Carolina on my mind

We're all headed to Columbia tomorrow for about a week and a half, so I'll be on blogging hiatus until we get back. We're very excited to see all our family & friends back in SC! We're going to catch two football games (go Gamecocks!), and I'm even going to get to see some of my old buddies from Dreher. I'll be sure to give all the details after we return.

It's a bird, it's a plane . . .

. . . it's Superman! OK, he is playing with a doll, but I think the man of steel's allowed to do just about whatever he wants. Luke's school held its annual Fall Festival today. The children got to wear their costumes to school, and they all kept them on for the whole day! They got to do lots of fun activities during the morning, from a bean bag toss to bouncing in a bounce house, and got goodies at each stop along the way. After the festival, each class had an individual party. Luke's class ate pizza & cookies and decorated a little pumpkin. Needless to say, all the kids in their costumes were precious! Luke & his buddy Landon were both Superman. Spiderman, Dorothy, a couple of witches, Minnie Mouse, Buzz Lightyear, and a princess all made appearances, too. I feel so lucky that I'm able to go to his parties and see how much fun he has at school.

Pumpkin carving time!

Luke & I carved our pumpkin today. He's been asking to do it for about two weeks, but if you carve a pumpkin too early here, it's likely to start stinking if the weather gets hot again (which it usually does.) Since we're leaving for South Carolina on Friday, I figured we'd better go ahead and do it today or we'd miss doing it all together. Last year Luke didn't have any problem sticking his hand in the pumpkin and scooping out the pumpkin goop, but he wanted no part of it this year. He did use a scooper to get some of it out, but in true three-year-old fashion, he was done scooping after about two minutes. After choosing the pattern, he helped me paint it on and helped cut the pumpkin just a bit. He liked it once we were done and is looking forward to seeing it tonight with the candle in it.
Scooping out the goop!


Mr. Jack O' Lantern!

Texas weather

There's a saying around here . . . if you don't like the weather, wait a while because it's sure to change. We've definitely experienced that this week.

-Monday's weather: cloudy, rainy, high of 75
-Tuesday's weather: sunny & very warm, high of 85
-Wednesday's weather: sunny & hot (almost 90) till about 5:00 when a cold front blew in and the temperature dropped to about 55 by 6:30
-Thursday's weather: cloudy & cool; high temp, 60
-Friday's weather: sunny and COLD in the morning with a low in the upper 30's; forecasted high is 71
-Saturday's weather: sunny and warmer with an expected high of 80
-Sunday's weather: sunny and cooler with an expected high of 65

I just finished a load of laundry that contained shorts, t-shirts, jeans, and sweatpants. Crazy!

Pumpkin patch

Today was pumpkin patch day! We went to the Big Orange Pumpkin Farm up in Celina, about 15 minutes from here. We fed longhorns, sheep, and lots of goats, took a hayride, ate lunch, and picked out a couple of pumpkins. Luke's very much in his weird smile phase, so he looks pretty goofy in all our posed pictures. I love capturing his natural smile, but it doesn't happen very often. On the way home he said, "I had so much fun at the pumpkin patch." I'd have to agree.

Daddy's little helper

I recently bought a bulletin board to put in Luke's room. Because the frame had a finish on it, it needed to be sanded before I painted it blue. So one night, Gary & Luke got the sander out and got to work!