Happy Halloween

Well, I let the kids pick out their costumes this year. The only rule was that they had to lock in their choices two weeks out. Still I procrastinated and didn't start sewing until the week of Halloween.

Casey might have gotten a little short changed. All I made him was the vest, everything else was part of is every day wardrobe. Yes, even the hat. He likes to wear it to school daily.

After paging through the Wish Craft catalog, Elizabeth narrowed her choices down to vampire or rock star. I am kind of glad she went with rock star. I enjoyed sewing it, and she completely rocked her costume. However, she keeps asking me when she can wear it to school. I don't think so, honey. Well, maybe just the jacket...it is reversible.

Ava's inspiration was the cupcake costume in the Pottery Barn catalog, but there is no way I am spending $60 on a costume. Materials only ran me a few bucks, but it did cost me three nights of limited sleep. This is my favorite costume this year, and I think Ava looks super sweet.

Pumpkin Patch or Fair Grounds

It is October, so you take your kids to the Pumpkin Patch. Right? However, I am not even sure they grow pumpkins in Texas. Funny thing is that the Pumpkin Patch was at a Christmas Tree farm about an hour outside of San Antonio. We saw no patch, just pre-picked pumpkins set out for sale, but they had lots of activities for the kids to do. Which is good because they charge $8 per person to visit. I am really glad that I had a coupon for half off and two free ice cream cones, otherwise it would have been a very expensive day out for a family of five.

Elizabeth started with "dress a scarecrow."

We moved onto a little fishing. Ava was the only one who caught anything.

The kids also did some bike races, took a tractor ride through the Christmas tree farm, ran throught the hay maze, and checked out the farm animals.

Some relief from the heat. So much for fall weather, I think it was about 90 degrees.

The kids had a blast and wanted to stay twice as long as we did, but it was super hot and we had to get Ryan home to work that night.

P.S. We did get a little family of mini-pumpkins.

Sports Season

Now that it is no longer over 90 degrees everyday, sports are in full swing. Ava opted to play T-ball again, Elizabeth wanted to try soccer, and with Casey in gymnastics, I am a crazy fool. We are on the go 4 days a week for the next couple of months. I will keep you posted on how their seasons go.

Annual Pilgrimage

Some folks go to Disney World, we go to Kiddie Park, a small, local, miniature amusement park filled with rides from the 1920's. We went here last year, and decided it was definitely worth another visit before leaving San Antonio.

The weather was gorgeous and our neighbors with their little girl came with us. It was a great morning, and Kiddie Park probably ranks higher than McDonald's Playland on the kids' list of favorite activities.

Ridden not less than a half dozen time, the school bus remains a favorite.

This ride makes my head spin, but the girls love it.

The funniest thing was hearing all three girls talking about who was going to get to ride in the one and only pink car, and then watching Casey shoot through the open gate, sprint around the track, and jump in the pink car-claiming it for himself.

Government Canyon State Park

I had to work on Columbus Day, but Ryan and the kids had the day off so they decided to explore Government Canyon State Park about a 30-45 minute drive from San Antonio. Ryan tried to take the girls a few weeks ago, only to find out the park is closed mid week. This time they met with success and hike a good six miles through the park. Little Casey even made it the whole way, but I did hear that he was begging to be carried the last mile. Not bad for a little guy. We are officially stroller/back pack free for a few more months.

The adventure begins.

Rest stop.

After some lunch.

Little pet frog. The long walk home. I wish I could have joined them. It looked like a fun day.

After hours

After putting Casey to bed for the evening, I went about putting the girls to bed and cleaning up the house. After about 30 minutes, I went to check on all the kids, and this is what I found. Casey had climbed out bed and onto his dresser. Then, he turned on the lights and opened up a tube of diaper cream which he then proceeded to apply liberally to his legs (and a bit on his face). When I asked him what he was doing, he told me he was fixing his "owies."

Where did he learn this behavior you ask? Bugs love Ava and often leave her with lots of itchy bites all over her legs, for which I will apply Cortisone cream to sooth the itch.

It all makes sense now.

Cortisone cream for bug bites.

Diaper cream for scrapes and bruises.

No one can steal MY Boots!

If I forgot to tell you...

Ryan and I are conducting a little scientific experiment on a person's sanity limits. Baby #4 will be joining our wild crew in February. Casey and the girls will have a new little brother to torture.

We thought it was a better idea than a puppy.

Great day to be a kid

Adventures in Texas

Temperatures were actually moderate on Saturday (mid 80's) and Ryan had some time off, so we decided to venture into the Texas hill country to do some exploring. Our first stop was Hamilton Springs. The kids took off running the moment the car doors opened.

Casey was a wild man, jumping off of rocks and running down steep paths. Luckily, he made it through the day unscathed.

Hamilton Springs has two main attractions. The first is the springs which consists of a waterfall and a swimming hole. The second is the river that the springs feed into about 3/4 of mile away.

After a snack break and some play time at the river it started to rain, so we figured it was a good time to hike back to the car and move onto our next destination. The sky cleared up within the hour, perfect timing as we had just arrived at Pedernales Falls State Park. Here we enjoyed scampering over the rocks and admiring the falls for the next few hours. Unfortunately, it is to dangerous to swim in this section of the river, even during low water conditions.

We even attempted a family photo.

The kids were wiped by the end of the day, but they had a great time. It was pretty cute to hear the girls thank us for taking them on such a fun outing.

Freedom!

Well, it took about 3-4 days of practice and a whole lot of tears, whining, pleading, cajoling, and shouting on both Elizabeth and our parts, but she is confidently riding without training wheels now.

He speaks!

Casey is really making a lot of progress in speech therapy. I got the good news today that in a few months he will go down to only one visit a week, and he should be discharged around his 3rd birthday. They still want to clear up a few things in his speech, but it is really awesome to hear him clearly pronounce bi-cyc-le.

Kids say the darnest things

Comment from Elizabeth as we were driving by the horse stables the other day that had us laughing hysterically.

"Hey look, that horse is wearing underwear on his head."

Three Ring Entertainment

How do you resist the girl who begs you for a week to go to the circus, and go so far as to present you with circus coupons that she has found in the mail, at gymnastics, from school, and the grocery store? After I had about 15 coupons from Elizabeth, I finally took the hint and bought some tickets for the family to the Shriner Circus that was passing through San Antonio. Saturday couldn't come soon enough for the kids. A food standoff with the kids did put a slight damper on Ava's and Casey's enjoyment level. They didn't eat dinner on Friday night (macaroni and cheese, chicken, and peas- really, what is wrong with that?), so they saw it again for breakfast and still didn't eat it. All I heard from Ava during the first half of the circus was "I'm hungry, I want to go home." Casey just pointed at every snow cone and cotton candy vendor and said "bite."

Lizzy was on the edge of her seat the entire show. She loved the tigers, bikes, and motorcycles.

Ava decided she like the pony act, and the girls with hula hoops.

Casey went for the bikes and motorcycles of course.

Mom and Dad enjoyed 3 well behaved kids and seeing the giant smiles on their faces.

I don't have any really good pictures of the circus b/c of the lighting, but I figure you would rather see the kids.

Casey's "cheese" face.

P.S. The kids finally caved by dinner time and ate either the mac and cheese, or the new fish dinner I prepared.

1st Day of Elementary School

A little excited, a little nervous, both Elizabeth and me, but there were no tears shed by mother or daughter. The report from Elizabeth at the end of the day was "best school ever." I consider that a success.

Ava's 4th Birthday

What better way to enjoy 100 degree weather than at the Splash Pad. Ava and about 20 of her friends from school, baseball, church, and the neighborhood came out to celebrate her 4th birthday.

The umbrella was a birthday gift that made all the kids jealous.

Ava is absolutely amazing and we are so thankful that she made a full recovery from her accident last year. Life wouldn't be the same without Captain Destructo!

The good news is that we didn't have to worry about the pizza getting cold, but the icing on the cake was melting, and Casey kept stealing candies off of it.

It was a great day to be a kid!

The Naked Cowboy

Everyone needs a reason to smile on a Monday. Have a good week.