Pre Halloween Festivities

We went to the Halloween cove in Collierville.  It.  Was.  Insane.  

John was bowling, so the kids and I took Mom.  Once John got home, the kids wanted go back to show him.  So off we went and they were terrified for the second time of the night.  Terrified.

Still don't understand how they got a pirate ship in the middle of their front yard. 

Brody's school was getting ready for their trunk or treat.  

Tara Oaks had Open House last Thursday.  Mason was proud to show us all of his work. 

Mason had a field trip Friday morning and Brody had a pumpkin patch at his school at the same time.  John took off Friday to go with Brody, I went with Mason.

Brody was super excited. 

It turned COLD on Friday.  Honestly, we were cold all weekend long. 

The field trip was at the Botanic Gardens.  They had the entire lawn set up with fun, learning stations.  It was a blast.  (minus the weather)

Finding candy in a haystack. 

Squeezing out juice from apples like the good ole days. 

The spider maze, of course, was the favorite among all the boys.  

The last forty minutes, they played tag in the maze with lots of friends. 

Loved spending time with him. 

All the while John was with Brody.  He got to pick out a pumpkin, play games, and read a Halloween story.  It was short and sweet, and all the kids stayed until the end of the day.  He was so proud his Daddy came. 

Mason and I left the field trip and met John at Huey's. 

School skipper. 

We had planned on going to Scare on the Square that night, but it began pouring and it was freezing.  Our neighbor called and said they were there, so I decided to just run up there with the boys real quick.  We were all soaking wet and shivering, but the kids had a blast.  They trick or treated around the square before we went inside the church to play games and warm up. 

We are Power Rangers this year.  Brody wanted to be the red dino charge one (from the tv show instead of the movies).  I guess I should have gotten him the regular red Ranger, but oh well.  

Too late now!

Inside felt much better.  

They had games, face painting, balloon animals, etc. 

We had three soccer games scheduled Saturday, but they were cancelled due to the rain the night before.   We had not planned on going to Brody's school's Trunk or Treat until then.

We brought along Teagan, aka the pink power ranger. 

It was too cold for her to give me a power ranger pose.  Ha. 

Cupcakes after the cake walk. 

We had a good time.....but again, we froze.  Like we ran to the car when we all decided it was time to go home.  We stayed nice and cozy the rest of the afternoon at our house. 

Sunday morning were family pictures.  Everyone loves to take those....

We hadn't had as much time this fall to do much fun stuff until this weekend, so we decided to do it all.  It was pumpkin carving time Sunday afternoon with cousins. 

Thats a lot of guts there Brody. 

The kids do better and better each year about doing it themselves. 

Jack O Lantern

His Harry Potter pumpkin. 

The finished products with the hard workers. 

We had one baseball game Sunday afternoon.  

The boys did well.  Mason went 5 for 5.  

Yesterday was Halloween party day for Brody.  

We decided to keep the Halloween fun going with out shirts yesterday 

Tonight is the night.  All Hallows Eve.
The boys are excited to trick or treat.
(like they need anymore candy)

Nerf War

We had Mason's birthday party Friday after school.  He had wanted a Nerf gun party, but we were unable to have it at any party places because we are busy with sports Saturdays and Sundays.  We decided to give it a go and have it at our own house.  He invited just a few friends and kept it small.  

We had safety glasses, aprons to stash bullets, and bandanas. 

Mom still had all her boxes from their move, so we taped them back together to make "box forts" in the yard.  We also had poster boards.  Oh and plenty of Nerf guns. 

Waiting on friends. 

They had the best time.  

They moved those boxes around and ran wild like boys do. 

These guys were smart.  They never moved.  

Just took kids one by one and had others bring them bullets.  Ha. 

Mason on a mission to get more bullets. 

This one did NOT like getting shot.  

They moved the forts around and John and Robert got into it. 

Check out John's smile on his face. Ha. 

We had about an hour of sunlight and used it all up.  Came inside for pizza and snacks.  

It took everything I had to get them all down to sing happy birthday.  I think they just enjoyed playing together some place other than school.  

Mason doesn't like cake and requested cookies.  

He had the best time.  It was definitely a bday success.  

Saturday morning, Mason woke up and headed outside to pick up bullets.  

Didn't even prompt him. 

We had two soccer games Saturday.  Brody was up first. 

He ran the ball down to the goal and tried to kick it in, a kid on the other team tried to stop it (and touched the ball with his foot), and it went in.  John says thats not a goal for Brody.  But whatever.  I thought it was.  =)

Either way, he was obviously VERY happy. 

When he isn't being silly out there and trying, he does so well.  

But that only happens half the time.  =)

Ya win some, ya lose some. 

Mason's game was later in the afternoon.  

And he did well also.  

He really loves playing the midfield position.  

Brody was super excited the twins came so they could play.  They played soccer for a while and then tag.  Pretty sure they had the time of their life. 

I took Mason to a friend's birthday party right after his game.  He was excited to bowl. 

Thanks for the smile, dude. 

We had a double header in baseball Sunday afternoon.  We assumed it would get rained out with the weather prediction, but we've had a lot of rain outs lately.  They said since it wasn't lightening, we would play.  Let me tell you, it wasn't drizzling.  It was sideways raining and the temperature dropped at least ten degrees while we were out there.  

Two games in the rain and somehow they were still smiling.  Poor John was out there the ENTIRE two games because he was the third base coach and caught behind the catcher.  Dedicated I tell ya. 

We had to finally take cover by the dugout. 

And it took multiple times to dry out this kids' shoes the next morning.  There was not one dry spot on him.  He and another player's little brother played and played in that rain. 

Whew.  Busy weekend but a fun one.