Halloween 2013

We attended one Trunk or Treat this year, the weekend before Halloween. Folks decorate their trunks and hand out candy in a parking lot. The kids had a good time and want to build something in OUR trunk next year. I'm sure Darth Van is up for the challenge.

Halloween night was a bust for trick-or-treaters at our house. Last year, I had about 30 kids. This year, the doorbell rang only six times. I guess that's the downside to living up a hill and on a double culdesac. The effort-to-candy ratio is much higher than on one of the main neighborhood streets with no backtracking necessary. All the boys wore the same costumes as last year. Only Sarah was something new - a pink leopard.

Anniversary

Mark and I celebrated 14 years of marriage today. We don't usually give big gifts on this day, but it would be nice to at least go out to dinner. Last year, he completely forgot, so I wasn't anticipating anything this year either. Mark was scheduled to be out of town the whole week anyways. After he realized what Wednesday was, he changed his plans and flew home Wednesday afternoon so we could go out to dinner. We got Jacob home from school at 4:30, we went to dinner at Texas Road House (the place where you can throw peanut shells on the floor) with all the kids. Had to be done by 6:45 because the kids had church school. So you can imagine my surprise when Mark pulls out a gift at the restaurant. 

When I opened it, I started to cry. My girlfriends would say "the romance isn't dead yet!" but I felt bad for not even getting him a card! It was a huge surprise. And then we finished up dinner and I took the kids to church while Mark headed back to the airport to fly out again that night. Crazy!!

Red Ribbon Week

At school, the kids celebrate Red Ribbon Week which is a national anti-drug and drug awareness campaign. Usually there are dress up days every day of the week. Once of the days this year was dress for what you wanted to be when you grew up. Sarah was a fashion designer (she wore a lot of accessories) and Ethan was a baseball player (at the last minute). Lucas dressed as a fireman and made the school Facebook page!

Sarah - Crohn's Update

Sarah had a gastro appointment today and we had mostly good news. She has gained 20 pounds since her procedures in June and looks a million times healthier. She was able to go off of two medicines - the steroid and the Prevacid. Hopefully, the bloating she has in her face and belly will go down a bit now. We still need to do blood work in a couple weeks to check on her anemia, but overall, we're happy with her progress!

She had some dry skin around her nostrils and around her mouth that was red and itchy. We're using topical creams at the moment and hopefully it will go away before a dermatologist appointment is necessary!

Cub Scouts - Fire Station and Bike Rally

Lucas' new Tiger den toured one of the fire stations in town. The boys are mostly six or seven years old, and they asked a surprising amount of questions! Like "where's your pole?" and "why don't you have a dog?" We got to see the inside of the station, the kitchen, the sleeping quarters and, of course, the fire engines!

From there we headed to Ethan's Bear den activity: a bike rally! There was an obstacle course to ride around ... 

A bike maintenance station, and a safety station where they learned about Rules of the Road and hand signals.

After everyone completed all the stations, there was a group ride to the nearest grocery store for ice cream! Beautiful, super fun day. The kids are still talking about it!

Texas State Fair

The State Fair of Texas is big - we barely saw any of it but the midway, so I don't have a lot to report. We took the train from near our house down to the fair, which was cool, but crowded, and tried to find our friends from San Antonio. What they don't tell you is that once you're inside the gates, your phone won't work for sh*&. In fact, the battery gets sucked dry extra fast because it keeps searching and searching and searching for a signal. We couldn't get a hold of our friends for over two hours, during which there was a tiny rain sprinkle. Not until we were near Big Tex (which they should have totally built around a cell tower. Duh!) did we catch up with Robyn, Jon, and their kids and friends, and then we all enjoyed the midway together. Only took one photo because phone was dead!

Edited for close up: it was Lucas! 

The kids received free tickets from school but they were only good on the Monday after the Chappells were here. Next year, we'll try again, and go more prepared! 

Hat Parade

Now a first grader, Lucas got to participate in the Hat Parade. Assigned as a "family project", at least they were acknowledging who is really doing the work on these things! However, Lucas tried to make a couple different hats by himself. Which, in hindsight, I totally should have taken pictures of...

The first was a circle out of white copy paper that leftover paper scraps hanging off the sides in sort of a squished octopus formation. It laid on his head and the scraps bounced and poked him in the eyes. Next!

Then he cut another circle out of white copy paper and had me attach two other pieces of paper around the circle so that it resembled Lincoln's hat without the brim. He pulled it down over his forehead and decided he wanted eye holes. After I cut them, he put the hat back on and looked like a member of the KKK. NEXT!

I took a piece of poster board and folded it in the shape of a basic sailors hat. Lucas decorated it with stamps and markers and I attached a stretchy chin strap. Which he apparently didn't use because he's holding the hat on his head as he walked.

All he wants for Christmas...

Lucas had two very loose teeth for several days. Loose enough that he was able to pull out the first one by himself, trauma-free. We thought the other tooth would be out in a day or two...

A week later...

Yes, that photo was staged, even though we were sick of looking at the tiny little tooth dangling by a thread! Every time he bit something, I was sure it would pop out. But no! Not even with apple slices! It took four more days until he finally lost the tooth at school!

It came home in a tiny blue treasure chest, but he opened it a million times and showed it to every body. Aaaaaand promptly lost it in his room before the tooth fairy could come. Hmmm. It's like this tooth has a mind of it's own!