Halloween Events

Mason's calendar has been jam packed with Fall and Halloween events! We've had a blast at all of them and look forward to even more tomorrow, on actual Halloween. Fireman Mason loves to party!

At the Fall Fling for his school. There were bounce houses, a petting zoo, the Hamburger Man, games and more!

At the PTA Halloween Party. His friend Kennedy was Snow White and his buddy Jeff is a Cowboys player.

At the PTA party. Top right: catch  me if you can! Middle right: I don't know who this girl is, but her hair is beautiful and Mason liked playing with her! Bottom right: He was sweaty and decided to lay in the sand. Needless to say we had to deep clean the tub after his bath that night.

At our neighborhood Halloween party. His buddies Thomas and John are transformers.

Neighborhood party fun

His class at school had a party today and the parents were invited. We were in charge of dessert and made some yummy spiders!

We have so much going on that I completely forgot to go to the Halloween carnival at the Y last week! We have some friends that went and it sounds like we missed a great time. I'll be sure to remember next year! He had a Halloween-themed birthday party for his friend Reid over the weekend that was also really fun - so fun I forgot to snap one pic. We also had to miss a parade in a nearby neighborhood as it was the same time as our neighborhood party. I guess when you're this busy conflicts are bound to arise!

I'll try to get video of him saying Boo in his scariest voice to post on here. It's precious!

Big Orange Pumpkin Farm

Yesterday we hosted a Family Day at the Pumpkin Patch for the North Dallas Early Childhood PTA group. It was held at the Big Orange Pumpkin Farm in Owens Spring Creek Farms, a wonderful little farm owned by the Owens family (think Owens sausage). There was a great turn-out and all the families seemed to have a good time. There was an area to feed some very aggressive goats, a hayride around the pond, stables with horses, pigs and rabbits, a pumpkin patch and a cute little maze for the kids to walk through. This will definitely become a fall tradition for us!

There was no way I was getting Mason to look at the camera with all those goats to look at!

These goats are well aware of what we have in the cups and will do anything to get to them!

Matchy, matchy

Tractors, water and a hay ride. Mason was in heaven.

Looking for horses on the hay ride

Our friends The Kunkels

I love that this country setting is so close to the city!

We ran into Mason's friend from Gymboree, Dean

Jeff and Mason in the pumpkins

A little down time for some goldfish

He was not cooperating with this photo op

Watching the tractor take another group on a hayride

Arboretum & Chihuly with BeBe

Yesterday morning Mason and I met my mom (BeBe) at the Dallas Arboretum to play in the pumpkin village and view the Chihuly exhibit. Mason and I have already been once this month with some friends, but only stayed around the kids area. It was nice to walk through the arboretum and take in all the gorgeous fall flowers and the Chihuly freeblown glass sculptures. We conquered a lot of ground in two hours and then had a picnic lunch on the lawn. We had a wonderful time and I'm hoping to go again on Thursday when my grandma is back in town and Mason is in school. I went with my grandma this time last year and we both had a great time, so I hope we get to do it again.

BeBe and her pumpkin

Mason playing in the Pumpkin Village

Posing in front of some Chihuly exhibits

Just gorgeous

More Chihuly

Love my mom!

Busy Weekend

The month of October always seems to be super busy for us and this past weekend was no exception! After the gym on Friday morning we headed to an art open house at Gymboree where Mason had a great time learning about red apples and making several art projects. Then we walked across the parking lot to Whole Foods to pick up some groceries and meet some friends for lunch. The Whole Foods near us has added a great little kids area with tables and toys and Mason had fun dining and playing with Jeff and Emily. When he woke from his nap we played around the house before meeting Sean for dinner. After dinner we walked around the corner to meet some friends at a fun fall carnival. Mason loved the pony rides, petting zoo and dancing at the carnival! Needless to say, he slept great that night!

Art class at Gymboree. I love it when he wears a smock.

Playing at home in between activities

Pony ride and petting zoo at the carnival

After some grocery shopping and cleaning on Saturday morning we headed to the Pfeiffer's for a TX/OU watching party. The game was horrible but the party was great! All the kids had a great time playing in their burnt orange clothes and the parents were able to make the most of it with good conversation, yummy food and strong drinks! We headed home at halftime to put Mason down for his nap and we took the time to knock out some projects around the house. Our friends Katie and Stephen came over around 5:00 with their son Knox for dinner and playtime for the boys. We made a Chicken and White Bean Chili that was pretty spicy, but definitely a recipe we'll hold on to for when it gets really cold out. It was great catching up with the Dotson's and fun to see the boys play cars together. I think Mason has met his match when it comes to car obsession! Sadly, we didn't get any pictures of the evening - isn't that how it always goes?

The horns looked ugly, but the ladies were pretty!

Sunday morning we hung out around the house and then Sean took Mason to the park while I took care of things around the house. When they got back we met my parents for lunch at Purple Cow for a dine and donate event. A portion of our check went to the Community Partners of Dallas on behalf of the North Dallas Early Childhood PTA group that I'm involved in. Then Mason had a 1st birthday party to attend for the daughter of one of my college friends. The party was right during his nap time so he caught a 30 minute snooze on the way out there and surprisingly never had a break down! It was great to see some of my sorority sisters and their children, plus Mason had a blast (if anything, he was moving slower than usual because of his lack of a nap - hey, I'm not complaining!). We came home and played a little before our Sunday family dinner. Sean and I can't always eat dinner with Mason during the week because he eats so early, but we've made it a tradition to do so on Sunday nights. 

At the park with Daddy. Give this boy a ball and some space and he'll be happy!

Parker's birthday party - she is such a doll! I'm so happy Mason finally met my friend Meagan's adorable daughter, Preslie!

After this busy weekend Mason went to bed 30 minutes early on Sunday and slept 30 minutes later in the morning! I'm both a little nervous and excited that it doesn't look like our schedule is slowing down anytime soon. Hope everyone is enjoying their fall as much as we are!

State Fair of Texas

Last Monday my friend Amanda and I made a last minute decision to take our kiddos to the fair. When I say last minute, I mean an hour before we left my house, we were texting back and forth about the idea. I knew I wanted to take Mason this year, and I also know that Sean is not what you would call a 'fair guy', so I needed to go during the week. Mornings would be preferred, but Tu-Th mornings we have commitments that we cannot miss. So that left a Monday or Friday, and I didn't want to tackle the weekend crowd on a Friday. Monday of last week was the last Monday the fair would be open, so the decision was made and I committed to going!

It turned out to be a great experience and I'm so glad we went. It pretty much ignites all your senses and we took in all the sights, smells, sounds and tastes. Amanda and I definitely enjoyed our fair share of crazy fried food (fried s'mores, fried brownies, fried tators), but the majority of the trip was focused on Kennedy and Mason. Our first stop was the petting zoo. This isn't your typical zoo with a couple of farm animals. They had a longhorn, giraffe, camel, llama, emu, 4-horned goat, ostrich, a huge pig and adorable baby piglets, cows, and much more! Mason enjoyed feeding the smaller animals, and definitely liked seeing the larger ones, but kept a safe distance. We also headed over to the Kidway, which is the kids version of the Midway with games and rides. Mason went straight for the motorcycle ride, which is good because it was the only one he was tall enough to ride by himself. We caught a ride together in a race car and watched Kennedy go on a few rides with her mommy as well. After walking around for a bit the kids had a picnic lunch and enjoyed listening to stories and songs during Mother Goose Storytime.

It's a good thing the fair only comes once a year, because I'm not sure I could battle it more than that, but I do look forward to taking Mason again next year!

Big Tex

Looking at and feeding the animals

As you can tell, he was way more interested in looking at the animals than posing for a picture!

It breaks my heart to see how terrified he looks in the middle photo, but he really did enjoy the ride!

Listening to Mother Goose

See you next year, fair!

My Pumpkin at the Pumpkin Patch

This past Sunday we took Mason on our annual trip to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins for the season.  It's a smaller pumpkin patch that we really like at a nearby church, but we also plan to go to one of the big ones in a couple of weeks. Mason loved it, and was much harder to keep up with than he was last year before he could walk. It was so cute watching him pick out his favorites. This was the first of many Fall/Halloween activities we have planned for him so he has much more to look forward to!

He loved to run all around! Getting him to pose for us was near impossible.

Helping with the wheelbarrow

He picked out one with bites in it, then proceeded to try and take a bite himself! I love his little strut in the lower right pic.

Boo!

My fall pumpkin

He did NOT want to leave!!!

These are from the same patch last year. Check out those chubby legs and that toothless grin!