The month of October started fabulously as we were still down at the Cape. It was so hard to leave...I think it gets harder to leave there every time we go. But knowing we had a pretty fun rest of the month ahead made leaving the beach a little better. The pictures for this month uploaded totally out of order, but they all happened in October.
We spent one Saturday morning at Top Golf. This is a favorite outing of the kids. We are so glad they have opened back up and are taking Covid precautions so that we can all go and enjoy.
Here's Clayton getting a little instruction from Daddy at Top Golf. For the longest time Clayton golfed left handed, but he has recently switched to right handed.
There was finally some Tennessee football on TV to watch. We decided to have our own little tailgate football party at home and watch the game. The kids were super excited about baking Tennessee brownies and obviously added lots of orange sprinkles!
They all wore their orange, and Nora Kate wore her cheerleading uniform.
It was fun to have a little party just the 6 of us....even if Tennessee did loose.
We have had a million science experiments this month it seems like. I feel like I spend a lot of time gathering their materials from various stores, but they really enjoy the hands on stuff!
This month we compared tastes in 4 varieties of apples (golden delicious, red delicious, honeycrisp, and granny smith). We also grew Pea Seeds with various amounts of watering to find the optimal watering amount for successful pea plants. We did another science experiment with red worms and their preferences for dark vs light, damp vs dry, etc. And we built a bird feeder prototype for a bird requiring specific needs. Whew!
Clayton drew this picture in the backseat one day while we were waiting on Dawson to come out of band practice, and I just had to snap a picture because I loved it and his description so much. He passed it up to the front seat to me.
Me: Clayton, this is nice art! Tell me about it!
Clayton: It's a giant squid chasing a person.
I love his creativity!
Here is Carter with his pea seeds for the experiment I mentioned.
The first day back doing school work after returning from the beach, Nora Kate enters the office at school time wearing goggles. My beach girl!
Duke got a new bed this month. Safe to say he's pretty proud of it.
Halloween! For the first time ever I convinced everyone to go as a theme! It actually was mostly Clayton, our super-hero loving boy, who convinced everyone. Since Winter he has been planning our costumes. The boy loves to dress up in costumes.
Dawson was FLASH
John was Hulk
Dawson was Flash
Clayton was Spiderman (See him shooting his web?!)
Nora Kate was Wonder Woman
Carter was Captain America
and I was Spider Woman
Spiderman, Captain America, Wonder Woman, Flash, and SUPER DOG
Carter as Captain America
Nora Kate as Wonder Woman
Clayton as Spider Man
One without the mask
We decided to hold a small get together for two other families we had already been around (thanks Covid for making us have to keep things small). We had the Wayes and Houghs over for pumpkin shaped pizzas with jackolantern faces made out of the toppings, ghost brownies, pumpkin decorated cupcakes, and some other yummy snacks.
Our neighborhood had the best Halloween Decorations I've ever seen a neighborhood do for Halloween before. There was a big competition in the neighborhood with prizes, so people went all out! I wish I had taken pictures of the houses, but a few even had fog machines they ran every night that created an eerie foggy backdrop for their over the top decor. We have thoroughly enjoyed everyone's Halloween decor. So for our little party, we though we would pull our trailer with the Ranger for a Hay ride. The kids and I set it up during the day Friday, and this was us going on a trail run. They loved this. And we actually ened up going on several hay rides Halloween weekend which was loads of fun. We had lights on the sides of the trailer for the hay ride during the party.
Carving one of many pumpkins.
Dawson was our trooper who stuck with pulling out all the pumpkin guts. Thankful he doesn't mind to do this!
One of the biggest reasons October was sooooo busy was SOCCER!! Nora Kate's team had a phenomenal season. I mean they really played great. NK and another girl on the team played great together. NK loved winning and playing hard. She scored lots of goals this season, and I'm super proud of the little athlete she's becoming.
Nora Kate's team actually went on to the tournament and won the championship game in the tournament. She was beyond proud and excited to get a trophy and medal for winning. She keeps asking when soccer starts again now that the season is over.
Carving another pumpkin.
Why am I not surprised that Clayton was disappointed with the first pumpkin we carved claiming it was "too nice" because he wanted a scary one. He looked at some pictures and declared he wanted one that looked like this...so we had one scary jack-o-lantern...and he was thrilled!
Here is the one we carved that was too friendly.
Winner Winner
Nora Kate's team and coach. Go Bluebirds!
Winning season!
These are out of order. The picture below actually happened before this picture above. One Friday night John and Dawson went camping with his boy scout troop (picture below), and they had a fantastic time tent camping, shooting bow and arrows, shooting sling shots, launching model rockets, bb guns, etc. Lots of fun! I loved hearing about their adventure when they returned.
Well, Carter and Clayton (and kind of Nora Kate) were a little disappointed that they didn't get to tent camp, so the next night John set up a campsite for them in our backyard. Fire in the fire pit, s'mores, and camping in the backyard all night. Can you tell they loved every minute!?
Boy scout camping trip.
We are still loving having our newest family member, Duke.
He thinks he's part person and likes to stand up on his hind legs. The kids always pretend they're dancing with Duke.
Carter loves soccer more than anyone, I think. This boy is so, so competitive. I'm continually amazed at his soccer skills, his strength, and endurance. He had a rough season-meaning he played amazing, but he didn't have a lot of support from his team. There were not a lot of experienced players on his team, but I couldn't have been more proud of how he didn't let that discourage him. He ran up and down the field still trying to score...and scoring several goals! The great news is that I wasn't the only one who noticed his soccer skills. A couple days after the soccer season ended for him, we received a call that he had been selected for the Athens All Star Soccer Team. He will practice all November long, 3 practices a week, and then the weekend before Thanksgiving he, along with 9 other boys go down to Dothan for the state championship. He could not have been more excited! He thought soccer was over for this season, and then he found out he has been invited to play on the All Star team AND gets to play an additional month of soccer! Beyond excited!
The picture above was on the night of his last regular season game.
Nora Kate was so excited that her sweet friend Tiffany came to cheer her on for one of her tournament games! Tiffany even made her this sign and wore team colors.
Nora Kate's hair request for the championship game.
It must have been good luck because they won!
On Monday's Clayton and I have to spend an hour in the car waiting outside gymnastics while NK has her class. We use this for school time which explains why Clayton's in the car for this pic. But I had to snap this picture because of how well Clayton has been doing holding his pencil. Several months ago he couldn't decided whether he should write with his left or right hand. He finally picked right and we've been working on the pencil grasp. Finally he picks up a pencil and grasps it properly immediately now. He's trained his fingers and his brain.
Our garden is still producing....a few random strawberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, and tons and tons of jalapenos.
Clayton had a Halloween party at preschool and got to wear his costume...excited was an understatement. Here he is walking in...and shooting me with his web.
We spent one weekend afternoon at Hay's Nature Preserve. They have the best natural playground, and some awesome chores.
The favorite is this GIANT swing....so fun...for all 6 of us!
Of course Duke came.
A fun time at Hay's Nature Preserve.
Here's a picture of NK with her medal from soccer.
Carter with his team fromt he season. Go White Ninjas!
We visited the Botanical Gardens. Always so beautiful to see the gardens decorated for fall.
And to check out all the scarecrows on their scarecrow trail.
Carter brought home a big recognition from school this month! He received the Superhero award! Proud of this boy.
There was a random Thursday that Clayton had off school and the big 3 had to go to school. We made this day a special date! He got to pick everything we did. First he wanted to go to the dinosaur playground and feed the ducks.
Then play on the dinosaur playground.
Then eat a hamburger. Shop for a superhero toy. And ride bikes around the neighborhood. I think he fit just about as much as he could into our 3.5 hours together. Sweet boy and I loved our "date" time.
For our Halloween party I strongly encouraged costumes! It's always fun to have a reason to dress up!
Our friend who is an artist and art teacher was a painting and her husband was Bob Ross. Check out those happy little trees! Haha!
Our neighbor took this picture for us on Halloween as we headed out to trick or treat. I only wish Duke was showing a prettier side to himself because you can see one of our gorgeous Alabama sunsets which is one of our favorite things we love about this house. Happy Halloween!
Another pic from the Halloween party we had the night before Halloween. NK and her buddy Annie.
Our friends the Houghs at our Halloween party.
I forgot to mention exactly what we did for the party. We ate the food I listed earlier, went on a fun hay ride to look at the Halloween decorations in the neighborhood, then we had a big fire in the fire pit and roasted marshmallows for s'mores. Fun times!
Between the beach and returning from our trip, a million soccer games, Boy Scouts, camping, trumpet lessons, band practices, gymnastics classes, Halloween festivities, a family photo shoot in downtown Madison, and John's continual work busyness this month went by in a flash! Onto November!
