In My Heart

"Mommy, in my heart I love you 200%."
- Spencer, age 4

Soccer, a Party and a Pow-Wow

Our last couple of Saturdays have been unusually jam-packed and today was no exception. Spencer had his last Soccer Cubs of this session and little did we know that the parents would be participating. Well, I didn't have on my soccer shoes, so I just took pictures.

After soccer we headed to Pease Park for our little friend Pearl's third birthday party. She had a great musician and bubble machine!

After the party we headed home for rest time. Mommy fell asleep and was allowed to nap for almost two hours. It was awesome! We watched the beginning of the football game, then Spencer and I headed to the Austin Pow-Wow, a Native American festival where we saw a lot of beautiful traditional costumes and watched people dancing, chanting and playing drums. Here's a video.

 

 

 

Funny moment: Before we left the house, I realized Spencer was wearing his Mayflower/Plymouth t-shirt. Thank goodness I realized how inappropriate that would be to wear to that event!

Halloween Part II

After the Fall Festival yesterday, Spencer and I went to Target to buy the DVD "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" since we never seem to catch it on TV. We watched it together and I think he liked it. What's funny is it's not nearly as good (to me) as I remembered... But it felt like a big moment to watch such an iconic movie with my boy.

What was Daddy up to while we were hanging out? Well, in early in October, Spencer announced that he had decided what Daddy should be for Halloween: A hotdog. Now, I don't know a lot of daddies who would (or could!) sew themselves a hotdog costume just to please their kiddo. But Dave is that kind of Daddy and we are so lucky! So yesterday afternoon he created a hotdog bun and mustard tie. He also made Spencer's awesome papier mache mask and my burglar accessories.

 When he was finished, we set the scene and all got ready to trick-or-treat in our neighborhood.

 

We were out and about for almost two hours. Spencer collected a whole lot of candy. We stopped at a house down the street to visit with some neighbors, and Spencer and I sat on the driveway so he could sample several pieces of candy. Snickers, Butterfinger, Smarties... they all got a thumbs down. But he did enjoy a yummy homemade cookie that our neighbor gave him. He still just doesn't really care for candy. The other day we gave him a Tootsie Roll Pop and he asked, "How do I eat this?" Oh and speaking of candy, Dave and I get such a kick out of how he says M&Ms. It comes out something like "Inna Ems."

We didn't take a lot of pictures this year for some reason (here's a short little video when we left the house), but I can tell you that Spencer was a pro at trick-or-treating and the only time he got scared was when a huge dog ran out barking at everyone. There's one house on our street that has lots of creepy things in the yard - zombies, spooky music playing, etc. - and he still just marched right up to the door, while I was making myself be brave (I just knew something was going to jump out at us!).
 

Hope you had a ghoulishly fun Halloween!

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.