5th Grade Adventure Camp!

 A few weeks ago these two boys set off on an adventure.  

Camp Counselor Hays and his sidekick left town for a few days to go to 5th Grade Camp.

He was in charge of these 6 boys and said they were a really good group. 
I was relieved and so was he.

The kids did all sorts of activities, like archery...

canoeing...

nine square...

and even some learning about the great outdoors.

I know that their favorite activity was playing jackpot during free time, though!

Since they were gone during Halloween, they got to bring their costumes.  

The YMCA put on a Halloween dance and our son even participated!  Look--he's dancing!!!

 

These boys had such a fantastic week.

I'm pretty sure that camp will be at the top of their 5th Grade Best Memories list!

A Spooktacular Night!

Halloween.  It's Lila's second favorite day of the year, only to Christmas.  Cami, on the other hand, declared it her "most favorite, favorite day."  She may change her mind on December 25th, but for now, this is the most exciting day in her life.  These two love to dress up, hang out with their friends and get lots of candy!

Big brother was away at 5th grade camp, so it was just us girls this year.
Presenting my Emoji Super Hero and Princess Jasmine!

First, Memaw and Poppi came to see the girls in their costumes...

then Maddie and Gigi arrived.

We snapped a few photos with some neighbors, then headed to a huge party in a nearby neighborhood.

On our way to the party, we picked up Maheera. 
She had this giant pumpkin snowman in her front yard--too cool!

I was shocked, but the girls all sat down and ate dinner before running around to play. 
So much calmer than boys!

Even though all of these kids go to school with Lila, Maddie knows a good amount of them. 
She found Kiara, who she knows from the musicals.

The Super Hero Emoji Girls were just too cute!

Calley the Pirate was adorable, too.  And how fun is this photo backdrop set up by Jennifer? 
She always throws the best Halloween parties.

Cami was a little overwhelmed with all the kids, but so happy when she found Lexie.  Lauren's big sister is always super nice to her--I love that!

Maheera and Maddie immediately found Mia and Sydney (football players).  They had the whole football experience going on--two players, a cheerleader and a hot dog--genius!

Before we could turn them loose onto the streets of Murphy, we had to snap a pic of all the kids.  This is most of them, minus Princess Jasmine and a few others.  By this point, she had decided that her wig was too itchy.  #princessproblems

Lila's emoji crew was ready to get some major candy.

 

Off we went!  We had 8 girls in our trick-or-treating group.  Thank goodness Gigi went with me.
Somehow we managed to not lose any of them!

It was a fabulous night for all, including my oldest, who was having a ball at his Halloween Dance at camp.

We ended the night at the spooky maze down the street and then came home. Boom Pa had given out most of the candy while watching the World Series.  I watched a little bit of the game while the girls checked out all of their loot, and then got updates from camp.  Jackson and his buddies were having a blast.  A successful night for all!

Happy Halloween!

Pre K Trunk-or-Treat

 As if Monday mornings weren't already busy enough, we had to get Jared and Jackson off to 5th grade camp!  Then, we could focus on transforming Cameron into Cinderella.  Somehow, someway, we were ready in time for school!

This child loves to dress up.  And loves her some makeup.  I love that she still has squishy cheeks!

Zoey is one of her best friends at school.  They are so cute together.

All the teachers were rock stars this year!  Sweet Mrs. A was rocking some solid gold necklaces!

Almost every kid came in costume and all were stoked about getting some candy.

This was my first time at Trunk-or-Treat.  I gotta say, I was blown away! 
All of the cars were super impressive.

This car not only had a 6 foot tall T-Rex balloon on top of it, but they had Halloween music blasting from it as well.  The Monster Mash was my fave.

 

Some of the parents even dressed up, like my friend Caroline.  Such dedication to the event!

Cookie Monster trunk was one of the best, I thought.  These kids are so lucky to have such amazing parents put together this event.  Even if Halloween had been rained out last night, Cami would have been able to say she'd already been trick-or-treating.  Alas, Halloween night was a huge success, though.  Stay tuned for pics!

Goblins & Goals Sting Tourney

We kicked off Halloween a little early this year with a 3 v 3 Tournament for Lila.  Her soccer team was split in half and I was asked to do the costumes for her team.

Team Frankenstein--aren't they just so franken cute?! I had the jerseys made, ordered the Frankenstein leg warmers and bought the headbands.  My skills end there!  Another mom made all the tutus.  Thank goodness for crafty moms!

Team Dracula was pretty fierce.  I'm not so sure that Madi R. shared the same enthusiasm as some other girls did for this team, though!  Too funny.

Let's go #12!

After they lost the first game, we told them to shed the tutus.  Game 2 went much better and they won!  Game 3 didn't turn out as well, but it was good experience for them.

We're hoping at the next 3v3 tournament these two girls get to play together.
I just love those smiles.

Pumpkin Mania

Pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin pies, pumpkin cookies and cakes.  Everywhere we look, there is pumpkin mania!  Last week we went to a small church pumpkin patch. It was perfect!  The kids got to play and then choose a few pumpkins to take home with us.

Four of my very favorite pumpkins.

This kid is growing like crazy!  The scarecrow measured him over 5 ft for sure.

They even had some miniature golf, which Jackson loved.

You can just see it on their faces.  We love fall.

Pumpkins in hand.  Smiles all around.  Success!

Then yesterday, the littlest one and I went to the Dallas Arboretum with Mandy and Matthew.

It's my favorite time of the year there.

There are so many giant pumpkins!

It was a brisk 66 degrees and these kids were ready to explore.

Cameron was so impressed that she even found the perfect spot to sit down and smile for my camera.

The entrance to the pumpkin patch was filled with strollers and there were pumpkins as far as we could see!

There's something so entertaining about climbing on 22 pumpkins.  

Wizard of Oz was the theme this year and they did an outstanding job executing it.

We saw the tin man and the cowardly lion...

and Auntie Em's House was there, too.

Matthew loved the scarecrow the most!

Cami preferred the colorful horses.

The Land of Oz was so cool!

These two even got to sit inside a carriage. 

Cheers to good friends...

young and old...

and to being silly!