Pumpkin Patch #2

This past Wednesday, we went with our preschool co-op to a small pumpkin patch.  It was fun. The kids enjoyed the maze, story time, the corn tub, and getting their faces painted.  My kids have never wanted their faces painted, but Molly did it this time.

 

 

They had face stickers to decorate your pumpkin with.  Molly put a face on each side.

Molly and Payton are in our Wednesday group.  Briley was last year, but I is not this year.  She's going to the school for preschool.  The little girl is Felicity, Payton's sister.  You can see in the picture that Molly got a pumpkin on her cheek. Bryce was sick and couldn't come.

After doing well with the pumpkin, she had them add the kitty face to match Briley.

Devine Acres Pumpkin Patch

Last Saturday I took the kids to Devine Acres.  It's one of our favorite pumpkin patches around here.  We had a really good time.  Here are the pictures to prove it.

Tyler mining for gems!

 

Molly, of course, made friends with Millie.  There was another dog Max, that we also met

Tyler was happy to find a tree to climb while Molly painted her pumpkin.

 

Tyler trying his hand at roping

Roasting marshmellows-yum!

Tyler thrilled for a photo-op on the hay ride.

Tyler and I had a potato sack race. He won!

We also played horse shoes, pumped water for the duck races, went through several mazes, and played on the playground.  While we were having lunch, a cowboy puts on a show.  He called me up to be a volunteer.  He tied me up and then I had to hold his gun with a piece of straw coming out of it.  He then used his whip to break the straw in half.  The kids thought that was pretty neat.  It was a fun day!

Austin Trip

Last Sunday the kids and I headed to Austin to meet my new niece, the kid's new cousin, Vienne.  On the way there, we stopped at the Austin Zoo.  It's a small zoo because it's a rescue zoo, but you get to be closer to the animals.  We had a fun time.

They had 3 bears cubs that were so cute.  They showed us how they train then and then they put them in the kennel while they set up their food all over the area.  They hid some in boxes, in this tire, put some in the water and under things.  Then the bears came out and found it all.  When the zoo rescued these bears, they were only 1lb.  They had to be bottle fed every 4 hours.  Now they are 2 years old. 

 

After the zoo, we headed to Brett and Carman's.  The kids couldn't wait to meet Vienne.

 

Vienne was so sweet!  She almost 2 months old, so she still pretty much ate and slept.  She was just precious.  The kids loved holding her.

Monday morning, I took the kids to the Bee Cave Sculpture park.  It was pretty small, but the kids had fun seeing the different sculpture and climbing on them.

This one was Tyler's favorite.

This was Molly's favorite.

 

Molly loved this dog one too.

After lunch, it was time for us to head home. On the way home, we had one more stop-Cabela's.  When  we were researching zip lines, Tyler found Cabela's online and thought it was the coolest store.  It's a lot like Bass Pro Shop.  When we passed one going to Austin, I knew we'd have to stop on the way home.  We were there for a good 45 min.

It was a quick, but fun trip.  We can't wait to see Vienne again at Thanksgiving. 

Last weekend

Last Thursday-Sunday, Scott's friend, Patrick was here.  On Friday, him and Scott golfed and then went to dinner with people Patrick works with.  He does the radio broadcast for Northwestern State sports.  Saturday, Scott and Tyler went to the football game and were able to go down on the sidelines and up to the radio broadcasting booth.  Tyler thought it was pretty neat. 

 

 

Our new zip line

About a month ago, Tyler started asking for a zip line.  He researched them and knew just what to get.  He said he'd even use all his birthday money for it.  Scott and I discussed it and made sure it could actually work in our backyard and decided Tyler and Molly could earn one.  Everyday that they pretty much behaved, got along, didn't argue much, and Tyler did his homework without a fight, they could earn 5 feet.  On the weekends when Tyler was home all day, they could earn 10 feet.  It took about 3 weeks and they made it to 100 feet.  The zipline finally arrived last Friday and we had it up by Saturday afternoon.  It's really fun and the kids love it. 

 

2015-2016 School Year

Tyler started 3rd grade back on August 25th.  I was in IL at the time, so Scott and Molly had to get him to school his first day.  So far all is going well and we really like his teacher.

 

Two weeks ago, Molly started her preschool co-op that we do with some neighbors.  Last year we had 5 kids, this year just 3.  Another mom and her son are coming next week to see if they want to join.  This one is just on Wednesday  from 9:30-12:00 and each mom takes a month to teach.  I am teaching in Sept. and our topic is Life Cycles.  Here is a picture from our first week when we learned about the butterfly life cycle.

This past Tuesday Molly started pre-k at Marvelously Made Preschool.  It's a Montessori preschool and I just love it. Her friend, Payton from our Wednesday preschool goes there. His mom is the one that talked me into going to look at it.  Molly loves it so far.  She told me on Tuesday that she made a new friend, Kaelyn.  Thursday she wanted to show me her.  When we saw her walk in, she said-mom, there she is.  At the same time, I heard Kaelyn tell her mom-mom, that's Molly.  They ran to each other, grabbed hands, and off they went.  It was so cute!

 

Thursday, Molly started Cubbies for the new year.  She was in Cubbies last year and Tyler was in Sparks last year for Awana.  This year, Tyler did not want to participate, so I'm with Molly in Cubbies.  She had a fun first night. 

Surprise Party

A week ago I was flying home from IL.  I flew in early Saturday, the 22nd, for my mom's surprise 60th birthday party.  It was my Dad's idea and my sisters and I had fun planning it.  I found these cute invitations on Etsy.

Anyway, I flew in on Saturday and Kim picked me up.  Her, Tom, and I all went out for lunch.  Then her and I went to get mason jars and flowers to make the centerpieces.  We did that at Tom's.  We all met at Lino's at 4:30 to get set up.  

You can kinda tell that the picture boards are in the shape of 60!.  Val even painted purple and gold dots on them to match the invitations. 

I was really hoping my mom would be surprised.  I thought coming downstairs would give it away when she saw bigger rooms, but it didn't.  She was surprised!! And even more surprised when she saw me.  I'm so glad we were able to pull it off.

Dinner was delicious.  We had salad, 3 different kinds of pasta and pizza.  We had brought a cake, which Val had made like the invitations, and we had ice cream.

You can see that other picture of my mom...well, my Dad wanted games.  The grand kids played Pin the Lips on Grandma.  It was cute.

My Dad wanted to play too

We also passed out games for the adults.  We had the Licence Plate Game-it was vanity licence plates and we had to figure out what they meant.  And we had a few questionnaire about my mom too.

Us kids went in together to get her a charm bracelet with a charm for each child and grandchild.  It has our name engraved and our birthstone on it too.  That again, was my Dad's idea. 

Everyone had a great time and most of all we celebrated my mom and how wonderful she is!! I'm so glad I was able to go.