Halloween Extravaganza

Now that Halloween has come and gone... It is sad to think such a great weekend is already over.  (Unbelievable! Does it seem like time is just effortlessly sprinting by to you?)

Here is a run down of our weekend countdown to the Halloween festivities:

Saturday

I took the boys to my parents' house to spend time with Mike, Papa, Grandma, Aunt Megan and Uncle Rob.  (They don't all live at my parents' house - just Mike - for the time being, Papa and Grandma.)  The Simmons Center (like the local "Y") was having a great Halloween carnival for the kiddos and we went to check it out.

It was a great time, and truly the best Halloween carnival I have been to!

There were all kind of very creative games and prizes. (I lost count of how many Twix and other candy bars Andrew was getting!)  They had this great carnival game with an elephant and peanuts.  You put the peanut into the elephant's trunk (section of a dryer vent) and then the elephant would give you a special prize out of its trunk in return.  Like the classic fishing game, only better!

Sunday
As you know Andrew is an avid rollercoaster enthusiast.  My sister, Melissa, had two free tickets into a local amusement park.  Sunday was the last day they were open for the season, so of course we couldn't let the tickets go to waste.  Papa and Grandma McKinley went with us.  We had a great time.  Andrew rode the Steel Lasso (lots of fun - really smooth coaster), the Silver Bullet (roller coaster with a loop) and the Wild Cat (no loop, but big plumets, just a good ole' wooden coaster).

Monday
Mike came up for a great day of trick or treating!  Andrew was pumped!  And Ryan was so excited just feeding off of Andrew's enthusiasm.  On the way home we stopped by our church to walk through the "Trunk or Treat".  It was a good crowd and great practice for Ryan.  We went home to wait for Mike to walk in the door and eat dinner.

We got everyone out the door and started walking through the cul-de-sac.  Ryan was working SO hard to stay up with big brother.  After about the fourth house, he had it down!  He was doing a good job saying "Tweak or TwEat".  Like I said, by the fourth house Ryan started scurring to the front door saying "more, more...more tandy!"  I ended up taking him home after we had walked the majority of our half of the neighborhood and left Mike and Andrew to finish up. 

Ryan was Very.Very. Upset.  Once I closed the door to the house, he burst into tears.  Andrew and Mike came home about 5 minutes later for a potty break.  Ryan noticed them preparing to go back out and scrambled to put his candy back in his little pumpkin while saying frantically "come on, come on, come on!" not wanting to be left behind.

After the candy inspection was complete, Batman and the Cowardly Lion went to bed and the "10% tithing" raid of candy began for Mike and me. 

It was a great countdown to Halloween fun!

Hansen Sunday Comics...on Wednesday (hey, it's still a church day)

Just a few funnies that have happened over the past couple of weeks:

1.  Andrew announced to me the other morning, "Mom, I don't like your hair."  "Why not Andrew?"  "Well, do you like it mom?"  "Sure I like it," was my response.  "Well, don't you want to be pretty like Rapunzel? Huh, mom?"  "I do think Rapunzel is pretty.  You don't think that I look like Rapunzel?"  "Uh, no mom.  You would have to have long gorgeous hair to be pretty like Rapunzel.  Sorry, mom, it's just me tellin' the truth."

2. The last couple of nights during our normal getting-ready-for-bed routine Ryan has chucked his pacifier from his changing table to his bed.  The first night he did this, I had him standing up to take off his shirt.  He told me "Stop!" and then took his pacifier out of his mouth and in one quick motion flung it over towards his bed.  Well, it landed perfectly square in the middle of the bed.  He looked over at me and gave me a huge grin.  Too cute.  BUT, then the next night same thing happened... taking off his clothes, he told me to "stop!", the curve ball, and I'll be darn if he nailed the strike again!  He has now performed this nightly toss five times with a four out of five winning streak.  Each time with the huge, satisfied grin on his face.  Such a character!

3. We have a border collie, Lucy, and a dog that we have adopted from my boss named Zoe who is a wheaten terrier mix.  They both are the cutest things ever - UNTIL the jump over our brick wall fence that is on one side of our house.  They never seem to make the quick jail break until I am running late in the morning and have to get out the door quickly.  I would typically not think to include this in a "Sunday Comics" post, but when the jailbirds busted free the other morning I was at my wits end.  We were already running about 10-15 minutes behind.  Following my ranting about the "No good animals. They don't know how well they have it...", Andrew looked at me and calmly said, "Well mom, it would teach them a good lesson if they received a bad consequence for their bad actions." I love when your children repeat great parenting tid bits they have heard far too often.

4. Andrew talks in his sleep.  Mike and I love to go in and kiss his forehead one last time on our way to bed.  And this is why... I just leaned down to kiss his forehead tonight and he turns over after feeling my lips brush his face mumbling "No mommy, I love you too much."  Heart.Over.Flowing.

Trains, Texas, & Stampedes: Day Three

"Ride 'em, Cowboy!  Oh, wait, Mom! We forgot my cowboy boots!"

Our third day in Ft. Worth, TX ended Andrew's birthday excursion. 

We got up and around and then let Andrew decide what adventures our day would behold.  We asked him if he wanted to go see a real live cattle drive.  Of course that little face of his just lit up with excitement and anticipation! 

We were cutting it close trying to get breakfast and catch the bus at the right time.  We ended up walking across the street to Starbucks and grabbing some donuts, scones, muffins, juice and coffee to go.  We then walked to the curb and sat on the bus stop bench to wait for the next ride back to the main station downtown.  Well, since we were cutting it so close, I just knew we had already missed the bus.  And sure enough, we watched the bus go by in the opposite direction.

Thankfully, the driver was running ahead of schedule and had an empty bus, so he stopped at the convenience store across the street.  Wonderful, it was fate!  The only problem was crossing before he took off again and the street kept getting busier and busier...on a Sunday morning!  The driver came out and we were still waiting on the light to change to let us cross over safely.  Mike whistled and got his attention.  As luck would have it, he heard us and waited!

We rode back to the main station to find our next link to the Historic Ft Worth Stockyards. 

We had to take a taxi when we realized we had missed the bus down by just 5 minutes.  The taxi driver dropped us off just in time for the longhorn cattle drive!  Boy, was Andrew excited!

A real, live cowboy and his horse, Charlie

After watching the "real, live cowboys" drive the "real, live longhorn cattle" down the street, we took off down the cobble street to find some more adventures. And we found this...

After looking up at the sky and seeing some threatening thunder clouds appear, we decided to find somewhere to eat quickly and then head back to downtown Ft. Worth.  Mike suggested that we catch a movie in-between lunch and the trains departure back to Oklahoma.  We all thought that was a great idea since The Lion King was playing in 3-D!

But first, we had the distinct pleasure of eating at the friendliest little burger joint you have step foot in.  Andrew hit it off with the staff and they treated him like a celebrity!  We're talking Charlie Brown coloring book, tub full of crayons, fish singin' (you know the one that is mounted and sings), soda slurpin' treatment...

After our lunch stop with our cow town celebrity (he returned his borrowed 10-gallon hat!), we headed to the bus stop to catch our last bus in Ft. Worth.  Upon entering the bus, Andrew scoped out a gentleman sitting by himself and plopped down right next to him making the grand announcement, "Mom, Dad, you can sit right over there.  I am going to sit by him."  "Well, did you ask this nice gentleman if it was okay with him if you sit by him?" I asked.  Andrew turned eagerly to the man and asked "Is it okay, sir?"  The man shook his head in agreement and mumbled a kind yes.  Andrew talked his ear off until he was at his stop... or we think it was truly his stop! Ha!

We caught "The Lion King" in 3-D at the movie theater in downtown Ft. Worth.  It was SO good in 3-D.  Hands down the best 3-D movie I have seen.  Andrew has now snagged the Simba stuffed animal that my parents had at their house.  He has been taking it with him to school every day to sleep with it during rest time.  Needless to say, he loved the movie.

Following the movie, we speed walked the three blocks back to the train station just in time to pick up our held baggage and board the train.  We met a wonderful lady who lives in Edmond on the trip back.  Really, everyone was so friendly on the train.  One.Big.Family.

It was a wonderful trip.  Andrew keeps talking about taking the train again... "Next weekend, right, mom? Right?" 

It ended well too... Papa Bear and Cub were tuckered out... "Shhh....sweet dreams of a Texas stampede..."