Weekend in CS with the Powell's

For the past few years, the Powell's and Huey's and our family try to get together. We have gone to each other's homes and taken a couple of beach and cabin camping trips together. But, with everyone in school and kids getting bigger, those vacations seem to become less. We need to work on that! However, we did get the Powell's in town for a weekend at the end of October and it's always so much fun! With Mandee and Derek, like many of our friends who we don't see often, we can pick right up where we left off and have the best time. And our kids have so much fun together. Beck and Ben and Atticus and Grace just play and play (and those boys are always SO sweet to include Grace in everything!). So, they came into town Friday afternoon and left Sunday morning. We hit up the pumpkin patch, played baseball outside, ate Mad Taco, cooked out, stayed up way too late visiting each night while the kids crashed, and it was just a great time.

They arrived Friday night; we ate fajitas for dinner; and they got busy playing!

They were up early the next morning to pull every toy out and play and play! Even Everly enjoyed herself. 

 We hit up the pumpkin patch next to let them burn off some energy. I mostly took pictures of Everly - the cutest pumpkin in the patch!

Then, before we went to lunch, we headed to the corn maze. For a cool day, it ended up hot and everyone was tired, but it was fun to see what TAMU Ag can do when they put together a maze!

Then we headed to eat at Mad Taco.

 

Then, we headed home to a beautiful afternoon of kids (and dads - I need to post those videos!) playing baseball! I love that Atticus used his football helmet for Halloween as his batting helmet, since he didn't have one. Luc and Ellie, from next door, came to play too! Actually - here are links to the videos, although I don't expect anyone to find them as funny as I do! You may have had to be there! 

https://youtu.be/sOCyTEzr5AI

https://youtu.be/rkSlL3dLjyE

https://youtu.be/MOwnS_5rr2U

 

 

Ben wouldn't smile - he is such a cute little stinker! But, he's the sweetest to Grace; I hope these boys always take care of her when we are together. Melissa and Ella also came by because they were in town for the football game. 

Then, they came in, drew mascots for awhile, we ate steaks and kabobs, and attempted to put them to sleep on the floor with a movie. I think they finally fell asleep!

It's always a great weekend with our friends in town!

First Grade Book Character Day and Field Trip to P-6 Farms

There's always something fun going on in First Grade and I thought I'd share these two fun days! Every year around Halloween, instead of dressing up for the holiday, Pebble Creek does Book Character Day. They dress up, bring their books, and have a parade around the gym. Last year, Atticus was the Tickle Monster from the book The Tickle Monster and this year he was Flat Stanley from Flat Stanley at Bat. Well, you know me - I think I need to get creative for costumes, but I always envision something and then have to figure out how to make it work. What I envisioned was slightly different, but this worked. Here is our little baseball player!

 I was trying to get him as flat as possible, even though clearly Atticus's little body is 3D! :) So, I planned to somehow put cardboard all the way down his body, under his clothes, but it was tough enough just getting something to fit into his shirt. But, we made it work and he was cute! And he loved wearing baseball gear to school!

Also, this month was their first field trip of the year. They went to P-6 Farms. I got a fun ride with other moms (so that means fun visiting!) and then spent the day watching Atticus play and do all of the activities with his friends. And his teacher, Mrs. Payne, is SO much fun; she lets them have a great time and be wild and crazy, as long as they behave overall of course. I always appreciated this with Mrs. Downs as well. She let them have FUN on days that were supposed to be fun. I think his favorite part was the apple launcher where they tried to hit a target in the field with apples. But, there were pig races and slides and rides and a corn maze and lots of fun things to do. My favorite pictures are the bus pics of he and his friend Cameron - wide awake on the way there and dead asleep on the way home!

Family Pictures Fall 2017

So, for this year, I purchased a local photographer's mini session for our family pictures. Family pictures can get so expensive, but I really want them once a year because the kids grow and change so much! With a mini session, the photographer spent about 20 minutes with us and gives us about 25 pictures and we can choose 15 of those to keep digital copies of. So, we were taking a chance that she could get good shots within a short time frame. The kids did good, but it was SO STEAMY AND HUMID AND HOT! Why is College Station so humid?? I was pleased with the pictures, but might save my money next time to get a full session with someone. For example, we only got one photo of the kids and Grace isn't even looking at the camera! ha! So, I think we need more time when they are little. Anyways, you will see these on your Christmas cards too, but I'll share now!