Halloween Activities

I realized I never mentioned all the fun fall activities we have been enjoying.  I guess things have been slipping for me lately.  

Park after Dark at the Science Museum is a hoot.  We get a laugh at the museum all decked out for Halloween.  And the reptile exhibit fits right in with a spooky Halloween.

 Fall Festival at the Ag Museum.  We could watch the miniature trains going round and round for hours.

 They recently renovated the antique carousel and it is gorgeous now.  The horses are so pretty and vibrant.  I'm so glad they did this!

 Decorating our pumpkins with stickers and paint.

 We picked out the biggest pumpkin we could find at the store to carve up.  Since we have our professional pumpkin carving kit, we went all out on our design, drawing a surprised face this year.   Apparently, picking a big pumpkin comes with a thick shell that our knife couldn't cut through.  Poor Daddy, he had to do it with a regular knife and he worked at if for a good hour.  We have such a good daddy.

 Halloween was rained out this year, but Ladybug Girl and Ocean Princess still got out the next night and enjoyed walking with our neighbors.  I'm so glad ours are young enough to not realize we only walked 1 street, then headed home for the mommas to have a drink while the kids handed out candy.

Football

The last football game we attended, Anna Fair had just turned 1 and Laurie was 2.  It was nothing short of a disaster.  Adding 3 years, leaving the littlest Barbour at home and sitting in a box with our cousins seems to have made all the difference.

Exercise in Futility

Please tell me I am not the only one that fights a battle to the death with their children over the annual Christmas card photo?  And to make it more interesting, we threw a third child in the mix this year, though, surprisingly, he was the best one of the bunch.  We beg, we cajole, we threaten, we bribe.  I may have swatted one child over their sour attitude.  Here are a few outtakes.  

Photo shoot 1:

In which there were no good photos and everyone had a sour expression.

 Then we fought over who got to hold Henry.  Who didn't want to be held.  So, while big sister is holding him, little sister is pouting.

 Then we traded so little sister could happily hold the squalling Henry.  But, at least she's happy.

 Photo shoot #2:

First, we all cried and squinted because the overcast day was much, much to bright.

 The annual underwear shot.

Then after the 200 pictures shot, we partook of our bribe, the pecan pie.  Did you know that pecan pie is a lot like our relationship with Jesus?  No?  We fight over who has a bigger job.  We cry because adding the sugar is better than adding the syrup.  We whine because we don't need help breaking the eggs.  We flip out when we can't see what is going on.  And are impatient to see and taste the results of our hard work.  I wonder if Jesus loses patience with us as quickly as I lose patience with my little charges?