Fall Festivities

Wow! I'm not sure we could have crammed one more thing into our schedule over the past week. We have been busy enjoying the beautiful weather and trying to fit in every possible fall/Halloween activity there is. This is one of my favorite times of the year but I'll be ready for Nov. 1 to come to take a quick break:) Here it what we've been up to--

On Thurs, I went with Tate's class on a field trip to Love Creek Orchard in Medina, TX. They built scarecrows, took a hay ride, listened to some storytelling, brushed a horse, held some chickens and found their way through a hay bale maze. They even got to take home a pumpkin.

Saturday morning was our last soccer game. It was exciting to see how much the kids improved from game 1. What a cute soccer team!

We, then, headed to the kid's school for their annual fall festival. We enjoyed face painting, pony rides and games. Tate even got to dunk one of his teachers in the dunking booth!

On Saturday night, Jason and I got to enjoy some adult company at one of our neighbors Halloween bash. The costumes were hilarious and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Sarah Palin even showed up for the event:)

And on to Sun-whoooooo. We went to our friend, Colby's golf tournament for a few hours and enjoyed watching the golfers, ate great food and chatted with friends. He does an unbelievable job! We had our annual Halloween parade in our neighborhood after that. A fire truck leads the way which Tate loves! Little miss thing couldn't wait for the cookies at the end and snacked the whole way through. Fairys love their food, I guess.

Finally, after the parade, we had our family pictures taken. Maren was beyond done by this point. We, hopefully, got some good ones toward the end when she finally stopped crying. One of our babysitter's roommates took their pictures and, poor thing, she had her work cut out for her. She has a few pictures on her blog. http://laurahaleyphotography.blogspot.com/

And this is how we all felt Sun night after ordering some pizza and settling down:)

Our Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

Every year, we go to a little church run pumpkin patch in Boerne. It was a beautiful weekend in San Antonio and perfect weather to pick out some pumpkins. I love to get pictures of the kids with the pumpkins. Today, with a little coaxing with candy corn, I actually got some good pictures without much fuss (and we got some pumpkins, too.) Here are some pictures!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Maren!

Maren turned 2 on Thursday! Tate and I went in her room when she woke up and sang "Happy Birthday." She had a huge smile on her face but looked at us like we were crazy. We went to the McKenna Children's Museum in New Braunfels. It's an adorable museum complete with ambulance, art room, rocket, grocery store, hospital nursery and campgrounds. The kids loved it!

We took her to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner and then home for presents. She got a new little baby doll and named her Tia which went nicely with her other one, Mamma Mia:) Where did those 2 years go?!

Howl-O-Scream

On Sunday, while Jason and Nathan jetted (literally) off to the Colts/Texans game in Houston, Jill and I took the kids to SeaWorld, where they are celebrating Howl-O-Scream. The park was decked out in Halloween decor. Lots of skeletons, pumpkins, etc... The kids had a ball except Maren wasn't too happy going through the Halloween maze. It was very kid friendly but the first obstacle did her in. She soon got over it but I realized, as she clung on to me, that she isn't a fearless as Tate--nothing seems to bother him. The kids danced at a Halloween bash, in which, Chloe asked at the beginning if we got an invitation. They were so cute dancing their little hearts out. They have some serious moves.

What a day!

Our weekend started out with a bang! Tate had a soccer game at 9:30. I only took 1 picture because, for some reason, he didn't feel like playing all that hard. He blames it on a mosquito bite. Needless to say, they didn't even score a goal. Maybe next time:)

Next on the agenda was Maren's 2nd birthday party. Our neighbor, Lauren, turned 2 today so they had a joint Dora the Explorer birthday party at Gymboree Play and Music. What fun! After some hokie pokie with maracas, the birthday blast off, getting rolled over by the cookie cutter, freeze dance, bubbles and parachute time, they were ready for some rather green cupcakes. The kids had a blast!

Then off to our friends, Kelly and Ryan's, adoption party. They just adopted 2 adorable children and had a huge party complete with a balloon artist, moonwalk, cotton candy and tons of food. Congratulations, Kelly and Ryan! The kids, once again, played and played and had a ball. They had no problems going to bed!

Jason headed off to play poker with the guys and, finally, peace and quiet!

Nags Head, NC

We headed to Nags Head, NC on Saturday and stayed through Wednesday. We started out our trip with a layover in Charlotte where Tate came across the 24 Jeff Gordon car. He was in love:)

We met almost our entire family there and, all 21 of us, stayed in a condo on the beach!

Tate had a ball playing with his cousins that he rarely gets to see. They range in age from 10 months-13 yrs old. He played and played and slept really well on the airplane ride home :) The weather was excellent! We were able to swim in the ocean every day. The guys got really good at riding the waves on the boogy boards. Jason, Tate and Papaw went go-carting. Tate was thrilled to report that he beat daddy both times. They played putt-putt golf and fished off the pier. We made a trip to Cape Hattaras and climbed up the 200 and some stairs to get to the top of the lighthouse. We celebrated Maren and Ella's 2nd and 8th birthday. Too bad Maren burnt her lip on the candle as she was blowing it out :( We ended the trip with a bon fire on the beach, roasted marshmallows and made smores and enjoyed the beautiful evening. It was wonderful to spend time with our family! What a memorable trip for everyone!