October Date Night

We finally went out on a date and it had been a while.  I think the last time we went on an official date was in February, but surely we've gone out without kids since then right?  Either way, it was long over due, and I was very thankful for Joe and Suzan to offer to keep the kids.  Joe & Suzan have become good friends of ours and I'm very thankful for their friendship.  They live pretty close and have kids that get along with our kids quite well.  Faith is also in second grade, and she and R are very cute together.  Joe Jr. is in Kindergarten too and he plays very well with both A & W.  Sometimes while R is at dance, I'll go over to Suzan's house and let the boys play with Joe and E will play with Faith.  Both Faith and Joe have come to Awana with us and enjoyed it and we've had sleepovers with them.  We really bonded while we were in Orlando together for the SACS conference, but our friendship has grown.  So they offered us a date night and we took them up on it for October 30, Friday.  We dropped the kids off to them around 5:00 with some pizza and we went out to eat.  We hadn't picked a place, but decided to try Razoo's since we both like seafood.  The food was really good and we want to go back to that place again.  We thought about doing our Christmas shopping since we wouldn't have the kids with us, but we just walked around First Colony Mall instead with all the young-ins on a Friday night. 

We already have another date night scheduled for December to celebrate our anniversary so at least it will only be  6 weeks instead of 6 months this time!

Halloween Block Party

I LOVE our cul-de-sac. 

We have great neighbors and a friendly block.  Just like what we did for the fourth of July, we planned to do something similar for Halloween.  We set up tables, and split up the responsibilities like before except I think more people came since more people were out and about walking around.  We played in the cul-de-sac for a while before trick or treating.

 JuJo was still living with us, so they joined in as well. 

Frank cooked burgers and hot dogs, and we had a ton of sides like chips, cookies, cupcakes, and plenty of drinks too.  We joined all our candy is one big bowl and gave out to kids that were coming to our area to trick-or-treat.  Derrick played music again, and the kids requested the 'whip and nae nae' over and over again.  It was a great time and rain held off, thank you God! 

Neighborhood Friend

Back in September, one afternoon we were all outside playing in the cul-de-sac, and Keegan came over.  A & R seemed to know him, and Keegan wanted to play with A.  They rode bikes and scooters as well as kicked the soccer ball around.  After playing outside for a while, all the kids came inside so I could cook dinner.  I sent Keegan home before dinner so he could eat dinner with his family.  He wanted to stay, but I said "no" and he reluctantly went home.  That was a Thursday night and he came over Friday afternoon as well and I sent him home just before dinner as well. Friday afternoon, they kids played inside and they played memory, candy land, and other board games at the table.  Conservatively, he was over at our house from 4:00 pm - 7:00 pm both nights.  Saturday Keegan rang the doorbell, but it was while the kids were resting, so we didn't wake them up and he didn't come back.   We didn't see Keegan Sunday, but he came back over on Monday around 5 after we got home from R's dance lesson.  Both A & W enjoyed playing with Keegan and he was really sweet with E too.   I was cooking pancakes and decided that if Keegan wanted to stay for dinner, he would have to go home and ask his grandma if it was alright.  He did, and she said yes, (according to Keegan) so I let him eat dinner with us Monday night.  After dinner, we decided we would walk him home hoping to maybe meet some adult at his house.  Tuesday was a very similar situation, except B and I decided we would try and meet his grandma, so when we walked him home, we asked him to ask his grandma to come out and meet us.  Well she wouldn't come out, so that was strange, but we tried not to make a big deal of it.  Over the past 2 months, Keegan has come over lots and he always rings the doorbell twice.  He's come with us to Awana and we've even met his mom.  We've just come to love him and accept that he's going to pop on over to play and if it's not a good time (like rest time), then he'll probably leave and go play somewhere else.  I get the feeling that there's not a lot of supervision at his house, so if he enjoys our structure, then he's welcome to come on over anytime. 

Skeeters Fun!

We've been blessed with tickets to see the Sugar Land Skeeters play a couple of times.  Our first game was in August with the Bentley Family from Awana.  They were able to get enough tickets for both our families for a Saturday afternoon game.  We were excited because we really like live sporting events.

free Fanta samples outside the stadium

I got the brunettes

He got the blones

Our next opportunity to attend was a few Friday's later and we brought the Marsh family with us.  Mr. Mark from Awana works for ESPN at the Skeeter's stadium and he was able to get us tickets for a Friday home game.  We were really excited because on the Friday home games there are fireworks after the game. 

Skeeters Tattoos!

yummy ice cream on a hot night!

Backyard Camping

B has been wanting a tent for several years now so with his extra money he earned from SEBTS, he bought a tent for our family.  Now, I figured we needed a 6 person tent since we have 6 people in our family, but oh no, B said we needed more room for all our stuff. So I let him research and read reviews and he picked out the best deal for our family.  Our tent is huge!  He set it up in the living room the first night and our kids were so excited.  Since it was summer, it was still too hot to camp outside, but B set his eyes on a backyard camp out in September. 

setting it up in the living room

huge

 So one Friday night, I had a bunco night with MOPS friends and he worked hard that afternoon cleaning up the back yard.  He cut the grass and shoveled poop out of the way to set up the tent.  When I left, the kids were eating dinner at the table and when I returned home (late), the kids were asleep in the tent outside in the backyard.  According the B, it had been a successful evening and the kids loved it.  They watched Fantasia on the laptop inside the tent and had a great time looking at starts.  Inside the tent fit our queen size air mattress along with 4 kids' sleeping bags and still plenty of extra room.  Like I said, our tent is HUGE.  I decided to join the group and we were all asleep by about 11 pm.  All was good until 3 am when W woke us up saying something was on his head.  My first thought was it might be a bug or something, but B said there was no way anything was getting in.  So we thought maybe he rolled too close to the edge of the tent, but he told us that it was wet where he was sleeping.  In total sleep mode, we told him to get on the mattress with us so we could all go back to sleep then suddenly I began hearing drips....a lot of drips.  I couldn't get back to sleep, but managed to lay there an hour, before I had a drip land on my head.  I rolled over and found a big wet spot next to me on the sheets of the air mattress in the corner of the tent.  I tried my best, but I couldn't stay in the wet bed with drips over my head, so at 4 am I headed inside.  B stayed with the others until 6, when R came inside and crawled in the bed with me.  She woke up in a wet sleeping back and thought she'd peed on herself.  In fact, she thought they had all had accidents because everyone's sleeping bags were wet.  Was it raining you ask....good question but no.  It wasn't raining. B had checked the weather and made sure there was no rain in the forecast before setting the tent up.  So what was dripping on us inside the tent?  It was the dew/condensation that had accumulated throughout the night and B didn't put the rain guard on the tent because he wanted to see the stars.  Rookie mistake and while none of us got good sleep, we all got a good laugh the next morning and much needed Saturday afternoon naps too!