Halloween at School

My parents came for a visit just in time to do so many fun Halloween activities with us! This started with William's Halloween Party at school. They had fun games, LOTS of treats, and a costume parade where each kid said what they are for Halloween. William decided to be a dinosaur for his school party. In fact, much in the tradition of his mother, he was something different for school and Halloween night (who doesn't like to dress up?!?!).

Lots of great quality grandparenting time was had with their visit. Of course, in addition to fun things, my dad also helped Andy finish up the back and garage side of our fence. He also did some work that needed to be done on our yard and landscaping. Mom helped us all get our Halloween costumes together. It was so wonderful to have them with us for a week!

Pumpking Carving Party

In the week before Halloween our neighbors hosted a pumpkin carving party. As you can see, Clark was much more interested in eating pumpkin cookies than touching pumpkin goo. It was great fun to do with so many folks, the worst part was that the heat of the week did our pumpkins in (you can see that in the photos from Halloween night).

Pumpkin Patches

William's class went on a field trip yesterday to Mrs. Heather's Pumpkin Patch in Hammond. The kids had a great time jumping on the giant pillow, riding the zipline horse, climbing on hay, petting the animals, and picking out a pumpkin. Clark was very upset that he didn't get to go to the pumpkin patch, so I made plans for us to go to Red Bluff Farm in Folsom today. It was great! We took a hayride and a wagon ride, pet lots of animals (watching the little boy try to catch the pig for Wm and Ck to pet was Ck's favorite), went inside a real teepee, fished in the pond, and picked out some large and small pumpkins for carving into jack-o-lanterns. The kids really enjoyed it and told me several times what a fun time they had there. We really wish Andy could have been there with us, but he had to spend the day in TX.

Fall Vacation

William's school had a fall break a couple of weeks ago, so we decided at the last minute to take advantage of it and headed to Florida. First stop was Disney's Magic Kingdom, then Epcot and SeaWorld. From there we headed to the Atlantic Ocean and spent some time playing in the waves and picking up shells at Cocoa Beach. The photo of William and I by the large pumpkins at Magic Kingdom was on our way out of the park--at 1:30 am (it was an extra magic hours night). Clark fell asleep in the stroller around 11:30-midnight, but the rest of us hung in there. Being there all day and night, we got to ride all of the rides and William is quite the thrill seeker--his favorite ride is Space Mountain. We returned to our favorite Moroccan restaurant at Epcot. As you can see, this time the kids got the chance to dance with the belly dancer and Aladdin and Jasmine stopped by too. Needless to say, a fun time was had by all!

Too Much To Post!

I know we all have periods of busy times, but this last month has been very busy for us! I am going to do my best to update the blog and try to do better at keeping it current. Clark had a great 3rd birthday at the end of September. His favorite gifts from us were the Jeep bike and Thomas umbrella that he received. A big thanks to everyone who sent gifts his way! He really enjoyed his special day!

Class "Pet" Visit

I mentioned in the Star Student post, Rocky, William's class panther, spent the weekend with us. The fun began on Friday night when we went to pizza and then had him join our movie night presentation of Brother Bear.

Saturday we journeyed to Fountainbleau State Park in Mandeville (north of Lake Ponchartrain). There the kids and I went on a 2 mile hike through the woods and over a marsh--yes, I did see one rather large, venomous snake. LA has some rather crazy wildlife, so I took this opportunity to teach the kids about talking/singing/clapping on a trail to let bears know we're there (we have a bear bell, but I forgot to bring it along). We also walked to the pier that overlooks Lake Ponchartrain and watched the fish jumping near the surface. Before we left we went to the Nature Center. The kids were very excited to see a baby alligator in a tank there, and even more excited when they got a chance to pet it!

Today was Lakeview Fest. It is a carnival near our house with games, music, and lots of food. Again, Rocky went along for the fun. The kids played lots of games and won several prizes, and, of course, each had to have cupcakes and king cake.

As a part of visiting all of the reserve units in his district, Andy spent the weekend in St. Louis. While we definitely missed having him home with us for yet another weekend, it was well-timed so that he could attend Mike's farewell party this afternoon. I know he also spent some time showing a few out-of-town Coasties the sites and sounds of STL, so if he has pictures, I will be sure to share them.

Star Student

William was selected as Star Student in his class for the week. Each child gets a chance to be the star for a week and it is a way for the kids to get to know each other better. This means a few special things for him throughout the week, but the biggest came yesterday. He brought in a couple of items to show and share with the class. He chose to bring a bowling pin that he received at his bowling party and his bug/lizard catching vest and tools. The kids were very interested in both items. They all had to touch the bowling pin and they wanted to see all of the various bug tools up close. I also got to be there for the show and share, and then I read a story to his class that William picked out. He chose "Mrs. McNosh and the Great Big Squash" which has always been one of his favorites. Since it is a fairly short poem story, I brought along a squash to talk a little bit about that and lengthen the book some. It was such a fun experience to watch William in front of his classmates and to share a story with them!

Also, you may notice a few, including William, wearing crazy socks. As part of S week, they all wore silly socks to school yesterday. William wore a pair of pirate tube socks. I was informed by William that I even had to participate since I was coming to his class that day, so of course I wore some crazy striped ones. The teachers were impressed that I brought the squash during the "s" week and wondered if I planned it--of course, I said yes.

The other part of being Star Student is that he brings home the class "pet" for the weekend. Rocky, the black panther, is staying with us this weekend and going everywhere we go. I will post about our adventures with Rocky after tomorrow.