The days are just flying by....

We're down to the last days of October. Halloween is tomorrow. I've had all the windows open for the last week. It's so nice to be enjoying the cooler weather and I'm glad to be airing out the house! We had a 'Fall Festival' at church last Wednesday. I'd forgotten my camera though so I didn't get any pics, but I did get one of the kids when we got home.

J wanted to be a 'pumpkin head man'. I thought okay that might be doable until I heard what that meant to him! He wanted to carve a pumpkin and put it on his head! Do What!? No son...you can't do that! LOL..."Why not" he says? Um...because it's slimy in there, "I don't care". Because it would be too heavy for your little 45 lb self to carry, "Uh, Uh, I'm strong, I can do it!". Because you wouldn't be able to see out of it properly since it would roll around on your head every time you move and you'd just run into people and things more than you already do, "I'll just hold onto it when I walk". Good Grief! I couldn't even come up with a good enough reason for him. I just had to eventually use the old parental standby: "Because I said so". Groans came forth with a roll of his eyes......sometimes we just have to say no because there was no way I was letting him walk around with a pumpkin on his head! LOL I just could imagine the damage that boy could do or could happen to him!

B wasn't so sure of her costume this year...I offered a punk rocker and she looked at me like I'd lost my mind. There was no way she was doing crazy things to her hair! That girl cracks me up. She decided to use her dance costume and be a dancer. Works for me and she felt 'prettied' up. She has never really been into anything gross or weird which is fine for me since I don't really get into that anyways. I love that they don't feel the need also to buy these crazy plastic costumes. Growing up I remember we didn't buy costumes. We were clowns, punk rockers, hobos, witches, ghosts, and wore military fatigues...didn't bother any of us except the year my brother decided to be a ghost...poor kid never did that again! Dad had always warned us to not cut across yards. Doug realized that he should have listened after he clotheslined himself across the throat with a power pole anchor cable! Ouch!

We did finish our pumpkins. I think they came out great. Steve helped the kids with theirs. B did some cleaning of hers and then ran off...she lost interest pretty quick for some reason! I think she wanted to play with the chicks. J was all into the 'slimy guts' of his pumpkin, eeew! He just wanted to play with that when he was done cleaning it. Gross kid, LOL!

The finished pumpkins! What you can't see is J hiding behind them thinking he's getting into the picture! He was back there making faces!

Oh and J tried to convince us that he could use his pumpkin as a night light until Halloween. I don't think so buddy!

Pumpkins!

The kids love picking their own pumpkins out. Though if it was totally up to J, he'd pick the largest one there was and we'd be taking home some $50 giant! LOL. He did still manage to find a large one. B did try picking this one pumpkin up and then realized it was way too heavy to put back...she thought a minute after I said I wasn't putting it back for her and ended up rolling it back to it's spot, LOL.

Here's J saying, "Look Mom, I'm a pumpkin with a stem!" Many of the ones we saw didn't have a good stem...you know a good stem is a must on a carving pumpkin, so he must be a good one! LOL!

At one point the kids had three wagons full of pumpkins! "Ummm, guys, we can't buy this many pumpkins! You have to pick just one." They looked at me like I was suggesting they cut off their hand or something! Pick just ONE!? They couldn't seem to decide. They did manage to after about 20 minutes. I found a really long one that is laying on it's side. I'd like to carve 'Boo!' into it. I'll post carving pics later.

Now that's a girl on a mission!

Well...let's try this again...

You'd think at this stage we'd be done with chicks...but I just can't help myself! It's a sickness I think...I need chicks...the kids need chicks...the dog thinks he needs chicks! LOL! I decided to use my horse trailer this time and that's worked out well so far, except it got pretty cold the second night and my poor little shop light just wasn't up to the heating job. I've since moved them into a box in the shed for now until I get a proper hanging brooder bulb this week; then I'll move them back to the trailer. It was almost too hot in there though and I actually had to turn the bulb off. They are comfy now since it's getting cold again out there. We got 16 this time; 8 each of Rhode Islands and Barred Rocks.


---We also ordered a portable run-in shed for the horses. As much as I want to build a larger shelter for my horses, it was going to cost more than we could shell out at this time and we really needed something before it started getting too wet out there. It's hard to keep the hay fresh when it's out on the wet ground. It should be here next week. I can't wait!

---I've also been looking at getting a new saddle. I don't have one right now and have been borrowing my neighbors though it doesn't fit Pedro very well. I went ahead and took back tracings from him, took pictures and sent them to the Australian Saddle company. They come highly recommended. I can't wait to see what they come up with for my horse and I. It'll be nice to have a saddle of my own again that actually fits!

---This week we will be heading to the Corn Maze near us and also to the Ocean Commotion event down at LSU. We'll also head over to the pumpkin patch to pick out some pumpkins to carve and to decorate with. I want to use some for the harvest party I'm trying to plan for next month. The kids are so excited about all the things coming up!

---I was asked to report that both of the kids' soccer teams won their games. (they didn't want me to forget! They only reminded me 4 times! LOL). They were pumped! J's won 6-0! We actually swapped our younger kids in towards the end so we wouldn't make anymore goals so easily on the other team. I don't like coaches who 'slaughter' other teams just for the heck of it. J's first season in soccer found them beat at each and every game. Many times the opposing coaches let their kids score ridiculously high on them. Just a note to those coach's that feel it's ok that do that: It doesn't make most young kids play better. It makes them get really down on themselves and when we aren't fostering a love for the game, then they aren't going to want to play. What does it accomplish then? The coach thanked us for trying to keep the score down. Poor team though were all young and they only had 2 kids extra to swap out with. We had 4.

---B's team won 5-4! She made the 'winning' goal that put them over. She was also excited to have more playing time. While I realize that coaches do want their teams to win, in our league I was told we are to attempt to play the kids 50/50. If the less experienced kids aren't playing then how are they going to learn? When one child gets 45 min or so of play time and other children get 8 min (literally that is what B got in one game!) or a bit more, then how is that fair and how are they learning from the game as we are asked to let them do? She has cried at the end of the game and on the way home because she felt jilted out of decent play time. Once she did get injured, but she'd only been in briefly before it happened and by the time she was okay and begging to go back in (about 5 min), the game was over. I don't blame her for being upset. Steve did talk with her coach and I hope he understands that we just want fair playing time for our daughter. She needs it too since next year she'll be moving up to U-12! She'll be lost if she doesn't get some good play and practice time in. I know she practices more than her team since she has to attend twice a week with my team and sometimes hers doesn't meet. She wants to do well most of the time (she's still a kid too though). Heck the girl has made two great goals so far and for a child who has only been played a total of about 1 hour so far this fall season (that's out of the 5 games they've played) I think that's a pretty good average-just think what she could do if she was played more. She does try hard to understand what to do and put it into play. I think she's doing great for her very first year!

---Oh and a note to coaches of any sport. Please be mindful of what you say to other children about other players...that seriously affects their attitude towards their teammates! Telling children that another player "isn't smart enough to understand" a play that your teaching to a 'select few' is not appropriate. When I heard that I cringed...I also feel bad when I hear kids say that the coach is working with the 'special players' and not them...they all have something to contribute, they're all special and they all have strengths and weaknesses. We are supposed to build on that and teach them to work together to become stronger together. That's what team work is all about.

***For some reason I can't get the darn paragraphs to separate...that's why I added the dashes! Sorry! Well never mind...they separated after all! Good Grief! LOL!

October...

I love the fall season. I only wish that we had more of it here. It pretty much goes from green to brown after our first frost. The only trees that seem to change color are the horrible Tallow Trees. The air is cooler, a breeze flows most mornings and soon it'll be crispy cool out there. Fall is a much welcomed change to the July and August

We love visiting pumpkin farms, seeing the fall decorations, carving pumpkins, making costumes for Halloween, eating lots of pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread and my pumpkin cookies that the recipe calls to be frosted, but have never been since no one in this house can stand to wait for me to do so and honestly are really good without it! I plan to take the kids to a corn maze and I want to put together a Harvest Party.

I saw this pic of a pumpkin carved...I thought it was funny. Gross...but funny, LOL !