Halloween bonanza!

It's a good thing Halloween only comes once a year! It wore me out this year. Seriously, Jackson had his school party on Friday, which meant he dressed up and went trick-or-treating there. Then we went to two Fall Festivals, a family Halloween party and then trick-or-treated on Halloween night. Whew! It was a lot to take in for one weekend, that's for sure. Good thing I have such a great fam to spend it with, though.

Friday night was a little chilly, so I made the fireman wear his gloves to the first Fall Fest.

He played a few games like this bean bag toss

and find the key

and then just had to go take on the bounce houses!

Miss Lila went too and slept through most of it, but when she woke up we got this family pic. I think she was a little bit overwhelmed. For most of the night she had both arms out to her sides and just this scared look on her face.

Jackson discovered the greatness of the cake walk. As a child, this was one of my favorite things to do at our family reunions. I always came home with at least two cakes!

So imagine my pride when our child won on only his second try!

The next day Jackson and I went to his school Fall Fest. We just happened to park right next to Mia's family (blonde girlfriend mentioned in a previous post). She walked right up to J, grabbed his hand and off they went!

He didn't even care that her daddy was right there!

We did a few indoor activities first, like letting the kids get fake tattoos. Maddie got something on her cheek and J got a dragonfly on his arm. Pretty interesting choice, but there really weren't too many cool things to choose from.

The outdoor part was lots of fun--the kids headed straight for the petting zoo. I thought Madison was going to hop on in with these little ponies.

Then they played a few more games, like this toilet paper toss.

Boom thought he should get to play, too, so he threw a few balls at the target for the dunk tank. He actually hit the target twice, but she didn't fall in!

A friend of mine snapped this picture--I love it because it looks like I've got everything under control, right? The truth is about two seconds after this they both broke free and were running like the wind to get to their next event! I was running after them hollering, such a scene, and they could not have cared less!

We ended the afternoon with another turn in the bounce house. They loved it so much that they refused to get out. The guy had to go in and get them for me. "Yes, those two unruly ones are mine. Could you please bring them out for me?" Guess that means they were having fun.

Halloween night it was finally time for the main event. These two did so good this year. They said "trick or treat" at every house and even told most of the neighbors
"thank you," as well. By the time we got back to our house they were pooped and so were we. They got some really good candy, though. Jackson's expression says it all, I think. Halloween rules!

Great day for the Arboretum!

I love the fall. I know I've said it before, but it really is my favorite season. The weather was beautiful here yesterday, so we headed on over to the Dallas Arboretum.

Jackson spotted these huge pumpkins right when we walked in and got a big kick out of them. He had to sit on lots of them and kept commenting on how gigantic they were. I can't get over how long his long legs are!

This was the best sibling shot I got--he's reaching his hand over her shoulder, so sweet. If only he were also looking at the camera. Oh well!

Lila was very intrigued with the hay. She tried to eat it the whole time. It was really hard just to get her to look up because she was so enthralled with the hay.

Oh my! I was very nearby for this one.

We did put her on top of the pumpkins once. She didn't really love it as much as we did, though.

Gigi went with us--here they are in front of one of the cool pumpkin houses.

Jackson loved showing me how big this one was!

They even had a baby pumpkin house and J thought it was cute, too, so we took Lila over to see it.

This year Jackson was fascinated with all of the gourds. He kept finding bigger and bigger gourds. I think he just liked saying that new word.

After all that gourd hunting a boy's bound to get hungry. There was a great outside eating area serving hot dogs, chips, sauerkraut and root beer floats, so we took a seat there. The best part was the german music they had playing. Jackson jammed in his seat the whole time and even came up with original songs that he performed for us!

After filling our bellies, it was time to get some pics of Lila in her halloween costume. Her big brother picked out her costume.

Isn't she such a sweet angel baby?

I love it!

Thanks again, Gigi, for going with us. J man, angel baby and their mama all had a great time.

Sugar babies

In the spirit of Texas Rangers day, we decided to bake some sugar cookies and let the big kids decorate them. I thought they would have fun rolling the dough and then baking the cookies.

I did a demo cookie roll for the kids and placed it on the baking sheet. They each were given four slices of dough to roll themselves. Now take a close look. Jackson has nicely rolled his and is even giving his mama a sweet smile. Madison is not so interested in forming a cookie ball.

No cookie balls for this girl! Notice how she was tearing the dough in two? It was preparation for it to go directly in her mouth. Forget the oven--let's just eat the dough! Gotta say, I'm with her. I'd rather eat cookie dough any day.

So proud of his sprinkle cookie.

It looks like the sprinkle cookie was a hit with the littlest cookie monster, too!

We've got spirit!

Yes we do! Today is Texas Rangers Day at Jackson & Maddie's school.

Madison came over this morning and told me she was a Rangers cheerleader.

Josh Hamilton and his number one fan.

Looks like they are ready for the big game tonight.

Let's Go Rangers!!

Crystal the Frog

My son and his daddy found the cutest little frog outside this past weekend. They loved it so much that they decided it should become our new temporary pet.

They worked very hard (mostly Jared) getting a nice box put together for the little frog. They put some grass, tree branches and a little bowl of water in there.

Jackson didn't so much help with the box, but mostly because his time was spent guarding the frog and making sure it did not escape from the container. As you can see, he took his job very seriously!

When it was time, they made the transfer.

J watched his new pet for at least 20 minutes. He really wanted to be sure that the frog would not jump out.

See the frog? So tiny. Wanna guess what Jackson named it? Crystal. Yes, meet Crystal the frog.

Annual trip to Owens Farm

We mosied on over to Owens Spring Creek Farm a few days ago and really enjoyed ourselves. The look on Madison's face here describes how I felt, though, as we were approaching the farm. There were so many people there. Many, many school buses and about a bazillion cars. I have never seen it anywhere near that crowded before!

Thank goodness we didn't just turn around and go home, because we all had so much fun.

We got some cute pics on the haybales,

then the big kids got to feed the goats.

As we were leaving the animals, we ran into Miss Chloe and her parents and chatted for a sec. Then Lila woke up and it was time to go take some cute pictures in the pumpkins.

Chloe let Lila borrow her orange tutu and it was so very precious!

She got many compliments the whole time we were there.

Those baby blues get me every time.

Madison tried to show her how there were orange pumpkins inside her tutu. Pretty cool.

Jackson was pumpkin surfing, Maddie was trying to reach the sky and Lila was pretty much over having her picture taken!

Now on to the fun stuff. The kids rode the barrel ride again. This time, though, Jackson paid for both of them. It was so cute to watch as he told the tractor driver, "two tickets, for both of us."

For our final activity, we all took a hayride together. Such a fun family day and close to home. Best of both worlds.