Trick-or-Treat

How cute is he??!!!!

Getting ready to go out on the night!

My "big muscle Spiderman" and his sidekick....Frog :) Evan was flashing his web sign everywhere we went that night! Totally cute!!!!

Another Halloween year has come and gone and before we know it will be Christmas and that's just crazy! The weather was beautiful to were the first time in I think EVER, I was able to wear a short sleeved shirt and pants most the night (the hoodie did come on, but NO JACKET!) Mason was a frog (that's been past down a few years) and Evan was "Big muscle Spiderman". He really wantedto spidey as his best friend, Andrew was also Spiderman. He put the mask on for the picture, but trick or treated with it off. Mason stayed on the porch passing out candy with Mason because he was just happy to be outside! I took Evan around and he LOVED it this year (last year about 10 houses his "feet hurt and he was tired"), so mom was glad to be getting the exercise, fresh air and some good one on one time with Ev. (Isn't that sad when one-on-one time is trick-or-treating?!) Tanner wore some scary mask and was going to "scare all the little kids" but had a buddy talk him into going with him. So my boy who was "too old" to go trick-or-treating last year and past out candy, went this year! Okay, whatever! And Parker went with his skating posse as a Dallas Stars Hockey player. He and his friends all had skates on so they could "get more candy". Ohhhh....children after my own heart!

Carving the Pumpkins

It's so fun to have big kids who could care less about carving the pumpkin other than it gives them another opportunity to play with knives. Tanner hated the pumpkin patch because he's too cool and carving is "stupid" until he realized he would get to be the master carver. Evan was very serious with drawing on his face this year. It was soooo cute! Parker just couldn't get enough "goo" and thought that getting in a pumpkin seed fight would be "awesome" :) (I pulled out mean mom and wouldn't let that happen!) So here are just a few pics from our carving event!

Tan going in!
Evan's scary pumpkin face...for him and his pumpkin!

This picture should have been first of him scooping guts. You can see his drawn face on this side. Pretty good, Evan!

Parker with a little pumpkin soup ;). The boys had a really good time.

Pumpkin Patch

I can honestly say this was a very bittersweet pumpkin patch visit for me! We always hit the pumpkin patch by mid October, but with Chris constantly out of town and various activities, we hit the pumpkin patch at 1:00PM ON HALLOWEEN DAY! I mean, really?! To top it off, the weather was PHENOMENAL! It was almost too hot for Halloween (did I just say that?!). I usually make sure the kids are bundled up and look cute on the outside, but as you can see it was a free for all and anything goes this year! I had pants and short sleeved shirt which was one extreme all the way to Mason who had on shorts and T-shirt. No socks, no shoes, no jacket....nothing! Chris of course was sweating in shorts and T-shirt, but then again...what's new! Here are some pics of our pumpkin patch visit ON Halloween!

Parker, Evan, Tanner and Mason on the hayride.

Park, Mase, Tan, and Ev in front of the big bale of hay spider. You know me and spiders...this was close enough. LOL

He's so stinkin' cute! He was so happy just doing whatever! He was entrigued by the witches and bats they had hanging in the trees.

By far his favorite thing to do the whole time we were there and not doing something else was to go and push over the pumpkins. If they were standing up, no matter how big or small, he'd go over and push them over. I was having flashes of football practices in the future and plowing things over. I would go and put it up and he'd go and push it over...it was really cute (and comical!)

This is one of my favorite pics and is GREAT in black and white. He loved the tractor and this was a perfect shot!

Happy 9th Birthday, Parker!

Happy Birthday, Park! I can't believe he's 9!!! Where does the time go??? Parker had a great birthday this year. The best for him was going to the Blues hockey game and seeing the Dallas Stars. And as great as that was... He also loved getting presents, eating at HIS favorite restaurant, Chili's (he always gets the ribs), mom's homemade chocolate cake, and the never ending sleepover with his friends and his trademark..."midnight snack"!

These pictures are out of order, but you'll get the idea.
Grandma and Grandpa Thompson got Parker 4 new additions to his Webkinz collection.

Nanny got Parker the Iron Man DVD with bonus Ironman cartoon.

Of course a birthday would not be complete without SOMETHING new for hockey! He's been wanting this 195 Hockey stick that brother got for his birthday and has had to wait so long that he gave it a big hug and a kiss...literally! He was very happy!

The real mini hockey set or "shinny hockey" as the boys call it. Now they each have a real goal rather than mom's laundry baskets to use as goals. (Chris' fingers were in front of the flash that's why a few pics are shadowed.)

And his first present... the official NHL mini stick for the St. Louis Blues. He's wanting to collect all the NHL teams and hang them on his wall in his room. I guess we'll see. (Oh and as a side note to these pictures.... the scrape above Parker's right eye is where the puck hit him earlier in the day. They were playing outside without their helmets on and took one in the face. Needless to say...He loves it and thinks it's so cool!)

All in all, he had a great birthday! Tons of hockey stuff (stick, mini hockey, trading cards, mini stick), a few DVD's and PS2 and DS games, and as always, Parker's favorite....cold hard cash! Happy Birthday post (a little late), Parker! His birthday was on Saturday, October 25th.

It's spelled E-V-A-N!!!

I got a lesson in spelling this week. Evan was hungry and wanting a snack. So I gave him the bucket of pretzels and got back to the task at hand...cleaning out the fridge. I could hear him saying "Don't tell me I know what's next!" and start to laugh. He's known how to spell his name for years, but something got his funny bone going. After ignoring him as long as I could I finally turned around to say, "What's so funny, Evan?" I didn't think that spelling "Evan" in pretzels could be so funny...but he did! And it only got more funny for him as he then tried to spell Tanner and Parker and Mason and found out his name was the only one that looked completely normal (come on people...use your imagination and try to make a "round R" or a "curvy S" as he called them)...it doesn't work and apparently to a 5 year old... that's hilarious!

Seeing Stars???

For Parker's birthday, he wanted to go to a hockey game and see his favorite team, the Dallas Stars play. The Stars are only playing at the Blues game twice this season, so we had to go the week before his birthday. As we all walk in and are sporting our St. Louis Blues apparel (NHL Hockey for those of you already lost) or just our blue and gold...Parker has on his Dallas Stars jersey and some green mardi gras beads and is already for this game. My poor soon to be 9 years old is getting booed by random drunk guys and thinks it's great as he's yelling "Let's go Stars!" in the middle of a Blues game. (I'm not kidding...he's my wayward child, i swear!) We had such a great time though! We made sure to get some nose bleed seats so he could "see the whole game and not miss anything" and he got to bring his best bud Nick and I got a babysitter for Mason, so it really was a great evening. Of course we spent just about as much money on concessions as we did the tickets, but he was so happy....they all were really lovin' it! The sad news was that the Blues WON 6-1 and his Dallas Stars lost. He was sad, but when the Blues score 5 goals or more, you get a free blizzard at DQ and he forgot all about his Dallas Stars! Thanks for an awesome birthday party, Park!
Parker at his soon to be 9 Birthday party! He was SOOOOO happy!

Parker and his best friend, Nick at the game.

Mom and Parker enjoying some rivalry time! "GO BLUES! GO STARS!"

I wasn't kidding we were in the nose bleeds! This was the last minute of the game and where they were so far ahead, the place had cleared out, but was really full.

The 4 boys enjoying the game. Evan really got into and asked before we even left "When are we going to a Blues game again?" He's so cute!

Parker's field day to the ZOO

So only 3 days after hitting the pumpkin patch with Evan, I then was able to go with Parker and his class to the St. Louis ZOO. I get to his class at 8:30 and just as walk in, again this oh great feeling comes over me. I figured we'd each have about 4 kids to watch and I had my 4 picked that she'd give me. Of course, the worst one in class, the next worst one, Parker and then another kid who's pretty good, but COMBINED with Parker and these boys would be not so good. So before she even started telling the groups I whispered to Parker who I thought and he didn't have a clue. The teacher reads the names. All the other parents have 4 kids so I knew I was right on....or was I? Well I was hypothetically speaking because I guessed the right 4, but she gave me 5 boys! Why do teachers do this?!!! You've already given me your 2 WORST kids and then I'm the only one with 5?!! And as a teacher would say to help you feel better, "you're a mom of all boys and I figured if anyone could handle this group it would be you." Are you KIDDING ME?!!! I haven't recovered from my group 2 days ago let alone ready to deal with 5 third grade boys at the zoo where they can run wild. Luckily I had a couple tricks up my sleeve and we did see a few other groups at times that no was lost (for more than 10 minutes) and everyone survived... i hope! I'm starting to see why they only have 2 field trips a year.

We saw lots of great animals: bears, pumas, gorillas, tigers, monkeys, snakes, zebras, penguins, all your great zoo stuff.

I'm just wondering if they teach the teachers to say that or if it's the best excuse to say SUCKER they have or why they do that? I don't think they'd give the best girl in the class only the other best girls (actually, yes they would). Oh well, I do love my boys and I guess I can "handle it".
This was my group and one other group. Of course you say, "Sit so I can take your picture" and they all sit on each other and immediately have to let me know to "rock on", so here they are. Parker is on the back row in the center.

For one quick second we were able to take a picture with one of the girls groups. Parker has (and has had) a thing for Faith who is second from the left in the red sweatshirt. She's almost as tall as him and is so cute. You can see the kid top on the top right not posing...he was "buddy" all day.....allllllll day :) Love ya, Casey! (and now you're "famous like Parker")