A Couple of Funnies

Spencer is always telling us, "Get the hang of yourself!" when he's frustrated (or when he's just being silly). I guess it's his version of "get a hold of yourself!" Cracks me up. Another thing he's been saying the last few weeks is, "They're already talking about Christmas [sigh....]." For example, if you're in a store that is already decorated for Christmas, or if you pass a tree on the side of Loop 360 that someone has put tinsel and ornaments on, they're already talking about Christmas. He must've heard me lamenting over how soon the stores start promoting it these days.

Yesterday and today at Nature's Way was the annual harvest soup lunch celebration. Dave and I both went yesterday (and he solo'ed it today). The kids decorated the tables and wrote some of the things they're thankful for. I'm glad to know that I rate right up there with cheese!

 

We sure are getting excited about Thanksgiving and Christmas around here. The cold temperatures really help! We're even contemplating "starting to talk about Christmas" and putting up our tree before Thursday if we have time.. 

One day over the weekend I noticed that my iPhone weather app was showing snowflakes for Monday. I wish I had a picture of Spencer's face when I showed it to him. We were eagerly awaiting some flurries, but they seem to have passed us by.

This is a very jumbled entry but that's all I got at the moment!

Little Helping Hands: Mobile Loaves and Fishes

Man, I'm a big fan of the Little Helping Hands organization. Spencer and I have really enjoyed our volunteer opportunities. So far we have delivered food for Meals on Wheels, prepared pet food deliveries twice for the Meals on Wheels PALS program, spread mulch in the Blunn Preserve (with Daddy!), and yesterday we tried a new activity: loading a Mobile Loaves and Fishes truck. These trucks make daily deliveries of food, clothing and other odds-and-ends to the homeless. 

Spencer said this was his favorite activity so far, and I think it was because he got to do a variety of tasks. We scooped lots of ice, loaded drinks, sandwiches, fruit, etc. into the truck. When we left he said he wished there would've been fewer people so we wouldn't have finished so quickly!

Halloween 2013

We carved our jack-o-lantern the night before Halloween. We had to work around a rotten spot, so he had a big ole' mouth. Spencer made him look nice and spooky by adding toothpick teeth.

The Nature's Way Fall Festival was on Halloween morning. Like last year, there were all sorts of sweet activities like songs, stories, pumpkin rolling, peanut tossing, apple peeling, pumpkin scooping, pumpkin painting, face painting, the Hokey Spooky and the Chicken Dance for the big finale.

This picture KILLS me - those are 3 super sweet (I mean tough) boys right there.

I took the day off, but the afternoon was a little rushed because we had to take Spencer to an unexpected doctor's appointment (luckily it was nothing that kept us from enjoying Halloween!). We did have time to watch "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown" and relax/play a little before time to get ready for trick-or-treating. We met up with some of our new neighborhood friends and hit the streets. Dave created Spencer's one-of-a-kind costume again this year and it turned out great! Spencer wanted to be a ninja, but an ordinary ninja would not do. He was a "wandering ninja" complete with straw hat. Dave's sewing skills amaze me - he took in that vest to fit the boy, added the grommets and cord to hold his knives, used the scraps to make shin guards, made a sword holder, etc. Ninjas were really popular this year, but I have to say I didn't see any as cool as Spence! And it was cute to watch him be in character - he really played it up.

 

 

Spencer's sixth (!) Halloween was a blast. We are really enjoying have kiddo friends in the 'hood.

Boo at the Zoo

Last Friday night we went to Boo at the Zoo. There was a haunted train ride, haunted house, and an animal show with Safari Greg. Plus, we got to walk around the zoo in the dark with flashlights - how cool is that? Spencer wore his astronaut costume and Daddy made a helmet for him that afternoon. Daddy wore his creepy 1980s trashy rocker outfit (which is not over-the-top enough for people to be certain he's wearing a costume...) and I was a butterfly.

 

I was surprised that Dave and I were practically the only parents in costume. We saw one other couple who happened to sit in front of us for the train ride. We decided the other parents were lame. Our family jumps at the opportunity to wear costumes!

Spencer loved the train ride. He knew there were going to be pirates somewhere along the way, but they ended up being nice pirates who gave him a bag of candy at the end. A little girl behind us was NOT happy when we passed some skeletons who caused a bit of a ruckus. After the train we went into the haunted house, which I have to say was more intense than I expected. But luckily the witch at the entrance walked through it with us when she saw that Spencer was a little hesitant - she would call out "little one coming through" so that the ghouls and goblins took it easy on us.

 

 

The highlight of the evening was Safari Greg's show. He pulled Spencer on stage to help him with a trick. Spencer did such a good job - he was funny and so comfortable. The butterfly mom and white trash dad were beaming with pride. :)

After the show, we wandered around awhile spying on animals with our flashlights. It was a fun night - we love supporting the Austin Zoo!

Pumpkin Patch 2013

Where has the month of October gone? We barely made it over to the Tarrytown Methodist Church pumpkin patch before Halloween this year. The goods were pretty picked over but we came home with a pumpkin to carve and a couple of small ones to decorate (which I might add we haven't done yet...again, why is this month flying by?).

And might I weepily remind you of Mommy and Spencer pumpkin photos from years past?

Fair Time!

One of my favorite childhood memories was the annual arrival of the Brazoria County Fair. I love being able to go back now with Spencer. This was our second time to attend - the first was in 2010 when Spencer had just turned two. Going back with our five-year-old was even more fun because I do believe that five is the perfect age for the fair.

And the best part was that Alison, Tom, Kenzie and Garrett met us there, so Spencer and Garrett got to ride everything together. They had a blast!

 

 And besides the rides, there were yummy treats like corndogs and funnel cake, plus farm activities. Of course we played a couple of (expensive) games for (junky) prizes.

It was a great day - we stayed almost 6 hours! Even though we enjoy going to the Austin Fair and Rodeo in March, the Brazoria County Fair will always be #1 in our book!