Trick or Treat!

As I write this I'm staring at a pile of empty candy wrappers. We got lots and lots of treats. I mean the kids got lots and lots of treats!

Batman, Arf Trooper, and Shirley Temple ready for candy!

Allie sees her little friend out trick-or-treating

Walking with Daddy

Getting the hang of this trick-or-treating thing

Spence and one of his favorite neighborhood decorations

Time to dig in!

We hit the jackpot!

Church Carnival

If my favorite fall activity is the pumpkin patch, then my kids' favorite is the carnival! They had a blast at our church carnival tonight. I'd love to share pictures of them playing carnival games, coming down the giant bouncy slide, riding a pony, taking a train ride, and me feeding Allie a red snow cone without getting it on her white dress, but I can't. Not because I didn't have my camera. And not because I didn't have charged batteries. But because I left the card in the computer after uploading the pumpkin patch pictures. Ahhhhhh! I almost went back home to get it, but I decided to just enjoy the night and get lots of pictures when they go trick-or-treating. We did get a family photo taken at the carnival, so I'll share that when I get it! And here are a few I took when we got home.

Batman, Shirley Temple, and an Arf Trooper (Star Wars guy)


Since my kids don't like their faces painted on, I decided to go for it!

Here's a better one of Shirley

Pictures from a Patch

We were bribed to smile!

Sometimes I smile for free!

Pretty pumpkin dress from Grandma

See my loose tooth?

Proud of Those Bees!

The Bees played in the championship game last night. They were up against the best team in the league and played awesome! They only lost by one run. So close! But they had a great season. Coleman learned so much and had a blast (even if he won't admit it). We'll see if there's more baseball in his future.

Coach telling them they should be proud of themselves

After getting his medal

A future baseball player???

Maybe once she's fully potty trained! There was an accident and Mommy forgot to bring extra pants.

Pumpkin Patch Season!

Today Spence's class took a field trip to the pumpkin patch. Yes, my favorite place! And of course this is the "city" version of the pumpkin patch. Isn't his class adorable? He has wonderful friends and two awesome teachers!


This is his best friend, Roman. In a few years I imagine Roman's mommy and I will be telling all the girls to leave our boys alone!

When Coleman started going on field trips in Mother's Day Out I avoided going at all costs. But Coleman wasn't really the kid that wanted Mommy around anyway. Now I'm more inclined to enjoy a little one-on-one time with my kids and tag along for a field trip or two. Here we are chillin' by the pumpkins.

And I had to snap a picture of this on our way in to school this morning. Aren't they sweet?

If you can get past the sweet curls and fun shirt, take a look at her shoes! She picked those out this morning. One of the teachers was commenting on her shoes and I replied, "Spence prepared me for anything!" She's following in the green croc footprints, only Allie style!

Fall! Fall! Fall!

Cooler weather is here (if only for a little while). I'm awakening from my heat-induced coma and ready to start blogging again! Also, we just got a new computer and our technical issues are solved! I'll have more posts soon!

Lessons From Little Ones

I pray that I teach my kids half as much as they teach me. They give me such a deeper understanding of how God loves me and how I should respond to Him.

Praise the LORD, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the LORD, my soul, and forget not all his benefits— Psalm 103:1-2

Coleman reminds me that I should not be quick to forget all the blessings God has poured out on my family. It's been 16 months since Brian started his job and Coleman thanks God every night "that Daddy found a job." What a sweet, sweet thing. I pray that he always remembers how God blesses us.

The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. 1 John 2:17

Spence helps me remember that this world is just my temporary home. His prayers are usually very short, but quite to the point: Dear God, Thank you that we love You, and that we're going to see You in Heaven.

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalm 139:13-14

Allie is a little ball of energy, but sometimes I find her sitting on the floor saying, in a sing-song voice, "God made me. God made me. God made me." And I think, "And what a wonderful job He did." He made each of us for a purpose, and my kids remind me daily that I need to be looking for Him in everything, even the small things.

"P" Is Not For Piks

The "p" in this story does not stand for our last name. It stands for... well, pee. I was telling Brian some of the daily happenings and he said they were quite blog worthy. Sometimes funny things happen, but I think you probably would have to be here to think it was funny. So maybe it's funny, or maybe it's just funny to us. But at the least, something Brian and I will think back on and laugh about when our kids are fully house broken!

A few nights ago Spence was getting dressed for bed and thought it would be fun to see how many pairs of underwear he could put on. My first thought was to make him stop at ONE, but I figured it wasn't hurting anything so why stifle his creativity? I didn't do an official count, but I think he got about 6 pairs of underwear on. I really thought he would be uncomfortable and take 4 or 5 pairs off, but he didn't! He put his pajama shorts on over them and went to bed! The next morning while I was helping him make up his bed I realized that he had had an accident. So not only did he have wet sheets and blankets, but 6 wet pairs of underwear. Everything went into the dirty clothes and all was fine. Until about 2 nights later when he's getting ready for bed and realizes he has no clean underwear! I told him he could get the ones he'd worn that day out of the dirty clothes or wear a pair of Coleman's. He seemed quite traumatized, but ended up choosing to wear Coleman's. He survived. And I think he learned a valuable lesson: Don't wear more underwear than you need to, especially if you might wet the bed and your lazy mom decides not to wash clothes for a few days! I love letting reality be the teacher!

Since Allie's been in school, she's come home every day in the same pull-up that I sent her in. It's usually wet because she's just woken up from a nap, but I knew she wasn't going in it before nap. Her teachers and I decided she would wear underwear and they would put her in a pull-up for naptime. Today was the first day and she made it without an accident! She's doing so much better! I've decided that I'm just not the 3 day potty training method kind of momma. I'm so glad that works for some people, but it's not my style. She's doing well, but she has quite a stubborn streak. One day she was squatting on the dining room chair, pulled her pull-up over to the side, and peed all over the seat. That just screams, "You try and make me go to the potty. I'll go wherever I want. But I don't feel like being wet right now, so watch me pull my pants out of the way. How do ya like that?" I totally wouldn't be surprised if she said that.

So those are my pee stories. Maybe tomorrow I'll have some more baseball pictures!

Laughter

Thank You Lord for laughter, without which I would have gone insane long ago. The kids always give me lots to laugh about!

Coleman: What do you call a car that's sour?
Me: I don't know. What?
Coleman: A lemonsine!!!

Coleman was asking about homophones and I was trying to remember the difference between homophones and homonyms, when Spence said, "What about M&Ms?"

The boys were also trying to come up with rhyming words:
Coleman: What rhymes with cat?
Spence: Hat!
Coleman: What rhymes with go?
Spence: So!
Coleman: What rhymes with road sign?
Spence: (paused to think) Soad sign!

And one day while sitting in the pick up line at Coleman's school, Spence wanted to get unbuckled to get something, but I told him no because we were already starting to move. A little later Allie told Spence, "Pencey! Don't unbuckle! Hear me?" She is totally a little boss!

Coleman wanted to share one last joke with you that he just made up:

What didn't the car run?
Because it didn't have any legs!

Choose Your Favorite

Here is my list of excuses as to why I have not been blogging lately. You can choose your favorite!

1. Baseball has been taking up almost all of our time! Four days a week... Yikes!
2. I had to have a week-long session with Dr. Leman. Seems my kids' attitudes and behaviors needed some serious adjustments. Thanks Dr. Leman! (If you have kids you need to read Have a New Kid By Friday. I had read it a while back but needed a refresher.)
3. Our computer has been having problems.
4. Fall has arrived, but it's still stinkin' hot. So I'm busy sulking.

As for baseball, Coleman has been having fun. At last night's game, he got another hit! He made it to first base, then with the next few hits he was able to make it home. You should have seen the look on his face! He was super excited! You also should have seen the look on Brian's face! He was super excited! Nana and Poppa were also there cheering him on. Allie and Spence have already lost interest in the games. But they are enjoying climbing all over the bleachers and getting snow cone syrup everywhere!

Coleman had a game today also, but no hits. He and Brian had batting practice this afternoon, and tomorrow they are going to a teammate's house that HAS A BATTING CAGE WITH A PITCHING MACHINE IN HIS BACKYARD. Just so you caught that. Brian was going to take Coleman to the batting cages, but why when your teammate has his own! Cool!

Maybe we'll get some nice fall weather here soon and I can scratch excuse #4 off my list and get back to blogging more!

Base Hit!

After two weeks of practice, tonight was Coleman's first baseball game! He was cool, calm, and collected, but I was nervous! The coach lets them try out different positions, so tonight he played center field and pitcher (who doesn't pitch since there's a pitching machine). He got up to bat 3 times and the first time he got a hit, but was thrown out at first. The second time he got a base hit! The third time he struck out. I loved watching him play! I was so proud of him.

Coleman is a Bee!

Putting his gear in the dugout

First up to bat

Coleman's personal cheerleader

This one was just excited about the snow cones!

Swing!

Hit!

On first base!

Playing pitcher

He might just make a baseball fan of me yet!

Welcome Back Fall!

Today was the first day of Mother's Day Out for Spence and Allie! They had a great time, and so did I! I love this time of year - getting back into school and routines and cooler weather. And we actually have had cooler weather the past few days! It's been crazy because we went from having more than 40 days of temperatures over 100 to being chilly at the pool yesterday. This morning Spence thought he needed a jacket. It's been so long since we haven't sweated I think we all forgot what it feels like! Here are some first day pictures:

Welcome back to school!

Spence walked right in to his Pre-K room!

After dinner Allie was begging to feed the baby ducks. This is her favorite activity, and now that the evenings are nice it's pretty fun. Spence joined us, but Coleman and Daddy stayed home to practice baseball.

Walking Maestro while wearing Spence's socks and shoes

Look! Baby ducks!

These are the babies that are half-grown now. We call them the teenagers, so every time Allie sees them she yells, "Hi teenagers!!!"

Good night ducks!

You can see that Allie has inherited Spence's love for eccentric footwear. Love it! And that little sweetheart has been doing pretty well with potty training. There are still plenty of accidents, but we've had several occasions to celebrate. Overall I think it's going well.

Please pray for all those dealing with wild fires in Texas. There aren't any close to us, but there are some north of Houston, and many around my hometown in north east Texas. I pray we'll get rain soon, and for safety for all the fire fighters and volunteers.

Welcome To the Exciting World of Little League

We're into our second week of First Grade and loving it! Yesterday was Coleman's first day of Little League. He's loving it. Me? I'm not so sure. He has three practices this week! This is going to be quite time consuming! And when it's over 100 degrees, a little unbearable to be at the ball fields. But I'm so proud of Coleman. He walked on that field for the first time yesterday with a team full of 2nd and 3rd graders who have been playing together for several years. He didn't get upset or discouraged. He just did what the coach told him to and had fun! I'll never forget 2 years ago in soccer when it was the 3rd game before we saw any action out of him! He's growing up.

Coleman (3rd in line) waiting to practice running through first base

Since this is our first time in Little League, I was unsure of all the gear Coleman would need. But I wanted him to be prepared for the first practice. He had a glove, and I was planning on getting him baseball cleats. So I asked the coach what else he would need. The reply: a protective cup. I'm not sure why I was so embarrassed to have to buy this, but it was a little strange for me. Yesterday after school the kids and I headed to Academy to purchase cleats, shorts, and a cup. I figured I should prepare Coleman for having to wear this. Spence was very interested in all things cup-related. He wanted to know how you pee with it on, if you glue it on, and what happens if somebody drinks out of it! Then at the store once I finally figured out which cup Coleman needed (ladies, there are lots of options), Spence wanted to carry it around! I was glad because I surely didn't want to carry it around! Well, I did survive the experience, just barely.

And now we have one practice under our belts. I just have to figure out how to keep Spence and Allie entertained for 2 hours and we'll be all set! Can't wait for the first game!

Allie hugging Spence and telling him she was sorry after she punched him today!

Astros Game

Last week Brian took a day off and he and the boys went to an Astros game. It was a great way to say goodbye to summer and spend some guy time together before school started! Here are some fun pictures:

Bring On First Grade!

Welcome back to school!

Today is Coleman's first day of First Grade! Where did the summer go? He was not excited about going to school, but there was no complaining either. I've realized that I cannot make these events into big deals for him. There was not much talk of going back to school or school shopping. The only new clothes we bought is the Star Wars shirt he's wearing today!

This is the best picture I could get of him before we left home. He did not want to smile!

Have a great first day Coleman!

Things That Are Snot Supposed to Happen

Brian and I feel like we may have broken some sort of record. We were parents for over 6 1/2 years before one of our children cut their own hair! Spence put an end to that last week. He had been working on some little projects with paper, scissors, and glue so nicely all week. The thought crossed my mind that maybe I shouldn't walk out of the room and leave him alone with scissors, but obviously I ignored it. For the amount of hair I found on the floor, it doesn't look too bad!



Allie has been really snotty lately. This picture was taken one day after she woke up from her nap. She was not in the best of moods.

I can't always look beautiful...