Lufkin Family Fun

We took a quick trip to Lufkin so Caleb could hunt deer with Justin (they both got one) and play with the cousins. This picture sums up our attempt to coordinate the kids! They surprisingly slept good and had a great time, including Chedders and Chickfila.
Playing outside Academy while the dads shopped
We went to the zoo and it was decorated for Halloween (fortunately not scary)
Looking at giraffes and peacocks-they were everywhere. We also rode the train (I am waiting on photos from Catherine)

BookPeople

We have been to a few story times at Book People and this week's theme was little creatures petting zoo, they quickly read two stories and then let the children take turns petting a chinchilla, bunnies, chicks, a turtle and hedgehog. Very cool-my girls loved it. Then we picked out a Rapunzel book and Lydia used some of her spending money on a lighting up ball. As normally is was mass chaos but fun.

Whole Foods!

After the storytime, we walked across the street to Whole Foods for lunch and enjoyed their cows (they are all over Austin in different art forms) and pumpkin display with little Lydia, Avery & Ashley (and their moms)



I had a groupon, paid $10 for $20 and then loaded up with $34 of stuff :) I love 'saving' money, but it was yummy and we had leftovers for our trip to Lufkin. We sat on the roof and ate our pomegranates, hummus, pita, Babybell cheese, trail mix, fruit smoothie, mint truffle and lemon meringue cookies.

Preschool Party

Lydia and Gloria go to a MDO that allows them to only go on Tuesday but they also meet on Thursday while we are at Friendship. Today after Friendship, Imane and we went to preschool so Lydia could be a part of the Halloween party (Gloria's class had their's in the morning so we just played on the playground the weather was GREAT). The kids dressed up as storybook characters, and were supposed to bring a book. The day before we went to BookPeople and I asked the clerk for books on Rapunzel, they had two beautiful nonDisney ones and two little Disney ones, so we picked one of each. But on the way out Lydia found a Rapunzel Tangled paintbook and had to have it so we left the nonDisney behind :( The teachers were highly impressed with my mom's sewing skills (as am I).
Elle-TinkerBell & Caroline-Angelina Ballerina admiring Lydia's beautiful hair.

Raised Right review

Raised Right, How I Untangled my Faith from Politics by Alisa Harris

This memoir by a women around my age really hits the spot! I love the title and the book lived up to the tag line. Two disclaimers-I get books for free by blogging about them from Blogging For Books, Multnomah Publishing and two, I grew up in a home that is rather moderate. This Harris grew up in a homeschooling, protesting, Republican-only-voting home, so I don't relate to that aspect, but I do see the issue of so many in America tangling their faith with politics, and how this is a huge issue for the Kingdom of God. Fortunately the 'third way' is being addressed by thinkers such as Tim Keller, even CS Lewis in his day saw the danger of seeing your politics as the outward sign of your faith, which makes others wrong.

I am giving this four stars because sometimes the writing is jumbled, I was unsure if she was speaking of past teachings or present thoughts and some things are not fully introduced. But her history is fascinating and her thoughts engaging. I highly recommend this to anyone: conservative, moderate or progressive to help understand our generation of believers and how we see the world of politics, justice and life.

Two of my favorite passages:

“Luke 4:18: The Spirit of the Lord is one me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed. When I heard freedom, I thought deregulation of onerous government rules, when I heard blind, I thought blind to the virtue of limited government; when I heard oppressed I thought of children who were not allowed to pray in school and successful rich people whose money was seized by the government.” I know people who in my mind are thinking this way and she puts in it black and white, thankfully she has come to the light that the gospel is so much more!

“I have never been able to shake the Calvinist belief in the depravity of man...And I can't believe, as so many conservatives seem to, that a person's depravity disappears as soon as he begins running a business-that suddenly his pursuit of money will become altruistic as he lives out the virtues of unfettered capitalism, that in seeking success for himself, he will always lift others along with him as a rising tide lifts all boats. Fiscal conservatives may lovingly quote...Adam Smith who said a business owner is “led by an invisible hand” that guides him into improving society as he seeks his own best interests. When I read “invisible hand” I see more often than not a hand that strangles the weak an defenseless, robbing them to give to the rich.”

Pumpkin patch

The Homebuilers Sunday school class (look for a bit of blonde between two kids and that is Gloria)
We love the St John's methodist church's pumpkin patch. Gloria went when she was seven days old and slept on a pumpkin, our SS class has been going for a few years and had a great time enjoying the cool weather, playing on the playground and tons of pumpkin pictures! Lydia was a super sweetie and sat and smiled. I am glad the back of Gloria's head is cute because we got a lot of those. This is our second trip to a patch this year, but the first one (another methodist church) I didn't have the camera. We normally go to more but been busy doing other things this year.
(I can't seem to delete pictures once they are uploaded so here is another from Abby's party, which we left to go straight to the pumpkin patch-the girls changed clothes in the car, I'm preparing them for drill team or something)

self portrait

they are really good at silly shots

With all the excitement of the day, this was Gloria's (short) rest time

This means we are finished taking pictures! (below)

Hamburgers and ice cream at Phil's and Amy's after (and they split a tiny into two cones for us-score!!)

Abby's 5th Birthday

So next up was Abby's Build A Bear Party at the Barton Square Mall. Caleb walked around with Gloria while the big kids made a bear. Lydia getting hers stuffed.

Little blonde sisters (Abby's sister Harper) enjoying the cake in the food court, the cake had yoda, Ariel and Flounder on it. the group of three boys chanted we want yoda, it was funny!
Nita rode with us
The five fall Five year old birthday girls (too bad we didn't do another combo party this year ;P)

Nita's 5th birthday

Next round of the fall birthday girls-
Juanita's Unicorn Western theme party at her house!

Picture of the girls-there were boys there but we didn't bother to gather them up
We got Lydia new boots for the winter and she wanted to wear my hat.
Gloria was a 'prairie' girl (Lydia wore the same thing to Rachel's 3rd horse themed party)
Fun cake
Waving the plastic bags was one of the highlights, this was waiting for the pinata!

A fun time was had by all.

Raining Birthday Party

The party wrapped around the building.



the fall girls birthday party circuit has begun! From Gloria to Lydia we have 7!
Brooklyn's was at a park. We arrived early and got to play for a bit (and I got to meet a lady from Sudan and talk to her in Arabic). Right as the party was to begin it began to rain and rain HARD. We ducked under the porch by the bathrooms and hung out (though rather soaked) and in between showers the kids played on the park, we had hotdogs and cupcakes by the bathrooms and ventured out to feed the ducks. Gloria though stomping through muddy puddles was great fun (I guaranteed the rain by me, C & G not wearing water shoes). I had to remind myself that feeling cool was something good after our hot hot summer. We arrive home in time for a hot bath and bed and listened to the rain fall all night long!!

Last trip to the Pool

Our neighborhood pool stayed open until Oct 2 this year! The couple of times we went in Sept though were rather cool. This last time Gloria stuck her feet in said it stung and played around the edge. Lydia whose favorite thing in the world is swimming (according to her) never got in the big pool or put her face under. And it was still 95 degrees outside!
We LOVE our pool and are looking forward to May when it opens again-Lydia normally starts asking around Feb!

Gloria's Birthday

Gloria turned three today! She wanted a Tinkerbell party, here she is wearing her Tink dress and Lydia is in all pink like Rosetta

The friends: Hero (neighbor same age as G), G, Brandt (son of Katie, E's friend), Nita, Archer (Hero's brother), Lydia & Jacob

After lunch, singing & cake, we played pin the sparkly star on Tinkerbell, then opened presents, she got wonderful things but her favorite is the PINK Barbie fairy ballerina! Gloria gave her guest playdoh & bubbles, the kids played outside some with flower before leaving.

Besides friends Grandpa & Nana came (and Nana of course was a great photographer which is why there are so many good pics)

Nita is letting Gloria borrow her fairy dress for Halloween so after the party she put it on and danced to the Tinkerbell music.
Lydia enjoyed playing with Gloria's new toys (she got a couple of her own too) while Gloria was busy dancing
Fun day! We had dinner at Chickfila.

Gloria normally falls asleep around 7pm, tonight we made the trade: the paci for a cuddly Dora doll (the doctor says no pacis after three and she said she was ready). Now its almost nine, she is in her bed crying. We've already done a few lullabies, new diapers, trip to the bathroom, putting her back in bed and tucking her in. I hope this is a short phase and it doesn't mean the end of our good sleeper. I guess I'll update in another post!