Halloween Day

 Lydia's school did a book character parade and her class was Winnie the Pooh and Tigger!  Gloria and I enjoyed watching all the kiddos walk by dressed up.

 The neighborhood gang.  Summer, Amber, Dharion, TJ, Lydia, Ethan (Amber's brother) Mia & Gloria

 Sweeties asking for sweets.  We did about 4x as much as we usually do, it was crowded and dark and lots of fun.   Lydia was the American Girl Saige and Gloria a 'regular' princess

Nana & Grandpa (Mickey Mouse) came to hand out candy and be a part of the fun.  Inspecting the loot!

Pre-Halloween

The week of Halloween there were lots of fun activities and times to dress up.  Matching sisters with their candy corn skirts worn to school on Tues.

Ninja Gloria for Ballet.   Gloria went through many changes for what she wanted to dress up like this year.  first a zombie (bought the make up) then a ninja, fine change by us (bought the swords) then out of the blue a princess.  We said okay you can be whatever you want as long as we already have the dress up costume.

Lydia wore a beautiful ballet costume and Harvest french braided her hair.

Wednesday night our church had a Fall Festival after regular dinner.  Rontrail and Keandre came, we raided our costumes to outfit boys and they had the choices of police man, cowboy or King Tut.

With friends at dinner.

Anakin and princess (this will go into their wedding montage if needed) then Gloria decided that the dress wasn't comfy for running around and she changed back to her pumpkin t-shirt.

Rontrail also went back to his Darth Varder hoodie.  It sprinkled so it was good it was in the garage.

Face paint by the jumpy.

Petting zoo, the girls' favorite.  There were games with candy prizes and we let them eat as much as they wanted-which resulted in Lydia having a stomach ache on the drive home!

Pumpkins

 Gloria set up the artful photo above.  We enjoyed having the neighbors over to carve our pumpkins this year.  Gloria wanted flame eyes-yay for Caleb's manual dexterity!  Lydia felt proud to use the knife too!

Camping!

 We spent another beautiful weekend camping, really the weather could not have been nicer.  We went to the South Llano River State park which is where the hill country meet West Texas.  We got there in time to sleep the first night.  And we forgot pillows-but the air mattresses sure are nice!   The first night was pretty cold but then they were a little warmer and it sprinkled on Saturday night.

 Then a morning hike to the overlook.

 The turkeys were roosting so we could only go to the river from 10-3, but once it warmed up we went to wade and fish.

 Gloria is always excited to play with the fish Daddy catches.

 Afternoon slow time, art, playing with bugs (this pic got tons of likes and comments on Facebook), and just hanging out.

 Dinner and marshmallows by the fire.  We went to the interpretive program of videos of creepy creatures of Texas.

Lari Jo and girls arrived late the evening, the next morning we headed to the river for more fishing and climbing around.  Big sisters Taylor and Lydia hang off a cliff!

 This afternoon we made animals masks at the headquarters and played with hula hoops.

 Little sisters Gloria and Samantha enjoy their s'mores!  Lydia and I went to the turkey program (good thing she was learning since she skipped school on Friday!)

 Sunday morning we had a quick trip to the small lake, and for some pictures on a huge old log.  Then we rushed home to meet Mom & a piano before taking the girls to church for choir, Awana and we met friends for dinner!

Friends!

 We love having people in our home (and Gloria often asks when cleaning who is coming because its the only time for sure it gets a good cleaning!) Mariam's mom came to visit for the birth of Sara and they came over for a fish fry.  It was super fun and then we ate Kuwaiti food at their apartment before she had to leave.  And there is nothing sweeter than holding a tiny baby (and then handing her back for feeding and care!)

 A normal afternoon, tons of kids in the back yard.

 In Mission Friends they learned that pjs were invented in India and I got to wear my Indian clothes to show off!

We were out of town the weekend of Ron'Trail's birthday party so on the day of we had cake and a 'block' party in the front yard to celebrate after school.

Pumpkin Patch

 After the farm we went to our annual Sunday school class pumpkin patch party!

A great group!  Then Phils & Amy's for dinner & dessert.

Crowe's Nest Farm

 On a cool Saturday in October, Caleb was working so Mom and I took the girls to the Crowe's Nest Farm.  We had seen a raptor presentation by them at the public library and really enjoyed it.  It was much bigger than I expected with tons of animals and gardens and a fairy wood.

 Beautiful morning glories.

 A miniature farm area with horses, donkey and mule!

 I liked the morning glories :)  After petting and walking and the hayride, we watched the birds of flight show which was really cool with a very preachy presenter!

 There was a hay ride by the buffalos and ostriches.

A fun beginning of the day!