Trick or Treat

Halloween was very tricky this year. Somehow we've gotten away from the traditional trick or treating and it has become something very different all together. We didn't really start "doing" Halloween until we had kids, but even then it's always been at a church 'carnival' or something similar, never the door to door knocking, etc. I know that most of that got lost in fear over tainted candy or child predators, but it seems now that it's a little safer than it once was.

Well, now our church has stopped having their annual carnival and challenged their members to get out in their community and meet their neighbors and invite them to our church using special made candy boxes. Our Sunday school class has taken it a step further and for the past two years, we've organized our own little mini-carnival at a couples house that's in our class. We have a bounce house, carnival games, candy (of course) and this year we had cookie decorating and a photo-opp set up for people to get a cute picture taken in their costumes. We handed out nearly 200 boxes and met lots of new people, and took those opportunities to invite them to our church. This was great and a good opportunity to share Christ with others, and yet I feel like the kids are missing out on the novelty and tradition of Trick or Treating...but I also think it's important to teach them to serve and care about others. So my delima is, what I will do next year...we'll just have to see.

We also try and visit my grandma and grandpa who both live at an assisted living center and cheer up all the old people. This was also tricky this year and we didn't actually make it over there until Sunday night. (Two days after Halloween...oh well, most of the people who live there don't even know what day it is, so they were thrilled to see them in their costumes.)

So, maybe next year we will just pass the candy boxes out door to door as we go trick or treating? We'll just have to wait and see. Until then, here are some pictures of Sir Cooper the knight, Super Why (Conner) and Carter my sweet little candy corn (this was Trinity's costume that Tracy made for her a few years ago.)

Super Why to the rescue!

Don't you just want to eat him up!

My Knight in shining armor!

Too cute to spook!

Conner and G.G's dog Kiki

Pumpkin Patch Pictures

I had to make a special trip to the pumpkin patch this year so that Cooper could be in the pictures. I had matching outfits and everything:) Anyway... I think we moms should get paid extra for attempting to capture adorable pictures of our kids. I stole an idea from my friend Carrie's blog where she cofessed to using smarties...one at a time...to attempt to bribe a smile out of her little one. So with a butt-load of smarties in tow, off we went to the pumpkin patch.

Carter will forever be my difficult child, and this was NO exception. I must have picked him up and set him back down at least 30 times, and his blood sugar levels were most likely off the charts by the time we left, but by golly we got some cute pictures.

My favorite part was listening to the other moms nearby, using any tactick they could think of, talking in octives that only seeing eye dogs can hear, trying everything short of standing on their heads to get their kids to smile. We just looked at each other with armloads of sympathy, and yet an expression of "Why the h#%* do we do this to ourselves" looks on our faces.

Oh well, I did get some pretty cute pics, dispite the yelling, threating, making a complete moron out of myself, my kids are actually pretty stinkin' cute!

Field Trip To Green Meadows Farm

Cooper had his first official field trip last week, and Day and I both were able to go with him. He was so excited that we were going with him, but he was super excited about the fact the he would be riding a REAL school bus!!! AWESOME!!!

Anyway, we spent the day at Green Meadows Farm, which is right off of Joe Pool Lake. It is a really nice facility, that is basically just a huge petting zoo of farm animals...oh, and one random zebra. Each type of animal had it's own pin that you could go inside of and chase, pet and feed them. There were chickens, ducks, goats, pigs, horses, baby ducks, baby pigs, baby cows...and a zebra. Needless to say, we used gallons of hand sanitizer, and yet were filthy from head to toe.

Mostly I enjoyed watching Cooper interact with some of the friends I've heard him talk about. I also got to know some of the other moms a little better. The weather was beautiful and we all had a great time. Cooper's favorite part was getting to milk the cow. He wasn't to sure at first, but he was brave and thought it was really cool.

I couldn't help but using another slide show, just because there were so many pictures...hope you don't mind.