Halloween Events

You guys, I have a confession.  I don't like Halloween.  I've never really, REALLY loved it but the last couple of years have really convinced me that I might not even like it.  There are a billion events to attend and they all require a costume and end with a giant bag of candy.  By November 1st, we're usually all in tears from exhaustion and have at least one new cavity each.

All that being said, my kids really loved Halloween this year!  Our first event was the Halloween carnival at their school.  Thankfully we got to skip the costumes for this one.  The kids both enjoyed playing games with their friends.

The Sunday before Halloween every year, our neighborhood has a big parade!  It consists of trailers full of kids in costume...not parade floats.  Our kids always ride with their friends (and their Daddy).  I have learned that it's more fun to sit on the side of the road and watch the parade (and collect the candy thrown at me!) than to actually be in it. 

We never get to stay for the parade after party because the Sunday before Halloween is also when our church has Trunk or Treat.  We rush over to the church parking lot to get our trunk decorated and ready for trick or treaters.  I only took one picture from Trunk or Treat!  This is the game we had our trunk - the kids got to drop a penny into the big jar of water and see if they could get it to land in the smaller jar in the bottom.  

From there, we rushed to a friend's house for a Halloween party, which I sadly took no pictures at! :(

Halloween fell on a Tuesday this year so we rushed home from work to get dressed up for the night.  Matt and I were both injured so it was a good thing we found some good doctors that make house calls.

In our neighborhood, the houses are a little spaced out so kids ride on trailers or four-wheelers or golf carts to go from house to house.  We piled back onto the parade trailer and go ready to go!

We were pulling up to the first house when the sprinkles started and the temperature dropped!  Our doctors added raincoats and hats to their ensembles and kept knocking on doors. 

We called it quits early this year since we were all cold and wet, but the kids had candy so they didn't seem to mind.  I immediately threw their costumes into the washing machine so they could wear them again to school the next day for All Saints Day.  One more day of costumes and then we could say goodbye to Halloween for a year! :)

A Day at Cedar Hill Farms

For the last few years, my Mom and I have made it a tradition to take the kids to Cedar Hill Farms while Matt and my Dad are away on their annual guys' trip.  It gives us something fun to do on Saturday and usually wears the kids out!  This year we were lucky enough to be there at the same time as some of our friends too.

The first pig races were getting ready to start when we arrived so we made our way there to get a seat with our buddies.

After the pig races, the kids jumped in line to be in the front of the tractor ride.

For tradition's sake, we had to take photos by the pumpkin growth chart.  Thomas couldn't even stand on his own his first time here!

With all the pumpkins and animals that the farm has to offer, my kids always love the play area the best.  I don't blame them...huge tunnel slides, tire swings, tether ball, zip line...I enjoy it all too!  We have learned that bringing a picnic lunch is the way to go and we set up at a table right by the play area so the kids can play and eat, play and eat.

We save the pumpkin patch for the end of our visit so we don't have to lug pumpkins around all day.  The kids get to pick a pie pumpkin to take with the price of their admission.

Near the pumpkin patch is also a really cool wooden pirate ship play area that the kids like to climb on.  

The weather warmed up after lunch so I was glad when we finally hopped on the trailer for a ride back to our car.  The kids and I were all ready to head home for naps!

First Soccer Season

This fall, Katie Wynn and a couple of her buddies signed up for their first soccer season, making me an official Soccer Mom!  Soccer wasn't really popular in our town when I was little, so I never played and don't know all of the rules.  That doesn't mean I didn't do my fair share of shouting from the sidelines.  :)  I just want my girl to hustle, ok?

Both of our main coaches were out of town for the first game so Matt got to be head coach.  I think he probably sweated more than the kids did as he was having to constantly put them back in place.  Luckily at this age, they play with just three players from each team at a time. 

I was really impressed with Katie Wynn's skills and aggression.  She knew to stay with the ball when she had it!

This team picture is missing Levi who was out of town for this game!  (Left to right: Katie Wynn, Addi Clare, Max, Luke, and Roston)

Thomas really wanted to be a part of the team too. 

But he settled for watching the games from the sidelines with his Daddy.

Towards the end of the season, I think Katie Wynn really got good at playing defense.  She knew to get in front of the goal when the other team had the ball and she was so good at blocking the ball with her body.  Maybe she'll be a goalie when she's older?

Just like with t-ball, the highlight for Katie Wynn was getting that participation trophy at the end of the season.  Or, in this case, a medal that she had to take for show and tell at school the following day.

Somehow I never got a picture of the whole team of six!  The picture below includes Levi but now Roston is missing.

Overall I think she really enjoyed getting to play soccer.  Next year we may have two kiddos playing...hopefully on the same team!

Our trip to Washington, DC

In November of 2016, Matt's Granddaddy passed on and we had a nice service for him in his hometown.  We did not have a burial for him because, since he was a career marine, he would be buried at Arlington Cemetery in Washington, DC.  Matt's Mom got him on the schedule for Arlington and because they say so booked up, we knew it would be June or July before we heard back from them to get scheduled for Granddaddy's service.  Once she heard from them, we were finally given an October date, nearly a full year after his passing.

We told the kids about three weeks out that we were going to get to go on an airplane ride and say a final goodbye to Granddaddy.  They were excited and we counted down the days until we got to head to the airport!

We had a pretty full morning of traveling.  We met Wyatt at the airport for the first leg (sadly, Anna didn't get to join us since it was Homecoming weekend and she had cheerleading obligations) and hooked up with Matt's parents on our layover for the second flight.  By the time we made it to DC, we had a quick lunch and then it was time for a nap for our kiddos.

This may look like just a pile of pictures on a bed to you, but there's a Thomas hidden underneath them.  Yes, that's where he actually took his nap.  He was playing under the pillows and fell right to sleep.

That night we had a nice dinner out with just our side of the family.  We enjoyed a nice walk back to the hotel that was made a little bit longer by getting slightly lost for a while.  The kids enjoyed getting to be out late!

Friday morning we got dressed up and ready for Granddaddy's service. 

We rented a limo and a bus for all of us to travel to the Arlington in.  Our family got to ride in the limo!

I am not a wordsmith by any means so there's no way I could do justice to describing how amazing the service was for Granddaddy.  We left the lobby where we had been waiting and all rode in the bus to the service.  First, though, we stopped to let the urn be transferred into a casket.  I took the picture below from the window before we got out of the bus to watch the transfer.

From there, we caravanned to the location of Granddaddy's actual service.  The Arlington performs 27-30 burials a day but you wouldn't know it.  Before we got there, I expected that we would be able to see other services going on in other parts of the cemetery around us, but we didn't see any others.  They made us feel like we were the only ones there that day.  

I tried to discreetly take pictures throughout the service.  This was the first funeral for Katie Wynn and Thomas to attend and they did a pretty good job of being quiet and taking it all in.  

There was a 21 gun salute for Granddaddy, which is actually three rounds of seven shots.  The shells were given to Matt's Mom, the patriarch of the family, at the end of the service.

My favorite part was probably when Taps was played by a trumpet (or bugle?) soloist.  The full band played 2 or 3 other songs too.  

Katie Wynn was a little weepy at the end of the service.  We had been telling her that we were going to get to say goodbye to Granddaddy and I think she thought she was going to get to see him.  I tried to explain that we just picked something that reminded us of him to bury - I didn't think she was ready to learn about cremation just yet.  

We walked to see Granddaddy's headstone where his two wives that preceded him in death had already been buried.  His new stone will have his name on the front and their names will move to the back. 

After the service, most everyone was going to stay to watch the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.  It happens every hour and since we were just a few minutes past the hour, we knew it was going to be too long of a wait for the next one for our two littles to handle.  So the four of us hopped back in the limo to go change clothes and get lunch.  

The weather was nice enough for us to eat outside and the kids enjoyed playing in this little tube thing.  

That evening, we had a big dinner for everyone that had traveled in for the service to attend.  We had a private room at an Italian restaurant and they served us SO much delicious food.  It was nice to visit with all of Matt's family and even meet some that I'd never seen before.  A lot of them had not ever met our little kids either so we were glad to have them with us. 

We got to sit at a table with one of Granddaddy's good friends, Howard Piercy, and it was great hearing stories about them and their wives from back in the day!

Saturday was our last day in DC.  Wyatt's flight left early in the morning but ours wasn't until late afternoon.  We spent the morning doing some sight-seeing and visiting the National Air and Space Museum.  

There were food tucks lined up at the National Mall and I'm not one to say no to food truck food.  Everyone got to pick which truck their lunch came from and then we tried to look extra tourist-y while eating on the benches.  

Soon after lunch we grabbed a cab to get our stuff from the hotel and then headed straight for the airport and our flight back home.  It was a quick trip to DC but one that was special and will always be remembered! 

September Phone Pics

With all the time spent on building our handmade hideaway (seriously, ALL the time), you'd think we weren't able to squeeze anything else into September.  But somehow we did.  And here are the pictures to prove it. 

This first picture is one of my favorites.  As I've already shared, we had family pictures taken on Labor Day weekend.  I was trying to plan out each of our outfits before picture day and needed to try Thomas's new shorts on him to make sure they fit.  It was his idea to lay down with the other outfits to make sure he looked okay with them.  :)  Sure do love this little guy.

We went to a Friday night football game to root for the home team!  This was our first time taking the kids to see a game at my alma mater.  Pretty sure they were just there for the popcorn. 

How is it that every month I wind up with Katie Wynn and her chocolatey mouth on my phone?  She is so neat eating except when it comes to chocolate!

I got to have a mid-week morning date with my favorite little guy.  Unfortunately for him, it was because he had a doctor's appointment.  And we squeezed in a big boy haircut too.  

Speaking of mid-week dates, my Mom and I got to have one too!  We hit the road midday one Wednesday to drive to Little Rock for a little shopping and then a cookie decorating class!

I was so busy playing with icing that the picture above is the only one I took.  Everyone in the class got to decorate six cookies.  Ours don't look so bad from a distance.  :)  Notice they are not shown next to the instructor's set! 

My set of cookies

Mom's set of cookies

Our kids go to Mass every Friday morning at the Catholic preschool they attend.  And for whatever reason, after Mass Father Charles draws pictures on the kids' hands and arms...with sharpie.  Every mother's nightmare.  He's known for drawing Snoopy.  One Friday I picked Katie Wynn up and asked her what she had drawn that morning and she told me all about her Snoopy, heart, and "S in jail."  What?!  I had to look at her arm to see what she was talking about.  A dollar sign, y'all.  $  "S in jail." Ha!

Speaking of preschool, Matt and I got to join the kids for a pizza lunch in the cafeteria the day before Katie Wynn's birthday.  I love having the flexibility to do this now that I'm not tied to my desk job! 

Later that night, we had Katie Wynn's birthday dinner where she got to blow out her first set of candles.  We put her to bed one last time as a four year old!

The tradition at our house is that on the morning of your birthday, you wake up to balloons!  The number of balloons equals the age that you're turning.  The kids have definitely caught on to this tradition and LOVE seeing the balloons when they wake up!

We also provided the sanctuary flowers on the Sunday of KW's birthday weekend in her honor.  I told the florist to do a colorful bouquet with lots of orange since it's her favorite color.  They came through!  (Photo taken after church when we were taking the flowers to our car.)

We showed up to our church's fall festival one Saturday and go figure that all the kids were in matching Hogs shirts with red gingham shorts!  

We spent lots of time during the month visiting different playgrounds too.  

And that's a wrap on another fun month!