Trick Or Treat!

Matt and McKenzie had a fun night of trick-or-treating tonight!  Matt went as Batman...

and McKenzie went as a 60's girl....

 Jack, Amanda, and John came by first.  Jack was loving our pumpkins!

 This is our neighbor and McKenzie's friend Allie.

 Here's Matt showing off a little of the loot he gathered.

After we came home the kids had a ball handing out candy to all of our trick-or-treaters.

Matt's Party/Congrats McKenzie

Today was Matt's Halloween party at preschool. Mrs. Michelle and Mrs. Ann know how to throw a Halloween party. It was so creative and fun! I enjoyed helping and being able to see Matt in his school environment. The theme of the party was adapted from the class's favorite book, The Big Green Monster. The kids played Halloween games, made crafts, ate yummy food, sang songs and listened to Mrs. Michelle read their favorite Halloween books. Here are a few pictures from the morning...

This is Matt's teacher "Miss Chelle".

Who would think that Batman could be flustered by a ballerina? 

This morning was special for McKenzie, too. Her teacher, Mrs. King selected her to go to Breakfast with the Principals. Each teacher chooses a student for this honor based on grades, behavior and other accomplishments. McKenzie was chosen for the month of October. She was very excited and was counting down the days until Friday. She got to dress up (no uniform-big deal) and take a parent. David was able to go with her.

Here is a picture of them before they left for school.  

This is a picture of her and Alyssa. She is a classmate, but was chosen by her LEAP Art teacher to attend the breakfast. The students received a certificate, pencil and a button to wear that says My Principal is Proud of Me.
We are very proud of you, McKenzie! Keep up the good work! Only three weeks until Thanksgiving break!!!!

We've been BOO-ed!

We came home Saturday to the nicest surprise near our back door. It was a really cute ghost bucket full of candy and neat little gifts for McKenzie and Matt. With it was a letter explaining the purpose of the gift. We don't know who sent it and that is the purpose behind it. It was left to say that the phantom ghost has come to town to leave some goodies and to tell us to continue by making two treats and giving them to two neighbors. So that is what I plan on doing. It's all in good fun and to wish us a Happy Halloween. We are to leave the phantom ghost picture in our window so "other phantom ghosts" will not visit.
McKenzie and Matt are loving it. We have been wracking our brains for two days trying to figure out who gave this to us. We know it is someone very creative and knows our kids really well. I have asked several people but they say it is not them. In the ghost bucket we found halloween silly bands, glow in the dark necklaces to wear halloween night, stickers, mickey mouse activity pad, halloween socks, tons of candy and even a cute fall pot holder for me. This person has great taste! So if you want to read more about this or want to Boo someone yourself, check out http://www.beenbooed.com/. We will be booing someone very soon!

Matt's Bike-A-Thon

Matt's pre-school had a bike-a-thon Tuesday to raise money for St. Jude.  It turns out that Matt is a ruthless fundraiser.  Saturday he asked Caleb for a donation and Caleb gave him four quarters.  Matt showed it to me and then said, "He didn't give me any dollars.".  Jan heard him and said, "Come here.  I think I have a dollar.".  Jan gave Matt a dollar and Matt said, "Just one?".  That guilted Jan into giving him another dollar and then she gave him another dollar for the quarters.  Matt looked up at her and said, "I need those, too.".  So, he turned four quarters into four dollars in about a minute!

Here are some pictures from the Bike-A-Thon.

 Matt was a little hesitant at first with everybody riding all over the place and running into each other.

This is the girl Matt told Betty he was NOT going to marry.  When Betty asked why, Matt said it was because she has bad hair.  He doesn't like her pony tail because she was in front of him in line one day and kept turning her head and accidentally hitting him in the face with her hair!

 Matt got comfortable with the flow of traffic and took off and had a great time!

 This is Matt talking with his teacher, Miss Michelle - or Miss Chelle as Matt calls her.  I'd love to know what he was telling her!

One more piece of news:  Betty was awarded Yard of the Month for October!  I say "Betty" instead of "we" because I had nothing to do with it.  We've been in the house for one year now and Betty has really transformed the front of the house and the yard.  It looks great!

FBC Fall Fest

Saturday was our church's annual fall fest. We had a great time. The weather was perfect. McKenzie said it was the best fall fest yet! She invited one of her school friends, Lyndsey and Matt had fun with Caleb aka "Dah". Poor Caleb, I think Matt wore him out. Matt really enjoyed himself. Every time I looked up he was running to do something else. There were games, face painting, jumping things, slides, hay rides, train rides and lots of great snacks. One of McKenzie's favorite things about the fall fest every year is the popcorn/cotton candy/snow cone booth. The hay ride was neat. Its fun to listen to all the kids' little conversations while riding. We had a new attraction this year, Mr. Roy's Choo Choo. Kids young and old enjoyed riding this. Mr. Roy donates his time and train to events like this which is such a great ministry for kids. Thanks to all the volunteers who made it such a great afternoon! Here are some moments David captured for us...

 

This one is for you, Betty Ward!  David was not happy about her choice!

Golf and Turtles

Thursday I took a half a day of vacation and went to play golf with Andy and Matt.  This was the second time I've gotten Andy to go play golf with me since I shamed him into it.  Andy has Thursdays off and a while back I told him, "I should take off some Thursday and we should go play golf.".  His reply was, "Why would I want to do that?".  Such brotherly love!  He was thinking of the frustration golf brings and I was thinking about spending a fun, beautiful day with my brother.  He was sufficiently shamed and agreed to go a couple of weeks ago.  He discovered there was fun mixed in with the frustration and decided to join me and Matt again Thursday.

Matt was ready with his cool shades.  Who does he remind you of?  Maybe.......

Bono?

We had a good time playing, even though we're not very good.  On the third hole we got to see a little wildlife!

A turtle!

Andy has a little history with turtles.  When he was little he tried to be an animal rescuer and save a turtle that was stuck in a fence.  He quickly discovered that it was a snapping turtle and decided to let the little fella fend for himself.  Another experience with a turtle came at the Mississippi State golf course in Starkville.  Andy hit a long hooking tee shot that was headed for a pond when, miraculously, it seemed to hit the water and bounce into the fairway!  Upon closer inspection, the ball hit a turtle in the water!

Andy decided to help the turtle out and carry him to the pond he seemed to be headed to.  After dropping him in the water Andy said, "I hope that's the kind of turtle that can swim!".  We watched and it turned out he could swim, so Andy wasn't guilty of turtlecide!

The Walkers

I got to have my second experience taking pictures with a horse involved.  I've taken plenty of pictures of kids and families with dogs.  Dogs generally don't pay attention to the photographer and you just have to wait until they are looking to get a decent shot.  If they aren't interested, they may walk off or roll over or jump on you and lick you.  Horses, on the other hand, could decide they aren't interested or not like the flash and trample you and kill you!  Thankfully, none of that has happened and both of my horse experiences have been good ones.  This time I was taking pictures of the Walker kids out at our friends', the Grant's, house.  They were easy to work with and we even got a couple of good shots with the horse!  Nolan is a little cowboy and should be an aspiring model!  He loves horses and they love him, too.  Here are a few of the pictures.  Click here to see more.

Pumpkin Patch

Saturday we made our annual trip to the pumpkin patch.  Last year Betty heard about a place in Hernando called Cedar Hill Farm and we went there again this year.  Last year it was cold and rainy when we went but this year it was a little warm and we've forgotten what rain looks like.

 The kids played for a few minutes when we first got there.  Matt was a little unsure about this slide.  It was a little steep and had a bump in the middle of it.

 Then we ate lunch.  You can see McKenzie was pretty excited about her BBQ nachos!

 Loved this sign outside the restaurant!

 This guy reminded me of someone.....

 Here's a hint.  Diet starts Monday.

 It was fun to see a mule named "Andy"!

 Here we are riding the "train".  We sat in the last car and the kids got to ring the bell that was behind their seat.

 Matt loved the hay maze.  He ran and ran and ran....

 Then he rested...

 and rested.

 I got this one right before he dropped both pumpkins.

 These are the two Matt picked out.

McKenzie and her pumpkin.

We had a great time at the pumpkin patch.  We finished the day up by going into Southaven for some shopping (you know where) and a little more eating before heading home.