Finally... Fall!

Fall always feels like it is such a long time coming here in San Antonio but I think I can finally say that fall is here. We've done many of the fun things that come along with fall and the temperatures have actually dropped to pleasant numbers. We've even had a few nights in the 40's. Heavenly!

One of our first fall adventures was heading to a local "pumpkin patch" to pick out our perfect pumpkins. The kids loved to see all of the pumpkins and picked out size appropriate pumpkins for themselves. Sam's, of course was the biggest, Audrey's was next and Bens was just slightly smaller than Audrey's (very true to life). We also let Sam and Audrey pick out one little pumpkin each to take home and paint.

Next came Trunk-or-Treating in our church parking lot. It was a good trial run for the actual Trick-or-Treating that took place a few days later. Ben thoroughly enjoyed crawling through the kids candy afterward and helped himself to his very first Tootsie Roll.

Sam's school doesn't celebrate actual holidays but has a celebration of some sort in it's place. This year, instead of wearing their Halloween costumes to school, the first graders had an Egyptian celebration. Sam has loved learning all about the pyramids and the Pharoas during their Ancient Egypt unit so this was a lot of fun for him. He was excited about the costume that I made for him and looked pretty cute in it too. Sam's only dissapointment was that I told him I could not make an authentic King Tut headpiece. After his party he came home and told me, "Some people were just smart and bought a King Tut costume at the store." Sheesh!

The kids started asking when we were going to carve pumpkins as soon as October arrived. Unfortunately, we had to make them wait until it was almost Halloween. Because of the warmer temperatures here in the south, carved pumpkins rot at an alarmingly quick rate so, to be sure they were still fresh for Halloween, we waited until the night before for Sam's and Audrey's and the day of for Ben's. We tried to make it worth the wait and made some awesome pumpkins for them (if I do say so myself).

Finally, the night they had really been waiting for arrived. We got them all suited up and off we went. Ben trick-or-treated at only a house or two but Sam and Audrey were machines. Even with aching feet, Sam insisted that we keep going long after Keith and Ben headed for home. They ended up with more candy than they will ever eat and were so happy. Now the countdown to Christmas has begun!