Tubin' in January

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Halloween

Well, it's that time of year again. "What do you want to be?" "Can you just find something around the house to wear?" "We just went to Disney World, do you think you could wear some of that pirate stuff we bought and lugged back on the airplane?"

Ah, success. Happiness was had by all. Hayden made the perfect sleepy teenager, Ally did her best Peter Pan (5 stars to her for using last year's Robin Hood costume I so cleverly created) and Caleb and Joshua made many walk the plank with their pirate getup.

Snow day.

Well, we waited, and waited, and waited until we couldn't wait any longer. We had to get out in the snow even if it was only 1/4 of an inch. Thankfully the trampoline, slide and Trooper had enough snow to make some pretty good snowballs. The boys and I had a pretty good strategy of me distracting the girls and them stealing their snowballs.

We moved out front to make some driveway snow angels and a snow person. Thankfully we were able to "borrow" some of our neighbor's snow or he would have been a very vertically challenged little guy.

Leaves and lights.

Ben was home Friday so I enlisted him and the boys in "Operation Leaf Cleanup". The boys had the best 2 jobs: jump in my nice, neat piles of leaves and drive the bags to the road. Ben worked really hard and I treated him to lunch: pizza and hotdogs at Sams.

Later that evening, we attempted the Botanical Gardens' Member Walk Thru Galaxy of Lights. If you recall, we made an attempt 2 years ago and failed. We didn't even try it last year. This year we managed to drag it out from start to almost close, watch Nina out sprint other families to get a wagon, witness DRS's continued theme for the year(ask Ben), enjoy hot chocolate and snicker-doodle cookies, listen to complaints about walking, wait in line for 20 minutes for 1 of 4 to sit in Santa's lap and continue our healthy lifestyle with fast food at 9 o'clock at night.

Wouldn't you consider it a success?

I found this great stick.

I really don't like Halloween . . . except for the challenge of making costumes. Ally was my big project this year. She was inspired by a fabulous stick she found in our yard. "It would make the perfect bow!" she said repeatedly. Who else needs a bow, except Robin Hood. Ever noticed the costumes for Robin Hood? Yep, hard to come by unless your setting your daughter up for strip tease work in the future. I was ready for the challenge. In just 1 short week(thanks Ben), 1 XL men's green sweatshirt, brown tights, brown belt, felt hat and feather, and one purchased bow and arrow transformed into the cutest little Robin Hood. Are you wondering where the perfect stick for her bow went? I have no clue.

Hayden was very cute too. She has a book report and Colonial Christmas coming up. We searched high and low for either a Sacajawea or Colonial outfit. Sacajawea it was.

The boys have been saying they wanted to be policemen. I was a little concerned they really wanted superman or spiderman. But, they always came back to policemen. My favorite Halloween costume store just happened to be sold out of our pick. Luckily(for Ben), Toys R Us had 2 Imaginarium dress up policeman. Saved $10 and they will probably last longer. I do need to show them the benefit of having handcuffs and sisters.

Annual trip to Tate Farms.

We almost didn't make it. Between Ben's trips out of town and the rain, Tate Farms just about missed out on us. We had a great time until the end. Tempers flared and our photo at the pumpkin house is minus one kid.

Aren't you sorry you didn't go with us?

Of course, a funny. We had finally arrived at the point where we needed to go and pick our pumpkins. We loaded in the wagon with a couple other "groups" and headed out to the fields. Once there, we all unloaded, wondered around looking for the most challenging pumpkins for Ben to carve and loaded back up. On our ride back, a worker from Tate Farms stopped us and asked if "Henry" was on our wagon. We all looked around and said no. This lady on the end of the wagon looked at Ben and asked if that little boy sitting next to him was his. Nope. It was Henry.

See, we really don't notice any additional kids thrown in the mix.

Halloween Decorations

Not too much excitement on day 2 of Fall Break. I spent the morning picking up, the boys ran around the house and occasionally bugged their sisters and the girls locked themselves in their bedrooms playing barbies.

We met Nina for lunch at the smallest sandwich shop in Huntsville, or at least it felt that way with my group. I did have a man allow me to grab two plastic fireman hats if I promised to wear them. Unfortunately, I wasn't much in the mood to fulfill fantasies today so he didn't get his "show". Nina escaped from us and we headed to Target. Three bags of candy, 3 different kinds of vitamins, 2 trips to the potty, 2 boxes of the beloved muffin tops, 1 trip through the Halloween costume aisle and 1 run-over foot later, we left.

We did notice a little Halloween decoration today. Last week we had a beautiful spider web in front of the house. I never saw the spider, but the web was really a look into the wonders of God's creatures. Today there was another web on the basketball goal. Amazing. Hayden spotted the spider and it was HUGE. I've heard it said that nice web, nice spider, ugly web, ugly spider. It was a nice web so I figured the spider would be nice and let me take it's picture. It must be related to my children. I got the shot all ready and it ran away. After tripping over myself and breaking apart it's web, I did get a picture. Just not a very good one.

We ended the night with a big bang: Spencer's 13th birthday. Happy Birthday and let me know when you want to go to Claire's . . . I'm paying!

Dashing through the garden between raindrops.

Fall break day one. Everyone was playing nicely when I decided to stir it up. The rain had stopped and I thought it was in the family's best interest to get some fresh air. Pack it up, let's move, let's move. Off to the Botanical Gardens for the scarecrow trail. We had 1 hour and 45 minutes until swim practice. No lingering at the scarecrows and stay out of the wet grass. Everybody smile and no complaining. Now, have fun. I must say it was a fun trip. The kids enjoyed finding the scarecrows and I was successful at getting some pictures. I was able to motivate the kids to navigate the corn maze in record time. On the way in to the gardens, Hayden was commenting on the desserts the cafe was serving. While I was waiting (forever) for Ally to come out of the bathroom and Hayden had the boys at the train, I snuck into the cafe and bought a piece of chocolate caramel pecan cake and a coke. When we got to the maze I told the kids that when I said go, they should start the maze and I would start eating the cake. If they made it out quickly, they might get a bite, if not, well too bad for them. I only got one bite.

I know, too much information.

Oh, how I love car rider line. And to think I get to do it twice each day; first to get Ally and then to get Hayden. The peace, and quiet all around. Reading, catching up on paperwork and chatting with friends on cell phones. Laying your head back and resting for a few minutes. Yeah right. Not in the Goode van. Always something going on. "I need a snack. " "I need a drink" "Roll down my window" "Go, Mommy, Go" "Caleb hit me" "Joshua hit me" "Do you care if I hang upside down?" "QUIT KICKING MY CHAIR" "Why do I have to study my spelling words, I already know them" "Did you bring me a snack?" and my all time favorite: "Mom, he's really got to go" Well thanks to my drinking habit, Diet Coke that is, I now have a solution . . . for at least 2/3's of the riders. I'm guessing this will be a fun "activity" for the car rider line for at least the next few days.

At least we aren't dropping our pants at the first sign of grass!

Ally

Well, Ally had a big couple of days.  First, she graduated kindergarten yesterday.  She's officially a first grader now.  Mrs. Thomas was a great teacher for Ally, and Ally really excelled this year.  She has such an out-going personality that other kids and adults go out of their way to speak to her.  It's fun to watch a six year old work a crowd like a politician one minute and be oblivious to everyone the next.

Next, Ally's team won

 their first T-ball game tonight!!!!!  They waited until the first round of the single elimination tournament to put it together.  Ally scored a big run in the 3rd inning that kept the team in the game.  With two outs and five runs in (there is a six run per inning mercy rule) Ally was on third base.  When the ball was hit, she ran home "super-fast" and barely beat the tag at home plate.  It was so close that Ally got knocked down and bloodied her elbow.  They proceeded to pull out the win in the next inning.  We were so proud of Ally for her hustle.