Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween Everyone! I hope that you all enjoyed a safe and fun Halloween. I am exhausted, but have two happy, very worn out boys sleeping soundly after our night of excitement. Trey was Darth Vader. He picked out his costume a few weeks ago and never changed. Jesse on the other hand, has been the boy of the changing costumes. He started out wanting to be Scooby Doo, and then Spider Man. When we went to pick out costumes he settled on Super Man. Then he decided that he wanted to be Eeyore...no problem, I have an Eeyore costume from Trey. However, once I tried to put the costume on him and went to pull it over his head big problems arose. So then he decided he would be Super Man...great, that's the costume we bought for him several weeks ago. Then a few days ago he decides he wants to be Batman. We don't have a Batman costume and no way am I going to buy another costume. So finally, he decides he wants to be a cow. Luckily, his cousin Vera Kate was a cow last year so we have access to a cow costume. So a cow he was, and a very cute one at that!

Once we were dressed in our costumes it was time to go trunk or treating at church. For those that don't know, trunk or treating is where you decorate the trunk of your car, or the back of your van/suv/truck, and hand out candy from there. We close off the street by our church and everyone lines up their vehicles and hands out candy to the kids. Since our church is located in the middle of town, we have quite a crowd of kids come through. The boys had a blast trunk or treating with their cousins and friends.

Once the trunk or treat was over, we headed to Papa and Ah-ee's to get the boys' Halloween treats from them.

Oh, and by the way, Trey won for best costume, Jesse won for silliest costume, Whit won for funniest costume, and Cora Jane and Vera Kate tied for cutest costume. And we won for spookiest trunk...I think it had something to do with the strobe lights in the pumpkins and the spooky Halloween music that we played!

Pumpkin Carvin'

After visiting the pumpkin patch and picking out the perfect pumpkin, it was time to carve it. Trey's job over the past several years has been to scoop out the guts. He did a marvelous job this year, and cleaned out the whole pumpkin mostly by himself. Jesse was not as sure about sticking his hand inside the pumpkin. His verdict was, "Yuck!"Phil and I picked out a beautiful pumpkin this year with a large, curving stem. We had to talk Trey into getting this pumpkin, so we resorted to bribery and told both boys that they could get something from the gift shop. Jesse picked out pumpkin decorating stickers and he was much more impressed with putting the stickers on the smaller pumpkins than he was with the guts of the big pumpkin.Once we got out the scoop to dig out the inside of the pumpkin, Jesse was much more interested in helping to clean out the big pumpkin.Jesse's sticker decorated pumpkins.Jesse was kind enough to share his stickers with Trey, so here's Trey's sticker decorated pumpkin.Daddy did a WONDERFUL job carving out the haunted house that Trey had picked out. But the beautiful, curving green stem that was the whole reason we picked out this pumpkin. Well, the pumpkin fell over on the ride home, and that beautiful stem snapped right off.Unfortunately, even though it has cooled off tremendously this week, carved pumpkins don't last long in south Georgia. It was beautiful while it lasted though.

Happy Fall Ya'll!

We made our annual trek to the pumpkin patch on Sunday afternoon. I believe that this is the fourth year that we've visited this particular patch, and it has truly gotten better every year. This year they have made two big additions...a spider slide and a cow train. Both were very cool and met with approval from both boys. In addition to the new attractions, we also went on a hay ride, fed goats, visited the other animals in the petting zoo, attempted to rope a "steer" (a couple of bales of hay with a plastic steer head attached), wandered through the corn maze, and of course picked out our pumpkin to be carved.

Haunted Houses

Most of you who know my Trey Bear well, know that he loves to cook. He is always wanting to help in the kitchen, make pizzas, cookies, cakes, etc. Christmastime is always his favorite as we spend many hours making cookies and gingerbread houses. A few years ago, some marketing genius decided to come out with the Halloween Haunted Gingerbread House. Trey saw the kit in Walmart and of course we had to have it. So the past few years we've made two gingerbread houses, one at Halloween and one at Christmas. Now, if you've ever tried to make gingerbread houses with kids, you know what a pain it is. But we solider on and just do it because the look of delight on our little ones' faces is worth all the hassle. A few weeks ago I was shopping in Target and came upon the Rice Krispie Haunted House kit. I bought it and surprised the boys with it thinking that it looked tons easier than the gingerbread house and oh how happy I would be to just have to do one gingerbread house this year. Today we made the Rice Krispie Treat houses and you know what....I was right! It was tons and tons easier than the gingerbread house, the kit made two houses so each of the boys had their own, it's a lot easier to eat and much tastier than the gingerbread house, and the pan is reusable so all I have to do is buy the ingredients to make more whenever we want. Yea...this one definitely goes into the win column.

Trey has never gotten to "cook" on the stove before, but today I decided to let him stir the melting marshmallows. He told me he was "like a grown up now".

While Trey "cooked" like a grown up, Jesse read the directions.
Mashing the Rice Krispie mixture into the pan.

Trey's turn!
After using the pan to make the houses, the boys used the leftover mixture to shape windows, shutters, doors, etc. Well, Trey and I did all this while Jesse...
made a bird house!
I helped Jesse with the decorating of his house by doing all the icing work and placing little dots where he could put the jelly beans.

Jesse's finished product.A close up of Jesse's haunted house.

Trey did absolutely all of his own decorating.
Trey's finished product.

A close up of Trey's Haunted House.
The best part...eating the leftovers!
Yummy!

Got wheels??? Will Travel...

Just your typical Saturday afternoon in South Georgia...

Weldon on his 4 wheeler...

Jesse on the lawnmower...

And Aunt Lauris on a tricycle

Spirit Week

Last week was Homecoming Spirit Week at Trey's school. Trey loves the dress up days and gets all into the spirit of the whole thing. Most of the days were pretty tame. We had the ever present Camo Day on Monday.

Thursday was Class Color Day where each class wears a different color. First grade's color was an exciting white:)

Trey's favorite day (and mine too) was Tuesday which was Tacky/Nerd Day. Trey renamed it Wacky Tacky Day and he went all out, including going to school with a severe case of bed head.

Isn't he Wacky Tacky personified???

And after school....the boys had haircuts. So off we went, bed head and all:)

Field Trip to the Fire House

Last week Trey's school went on a field trip to a local fire station. I did not attend this particular field trip as Trey insisted that his Daddy go with him. So all these pictures were taken by Daddy. Aren't you impressed...I certainly was! He did a fantastic job capturing all the pertinent data. He even took pictures of all of Trey's classmates since Mrs. Deen (Trey's teacher) forgot her camera and asked him to be the official cameraman. Trey had a wonderful time...he got to check out an ambulance and a firetruck, watch a fireman put on his full garb, and spray water out of a fire hose. So without further ado, here is Trey's field trip in pictures:

Here the bus has just arrived and Trey is very happy to note that Daddy has arrived too. Phil was a little late getting to school (anyone who knows him is not surprised:) and the bus had already left, but he caught up to it in no time.

Checking out the inside of the ambulance.

Trey and one of his classmates pretended to be asleep, and then the firemen pumped in fake smoke. The kids then crawled to safety. Trey explained this particular episode in great detail, but my brain is foggy at the moment.

Trey being helped to safety by one of the firemen.
Targets were set up and each of the kids took turns using the fire hose to squirt them. Phil got a picture of each one of Trey's classmates as they performed this feat, and the expressions on their faces is priceless.

Exiting the fire truck.