Halloween Party at Ben's School

Ben's preschool had their annual "fall festival" (Halloween party) and all the kids were able to dress up, have fun, and eat candy!

Here's the class. Ben is in the back row - a red Power Ranger.
He didn't want me taking his picture until he was actually doing something! Ha ha.

Here is is doing the obstacle course.

On to the treasure hunt. Ben spent a lot of time here gathering a lot of treasure.

He played a few more games,

and then I made him stop and pose for a picture.

He's got a ton of loot in there - and interestingly enough almost no candy! Lots of plastic bugs, popper things, and other plastic items. I think he got 2 pieces of candy out of that whole bag.

You can see his missing tooth really well in this picture!

I also had a bit of a scare the other weekend when I watched Cooper and Jackson for Jessica. Jessica went out of town on a girl's weekend and I had the kids for the entire Friday. I put Jackson down to nap and when I got him up his eye was almost swollen shut! The part that scared me the most was when I pulled his eye open I could see that the white of the eye was also extremely swollen! Needless to say we ran out of the house as fast as I possibly could straight to the doctor's office. (If they couldn't have gotten me in right away we would have gone to the ER). You can tell by Ben's inside out shirt and too small of clothes that I just threw everyone in the car - Jackson didn't even have shoes!

This really doesn't do his eye justice. It looked so much worse than this right when he woke up - but like I said the most worrisome part was the white of his eye. The Dr. didn't know what was wrong - she actually brought in 2 other doctors to see the eye and called a pediatric opthomologist, and they all agreed it seemed like some type of trauma or allergic reaction. After we got home to my mom's house (after they had us wait for almost 2 hours to make sure the swelling didn't get worse) I realized that Jackson had been playing in the sand before nap and we had washed his hands and brushed him off, but when I layed him down for nap I think some sand got in his eyes (I remembered later that he had said "my eyes" and rubbed it for a second). But he just rolled over and went straight to sleep so I didn't think it bothered him!

We don't know for sure that is what the cause was, but it seems most likely. It was so scary (I really thought he was going blind or something!) so we were so thankful that everything ended up ok!

The Start of our Halloween Traditions

These little guys have nothing to do with Halloween but we were pretty excited to have them! On the last day of school I got the kids a butterfly keeper cage which came with a coupon for caterpillars. After reading about the caterpillars they needed cooler weather than the TX summer so we had to wait until fall to redeem our coupon. Fall came and we finally decided to get our caterpillars! Here they are, all eating, getting big, preparing to make their chrysalises.
A couple of weeks before Halloween we made our annual Gingerbread Haunted House. I had the best one last year with notches on all of the pieces that held it all together so well. I forgot which brand I bought and I didn't get that one this year! :( This house fell down about 10 times but I finally got it all together.

The kids each took a side to decorate.

We had much less sneaking of the candy this year and the Haunted House turned out pretty cute!

I also redid our downstairs bathroom and I LOVE it!! This is still my not so nice camera so the colors didn't turn out so well. I'll have to take the pictures again since I finally got my camera back. I painted the walls first all white since they were builder beige. Then I painted thick gray stripes with turquoise accents.

I also made the matching shower curtain. The stripes were pretty time consuming but I love the result!

Busy Weekend

Ben has always been that kid who runs everywhere and climbs on everything. I thought I would try him in a gymnastics class and put all that energy to good use. He LOVES it!
(Still my not so good camera - but I got my new camera finally so hopefully the picture quality will improve!)
He is doing so well with gymnastics, I'm excited to see if it is something he'll want to continue with - I think he could be really good at it!

At the same gymnastics center our friend and neighbor, Emma, turned 7. We had a great time at her birthday, but no more pictures because my camera is terrible!

Our other neighbor that has twins Elizabeth's age invited us and our other neighbor friend over for dinner and a fun night for the kids. She had planned to get a bounce house for the kids, but it rained all morning so that didn't happen. They did have a silly string fight and pinata though!

She also planned a movie night complete with a concession stand! The kids earned "money" during dinner and got to spend that money buying candy and popcorn.

Elizabeth doesn't like popcorn (gasp!) but enjoys enough candy to make up for it.

(I know - this camera!!!)

Ben also liked the candy and popcorn so he was having a great time.

The kids are all deeply engrossed in the movie -except my daughter who will always smile for the camera! :)

Cute details!

We had a great night!

Festival at the Park

(Again Blogger is not flipping my pictures! Don't know why....)

We got a flier in Elizabeth binder about this festival at the park that is about 2 minutes from our house. It said a "free" event, but when we got there we realized everything fun cost money! We had a good time, though. The kids were enthralled by the police officers on horses.
We also waited in line so the kids could go on this spinning ride.

They loved it as you can tell.

The main reason we went was because one of our favorite kid singers, Eddie Coker, was performing. I know I have posted about him before. The kids are dancing to one of his songs, here.

If you know my children, you'll know this is a big accomplishment. They went willingly on stage in front of lots of people! He called for any kids who wanted to come up and finally my kids were brave enough to join them. I was very proud of them!

He then led the kids all around the area for some type of parade, they loved it!

Lots of dancing goes on at the show - Elizabeth and Amelia had some fun together.

There are my kids dancing at the front. I was so excited they got so into the whole concert!!

Daisy Scout Visit to the Fire Station

We took our Daisy girls (and brothers) to the fire station in September to earn our Respecting Authority petal. The visit started with a tour of the station. We saw where the firemen slept and ate, which I think the girls really thought was neat.
This picture won't flip but I like it that both my kids are in it - listening to the fireman! :)

After the tour inside we headed outside to see the trucks.

(my pictures won't flip!!)

After we saw all the parts of the truck the fireman said they would give each of the kids a ride in the truck since we brought them dinner! They were so excited! Elizabeth got to go first with 3 other kids.

She's all buckled up, ready to go!

And they are off!

I took a picture of Ben on a brush fire truck, which they have needed a ton here in TX this summer since we are so dry.

Anna, Emma, and Ben while we are waiting for the kids to come back from their ride.

Elizabeth's on her way back!

Now it's Ben's turn to go.

Here they are on their way back.

We had a great visit with our firefighters. The kids had such a great time, and were so lucky they got a ride! (They told us they never give rides to the kids....I guess they really liked the food! :)

Someone Lost a Tooth...

Somebody lost a tooth...and it wasn't Elizabeth! Ben lost his first tooth yesterday and he was so excited and can't wait for the tooth fairy to come tonight!

I can't believe he's old enough to lose a tooth!!