pumpkin patch pics

Friday we headed over to a local pumpkin patch to pick out a pumpkin.

 

Austin loved the tiny pumpkins and picked out one with no stem to bring home.

Lauren wasn't picky about her pumpkins.

Ethan picked out a giant pumpkin and moved some other pumpkins over to be it's "friends" so it wouldn't be lonely.  We decided to bring the giant one home with us.

Eric carved up the spooky pumpkin while the kids cheered him on.

The boys love their giant jackolantern and named him Scary Monster.  :)

4 days of Halloween fun!

Wednesday Ethan had a pumpkin carving party at school.  The kids had a lot of fun!

Thursday we took the kids to Eric's work party for their fall festival. 

The kids had a great time riding the train, playing games, eating snow cones, bouncing in the bounce house and entering the costume contest.  By the end of the 2 hours spent chasing, carrying and watching the kids, I felt a lot like Lauren looked.

Friday Ethan's kindergarten class participated in the costume parade around the school.

The kids were so cute all dressed up!

 

Saturday we went to our friends' costume birthday party.  It was fun to dress up and we had a great time.  It was a fun, busy week leading up to Halloween!

Lauren's quilt

This year I'm participating in Amy's Quilt Festival for the first time and I'm submitting the very first quilt I ever made.  The quilt that started it all!

A year and a half year ago I walked into a fabric store on a whim and came across a piece of fabric with whimsical trees on it that I fell in love with.  The fabric inspired me to pick out three other coordinating fabrics and I bought quarter yards of each.  I honestly had no idea what I wanted to make with them.  I didn't even like sewing at the time.

When I decided I wanted to try to make a small patchwork quilt, my mom's friend Joy came in town to help me get started.  Before she got here, I decided to cut up the squares.  Not the brightest idea since I had no idea how to do it.  I used a tiny square ruler and cutting mat I had gotten for Christmas a couple years before.  Now that I look back, it is crazy that I cut my fabric one square at a time! 

With Joy's expertise help, I learned how to quilt and quickly sewed up a twin size quilt top for Lauren.  When I put the top in a box along with the batting and binding fabric, I had intentions to mail it off to be quilted by a professional.  Since Lauren was only a baby, I wasn't in a huge hurry.  A year later, the quilt top was still sitting in a box in my closet when Eric's grandparents gave us their gorgeous full size bed to use in Lauren's room.  Thankfully, I had never sent the quilt off to be quilted and I could add to it and make it into a full size! 

Well, it is finally done and I am really happy with how it turned out.

Lauren seems to like it too.

I love the Amy Butler Wallflower fabric on the back.

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Next up... a giant I Spy quilt for our family picnics!

boo... hoo

My first year of blogging I published 245 posts. My second year it was 243. This year unfortunately, I did not keep up the trend. Three mobile kids, kindergarten, preschool, soccer, homework, housework, crafting and Bible study has kept me pretty busy. I may not have as much time for blogging, but I love it and never plan to stop.

Last week my computer got a nasty virus and I'm still not able to blog from it. Don't give up on me! I have
so much to blog about and I'm dying without my computer! I'm praying I don't lose all my pictures!

Have a happy Halloween!

Goooooooooooals!

Saturday we had another fun filled day of soccer.  Austin's game was up first. Our speedy little guy was awesome!  He took off right away with the ball and headed towards the goal.

And headed towards the goal again,

and again, and again!

 Our little soccer stud scored 4 goals!  He is a great defender too and is really good at anticipating where the ball is going to go and turning it around. After the game, we discussed playing without using his elbows quite so much. :) 

 

Taking a rest from all the running! 

Next up was Ethan's game!  Ethan kept right up with the ball and was in on all the action.

Ethan scored his very first goal!  He has been so close in the past and he did it this time!  We were sooo excited and so was he!  He had a great game and is enjoying this season.

We are very proud of our boys and look forward to many more soccer games in our future!

Leisure Resort

  We spent last weekend with our friends Markus and Constanze at a gorgeous campground outside of Luling.  The view from our campsite was breathtaking.  You just can't beat huge trees, rolling hills and a beautiful flowing river.  The weather was perfect too!  It was cool and crisp in the morning and sunny in the afternoon.  It made a for a pretty perfect weekend!

I love camping.  It's so nice to be able to truly relax and not have to worry about laundry or any to do lists!  I actually got to take a nap every day and even took three naps on Sunday!  Lazy, but wonderful! 

The kids absolutely love camping too.  They especially love camping if it involves their best friends Julius and Vivian.  They all had fun collecting firewood so we could have a big campfire Friday night.  The pile they ended up collecting was huge!  We were able to have a fire for 3 nights with all the wood they collected.

 

Even Lauren helped collect firewood.

The campground wasn't too busy, so the boys were able to ride their bikes around the park.

The river was cold and flowing quickly, so the kids spent their time building a dam.  They worked on it for hours and were so proud of it.

Lauren enjoys camping now that she is bigger and can attempt to keep up with her brothers.

Ethan was very excited to take Spot camping with him.

Our explorer Austin loves climbing trees.

Our little mess Lauren sitting in her toy drawer in the camper.

Our friendly neighbors played their tejano music very loud one night and the kids had a blast dancing to the music. 

It was a wonderful weekend and look forward to more camping this fall!

The adventures of Spot

Hello!  My name is Spot and I am the classroom pet for Ethan's kindergarten class.  Each weekend I get to go home with a different child from our classroom.  I have a special journal I write in to document all the adventures I go on.  Thursday I got to go home with Ethan to spend the weekend! 

After school, I helped Ethan finish his homework that was due Friday. 

Friday morning, Ethan's mommy took me to the Teddy Bear Picnic to surprise Ethan.  I got to see all the kids in my classroom, their parents and their teddy bears.  It was so fun!

Friday after school, we drove to Luling to spend the weekend camping in Ethan's travel trailer. 

We climbed trees,

built a dam,

rode down the hill in the dump truck,

and I even got a piggy back ride!  It was a fun weekend and I'm really going to miss my buddy Ethan!