Spider Boys and Bat Girls

Too much fun at the annual Halloween Bash. We ransacked the neighborhood and took all the candy. Then ended the evening with much expected meltdowns so we knew it was a good night.

We managed to get most kiddos in this shot, though I know there were at least 3 more who were a little nervous about getting near some of those costumes and opted to sit out. I don't blame them. Brides. Scuba boys. Super E's. Penguins. Sharks. Spiders. Pumpkins. It was a rough crowd. So scary I could hardly stand it.

Not to mention those Spider Boys and Bat Girls. Eeeeeek!

.....and we're done. Let's get to trick-or-treating!

Tiny Miss enjoyed a yummy supper and then pranced her prissy self around the neighborhood. She didn't care a lick about going to the houses. She just felt all big girlish walking on the street as far as she wanted.
Wild Man had his fair share of cupcakes, plus an additional share, and then another. Hey, keep him happy. Our mantra.

Halloween turned luxury this year with a 3 year old behind the wheel driving himself to each house in the 'hood. Times have changed since I came along. Walking uphill, in the snow, both ways, to 72 houses, 47 miles apart. Buster's got it easy.

And who are these 3 teenagers? Weren't they just born? It's my Bat Girl and her buds Kendall and Eli.

Time to pull out all the Snickers and set aside for Mommy's "Stressful Day" stash!

Sneaky. Sneaky. Sneaky.

Airplanes.

He's honed in before I ever realize there's something up there.

He can see them when they are just a speck in the sky.

Nothing else matters when he hears the hum of the engine.

Dreams of piloting soon take over.

Glad we live near the airport.

Drug free. The way to be.

On the car ride home from school...

"So tell me something funny and something special that happened at school today."

"Ok, the funny was soooooo funny! My teacher said we were skipping PE today!" (insert obnoxious cackling for 5 year old and confused look on her madre)

"Hmmmm. Yes, that is absolutely hilarious.[?] How about something special?"

"YES! Very special. We learned about something."

"Oh really? What did you learn about that was so special?"

"Drugs!"

[insert obnoxious cackling for madre and confused look on the 5 year old]

"Drugs? Really? What exactly did you learn about drugs?"

"A LOT! First of all, drugs are like germs. You can't see them but they're really bad for you. Also [now looking at her brother in her teacherly kind of way], some bad people will try to sneak drugs into your Halloween candy."

"Wow. You sure learned about some important things in kindergarten today."

"I know. And Mommy? Just make sure you check my candy when we're done trick-or-treating to make sure nobody took a bite out of any candy they gave me. Cuz some people do that. They take a bite out and wrap it back up and put it in your pumpkin. That means there's drugs in it."

"Will do, Sister. Will do."

A farmin' we did go.

My favorite field trip of the year finally came around this weekend. I don't know why I love it so much, but it's just so fun and full of kid-ness and so fallish which we don't really have much of down here. It was blazing hot, as usual, but that didn't stop our sweaty selves from enjoying Poppell Farms, complete with a petting zoo, cow train, inflatables, hay ride, "picking" pumpkins, picnic and games.

My babies are getting so big!

Hayride to the pumpkin patch singing about 17 verses of "Old MacDonald had a Farm".

His sister started this organization of pumpkins and Wild Man was immediately drawn to the straight lines. He loves order. He is officially my offspring.

Tiny Miss picked up every single pumpkin in the patch. They were all mini like her and I believe it made her feel like a big girl for once.

The cow train. And heck yes, that's me and the Husb riding in there too. We ain't skeered to push children out of line to get our cow of choice.

We planned on taking everyone through the corn maze at the end but by the time the heat index settled in at about 95 degrees, we figured we could find other, more air conditioned, ways of torturing our children. So we headed home and 4 kiddos slept soundly the entire hour+ drive home. A much better alternative.

I need a spoon.

...cuz I'm about to eat up Thing 1 and Thing 2.

MVP of The Invisibles

I have never known anyone so desperate to be on a "team" as little Buster Boy. Poor thing is counting the days until his 5th birthday when (he thinks) he'll be able to play REAL football on a REAL team and REAL baseball (he specifically says no t-ball....that's for babies) on a REAL team. He can't count much past 30 so I haven't told him he's got roughly 450 days until he's 5.

I'm sure that detail is not too important in this quest of Team-dom.

In the meantime, he's got his make-believe teams working for now. And surprisingly, he scores multitudes of touchdowns and hits multitudes of home runs in each of his games. I believe he's stacked his teams.

It really is sweet to see this little booger dress up every day in one of his uniforms, acting as serious as if he's in the Superbowl or the World Series, running laps around the backyard, making amazing tackles on invisible players and hitting faux balls into the outfield crowd of the giant stadium.

He is an athlete to be reckoned with.

We received sports cards in the mail yesterday of his two cousins dressed in their football uniforms looking like the future Bulldogs that they are. All 82 and 96 pounds of them. Of pure muscle of course.

Buster could not be outdone. He showed up in the kitchen this morning with his football uniform on and said it was picture day for the team. He proceeded to pose in the backyard (I didn't even have my camera yet) and I laughed just watching him decide which knee he should put up and the proper positioning of his helmet.


Here he is in all his football glory. All 40 pounds of him. Of pure muscle of course.

I love my Bubba.

Handsome little devil, isn't he?

Oh whoops. I should probably say handsome little angel.

Nah. I think I got it right the first time.

LucKy 7

It's a dog-eat-dog kinda world at the ocean side soccer fields. Running in packs is common but one little wolf (ok, so she's more of an Angelfish) broke free from the pack of boisterous 4 and 5 year olds to score not 1, not 2, but SEVEN GOALS.

Sister came to win.

And win they did. Today we experienced much more a football-esque score than a soccer score somewhere in the upwards of 20 goals punched in by our little Angelfishies.

At 3 goals we were shouting "Hat Trick! Hat Trick!" At 4 goals we shouted "Texas Hat Trick! Texas Hat Trick!" (cuz everything's bigger in Texas) and by 5 we just looked at each other and didn't know what to shout. "Uhhhh, Texas Hat Trick plus 1??"

Oh well. Didn't matter. By goal 7, we were quite experienced with the "WOOOOOHOOOOOOO's!!!!!" and all was well.

Bright yellow jersey. LucKy 7 on back. A glimpse at one assist and two goals.

LucKy 7 from Suzanne Akins on Vimeo.