Pumpkins and Halloween

One of the boys favorite things around this time of year are all of the pumpkins, we could take them to the pumpkin patch 6 times and it would probably not be enough!  :)  But this year they really wanted to paint their pumpkins again and so out came the brushes and a bit of creativity.  Jake wanted to make a Miles from Tomorrowland Pumpkin and AJ wanted a Spookly the Square Pumpkin (and also a movie that I swear we watched 30 times during the fall season).  We had a lot of fun and I think they came out pretty well, the boys were thrilled so in my book that's a win!

AJ modeling with his pumpkin that just had the face drawn in pen so we can paint it next.

Jake and Daddy just getting started on Miles

AJ was thrilled all season about how he painted the hands (and fingers) on his pumpkin all by himself.

Gotta love family projects!

Two happy faces

AJ loved his and decided he just wanted to make Spookly a round version (Yes!!!)

This warms my heard.  This Care Bear was my lovie when I was growing up and AJ found him in a bag in his closet.  He instantly latched onto him and slept with him the next few nights :)

The beginning on a huge dress up week!  My boys love to dress up and so any time we can get discounted costumes we jump on them.  Comes in handy when you have a lot of dress up activities the week of Halloween!  This was superhero AWANA night and as you can see we had Hulk Cubby and Spider Sparky :)

For school AJ wanted to dress up as Thor!

My adorable boys modeling their Star Wars jammies in AJ's bed.

Jake Dressed up as a baseball player for dress for a career day at school.

At and exercise class that I was attending they let the kids dress up and then have a little party for them.  AJ chose to be an adorable fireman.

On Halloween morning Jake was lucky enough to get invited to a buddies birthday party and here they had laser tag in their beautiful park like backyard.  Jake had a blast and is taking a bit of a breather here. :)

For Halloween Jake chose to be the Green Lantern.  He got so many compliments and thought it was awesome that a few people told him that he was the only Green Lantern they saw!

AJ decided to be the red power ranger.  This boy was REALLY excited to go trick or treating!!!

My superheroes

Little easier to see with the mask up :)

And off they went!  Ryan took the first shift.

These three were nice enough to join me in handing out candy :)

This was about 8pm and as you can see AJ is still going strong.  He was making comments that he wanted to go trick or treating until the sun came up.  Jake was done and knew his bucket was full.  I really think AJ will be one of those kids in future years that wants to get driven to different neighborhoods to get as much candy as possible.  :)

We got home with our bounty and Jake was beat!  :)

Had to check out his haul though.  :)

AJ was pretty proud of his too!  We had another great Halloween and more than enough candy to last until the next Halloween.  :)



Fun with Friends and Constant Crazy

Its funny to look back at these pictures because it looks like we are constantly doing things...and we are.  But a lot of it is just what our day to day life now is.  :)  The kids are involved in sports, school, AWANA, Cub Scouts and they have friends to play with.  Then there are those days off where we do special stuff or just enjoy hanging around the house.  Seems like we are always speeding through homework to do something or planning on some activity.  Its a crazy life and I get nervous about how things will be when AJ is older and we have even more but its a life I love!  And I really enjoy seeing the kids enjoy it and have the ability to see and try new things.  Who knows how much of it they will remember, but that is also partly what this blog is for...their future baby/kid books.  :)

Ryan took AJ to a big church garage sale and they picked out these $2 bean bags for each boy, and what a hit!  They both love them and they get constant use!

Every once in a while we are able to do something fun with our old friends the Starr's.  On this day off from school we all went to the OKC Science Museum.  We had just bought a season's pass and had not been yet...and wow what a place!  I am so excited to be able to go during the summer and have a nice air conditioned place to go and hang out while the kids burn some energy!

Most of the Brown Starr crew (we can actually see all of their faces in this picture)...

...and the best we could get of a picture of all six of them.  Hey these are some crazy energetic kids, getting a picture of all of them together is NOT easy.  :)  So fun to get together as Christy and I were friends before either of us had kids...yeah things have changed a little.  :)

Jake walking the tightrope

They are all in there...somewhere :)

Jake LOVED this huge mouth.  He talked about it for weeks afterward.

The packing tape playground was also a favorite.  So many years spent as a packaging engineer...why did I never think to do this?!?!?

The next day (this was during Fall break when the boys had a few days off school) I took the boys to the zoo which is always a family favorite. 

The highlight of this visit was the sea otter.  Normally he is hidden in a log or not out at all, but on this visit he was putting on a show and kept swimming right at and by the boys!

Jake's promotion night at Cub Scouts where he officially became a Tiger Scout!

My handsome guys in uniform

Sometimes I had to put pictures on this blog to capture memories.  My boys ADORE American Ninja Warrior, and often need to practice...using anything they can find.  Here AJ is using the couches :)  Hey I'm happy...at least he is not practicing Jumping Spider between our two cars in the garage.  :D

Jake practicing his swing at tball practice.  I love this stick ball thing...works amazing at helping out a swing!

Why is this little guy so happy and proud?  We are celebrating him sleeping successfully in big boy underwear for a week.  YESSSSSS!!!!!!

Mommy and her littlest man

Nothing better than watching the boys pour over a bible!  When our church came out with the New Bible App for Kids Bible Book AJ begged us to get one.  The boys already had a kids bible but its really hard to deny your child a bible when he is begging for one.  :)  Really glad we bought it too as AJ loves to read through it all the time and enjoys reading it with us and answering the question at the end of each story.  Love it!!!



Fall Season Fun!

Oh Fall in Oklahoma!!!  I really love this time of year, the temps are getting cooler, the leaves start to change and we get to do all of our family's fun Fall activities.  And in doing so we get to explore more of our wonderful state!  Hard to believe that we have now lived here for two years!  Time flies and we still have so much more to explore!  But we absolutely LOVE it here and are so thankful that God brought our family here to provide us with such an amazing life!

 This was the night of Jake's First Cub Scout meeting...can you tell he is a little excited!  :)

Jake and Daddy are ready to go! 

Not a great picture, but we also welcomed a new vehicle into the family!  :)  Our Corolla was about to die and so we wanted him to get a dependable new to us car.  Ryan really wanted a truck and I wanted our second car to comfortably hold the whole family...so we ended up with the Beast as I call it.  But it is a beautiful F150 and the entire family loves it! 



 One of my boys favorite things to do, build puzzles!  They are both really good at it and its a nice quiet activity in our normally very loud house :)

This boy LOVES his Paw Patrol. :)  He wanted to get a picture of the entire family.  (2 birthdays and a Christmas worth of presents from family)

 Happy AJ!  He earned a medal for his soccer game and he could not be prouder of himself!

 Working on some football skills with daddy while waiting for big brother!

 This was actually another week but Jake had his chance to earn a medal as well!

 One of our weekends we wanted to get the kids their pumpkins and also go out and have a little fun.  Someone recommended to us that we go to the Parkhurst Pumpkin Patch in Arcadia and on our way stop at Pops!  Pops is an amazing stop along Route 66 that has hundreds of different kinds of soda...some you wish you had not seen. :)  But it was a lot of fun and the boys were really excited.  They really liked the giant soda bottle out front!

Walking up to the store/restaurant.  If you look closely you can see bottles lining every inch of space in the windows.

Some of the more interesting ones.  Bacon or Ranch Soda anyone?

After a yummy lunch we arrived at the Pankhurst Pumpkin Patch!

This place was big on activities for the kids and this was their favorite.  Nothing like a bunch of the circular hay bales that you see here with a few slides attached!  :)  I think this was their favorite thing there!

King of the Hay Bale

Jake's Fort

Have to check out every area

AJ's Fort

The little pumpkin patch area.  Must admit I totally forgot to get pictures of the boys getting their little pumpkins.  :)  We had so much fun with everything else!  And afterwards we did end up picking up their big ones at Walmart.  :)

Rope Swing Monkey

Monkey see Monkey do  :)

These boys are too cute

The boys have always been large fans of basket swings

Jake chose to relax in a nice hammock

Tire Swing!

This picture does a fantastic job of capturing AJ's spirit.  Carefree and willing to try anything...along as a mascot is not involved :)

Why not try to get both boys on a tire swing? 

The boys loved running crazily through the corn maze.  We did get a little bit lost, but after cutting through a few plants we made it out.  :D

Hard to get a picture with this boy on the hayride...

...as this is all he wanted to do.  :)  He really enjoyed it and it was a very pretty ride.

Goofy guys

My big boy and me :)

Cowboy AJ

Ninjago Cowboy Jake

The boys really enjoyed this little carousel of horses that you moved by pedaling each horse.  It really was a great day to spend together as a family, have a lot of fun, and see some beautiful parts of Oklahoma that were not at all far from home!  Put us in the fall spirit!