Story Book Forest

Last night we went to a fun little Halloween event that Edmond hosts every year. It is located near Arcadia Lake and they use a little patch of "forest" and turn it into "Story Book Forest." You walk along a lit path and every little bit they have little scenes from favorite storybooks and nursery rhymes with people dressed up as the characters handing out candy. The kids loved it and recognized many, if not all, of the characters. The characters did a really good job and all was done so that there was nothing to scare even the littlest trick or treaters. Here are a few pictures of our fun evening.


Roasting marshmallows


Cole and Nolan listening to storyteller


Rapunzel


The Old Woman who Lived in a Shoe


Peter Pumpkin Eater's Wife in her Pumpkin Shell


Red Riding Hood

The LONG T-ball Season

We finally finished this fall season of t-ball. It was supposed to wrap up the first week of October, but due to many, MANY games being postponed due to rain, we finished Monday. We didn't necessarily want it to end because Alli and Cole did so well, but the scheduling and rescheduling really started to get old. Anyway, here is a little note on how they did.
Alli, to put it bluntly, really ROCKED (this Mom is not at all proud of her softball girl:)) !!! She practiced quite a bit in the backyard this summer and it really showed. She had many solid hits, doubles, triples, and a home run. But, it was what she did out in the field that really impressed everyone. She played 2nd base almost every inning of every game and made on average 2 outs per game (in this league a team making 2 outs in a game is doing really good). She even got all 3 outs in one inning a few games back. She was sooooo excited!!
Cole was a star also. He smacked the ball to the fence every time at bat!! His team of little boys unfortunately fought over the ball quite a bit in the field. Many times it was a dog pile on the little boy who got the ball first, but Cole was still able to get a few boys out. In fact, in one play, the ball was hit to him at short-stop, he got the grounder but the 3rd baseman came over and jumped on his back. Cole just stood up with the kid on his back and ran over to 3rd base and got the runner out. We knew he was strong, but not that strong. Anyway, he really loves to play and is begging to try soccer, too.
I know I did a lot of bragging on how well the kids did this season, but what matters most is that they had fun. There is nothing like watching them play with big, beautiful smiles on their faces!

Great Wolf Lodge 2009

We just returned from another wonderful "Fall Break" vacation at Great Wolf Lodge, Grapevine, TX. It is a wonderful hotel with an indoor water park. Boy, did we have fun. Once we arrived on Friday, we didn't leave the place until noon Sunday. All we did was play at the water park and then go back to the room to rest. It was awesome! We didn't see daylight for 2 days! (I brought food for breakfast and lunch, but they also have all kinds of vendors and restaurants.) Alli was our true daredevil and rode every slide in the park (a few twisted her tummy pretty hard). Cole was a little reluctant this time around, but had a blast in the little kids park and then warmed up to a few bigger slides. Nolan had a lot of fun kicking the water and rode a few slides. By Sunday, we were all pretty tired. Here's a few pictures. We didn't get very many pictures for 2 reasons. 1. We were too busy having fun. 2. It was just too dangerous having a camera in your hands. If you were anywhere near the water, you had a huge target on your back. You never knew when a stream of water would be turned your way, or a huge bucket of water would drench you! Enjoy!