Pumpkins, Cellos, and Good Deeds

Pumpkin patch pics! Every year! We did take several pumpkins home, as you'll see below.

But first, a little detour to Owen's first cello concert! Isn't he so handsome in his all black attire?

Owen's group played pretty well for learning their instrument for less than 2 months! Here's a link to their songs - they played #1-3. He is enjoying it, and we love hearing the low vibrations of cello tuning in the morning while we eat breakfast.

Getting into the Halloween spirit while looking for a skeleton mask!

Hadley was inspired to do the school library's Pumpkin Book Character challenge this year. We thought the Very Hungry Caterpillar would be recognizable and easy, and I think he turned out pretty cute. She did it all by herself, which is more than I can say for some of the other pumpkins that placed...

She also used her artistic abilities to make new Guess Who? cards for our game. It's harder than it sounds because you have to draw the same character 4 times (top and bottom on two cards) and keep them the exact same! We've had a few shirt mismatches pop up, but otherwise it's fun to have more cards to play with. 

October has been busy with extracurriculars, like soccer practices and games, gymnastics, concerts, and school and holiday events. Hadley is in a school club called Read, Deed, Run where (over the course of a school year) they read 2600 pages, do 26 hours of good deeds, and run 26 miles. One Saturday morning, we did a mile fun run and donated money for cancer research.

Our UT alumni group has also been active with game watches (painful!), food drives, and even a blood drive (our first!), the latter two of which I coordinated. We set a new food donation record for our chapter and met our goal of blood donors, so that was exciting!

OK, now back to our pumpkins... Turns out Owen's warty pumpkin had an extremely hard skin to cut with a regular knife. He asked Dad for some help, so he broke out the power tools!

Then the kids pretty much cleaned out their own pumpkin goop! Hurray that we have reached this glorious age! I just had to do a little of the finishing clean up on the inside. They drew their own faces, and I helped to carve. Hadley went traditional this year.

Owen was going for a warty witch, but the tough skin made carving a face pretty much impossible. I found this idea online to use the stem as a nose and just skin a little bit for the face, so he sawed on the eyes for a while and this was our result. #nailedit

That afternoon, we assisted with set up and candy refills for our church's Trunk-or-Treat. Neither even thought about actually trunk-or-treating. The kids took the candy refills very seriously and made a good team going from car to car with the candy wagon. Made my mama heart proud. 

Then it was time for the main event! This year, we had a scary grim reaper (2019's costume was a little smaller this year, including the hood, so he needed a mask) and Hermione Granger, from Harry Potter. 

I knew these wings would not be appreciated by the cat, but they were worth a shot. Unfortunately, the Bat Cat did not even move, much less fly once she got her wings.

Owen made plans to trick or treat around the neighborhood with friends this year. It's a pretty good group of boys, so we set some ground rules, and it worked out great!

John went around the neighborhood with Hadley, and I think she got even more candy than her brother!

October Marches on the Ranch

Watch out, people! It's pumpkin month. That means that on October 1, even if you are still sweating from just being outside, you paint a pumpkin at your neighborhood food truck social event. Because we're pretending it's fall...

 

And you decorate your porch ASAP! Still not enough skeletons and creepiness for the kids though.

For a little diversion, I took the kids to a marching festival one night. It was highly entertaining and a good change of scenery. Brought back some memories, too.

Hadley's art is on display at church! That was a fun "proud parent" moment. Her origami boats and color study popsicles greet church-goers at the coffee station.

We also ventured to the ranch to celebrate Granna's birthday and get a sneak peek at the new water well they were getting started.

Owen might have a bit of his Grandad's fondness for chopping wood. He always requests to swing the axe when we're there. I try not to look...

It's also fun to take the Mule for a spin when we can. The kids have open fields to practice driving. We didn't see much wildlife, but we did startle some new calves and their moms.

They also break out the monkey bars almost every visit. These things were in our yard when I was a kid. They have a bit of rusty tinge, but seem otherwise in good condition.

Back at home, the family helped me deliver the donations we collected at a couple of our Longhorn game watches. 235 lbs of canned goods, pasta, and personal care items!

Lastly, a couple of portraits of my athletes. Back in the gym and on the field!