday before Halloween, we went up to our gym and had fun at the Spooktacular. We played some spooky games, jumped in a couple bounce houses, played in a maze, won some cupcakes from a cake walk. We also went through a haunted house. We've never taken the kids through a haunted house before, and I was a little nervous because I didn't know how scary it would really be. Alex LOVED it! He ended up going through four or five times. Addison...not so much. She kept saying, "haunted house scary" and wouldn't go back in again. It was a fun afternoon!

Pumpkin Day for Addison

One of my all-time favorite events at St. John is Pumpkin Days! Alex enjoyed pumpkin day twice while at St. John. This year, Addison got to enjoy all the fun events and activities. Unfortunately, my camera battery died very early in our day. But here are a few pictures.
Our first stop was painting pumpkins. Addison really enjoyed this station.

Here she is with her finished pumpkin. Yay!


Our next stop was the playground. Addison enjoyed having Daddy give her a little help on the big trike.


Next was the petting zoo. Addison loves animals, always has. She really enjoyed this part of pumpkin days. She went around and around looking at the goats, bunnies, turkey, pig, donkey, and cow. Fun, fun! From here we enjoyed stretch and grow, a snack, stations, music, story time and pictures. I never remember Alex being so exhausted, but pumpkin days wore Addison out. Maybe it was an age difference though. By the time we were done, she was ready for lunch and a nap. I love pumpkin days and I'm already looking forward to it again next year!

Field Trip: Country Critters

Alex had his first ever field trip today. It was so fun! We went out to Country Critters, a pumpkin patch. All the kids rode a school bus over there, which was a first for Alex. I can't remember how long he's been asking me, "when do I get to ride a bus?" Finally! He's ridden the bus. That's one for his bucket list. I have to say, I was very impressed with the field trip over all. It was very organized and well-run. We went from station to station, with about 10 minutes or so at each one. We had beautiful weather! Overall, it was a really fun day.

Our first station was the hay ride, except minus the hay. So I guess it was really just a tractor ride. And honestly, I wasn't too sad about the lack of hay because hay+Alex+asthma=no fun. Our next stop was the first bounce house. When I asked Alex what his favorite part of the day was, he said the bounce houses. He loved them! After the bounce house we had sack races, then wooden horse races. Both were really fun activities for a group of 5 year-olds. After that, we headed into the pumpkin patch where the kids picked out a small pumpkin. And we took advantage of the photo opps!

After everyone picked a pumpkin, the kids went to a station to decorate them. Then it was time for lunch! We had a really nice picnic lunch. After lunch, we went on to a maze, which the kids had a blast running through. And what a perfect post lunch activity! And they also spent some time "roping" some cows.

Impressive, huh? Who knew my husband was so handy with a rope? Next we headed over to story time, where a sweet older lady read a story to the kids, while the kiddos enjoyed a cookie and some juice. From there we went to another bounce house, more pictures, a bean bag toss, a petting zoo, a playground area and finally another ride in a "train." I am really grateful that Roger and I were able to be with Alex today for his first field trip. I'm grateful that both my kids were healthy today. Addison was healthy and went to preschool, so Roger and I were both able to go on the field trip. And Alex was healthy, so he could go and enjoy his first field trip. I'm grateful that Roger could also be there to share this fun day with Alex, even though he only had a few hours of sleep. I'm grateful the weather was so beautiful. I'm grateful that Roger and I could spend a day with Alex again. It's probably the thing I miss the most -- these week days when we were all together as a family. Just having fun together! So first ever field trip: SUCCESS! Looking forward to the next one in the spring!

A FAIRly Great Day!

I love, love the month of October! It runs a pretty close second to Christmas time. One of the reasons I love this month is the great, State Fair of Texas! Roger and I have turned our annual trips to the state fair into a Lee family tradition. This year, unlike last year, we had fabulous weather...the best weather in 4 years! And Roger and I think that the kids had the best time this year of all the years we've gone in the past. We enjoyed all the sights, food and just spending time together as a family. It was just all around a great day! Our first stop was at the Chevrolet tent, where they had an area set up for the kids to test drive race cars, hummers or princess corvettes. Alex has been talking about this for weeks! We didn't get to do this last year because the track was wet from the rain. So he was thrilled to drive Lightening around this year!

Our next stop was the "Little Hands on the Farm." The kids donned their aprons, grabbed their baskets and went through for a full day's "work" on the farm. Their work included harvesting peaches, feeding the hens and collecting eggs, feeding the cows and then milking them, planting and harvesting some crops, feeding the sheep and collecting some wool, and then heading to the market to sell all their "goods." At the end, they use their "money" that they earned to buy something at the store. It's a fun part of the fair and a good reminder of where our food and clothing comes from.

Next we stopped in to see a fun dog show. The kids enjoyed watching the dogs race, jump and swim. After that, Alex told us he was hungry and ready to see the cars. So we heading for the best part of the fair: Fletcher's Corny Dogs!

Alex eats his corny dogs in parts.

Addison wasn't real impressed with her corny dog.

But Roger and I loved every last bite of ours! Mmmm! Then we headed over to the cars. The kids loved climbing in and out of all the cars.

Finally our last fun stop was the petting zoo. By this time it was getting late and warm!
We started working our way back out of the fair after the petting zoo. We did make one last stop back at the track so Alex could race Lightening a final time. We really enjoyed spending the day together as a family, and getting our fair fix. It was so fun and I'm already looking forward to doing it again next year!

Museum Fun

Could anything be more exciting than spending a morning with one of your favorite people? My mom has been in town this week from Chicago, and we've had the opportunity to spend a little extra time with her. On Wednesday, we took Grandma to the children's museum. Addison enjoyed every minute she spent playing with Grandma! They started out in the pretend grocery store. Then they moved on to the pretend hospital area. They are playing in the pretend ambulance.

She also ran her poor Grandmother ragged! Addison and Caitlin loved playing chase with her.

Addison also really enjoyed this spinning thing, demonstrating centrifical (sp?) force (I think). I tried it out once and almost lost my breakfast. I'm too old to be spinning in circles at high rates of speed!

And even the big kids had fun playing at the museum! Grandma got a kick out of the giraffe guessing her height, and Roger was very intently spraying these water guns trying to make it all move and spin! We really enjoyed our time at the museum, and we're so thankful that Grandma could spend the day with us.