Part IV - Halloween

What a difference a year makes! Last Halloween we had to carry Luke to almost every door, ring the doorbell, and say "Trick or treat" for him. This year, we just stood on the street and watched him run to every door, ring the doorbell, and belt out, "Trick or treat!" He had his older cousin Grayson with him, so that helped, but he was not at all shy this year. After almost every house, he'd announce how many pieces of candy he got and then say, "Look how much I have!" He went full-steam for about 45 minutes and then completely pooped out and had to be carried for a bit. He was, by far, the cutest Superman I've ever seen!

Gary's brother Greg made the Peanuts design in the background.

Part III - Junior Gamecock Club Halloween Party

GO GAMECOCKS!!!

Because we happened to be in town for Halloween, Luke got to go to the Junior Gamecock Club Halloween party at the Colonial Center. The kids wore their Halloween costumes and got to play games and jump in several bounce houses. The absolute best part for Luke was seeing Cocky. He LOVES Cocky and was literally squealing, "Cocky!!" when we were walking down the steps to the coliseum floor. He ran right up to him and was just so very excited to see him in person. Sure, it was fun to get candy and treats and do a bounce house obstacle course, but seeing Cocky was the end-all, be-all of our entire trip!

The future starting quarterback!

Eating dinner (and watching a movie on the jumbotron) with our buddy London, a.k.a, Woody.

Part II - Fun in a tree / fun with a rope

G-Mommy & G-Daddy have the best backyard! It's full of trees and even has a little creek with a bridge over it (that G-Daddy built, of course!) Luke loved climbing on the trees and exploring the backyard and the construction area back behind their yard. One day G-Daddy got out some rope, and Luke had a blast tying it from tree to tree and hanging on it.

Part I - Riverbanks Zoo

While we were in Columbia, we took Luke to Riverbanks Zoo. It had been a while since we'd been to a zoo since the Ft. Worth Zoo is over an hour from our house. Luke really had a good time. He fed a giraffe and lots of lorakeets. He loved it when they landed on his arm or head and got mad when Gary had more birds than he did. He got a big kick out of the monkeys that live on an island and scream at each other. G-Mommy & G-Daddy had fun being with him and watching him explore & enjoy all the animal exhibits.

We're back!

We're back in Texas after our whirlwind trip to South Carolina. We saw many friends and pretty much all of our family and had a great time. I've got about 150 pictures to download and sort through, so it might be a while till I post any. But I'll eventually get it done, so stay tuned!

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!

Up, up, and away!

We went to the Plano Balloon Festival this weekend with several friends (it's kind of like Freedom Weekend Aloft for all you SC folks.) There are two balloon lifts every day and all kinds of food and merchandise vendors. There's also a neat kids' area with inflatables and crafts for the kids to do. We took a picnic dinner and watched the balloons from on top of a hill. Luke did three different inflatable obstacle courses and had a blast. Considering he's so cautious in so many areas of his life, he's fearless when it comes to what I would consider quite adventurous activities. He loved the balloons, too. We see hot air balloons a good bit around here, but it was neat to see them close up and to see so many at once. Luke loved the G-Daddy and pirate balloons; my favorite was, of course, the Target balloon! Skydivers brought in the American and Texas flags; I think we all enjoyed that most of all. The weather was perfect, and it was a really fun evening.

Rainy day

Yesterday was a rainy day - the second one we've had in about six months. Although we desperately need the rain, Luke & I were going a little stir-crazy by late afternoon, so we decided to get suited up and head outside. He was sporting three different animals: a dalmation raincoat, dragon rainboots, and a duck umbrella. What's even funnier is that he only has on a shirt and sweater vest under the coat (he decided not to put his shorts back on at some point during the day after going potty.) He had lots of fun splashing and running around in the rain, and since rainy days occur once in a blue moon around here, I thought I'd take some pictures of this special day.

TMI

This will surely be too much information for many folks (including my husband who will no doubt be mildly perturbed that I posted it), but read on. Here's a conversation from this morning:

Luke: "I'm a tooter boy."
Me: "What is a tooter boy?"
Luke: "I toot a lot."
Me: "Well, you sure do. You and your daddy."
Luke (to Gary): "I'm your son."
Gary: "You are? Why is that?"
Luke: "Because you and I toot a lot."

Oh, out of the mouths of babes!

CSI: McKinney

Go Gamecocks!

Saturday night's game aside, we're still the biggest Gamecock fans in Texas! And has anyone ever looked cuter in a jersey? Look out, Sydney Rice!

Luke the Builder, part 2

Last Saturday Luke & Gary went to the kids' workshop at Home Depot, and Luke (with Gary's help) built a birdhouse. Gary said he did a good job hammering in the nails but would get tired after a while and ask Gary to finish. He was so proud of his little birdhouse! We painted it later that afternoon, and he did a pretty good job. Yesterday we all went to Lowe's kids' clinic where he was supposed to build another birdhouse. They had run out of birdhouse kits by the time we got there, so Luke got to choose whatever he wanted to build. He chose to build a racecar. I got some good pictures of him hard at work. This is such a good way to spend Saturday morning, especially since it's free!