Trick or Treat!!

Our little ghost had a very fun night trick or treating!  We went to "our old/future neighborhood" with one of Will's friends and ran into many others while we were there.  It was fun!  Jerry stayed home to pass out candy.  I have always done that job in the past while Jerry took Will out.  I missed giving all the kids candy, but Will's excitement as he ran from house to house was contagious too!

On the home front, Jerry ran out of candy after about an hour!!  And I really thought we had overstocked.  I had even bought an extra 95-piece bag on top of what Jerry thought was enough!  After running out of the candy we bought he started giving out the candy from the Halloween parade.  (Side note to Grandma - before you cry injustice, Will didn't like most of that candy anyway and wasn't upset!)  We can't count exactly because I don't know how many Mallo Cups were in the four bags we bought or how many Smarties were in that big bag, but conservatively we must have had over 400 kids in that time.  Even after Jerry turned out the light kids were still coming!  He had to put up a sign and turn off all the lights in the living room!  He was sitting in the dark when Will and I got home!

I'm not big on all the Halloween decorating and the general big production that it's become, but I do enjoy the excitement of kids dressing up and getting all the candy they can handle one night a year!  It's just fun!  It's nice too because Will seems to be growing out of most of his fears this year so the costumes and decorations don't really bother him anymore.

Will isn't much into the dressing up.  He's more into the candy!  He couldn't decide
what he wanted to be this year so he settled on Daddy's suggestion of a
ghost.  This was my best effort with my sewing machine and
other supplies in the storage unit!

Will got some candy that matched his costume!  : )

His candy haul! All this even after quitting before we even
made the loop back to the car!  He said he was
hot and his feet were tired!  : )  But then he did
run through the entire neighborhood!

Pumpkin Carving Fun

Today was a bit cooler than yesterday because of the wind.  After church we decided to hang around the house and carve our pumpkins. 

First things first - play in the goo!  I'm glad Will will do this part now.
He was not always enthusiastic about sticking his hand in there in years past.

Lots of concentration - you can tell by that tongue!

Will drew his own face this year and did all the carving himself.

You can't see it well here, but he put a Bearcat paw on each side.
(A Bearcat is his school mascot)

When Will finished carving he took more pictures. 

Some were better than others!  : )

Who's that with the pointy feet? 
Lama lama, trick or treat!!
(inside joke)

 

After seeing our pumpkins Jerry was inspired to carve one too!  Luckily I
had an extra - I never plan on him carving one!  He tried out
one of the patterns from the carving kit and it turned out
really nice!

 

Our finished products!

Enjoying a Beautiful Day

It was a perfect fall day outside so we made the most of it and spent the day outdoors.

First we went to Perry's farm to do some target practice.

Jerry swapped out the barrel on Will's gun for the 22 rifle that eliminated the
bad kick from the shotgun barrel.  Much more enjoyable!

But a little harder to hit the pumpkins!  Still we had some success.  : )

The few soda cans we had left were fun too.
I hit mine on the first shot!!

Will got his after a couple tries.  : )

Afterwards we had lunch at the park in Alexandria then went to Canoe Creek State Park.

There was still a bit of fall color left.  : )

Our family picture just isn't the same without Poley.

We took the short walk to the old limestone kilns.

Will enjoyed looking around in them.

Then he took over the camera and had Jerry and I pose for several pictures,
in addition to his pictures of Josie, the creek, some fungus, ferns, and leaves.
Wonder where he learned that!  LOL  : )

Our Weekend



 

The weather was perfect after school on Friday so Lindsay and I took the kids on
a short hike to flagpole hill.  The fall color is fading now but the woods
were still beautiful - and Will and I learned a new trail
while we were there.  : )

 

Saturday was Will's last soccer game.  He got to play against his friend Grace.  We were so worried it would be rained out.
It rained on our way there and again during the pizza party afterward
but it was sunny throughout the whole game!

 

This year he moved up to the next division where the field is larger, there are goalies, and
they teach the kids to play different positions.  Will learned a lot during the season
and continues to love soccer!!

 

Pizza party celebration!!

 

On Sunday we went to the Halloween Trail at Shaver's Creek.  It was a bit chilly
but we had fun. 

They had quiet a few cool games for the kids.  We decided Jerry and Will need
to build one of these giant sling shots for the back yard!

Field Trip to Shaver's Creek (And I'm All Caught Up!!)

With this post I'm happy to report I'm all caught up with my blog posts from the end of May!!  It really had been that long since I had posted anything!  I was just too preoccupied to do any posts over the summer.  I resolve to do better now!  ; )

Yesterday I joined Will's class on their field trip to Shaver's Creek Environmental Center.  All the kids had fun but it rained the whole time we were there.  We didn't even get to see the raptors because of the rain.  Of course rain doesn't stop the kids - it just adds really fun puddles for splashing!  I didn't get any pictures of Will because I was busy fighting the rain - and I'm glad there were no pictures of me because all that moisture made for one bad hair day!  : )

A Long Overdue Bike Ride

Yesterday was a disaster.  Will was supposed to have a soccer game, but we missed it.  The copy of the schedule I had showed 2pm, but when we arrived his team was leaving.  The game was actually at 1pm!!  Will was so disappointed - really we all were.  :(

It was so nice outside on Sunday so we decided to go for a bike ride on the rails to trails path in Alexandria after church.  All the bikes needed a little attention since we never rode them at all while we were in Roanoke.  Seeing Will on his bike highlighted how much he has grown.  He looked like he was riding a little circus bike!  We took Josie along too in a basket on the back of my bike.  She rode nicely after jumping out once in the beginning.

It was a little sad though because I had the idea of taking the dogs along before
but never got a basket while Poley was still alive.  I know he would have
enjoyed barking at passsersby.  He is still sorely missed every day! 

Jerry's Surprise

Mom and Tom came up during his break this week!  They arrived in time to see Will's soccer game on Tuesday, then we went to Belleville on Wednesday morning.  That evening Jerry surprised us with tickets to the Cirque du Soleil show at the Bryce Jordan Center in State College!!  We all had a fun time and the show was great!  I'm so glad to have a happy husband again!

I didn't catch a good picture but we got to see some of the
performers before the show.

Will's New Gun

As promised after we sold the four-wheeler Jerry bought Will a new gun.  Of course Will was thrilled!

 

We took him our to Perry's farm to do some target practice.

That little gun has more kick than you think!  It flew right our of Will's hands
the first time he shot it!  And thank goodness Jerry was there to
catch him or Will would have fallen right off the log!
I thought it was so funny that I caught that picture!

Nicely shaken soda cans are fun targets!

Jerry says next time we go we'll try the rifle barrel instead of the shotgun.  That was just a bit too much for Will yet.