Halloween

We played musical costumes again this year. For trick-or treating in the neighborhood Cori was a water melon and Eli was superman again. Eli wore his ring master costume to school and Batman is his friend Christian.

I helped with Eli’s party at school which was lots of fun, but I was busy helping, so I didn’t get many pics.  This is the mummy pizza he made.  Cori is enjoying the huge lollypop that our neighbor Debbie gave her.

For the playgroup party they wore their original ring master and lion costumes.

Nana and Poppy were in town for Halloween and it was a beautiful day, so we all went together to the pumpkin patch.

The kids love riding the ponies.  They were grinning ear to ear the whole time.  Eli rode lucky for the third year in a row.  Cori decided ahead of time she wanted to ride a pony named Santa (completely made up by her).  So, we just told her her pony was named Santa.

Feeding the animals is lots of fun too.

Fall Fun

Field trip to the pumpkin patch

Eli had his first ever school field trip to the pumpkin patch and apple orchard.  It was also his first bus ride and hay ride.  It was pretty cold, but we had lots of fun.

Tulsa State Fair

I hadn’t been to the fair in years, so I decided to take the kids one day with the Southwards.  It was great.  Our favorite part was the birthing center.  There were lots of newborn animals, so cute.  In the shot above, Eli is petting a wallaby in the petting zoo.

The kids play area was fun too.  Eli probably spent an hour in the Lego area.  All the kids got balloons made by the clown.

And, of course, food.  We shared a corn dog and a funnel cake.  It made me laugh because Cori couldn’t eat the corndog in front of her because it was too long.  As you can see though, she found a way.

For FHE, we raked leaves and filled this super cool pumpkin trash bag :)  The kids love it. 

And, Cori has moved up to the toddler bed now.

For fall break, we went swimming one day and went to the zoo the other day.  The weather was perfect and we ate lunch with the snow leopards.

Derek and I went to see OU thump Kansas.  I hadn’t been to a game since before I had kids and he had never been, so it was a long time coming.  We had lots of fun and it made me feel young again :)  BOOMER SOONER

Eli’s First Day of School

Eli started Pre-K on August 20th.  For now, he is going half-day Mon.-Thurs. and all day on Fri.  He is doing great and making lots of new friends.  His teacher says he is a leader and a joy to have in the classroom.  Cori misses him and is so happy when it is time to go pick him up, but we are having fun girl time.

Branson & Table Rock Lake

We singed up for a cheapo trip to Branson.  We had never been there, so we thought we would give it a try.  On the way, we stopped at Fantastic Caverns, the ride through cave.  We all enjoyed seeing the cave and we got our vacation joke about make-up being made from bat poop.

After the long car ride and the cave, the kids needed to burn off some energy, so we walked down a trail just outside the caverns.  Eli spotted this armadillo.  It ended up coming right up by us and the kids were super excited to see a “wild” animal.

I had it all planned out, so we left the cave and went to Lambert’s.  The place with the “throwed” rolls.  It was an amazing meal and lots of fun.  Cori was in heaven cause they have all you can eat fried okra.  Eli said his fried chicken was delicious, and Derek and I had super yummy smoked pork chops and lots of veggies.  And, we caught lots of rolls of course.

In Branson, we swam at our hotel, shopped, and went to see Dixie Stampede.  Derek and Eli also played dino put-put during Cori’s nap time.  Eli got a hole in one on one of the holes and then he spotted another wild animal running around near the parking lot.  We are pretty sure it was a groundhog.  It was all fun, but Branson was packed with people, which wasn’t ideal.

On our last day, we headed out to Table Rock Lake.  We saw the dam and fish hatchery, had a picnic with our Dixie Stampede leftovers, did our timeshare tour, and then went for a paddle boat ride and short swim.  Then we headed for home.

Summer Pics

We went to the zoo a lot at the beginning of the summer, before it got too hot.

We’ve been in the water a lot.  Lake, splash pad, swimming lessons, water park.  Both kids are doing very well on their swimming.