Fall Festival

Today was the Fall Festival at Nature's Way. Daddy and I both volunteered to help and had a blast. There was so much to do!

Storytelling and singing...

Pumpkin rolling (SUPER fun!)...

Apple peeling...

Pumpkin painting...

Acorn tossing...

Making Halloween shapes with Play-Doh...

Face/Arm painting (this was the first time Spencer ever wanted to get any sort of paining done on his body -  he went with a spider)...

Scarecrow stuffing...

Chicken dancing....

And the Spooky Pokey...

It was a wonderful morning. Now we are resting up for the big night!

Pumpkins

We bought a pumpkin at a church carnival weekend before last and finally got around to carving it this week. I asked Spencer what kind of face Daddy should carve and he demonstrated. I think the end result is pretty accurate!

 

And in a moment of craftiness, I decided to paint a little pumpkin. I always feel like I get behind for every holiday and don't accomplish as much as I want decor-wise, but I'm pleased with our two pumpkins.

Ella's Backyard Jamboree

We had a blast at Ella's 3rd birthday party yesterday. Let me tell you, Steffani and Carol know how to throw a party! (Ok, I'm sure Chad had a little something to do with it, too...) They transformed Carol's beautiful backyard in Buda into a farmland jamboree, complete with petting zoo, pony rides, bouncy castle, an amazing balloon-twisting-artist, yummy food, a crazy cool cake, and creative (and very generous) party favors. For some reason we didn't get any pictures of the beautiful decorations - probably too busy petting the baby goat and donkey - so you mosey over to Steffani's blog for her report and more pictures than ones of just Spencer. I had to swipe a couple of pictures below from her blog, too...We didn't take tons of pictures because we were busy having fun!

Was hard to get him out of the bouncy castle!

Like herding kittens, but here are all the kids together

Corn box = major fun

My little buckaroo

Let's mosey over there

My handsome little guy

Holding the sweetest little bunny

Daddy found a furry friend, too

This little goat was only a week old

Separate corral for the big-little-animals

Pretty magnificent cake!

It was awesome to see how confident Spencer was when riding that sweet pony, Ginger. He climbed right up and didn't even bat an eye when the guy leading him around starting "clucking" to get the pony to trot. Spencer got the biggest smile as he came galloping toward us. A couple of short vids:

It was a wonderful morning celebrating a sweet girl who puts a smile on the face of everyone she meets. Happy third birthday, Miss Ella! And a big thanks to you, your mommy, daddy and Nana for the hospitality and party to remember.

Halloween Part I

Spencer and Daddy went to the Roz-Mina Halloween party last night. I had already made plans to accompany Steffani to meet John Taylor of Duran Duran (!) because I thought the party was going to be during the day like it was last year. So that means I have now missed both of our Roz-Mina Halloween parties, as I was in MN last year.

Anyway, Spencer was a skeleton. Love the slicked-back hair! The kids trick-or-treated and there was a potluck dinner. It was a good warmup for the big night Wednesday.

We are usually a homemade costume family, but decided this year since Spencer wanted to be a skeleton, we would just buy the costume and Daddy is going to make some sort of mask for Spencer to wear on Halloween. So at least it will have a homemade element. And we're so glad the weather turned cooler so our little ghoul won't be roasting inside his fleece costume!

Round two of Halloween will take place during the day Wednesday at the fall festival at his other school. Looking forward to a big day of spooky fun!

As Is

I've noticed a new phrase in Spencer's repertoire lately: As is.

This morning I asked if he would like his peanut butter toast cut and he said, "No, I will just have it as is." And he just asked for an apple and when asked if he would like it sliced, he casually replied, "I'll eat it as is." For some reason it strikes me as quite funny and oh-so cool, like the picture below.

An Out-of-This-World 4th Birthday Party

Editor's note: The photo album link works now.

Spencer's birthday started bright and early at 6:00 AM Saturday. Guess he was too excited to sleep. When we got up, he found his gift from Mommy and Daddy:

Later that morning we headed over to Life Time Fitness for Spencer's "Astronaut Training" party. Ten of his little friends and classmates joined us for what turned out to be a really fun time. This is one of those occasions where I feel like our pictures just don't do it justice. You can see more pictures here and hop over to Steffani's blog for her report. I'll have to do a separate entry with some video...

Commander Spencer surprised us by wanting to wear the awesome astronaut costume he got in the mail earlier in the week from Aunt Dianne and Uncle Scott. He kept it on until just before the last activity when I noticed how sweaty he was!

Daddy made jet packs that the kids decorated when they arrived and of course space goggles for eye protection. There was an astronaut obstacle course, scooter hockey, a meteorite toss and a final descent to earth via parachute.  

The astronauts-in-training refueled with pizza, fruit, cheese and cake during training.

After Spencer thanked each guest for coming and sent them on their way with a little Moon Dough, we went home for a small gathering with family. Spencer opened his gifts and played with Sarah, Lee and Elliott.

I'm including this one to show his cool birthday shirt...

Super excited about the new Mark Knopfler CD from Geep

Sarah and Spencer looking like little adults

It was a fantastic day celebrating Spencer turning four. We are beyond blessed by everyone's generosity, support and love for our boy. Happy birthday, Spence!