Jack

O'Lantern

Rob helped the kids create this fine fellow on Wednesday night. He is currently gracing our front porch shining God's light from within.

Halloween?

October 31st is not halloween here in these parts . . . it is when the OSU Cowboys take on the Texas Longhorns at 7 p.m.

So, the City of Stillwater declared Thursday, Oct. 29 as the official Trick-or-Treating night.

Why not Friday, you ask? Well, because of high school football, of course! We aren't quite in Texas, but I guess people still take their football pretty seriously around here.

Anyway, after dinner the kids decided they were definitely interested in participating in the whole t-o-t event, and Rob and I decided we were willing to give it a go, so we gathered up some costumes and came up with . . .

and hit the streets. I think we only spent about 15 minutes and visited about 10 houses, but they still came home with more candy than any child needs. They had a good time.

Rachel was a little unsure of what was going as we hadn't really prepped her or Cole for what they were doing and they have never done this before. By house #5 though, she was running to get to the door first, cutting through yards, and blocking out on the front stoop. It was quite amusing to watch, although I should have been apalled that my young daughter was acting so aggressively, rude, and greedy and I am sure I felt those things too, but my amusement definitely took the front seat. (Isn't that how bad habits get started with kids?!)

Anyway, the evening was a success other than that the excitement from the evening walk and one piece of candy each upon the return home was enough to keep Rachel and Cole awake much longer than they should have been!

Fall Festival

by Cole

by Rachel

by Alexa

by Robbie

We ALL went to the Fall Festival hosted by our church this past Sunday. The event includes carnival type games, a best pie tasting contest, a pumpkin decorating contest, guessing jars, etc. The kids all had a great time!

Cole was really into making the rounds and playing all the games -again, again, and again. He reported the golf ("Hole in One") to be his favorite. The only one from our family who may have had more candy and toy prizes was Robbie.

Rachel also had fun playing games, but I think she enjoyed the social aspect as much if not more than the games. Is that a girl for you, or what?! She did like having a flower painted on her cheek and participating in the cake walk ("Walk in Jesus' Footsteps").

Alexa also enjoyed having her cheek painted with some flowers as well as playing games. Like Rachel, she didn't make the rounds as fast as the boys as she was often seen checking out what everyone else was up to. Alexa's favorite game was "David and Goliath" where you use a slingshot to shoot a ping pong ball through the hole cut out in the painted plywood Goliath's head.

Robbie was quick to move through all the games again and again. He reports his favorite game as being "The Circle of Love" which was a basic prize sheet game where various prizes are laid out on a sheet and you throw a ring trying to circle the prize you like best.

To be a good participant, I did take a "homemade" pie that I made using pie crust mix and canned apple pie filling. It won no awards, but the lady at the table did tell me it was a favorite among the kids. Seeing as there were only three pies submitted this year, I am glad that I brought one to at least challenge the "real pies" a bit.

The kids all brought a small pumpkin that they had decorated as seen above. Rachel and Cole had decorated theirs a long time ago at a different activity. Robbie and Alexa prepared theirs just hours before the event, and Robbie's pumpkin won first prize. Now again, there was not a lot of competition, but he did win and he felt quite proud!

What do

snacks
pizza
Gatorade
tatoos
music
friends
eye black
sideline markers
and a football
have in common?

They are all the things you need to have a successful football party on a Friday night with the boys, of course!

Right now we are an hour and half into Robbie's Football Party. So far the boys have spent their time outside playing backyard football. They have football tatoos on, eye black (actually my Avon blackest black eye liner), and a football music mix playing. They seem to be good sports so far. The scuffles have been minor and quickly deflated on their own.

Snacks have been munched on. Gatorade is in a -yes!- a Gatorade cooler on the patio. Pizza should arrive in about 20 minutes. I have Little Giants (an OLD football movie from Disney DVR'ed) to show later if they want to see still long enough to watch. I can actually see this group just wanting to play outside all night!

What a fun night! I wish I could play too! :)

Oh Boy- Oh Boy!

I have a "house full" of boys right now and am loving every minute of it! My crew includes Cole (2 1/2), Day Baby (17 months), neighbor friend (16 months), and littlest neighbor friend (4 months). Rachel is here too, but she is still napping. What fun!

Mantis Update

Mantis hanging upside down from her tree.



Mantis' new habitat.

Well, our new "pet" came home again from school. I told the kids if we didn't find her another bug to eat today, we would have to release her into her natural habitat. Alexa said it is a girl because it is light green, and boys are usually darker with some brown. This seems backwards to me when thinking about animal genders, so I am not sure that she is right on this one but we are going with it.

Anyway, the news we might have to release the mantis upset Alexa a great deal, so Robbie -the dutiful big brother that he is- wandered out into the backyard to find a bug. He caught a moth from somewhere in the flower garden and brought it in.

With some help from me, Robbie got the moth into the cage. The mantis didn't bother it for a few hours. However, I did a photo shoot this evening and that seemed to have awakened her apetite because as I was finishing, she went after the moth. Below is some video footage. (Sorry if you can't really tell what is going on.)

Bugs - Bugs - Bugs

(S0, I really don't have time to be doing this right now, but I feel so badly that we haven't been sharing news very well, that I am going to type a quick post here before I dash off to make lunches, sweep, mop, fold laundry, and maybe get some church work done before I can't keep my eyes open anymore.)

BUGS 1
Five year old girl to family: Hey, come look at this spider.

Two boy siblings quickly run over to observe.

After the boys have had their fill, two year old girl decides she doesn't want to be left out and says she is coming to see too.

Five year old girl to two year old girl (in very manner-of-fact tone): Well, I already killed it now, but I guess you can come see half of it.


BUGS 2
Sunday morning Rob notices a praying mantis on the wall in our dining area. None of the kids notice it all day long, but at dinner he points it out as it is still in the same general area.

They ask him to catch it. Alexa wants to take it to school because they are talking about bugs in class. She also states, "I think it is a boy which is good, because Mrs. Jump already has a girl one in our room and now they can mate!"

Rob and I look at each other and wonder if she knows what this means. We know Robbie knows this word as he has used it often enough, but we have never heard her use it.

After dinner, Rob does catch the p.m. and puts it in a bug cage that Robbie has.

The plan- Robbie will take it to his class first since it is his cage, and then he will take it to Alexa's class and they can keep it for as long as they like.

Funny side note: While we were talking about the praying mantis at the dinner table, Cole stood up and struck a Kung Fu Panda pose because he knows "all about" praying mantises from the movie. I couldn't help but laugh out loud, but Rob stayed composed to not encourage such untimely displays of aggression.


BUGS 3
The bug cage did go to school this morning and made it rounds to the classrooms, but came back home at the end of the day. So when I found a grasshopper in our garage, I scooped it up and put it in the cage too. Less than five minutes later, the praying mantis had started devouring the grass hopper. Guess they aren't going to be friends after all.

Later, Robbie and Alexa started polling the fam (including Birdie) if they wanted to name the praying mantis "Long Legs" or "Killer". I think the vote is tied right now, so they are waiting for Rob to come home and place his vote to break the tie.

No Drama - Just a Victory

Well, no dramas from the Hunt family at the OSU game this week. We made it through -- healthy and injury free. We even made it through the WHOLE game. It started at 6 p.m., so it makes for a late night and it might not feel like it was worth tomorrow morning getting ready for church, at church, or coming home from church when everyone is cranky - but it sure was fun this evening!

The game was not all pretty; there is still lots of room for improvement with our boys, but in the end, a win is a win and we'll take it! We have fun hanging out with friends, watching for Rob, and then visiting the training room at the end of the game.

I didn't bring the camera this week, so I have no new pictures to share, but I have a few from last week that my mother-in-law and friend took on their cameras. Maybe this week, I will do better and post more often and can include those photos. For now, I am going to sign off and go to bed soon. It is late, and I am tired!

Oh, the drama!

I never reported details from the first two football games, but we have had our share of drama off the field as our players have been making their own on the field . . .

In the middle of the first one, Robbie started not feeling so well. By the middle of the third quarter he had his head resting on the back of his chair all curled up and watching the game off the big screen in the corner rather than on the field. He said he didn't want to go home though. Around the beginning of the fourth quarter I felt his head and assumed he had a fever. We stayed through the entire game, and afterwards in the training room took his temp . . . it was 103.6!! Yikes! One dose of tylenol brought it down though and it never came back although he spent the next week feeling a bit under the weather with no specific symptoms.

Just a few minutes into game two, Cole fell trying to climb into his seat while holding a bowl of fruit and flipped off and cracked open his head! It bled a LOT, but once we got the bleeding stopped and could tell where it was actually coming from, the cut wasn't that deep or wide and no further treatment was needed. He and I were quite a bloody mess though. Robbie had a tshirt on under his jersey, so Cole wore that the rest of the night and we did the best on cleaning up the rest of us. It was very helpful to have Kay (my mother-in-law) there to watch the rest of the kids while I along with Tiffany (a good friend and athletic trainer) came with me inside to get Cole cleaned up. Tiffany -who was also very helpful- was able to offer professional advice on the severity (or not so) of the injury. After the game, we hit the training room again and Rob got Cole cleaned up much better with supplies (other than concession napkins) and put some goo on it.

We are getting ready right now to head to Game 3, and I am wondering what our evening has in store for us this time?!?!

Sunday Football

We love our Cowboys even when they lose, but this is the best football I've seen all weekend!