STL Visitors

Last week, Adam, Janee, and the girls came for a visit for a couple of days. It was so wonderful to spend time with them! We took them to the French Quarter, the zoo, and the aquarium. As you can see from the photos, much here is centered around FOOD! We went to Margaritaville, Acme Oyster Co., and Creole Creamery just to name a few. The kids had such a fun time playing with each other, and we really enjoyed showing them a bit of our new city!

Halloween Night

Well, with all of the other activities around Halloween, you may wonder if we even needed to go trick-or-treating...but for an endless supply of free candy, of course!!! William chose to be a knight and Clark was once again Puffy the Magic Dragon, and, Andy, the biggest kid, went as Willy Wonka. They sure did rake in a haul of candy, and it was so much fun to get to go along with them! The excitement that Halloween brings to kids really lasts only a short number of years, so you have to enjoy it while it lasts.

The kids also helped Andy earlier that day to carve our other pumpkins. Clark was still not thrilled about the goo (it doesn't seem to bother William a bit), but he was a little better about it the second time around.

Halloween is one our favorite times of year, so I must admit that I am little sad to see it go, but wouldn't be nearly as sad to see all of that candy go with it!!!

Halloween Party

The night before Halloween our neighbors hosted a party that we all attended. This is a wonderful family of 8 kids (6 girls, 2 boys) and the owners of the goat that I've mentioned in the past. Andy and Jim (the dad) have lots in common. They workout and run together, Andy has practiced some on Jim's rugby team, and they have gone fishing together.

Much like all other things in NO, the folks here really party it up with just about any and all excuses--Halloween is no exception. This party included a hayride through the streets of our neighborhood and to 2 HUGE block parties. There is one photo of a block party above. It really doesn't do it justice. It was packed, there were food and treats everywhere, and all of the homes were beyond decked out for the occasion--more than we do for Christmas.

Andy chose to be Willy Wonka, so that left several options for me...bet you can't guess what I am? He was a hit at the party as he was giving out Wonka candies. William chose to reprise his dinosaur from school and Clark was Puff the Magic Dragon, or Puffy as he affectionately calls him. It is probably crystal clear, but my parents are the Statue of Liberty and Uncle Sam.

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!