Papa T's Halloween Extravaganza

This past weekend was the party to end all other parties. If you haven't had the pleasure of meeting "Papa T" then I feel so sorry for you. This man (who is the dad of a coach) puts on a great show for all of the kids. I am talking about HUGE blowup houses and slides. He requires costumes, but he provides great prizes for them. He thinks of the most inventive games to play, and the party always ends with the kids filling up their pumpkin baskets with TONS of candy. This year The Stewarts and The Keys went with the group theme of "Grease". We thought it was fitting--the boys could all be "tough T-Birds", and Leslie and I could be sassy Pink Ladies. Leslie is a very talented seamstress, and she took on the job of making our sexy poodle skirts. We won "Best Over All 3rd place", but I think we could have stolen the show if Tadd hadn't messed up "The Hand Jive" during judging. Leslie was Frenchie (duh--she sprayed her hair pink), and I was Rizzo (you can't see the hickey I drew on my neck). Needless to say we had a great time despite the torrential down pour. We are already planning next year's costumes. Any ideas?

In case you didn't hear

Just in case you missed the news. . .

I mean this is really big news. . .

It really changed the way we saw things at our house. . .

It will probably change the way we see things for a while. . .

Our house was pretty crazy for a while after we "found out". . .

Can you guess what it is?


No , probably not.

I really don't know why you are even trying!

Okay, I will put you out of your misery.

We. . . are. . . going. . .

TO THE PLAYOFFS! AGAIN!!

*hysterical laughter from Hillary*
Oh, I am sorry, did you think I was about to say something else?
Seriously though, we beat Har-ber, who were undefeated and ranked in the nation. I am so proud of the Rebels!! Our of our 6 seasons in Fort Smith this will be our 4th time to go to the playoffs!! My heart swells with pride!

Great times with Grandparents

Grandpa Ralph and Nana came to visit in early October. It was such a wonderful visit for everyone. Unfortunately, Wilson was running a temperature the whole weekend, but that didn't stop him from getting some good G-rent love. They arrived on Thursday afternoon and stayed till we left for work on Monday morning. We didn't really do anything spectacular (hint--fever), but we had really special time here at the house chatting. I was only able to catch a few pics of the whole weekend. Some are cute and some are silly (but still cute). We really don't get to see them often enough.

The Pumpkin Patch

Today we decided to have a family adventure to the Wild Things Farm and Pumpkin Patch. We were joined by the Stewart family as well. I heard about this wonderful place through our Kindergarten teachers. They take the whole all of the Kindergarten students each year. I wasn't sure what to expect, but when I looked at the website it looked pretty cool. We made the executive decision NOT to do the corn maze (thank goodness for me and my claustrophobia!).

As soon as we arrived we were surprised by goats, pigs, and roosters! Someone had invented a very awesome way to feed the goats (they like to climb up these ladders like things). Of course we had to try it out!

Then we found a cow milking simulator. It was a wooden cut-out of a cow that had the "instruments" you could pull on to milk. It was actually hooked up to a water hose, but the boys thought it was hilarious!!

There were also little games the kids could play like duck races (with real water pumps) and pig races. You had to turn the pigs tail to get the numbered pigs to race. Wilson was not pleased that he couldn't figure out how to work the game. He also hadn't had a nap before we left, so EVERYTHING was a battle. Just check out the mean face he is making!

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the corn shooter. It was a neat contraption that they stuffed corn down, and you could shoot the corn cobs at targets in a field. I think the grown boys had more fun with this game than the younger ones!

Next up was picking pumpkins. I wanted the boys to each get a small pumpkin that we could paint, one large pumpkin for carving (closer to Halloween), and I wanted some fall decorative items for the front porch. I would say were were successful.

Russell picked the Jack-o-lantern pumpkin, and he did a fine job. I think we can turn it into something extremely spooky.

Wilson found the largest pumpkin out there and declared "This is mine". He was sorely disappointed when I told him it was only for display, and there was no way in the world we were taking it home.

The boys found a "fort" to storm, and they were quite hilarious acting like they had conquered the world.

We were also able to take a good fall family picture while were there. And a funny one with Russell as a farmer on a tractor.