The Fall Festival

First of all, for those of you who have not seen them, I am so sorry. I did not get good shots of the kids in their costumes. Not thoughts of that at all. Why? What is dressing up for in not a photo op? That being said...

Sunday afternoon we woke the kids up from their naps and finally allowed them to don their costumes. Thomas transformed into Sheriff Woody (Toy Story) and Sarah Grace became a Fairy Princess Ballerina. Elizabeth got a cool new set of pajamas.

We arrived at the church for the Fall Festival and the kids were thrilled. Yes, they liked the inflatables and the pop corn and the hay ride and cake walk and other assorted activities, but I think their favorite part was being allowed to essentially run free in the parking lot! (with several sets of loving church family eyes helping us to keep up with them!)



Thomas had a blast sliding down the slides and jumping in the screened in jumper. Sarah Grace won Brownies at the cake walk and loved riding around on the hay ride and eating bags and bags of popcorn.



We did stuff Elizabeth into a cute pumpkin costume that had a wonderful head covering to help shield her from the chilly evening air. She looked adorable and was snug as a bug. I think she was the cutest punkin there! I even snuck her a bite or two of cotton candy, very much so to her pleasure!



At costume contest time, we managed to get the kids to stand 'still' long enough for pictures. Sarah Grace waved her butterfly wand around and ate popcorn and looked sweet. Thomas came home with a prize for great costume (my head swelled, since I managed to put it all together!). A prize that he promptly handed to me and asked to go on the hayride again.



As we were getting ready to bundle everyone out of the parking lot, I found me a jousting partner. We probably would have had a good joust or two if we had had more time to practice (like a few weeks!!). But we both left laughing, and left all the teenage boys laughing, too!

After The Rain...

After a week full of much needed rain, my wits are gone. There is only so much you can do and only so long you can stay inside with a tad of saneness left over for a not rainy day. After the kids woke up from an early nap today, I made them go outside. Yes, made. They both noised about, fussing over how they wanted to play Noah's Ark and Little People and Honey Bee Jumper. Nope. I was having none of that.

OUT! The command had been issued. I even sent them out with cups of juice and bowls of animal crackers, something I don't like to do because the cups and bowls mysteriously never make it back inside without a search and rescue.

I went about doing laundry (I swear, I actually do other things, it's just that the laundry will walk off with us in tow if I don't work to keep it at bay) and cleaning at the lunch mess. They came in once. Some excuse about needing to go potty. Whatever.

They tried to stay in after that, but my will prevailed. After nearly two hours of very peaceful play, I looked outside to see them horsing around on the swings. Here are the pictures I managed to take through the window before they noticed me. Once they saw me, they wanted in. The spell had broken, it was over.

I let them, for now. We'll see what tomorrow brings...

Little Miss Messy Face

It has become a bit of a tradition to take a picture of the first teething cookie picture. Let me present to you a very satisfied Elizabeth. She enjoyed gnawing at the cookie and banging it on her tray almost as much as we loved watching her contentedness at 'feeding' herself and making the mess you see before you!