Halloween 2013

We had two Iron Men this year: Iron Patriot (Wesley) and Mark 42 (Curtis).
We went to our church's Trunk or Treat and then went back to our neighborhood to do some trick-or-treating. Wesley requested that we visit some houses this year since last year we only did Trunk or Treat.

Trunk or Treat

Mr. Gene - children's pastor

Good friends - Bethany and Joshua

The youth had a 'pick the nose' booth.
One nostril gave you candy, the other
one gave you snot. Yuck.

Curtis loved this one that had a blue sand tub.

Eli and Wesley

Trick-or-Treating

Our sweet neighbor

Our neighbor and Curtis' good friend, Logan (aka Superman)

Showing off their loot before going home

When we got home, Wesley and Curtis passed out some candy to some straggling trick-or-treaters. They LOVED it! They were both sitting outside our house yelling, "Get your candy over here!" We kept telling them they may be scaring off some kids, but they kept at it. All during the bedtime routine, Wesley kept telling me how much he loved getting to pass out candy to other kids. When I was sitting with Wesley after he got in bed that night, he looked me in the eye and said, "Mom, I am just so happy I got to pass out candy to all those kids. Thank you SO much for letting me pass it out." Sweet boy.

MADD Walk and Painting Pumpkins

Our whole family participated in the MADD walk to honor our friend Brian Jennings (BJ) who was killed in a drunk driver accident this summer. There were over 150 of his friends there to help raise money and awareness for MADD, plus walkers for many others who have been killed. 

We all wore safety orange "Team BJ" shirts

Joshua and Wesley

I walked with Jordan, Bethany and Joshua

Cute kiddos waiting to get their identity cards and
fingerprints done by the police dept.

Our annual pumpkin painting. Wesley also painted "Moon Bear" to submit to his school's Pumpkin Character Painting Contest.

Eliel and Field Trip to Dallas Arboretum

First of all, I want to share a picture of our new nephew, Eliel Birch who was born September 24th. I still haven't met him, and I'm sure he looks a lot different than this by now! I think this was around 3 weeks old?

In October, I got to accompany Wesley's first grade class on a trip to the Dallas Arboretum. It was a beautiful day for a field trip - nice and sunny, but cool. We ate our sack lunches soon after arriving since they are used to eating lunch at 10:50 am! Then we headed to the "Habitats" area where a guide taught us all about different habitats and took us on a tour to explore different ones. 

We got to climb a (fake) tree by going up a staircase inside the trunk, and then the kids got to pretend they were running around in the branches by going out on this huge bouncy netting. They loved it of course.

 Then we just walked around and came upon a tornado tunnel. Each kid got to experience a simulated tornado, which I am confident was much more fun than a real one.

And we also visited an energy center where the kids got to learn about different sources of energy. Here Wesley is learning how to channel water to go different ways. There were also solar and wind energy stations.

Wesley and his best buddy loved making water cyclones at this center.

Poor Wesley having to squint due to my poor placement for a photo, but he got a kick out of these huge pumpkins at the entrance before getting back on the bus. 

*Sidenote: On a different field trip at the end of October which I did not get to attend, Wesley and his buddy, Grant, fell asleep on the bus on each other on the way back to school. :)