Halloween

Rapunzel and Minnie Mouse (A.K.A Sophie and Abbie)

our family

Nana and Paw-paw with the girls

Sophie and some of our neighbors doing their scary faces.

Abbie playing in her tent.

Abbie with Emerson's new puppy-Izzy

We had a wonderful Halloween this year. The girls definitely had several opportunities to dress-up in their costumes. Uncle Phil came over that afternoon and hung out with us as well as Nana and Paw-paw. We had some pizza and then the girls changed into their costumes. Nana and Paw-paw gave out candy while Mama, Daddy, and Uncle Phil took the girls trick or treating. The weather turned out to be pretty nice for trick or treating. We went around with some of our neighbors. Sophie and her buddies moved quickly from house to house but Abbie really took her time. Matt had to leave early and teach his lab so Phil stayed to help us finish trick or treating. Sophie wore her light-up plastic shoes to go with her dress but they became very uncomfortable because we ended up hiking over a little bit of hill and covering some ground this year for trick or treating. We had to come back and let her change shoes. Since the girls had already had other opportunities to trick or treat, they were O.K. with being finished shortly after 7. That worked for me too!

Abbie's School Party

                                        Abbie with Ben, Caleb, Braden and Garrett

                                        back row: Caleb, Nolen, Abbie, Molly, and Nathan
                                       front row: Garrett, Ben, Ford and Braden

                                         Ava Grace and Abbie (best buddies) and Will

Abbie is in Mrs. Gloria's class this year. There are only 2 girls and 7 boys. I'm the room mom for Abbie's little class but thankfully, it didn't involve too much work. I love planning a party though! We ordered pizza and all of the kids were so excited. Abbie (and each of the kids I think) had been talking about the party like it was his or her party and she kept referring to it as her birthday party. It was a windy cold day so we had our pizza and then trick or treated inside the church building this year. The kids still had a blast! Each of the kids took home a treat bag with goodies and some candy.

Halloween Festivities

silly girls with some of the accessories for our Potato Head Diva pumpkin

                                     Sophie and Lauren at Trunk or treat at our church

                                                   Katie, Abbie, Sophie and Ava Grace

                                                   Sophie and Kate

                                     Anna, Savannah, Garrett, Abbie and Ava Grace

We had a great Halloween this year with some fun activities leading up to it. The girls were able to trunk or treat with some friends at their church a week or two before Halloween. We also trick or treated at Sea World a few weeks before. Just a couple of days before Halloween, Sophie's friend, Emerson, had a costume party for Halloween with a hayride and everything. About a week before Halloween, we carved a traditional pumpkin and also decorated this Diva pumpkin. Sophie kept making me nervous because she wanted to hold a knife and help carve the pumpkin. Not such a good idea for a 6 year old! We also trunk or treated at our church the night before Halloween and it was very crowded this year. We had fun seeing friends there though.

Touring around San Antonio

Sophie and Abbie with Lilly and Zoe Brockman

Sophie, Harriet, Paula, Abbie, Aunt Maureen, Uncle Phil, Aunt Dot

our family at the Alamo

the girls right before we rode this boat on the Riverwalk

us in front of the fountains by Tower of the Americas

After a busy day on Sunday going to church, having lunch, letting the kids play with the Davies children, checking into a hotel and going to Caleb's birthday party at the Kiddie Park, we had other plans. We went over to the Brockman's home for dinner. Matt and Buck Brockman were good friends at Harding and he was in our wedding. It had been 9 years since they had seen each other. During that time, Buck had gotten married and had 2 girls with his wife, Katy, and we had moved a few times and had our two girls. We enjoyed having a nice Mexican dinner with the Brockman's and all of the girls had fun playing together. We were really worn out at the end of the day though!

My brother, Phil, was able to stay with us in our hotel and on Monday, we headed about an hour south to Jourdanton where our great Aunt Maureen lives in an assisted living facility. We also met Aunt Dot and her daughter, Harriet, who came up from George West, TX (the little town that my grandmother grew up in). My grandmother was one of 5 children. She passed away about 5 years ago when she was 91 years old. Only one of her siblings is still living and that's my Aunt Maureen. I love my Aunt Maureen. She has always been just so special! She's 94 years old but she walks unassisted, quilts and is the activity coordinator at the assisted living facility where she lives. She is an amazing woman and I was so excited that my girls were able to go and meet her. We were able to visit with Aunt Dot and Harriet for a little bit and then we stayed and had lunch with Aunt Maureen. Aunt Dot was married to my great-uncle Jimmy, who was the youngest sibling of my grandmother. I was so glad that the girls were able to meet some of their relatives in Texas. That night, we headed down to the Alamo. We walked along the Riverwalk and ate at the Rainforest Cafe (it was the first time that we had ever taken the girls there). Then, we took a narrated boat tour.

The next day, we had thought that the girls could go swimming but it turned out to be the coldest day since we had been in Texas. Instead, we decided to go to the Tower of the Americas where you can ride up to the top and have a wonderful view! There were some beautiful fountains right next to the tower so we enjoyed walking around those. For lunch, we were able to go to Pappasito's for some more delicious Mexican food. We had some awesome Mexican food on our trip! Then, we visited with my mom's first cousin, Robert, and his wife, Inga, before heading to the airport. All in all, we had a wonderful trip and we were able to squeeze in a lot of things. Just after we got back from our trip (the next day), Abbie asked when we were going on another trip because she said she wanted to go on another one! I'm glad that she enjoys travelling because Matt and I both do but I need a little recovery time first.

Fun with Friends at the Kiddie Park

Sidney, Sophie, Abbie, and Caleb

Uncle Phil and Abbie

Caleb and Abbie holding hands (aww!)

Sophie and Abbie riding in a flying saucer

Abbie and Caleb

One of our few attempts at a family picture!

Sophie & Sidney in October 2011

Sidney and Sophie in March 2006

Our kids got along really really well with the Davies children. It was really cool to see Sophie and Sidney together again because they were both born during the year that we lived in Maryland. We were really good friends with Brett and Stacy Davies during that time. Then we moved away and we had only seen each other once when Sophie and Sidney were less than a year old. They are only about 4 months apart and I told Sophie that Sidney was one of her very first friends. Caleb, their middle child, is only 3 months older than Abbie. They were celebrating his 4th birthday while we were there and they invited us to come along. Stacy and Brett also have an almost 1 year old little boy named Tyler. He is so adorable but boy is he a fast little walker! Our girls loved him! On Saturday night, after going back to Sea World that day, we had dinner with the Davies (except for Ms. Stacy). Sunday morning we went to church with them. That afternoon, the kids played some and then we checked into a hotel.

Later, we met up with the Davies and some of their friends at the Kiddie Park. It is a little amusement park with carnival type rides. This park has been open since the late 1920's and all of the rides are old but charming. Sophie and Sidney loved hanging out together and were the best of friends after our visit to TX. Abbie and Caleb became buddies too and they enjoyed riding some rides together. Caleb had a cute monster cake and after the kids had ridden some rides, the kids got to try to knock down a pinata. It was Abbie's first experience with this and she was pretty hilarious! I forgot to mention that my brother, Phil, decided to come down to San Antonio at the last minute and stay with us for a day or two. He decided to go to a baseball game in Dallas where he saw the Rangers play. Then, on Sunday, he drove over to San Antonio and met up with us. I think that the girls were surprised to see him when he showed up at the Kiddie Park.

Sea World cont.

Sophie and Abbie with a mermaid

the girls with octopus woman =)

The girls with the flamingos.

This guy was doing the pre-show entertainment and it was hilarious! He walked into the stadium a little bit ahead of us and I thought "I am not following him." He kept sitting in these areas and then they would become soaked. All of the people around him were getting soaked too. He ended up being one of the actual performers in the show which I didn't expect.

This show was my favorite. I think it was called Azul and it featured dolphins and beluga whales. It also included a lot of acrobatics.

One thing that was funny about trick or treating at Sea World was that they gave you these huge bunches of little bitty bananas. They were the perfect size for little kids. They also gave us fruit snacks. They didn't give you any chocolate though. It was a good thing because it would have melted. During the time we were in San Antonio, most days the high was in the low 90's.

Fall Break Trip to Texas

Matt and Abbie feeding the dolphins!

Abbie, Sophie, & Matt by the dolphins.

Mama and Abbie are ready to ride the Shamu roller coaster!

Here we are riding the carousel.

Sophie and Abbie are ready to go!

Last week was Sophie's fall break. They were only out for 2 days but we took Sophie out of school about a day and a half early and flew to San Antonio. It was the girls' first time to visit Texas. For our first day there, we headed to Sea World. We were ready to enter the park when it opened and we headed straight for the dolphins so that we could feed them. Dolphins are Sophie's favorite animal and Matt had found out that if you want to feed them, first thing in the morning is best. You can buy little trays of fish and feed them yourself! It's not cheap to feed them but it is pretty amazing to reach out and pet a dolphin. I did it (though Matt had to handle the fish). Our girls were so excited to see the dolphins but they became kind of timid when they saw the dolphins with their mouths open wide and all of those teeth coming near them. Sophie was a little disappointed that she didn't touch one but after we had bought two trays of fish (which were gone in no time), we decided that maybe she'd have to work up her courage to do it in the future.

We had a wonderful time checking out the rides in the kiddie area, seeing some amazing shows, the girls trick or treated in the park one day, etc. On Friday afternoon, we headed over to the Davies, friends of ours from Maryland who Matt also went to college with, and we hung out with them on Friday night. They were gracious enough to let us stay with them. We didn't want to wear out their hospitality too much so we spent 2 nights with them and went back to a hotel. We went back to Sea World again on Saturday. Abbie's favorite ride was this boat ride which she was barely tall enough to ride. It's a water ride and if you asked Abbie what she wanted to do, she'd say, "the boat ride." She just loved it! It was hard for me to believe because this boat ride had a huge drop at the end.