One busy Saturday

The Saturday before Halloween was going to a BUSY day so we were all ready for it. The day started out with Brody's last soccer game. We came home for a quick change of clothes and then off to one of Brody's buddies birthday party.

Tyler turned 5 and had a bouncy house. What boy doesn't love a bouncy house so the boys had a blast. To add to it there was cotton candy - Brody's favorite.

Trevor hanging with the big kids

Here's how I spent my time at the birthday party - holding Baby Tate (Jude's little brother)

Thankfully the boys were pretty tired so getting them to sleep was pretty easy because we had a GA/FL game to prepare for. As goes our annual tradition we had the Cruce's and the Walsky's over for a fun afternoon of food and football (Stephanie & Adam stopped by for a few minutes on their way to another party). The kids always have a blast destroying playing in the playroom.

This year John brought crab legs so the guys feasted on them for awhile

Brody even joined in and LOVED them.

This year was not quite the outcome we would have liked so the Cruce's went home happy & well rested.

Finally over...

October 29 was Brody's final soccer game of the season - he actually had 2 more but we would be out of town.  There are no sad feelings on mine or Brody's end that the season is over.  I think he finally somewhat enjoyed being out there but is very thankful that it is over.

Someone asked him if he had made a goal during the season and he told them no and they said well, maybe next year.  He was pretty quick to respond that he wasn't going to play next year.  This pleased my heart!!  I think he'll just stick to tball and tennis and playing an occasional 18 holes with his daddy.

"Spooky" Halloween Party

A couple of months ago, I decided to host a Halloween party for Brody and some of his buddies.  Brody LOVES Halloween and so what better way to help him enjoy it then by having a not so spooky Halloween party.  He was pretty excited about it.

Luke & Yoda all ready for their big party.

I decided to try and have most everything outside so the kids could play.  So this meant I had to try and camouflage the garage - here's the best I could come up with.

Thanks to pinterest for some great halloween decorating and food ideas.

My dad actually surprised us with these little ghosts hanging in our trees when we got home from Hilton Head.  The boys thought it was pretty cool.

It was difficult to get the kids to stop to eat, so not sure how healthy they ate that night, but oh well.

I had all of these games planned for the kids and what did they mostly want to do when they arrived - play on the playground.  Brody had actually wanted to decorate the playhouse but I didn't think the kids would even play on it because they would be in their costume - boy was I wrong.

Molly's costume didn't stop her from climbing to the top of the playhouse.

Most of the boys shed their costume to play because they were too hot - 6 kids on the tire swing - fun times.

Dorothy "Baylie" and Rapunzel "Ava" just stood back and watched the kids playing - probably wishing they didn't have their costume on so they could play.

Another thanks to pinterest for ideas on Halloween games - they played pumpkin bowling, pin the nose on the pumpkin, eye ball relay, decorated pumpkins, and pumpkin toss.  It was pretty crazy trying to get 11 kids in line to play games, but I think they had a blast.

Molly trying out her skills with pumpkin bowling.

Bradyn aka Batman

Tucker & Trevor best buddies - They are about 4 months apart and I think Janan and I may have our hands full with these 2.

Trevor bowling to knock down the ghosts toilet paper.

In line for the pumpkin toss

Even the parents got involved to help out - Adam & Stephanie assisting with passing out candy & picking up the balls.

Tyler trying out his skills with the pumpkin toss.

Brody and Jude

Baylie pinning the nose on the pumpkin - her 3 eyed pumpkin

Brody did pretty good

Time for the eye ball relay

Ava is concentrating really hard to try and not drop the eyeball.

Time for some pumpkin decorating.

Molly, Dominic & Brody showing off their pumpkin creations.

The one thing Brody and maybe a few others was looking forward to was the "spooky" hayride.  I had made a few ghosts to be hung throughout our ride and had put my dad in charge of where and how to put them up.  Everyone loaded up for the hayride and we were off with my dad driving the tractor.  My dad had engaged a little help from a couple of the dads to wear a hat with green lights on top and a sheet over it all.  Most of the kids thought it was great - a few of them weren't so sure.

Scary ghost # 1 coming up to the hayride.

One of the best parts was that my dad hung some of the ghosts on a rope and one of the dads pulled it when we came to it and the ghosts swung over us as we went through.  It was great.

Not sure how many of the kids had no so pleasant dreams that night - I really didn't want to scare them too bad so hopefully they will come back next year because we are already thinking about it for next year.

Nothing like waiting until the last minute

October flew by and I thought I had planned us going to the pumpkin patch early enough so we would have time to carve and color our pumpkins.  Well, time got away from us and here we are coloring our pumpkins the day of our Halloween party.

The boys were VERY closely supervised as they used the lovely Sharpies.  Brody did great with them, but I'm sure if I turned my head Trevor would be all over using sharpies anywhere but on his pumpkin.

Check them out - all nicely dressed in their fall clothes :)

Why I love my job

One of the main reasons I love my job is that it allows me to be off 2 days a week and those days can be flexible.  This allows me to spend time with the boys but also have adult time because I just don't feel that I am meant to be a full time stay at home mom.  The Friday before Halloween, Brody had a Hallelujah party at school - aka Halloween party.  He was pretty excited to be able to dress up as his favorite superhero - Luke Skywalker.

Jason dropped him off at school and rushed over to Chick Fil A to pick up the nuggets for his class - how do I get one of the most expensive items on a party list 2 years in a row.  Thankfully another mother and I went in together.  I just didn't want to cook nuggets myself and you just can't beat CFA.

When I arrived to his classroom I quickly was reminded why I requested Ms. Cicero - all of the kids were at their seat even though there was a party going on.  Brody didn't come running to the door to see me because he was told to stay in his seat.  I loved it.  Even though there were nuggets and sandwiches, the kids mostly filled up on cookies, cupcakes and candy - surprise, surprise, but it's Halloween right and the start of a LONG weekend.

I love how the kids are all sitting down and there is control in the classroom.

My sweet little Luke Skywalker who was so excited about his party that he didn't eat much.

His buddies - Dominic as a dragon, and Trent as Spiderman

His other buddy Nick

He was having so much fun that he didn't want to leave.  This was just the start of our busy Halloween weekend.

MNF - Tailgate style

I know our Jaguars haven't been too great this year, but that doesn't stop us from enjoying a great tailgate party for Monday night football.  This is our only time that we get to do this since we are usually rushing from church to make a 1:00 kick off.

We joined up with the Fachko's, Henderson's, and the Mahan's.  We all park in the same lot which makes it great for tailgating.  There was lots of food, cornhole ( a new invented way), tossing around the football, and of course people watching.  We have so much fun tailgating.

Adam our cook.

Here's Jaxson deville entering the stadium - he is the best mascot.

This year we changed our seats to the south end zone and they are great seats.  It was hard for me to change though because I liked the group next to us, but we were in mostly a visitor section which lead to some good fights discussions.  With this game, I had a guy that didn't realize he could use the fold down part of his seat as a seat instead of sitting on the top part of it - needless to say he was pretty glassy eyed so it didn't matter how nice I could have asked him to sit down I don't think it would have ended nicely so I chose to keep my mouth closed (hard for me to).

This was THE longest game especially since I had to wake up at 5:30AM to get to work.  The first quarter was 1 hour so I knew it was going to be a long night.  The game was pretty close the entire time so we had to stay until the end - which was 12:15AM - thankfully we WON!!!