trick or treat...smell my feet!

the boys went trick or treating tonight!!! will the sugar rush ever end?? i think grady has been on a sugar high since 11:00 this morning at gabe's class party! the girls in the class think grady is soooo cute and they show him how cute he is by giving him m&m's!!! gee, thanks! so, shawn and the boys headed out to pilfer for candy, while i stayed at home waiting for ghosts and goblins to come to our door!!! oh, i hear one now!! goodie!!

a spookerific classroom party!

today, we had gabe's classroom harvest party...formally known as a halloween party! now somehow--without my knowledge--i have been nominated as room party mom! no, i was not drugged and then signed up, nor did i have a moment of weakness and signed my name on the dotted line...no, no it seems the teacher was needing a willing victim and i looked like a great, creative, out going choice. (mr. davis' words, not mine!) after agreeing to "help out" with parties, i have now been thrust into the head honcho of all room parties for this year!!! yeah?!! well, even if this was not what i exactly had planned for my room volunteering this year...i don't do anything half-heartedly and we had a bang up harvest party! we face painted, decorated sugar cookies, made spider cookies, played hot pumpkin (similar to hot potato!), candy corn toss (toss candy corn into a jack-o-lantern), harvest bingo, and a memory trick or treat alphabet game! shawn was the hit of the party with his face painting...he had kids lined up forever wanting his expert artistry on their face! yes, i even wrangled shawn into helping out! for better or worse..in good times and in bad times--yes, i remember those words--we're in this together! the kids had a great time...they were very well behaved and very polite! all of the kids kept saying what a great time they had and a few even said they thought this was the best halloween party ever!!!! ahhh, music to the room mom's ears!!! i'm sure mr. davis paid them to say that so i wouldn't quit before the thanksgiving feast next month! but whatever, i take ego stroking where i can get it!

it's pumpkin carving time!

it's pumpkin carving time!

last night we carved our pumpkins! this was the first year grady really got into it...at first he was less that impressed with the goop inside the pumpkin...but he eventually warmed up to the idea of the squishy, yucky stuff! gabe and i had some pre warm up to the pumpkin carving. on wednesday, his class had pumpkin math! the class weighed, measured, counted grooves, counted seeds, and carved a pumpkin! there were 3 parents and the kids were seperated into 6 groups--of my 8 kids, i had a few that had never carved a pumpkin before! this boggled my mind....gabe's class is very ethinically diverse--so i guess it shouldn't have surprised me, but it did! so it was a very neat experience for me to get to be part of this memory for these kids...i don't think they will ever forget when they opened up the pumpkin and had to get the goop out!! okay back to the fox pumpkin carving! so of course we cannot just have a normal jack-o-lantern--no, no, we have to have a fancy one! this year we have a skeleton face and a pirate ship! maybe our best yet!! this year gabe was a big help, he helped trace the picture and even did some carving. grady was our little foreman - after degooping the pumpkin--he sat on shawn's lap telling him how to carve! such an expert at 3! tonight we are toasting up the pumpkin seeds (or pumpkin nuts as grady called them!) yum-o!

grady's last soccer practice!

grady and his teammates practicing stopping the ball!

it's kick off time.....grady and nolan getting ready to start the scrimmage!

monday night was grady's last soccer practice...he has his one and only game on saturday at 11:30! at practice...which by the way was nice and dry!!...they had a scrimmage! if the game on saturday is anything like their scrimmages have been...this is going to be a hoot! there are only 2 kids that are really into playing soccer and the rest (yes, this includes grady!) are just there to chase each other, blow dandelion seeds, and occasionally kick the ball! while he may not have been totally into practicing every time he had practice, i wouldn't say this has been a waste! grady has had a great time! it has also given him his turn to shine...we are always so busy taking gabe to this practice and that game, that sometimes grady gets lost in it all...so this has been nice, finally gabe is the cheerleader on the sidelines! and in all that he has even learned how to dribble a soccer ball...not bad for 50 bucks!!

grady's turn to throw the ball in!

trunk or treat!

trunk or treat!

tonight our church hosted a trunk or treat! the kids got to load up on candy and play some great "carnival" type games! the boys had a blast and the best part--they finally got to wear their batman costumes! they looked absolutely adorable as the "old" and "new" batmen! i told shawn, i should of held off on buying candy for our trick-or-treater's--i could have just used some of the kids'---oh, how cheap!

fireballs vs. chargers

gabe #8 a.k.a team captain--shaking hands before the game

this morning was a great morning for a soccer game! we had a wonderful sunshiney day! i was a little nervous for the fireballs, since usually they perform best in yucky weather, but they proved my nervousness wrong today! the final score 7-4! yeah!! the icing on the win??? the chargers were a team of 8 and 9 year olds, so that made the win even a little sweeter! gabe had a good game - we actually found out this evening, 9 hours after the game, that he wasn't feeling well, so I should say, gabe had a great game for not feeling top notch! he stopped a couple of scores as goalie, and had a couple of assists! he stole the ball quite a few times from those bigger, older boys!! what a tricky little player! he was also team captain again today!! we only have a couple of more games--and honestly--as much as i love watching my boys play soccer--i am a little excited about getting our saturdays back! the touristy side of me is itchin' to go do some adventuring!!

go get 'em gabe!

it's pumpkin patch time....again!

grady's preschool class at craven farm pumpkin patch! in case you didn't know.....yes, grady is indeed pumpkin royalty!

ah yes, finally the perfect pumpkin!

yesterday, grady and i headed to craven farms with his preschool class! i had already had forewarning that this pumpkin patch was probably not going to be as cool as the one we visited a couple of weeks ago...so with that information, we headed out! the pumpkin "tour" began with a storytime and cookie (i don't know if grady really even listened to the 2 gals presenting the story or if he was more interested in his cookie!) and then we headed outside to play on the tractors, boat, pirate ship and check out all of the nursery rhyme inspired pumpkin displays! after that came the time to go in search of the perfect pumpkin! after our hunt last week grady knew just what he wanted....a huge pumpkin! unfortunately, with the "tour" came a somewhat smaller version, so with that dissappointment behind him, he was now in search of a fat pumpkin! after trekking the whole pumpkin patch we found the perfect little squatty, fat pumpkin! we ended our pumpkin patch field trip with a break for snacktime and a class picture! grady and i had a great time---even if there wasn't a pumpkin shooter!

giddy up little sheep!! hmmm...he's not moving!

a man on a mission....gotta find that tractor!

yeah, finally found that tractor--where ya going farmer grady?

it's not soccer...we call it soggy soccer!

he may be sweet and cuddly on the inside, but he's a big, bad soccer player on the outside!

oh yes, you guessed it, poor grady got to practice in the rain AGAIN!!! which clearly means, we had the opportunity to sit and watch grady practice in the rain AGAIN!! today grady was a little more into practicing though! they played a circle game where they tried to get each others balls out of the circle...grady didn't quite understand the object of this game. the coach told him to protect his ball and he was very good at that--he would just stand with the ball between his legs! but then, she would tell him to go after one of the other player's balls, so he would and then they would kick his ball out!! he was just not impressed! the next game they played was running up and down the field, dribbling their ball and shooting goals...but to add an element of excitement the coach's daughter (she is 7 and the asst. coach!) would randomly take their ball away!! the object was to teach the kids to stay away from someone taking their ball, but it just upset them...that game ended quickly! even through sitting in the rain, it is the absolute best getting to watch our little guy try so hard...he gets so excited after his nap on monday, he can barely contain himself until 4:30!! it is a wonderful outlet for all of his energy---i would have never guessed at 3 he would try so hard or have such determination--our little guy may be growing up, but it sure is great being along for the ride!
grady getting ready to shoot a goal!! go grady!!