Halloween

Sir William the Brave Knight and Ryan the Lion-hearted Fireman

Look at all that Loot!!

Nini came over and went Trick-or-Treating with us around the neighborhood.  Ryan lasted about 40 minutes and then Nini and Ryan headed back to hand out candy while Sir William, Mom and Dad continued throughout the ENTIRE neighborhood....well, we went until Will's pumpkin was SO FULL it couldn't hold any more candy!!

 

Cookie decorating with Friends

Each year we celebrate the season with cookie decorating.  This year, since we have SO MANY kiddos in our usual playgroup, it was SUPER FUN, with all the sibilings!  Such a blessing to have such wonderful friends!! (I never did get everyone in a picture, sorry for those that  I missed).

Will's class took a trip to the Downtown Pumpkin Patch and it was so cute!! Very different from the pumpkin patches we've been to in the past.  They had stations for the kids to complete different educational and fun pumpkin crafts and activies.

 Ryan even participated and had fun!!
 

Here, they were exploring the inside of a pumpkin.

Petting Zoo...of course, our animal lover's favorite place to be!! He just couldn't get enough of Collin and McKinney, the goats.

Will taking his turn at Making butter!

Class picture!

attempt at a group shot...not so good

 

October was also full of those happy, not so planned, but extremely special times.....

bathtime with brothers

Ryan and I met my sweet friend from High School, Holland and her neice at IKEA while Holland was in town shopping for new kitchen appliances.  She and her husband just bought a new house in Arkansas.

At IKEA, I bought the most adorable towel for the boys and Ryan look SO ADORABLE trying it on, that I just had to take a shot.  He looks like a little garden gnome!!! He loved the towel -- I couldn't get him to take it off, even to play in the backyard!! TOO CUTE.

South Padre

October was busy!! We began the month going to S. Padre.  It was a memorial trip for many reasons.  For over 10 years, my family and the Vogt family spent a week together each summer at Sun Tide I on S. Padre Island.  In memory of my Mom, we decided to take that trip again, yet this time Lisa and I would bring OUR kids and begin a whole new tradition.  We were even able to stay in the same condo that our families stayed in each year we were children!! It had just been renovated, so it was new, fresh and beautiful, but still had the wonderful feeling of "coming home".

Virginia, aka "Mimi", was able to come along! It was such a special time.  Even though the kids haven't had much time to get to know each other, they all played like they were family!! It was such a blessing to see our families' friendship spread into the next generation.  Lisa and I decided that we will try to make this an annual tradition for our kids as well.  BEACH, FAMILY, FUN.....what else can you ask for??

 

 

We tried to get a group photo of the kiddos on the trip, but Ryan did not want ANYTHING to do with the rest of the kids!  It was our last day and super windy, but that did not stop two VERY determined Mommys who wanted beach shots of our kids!!

Mom, you were always so relaxed and content when your toes were in the sand at the beach. We left a bit of you there.

The trip was not the same without you, we sure do miss you.

September brought School!

Will and Ms. Jenny

The famous fish tank.  The boys HAVE to stop here everyday!!

Will hammin' it up for the camera outside of school!!

In August, we went and visited Grady and Nona in their new home in San Angelo.  The boys were troopers (including Grandpa!).  It was great for everyone to be together. Here is the best I could do to get everyone looking at the camera.

August was full of FUN!! We went to Broken Bow with the Jennings' boys & had boating fun on the lake!! Will absoulutely LOVED the lake, tubing, swimming, fishing, you name it, he was in heaven. Ryan, on the other hand, cried the entire time, until he fell asleep with Nini.....priceless!!

 

Will finaly wore himself out as well!!  Fun was had by all!!

yIKES - I have run out of space for this blog and cannot upload any more pictures. my fellow bloggers, have you ever had this error message?

Make a free collage

Will is FIVE!!!

I cannot believe our Will is 5 years old!! We had a MAGICAL birthday party this year. He had been begging to have his party at home.  After the 3 Year old carnival party, I was sure I would never do a party at home again; but he won me over and we are all SO GLAD we did!! We kept it simple, had it on a weekday morning and that made it enjoyable for everyone, including Mommy!

I love the #5 Sparkler on the cake, it was a wonderful touch and made the cake look magical!

As the guests arrived, everyone met out in the back yard for some early play after getting a magical tatto! 

The boys and girls came inside to find the family room transformed by our AMAZING (and I do mean AMAZING) Magician Doc Grimes for their very own magic show! 

The kids all wore their Magician hats, ate popcorn out of mini magic hats and were totally enthralled for an hour.  And let me tell you, keeping 4 and 5 year olds engaged, excited and paying attention for 60 minutes is a magic trick on its own!!!

Before pizza, cake and ice cream.  The kiddos headed back into the backyard for the MOST fun Rabbit in a Hat Pinata!! The kids were adorable as they were blindfolded and took multiple swings at that rabbit!  I cannot believe we didn't get one picture of that part....everyone was busy having fun, instead of taking pictures. :)

The magician ended the party with a levitating trick!! He had Will floating in mid-air!!!

(Which I cannot get the video to load....)

We are so blessed with so many wonderful people to share this special day with. Everyday after his party, he has made the comment in his, oh so proud voice, "I'm Five now!"

When we are not swimming

When we are not swimming we are coming up with creative and crazy things to do to beat the Texas Summer heat.  One of the boys favorite actvities is to play with shaving cream!! They make great designs, Will practices his handwriting and then they, well, you can see what they do next....

CRAZY BOYS! It is fun, because after shaving cream time, we follow up with BATH TIME!!  Now, that makes for a GREAT few activites to beat the heat.

We have spent some time at Cosmic Jump too....such a blast!!

These videos shows the boys just LOVING it and Ryan HANGIN' with the BIG kids!!

And of course, one of RYAN's favorite things to do is READ!!! It makes the teacher in me, SO HAPPY!!!

Swim Lessons

Most of our summer days consist of swimming at home.  We took a week to brush up on Will's strokes and he is proven once again to be a stronger swimmer each time he is in the pool.  Ms. Susan was super sweet and Will LOVED his time with her. 

Ryan snacked and watched his brother until his lesson was over and then we all swam.  It is always fun to swim in a new pool!

These boys sure LOVE the water (and boy that is a good thing, considering we are in it EVERYDAY).

Will was swimming the length of the pool with no problem. 

Super proud of this big guy!!

Fireworks!!

We celebratd the 4th in our favorite fashion....away from crowds, long lines and traffic!! Ryan missed out on the firework fun because he went to sleep (he did get to take part in some noise makers before he went to bed), but Will LOVED his 2nd year of sparklers and fireworks!!

My sweet friend Michelle, owner of LaFon's fireworks (Now Dugger's) on Lake Lavon and a few of our other sweet teacher friends that were helping her out, hooked us up with the best "backyard" fireworks!! We had a ball!