Beginning of November

We took a walk on the beach the evening after the annual sand sculpture contest. Some of the sculptures were a bit washed away, but it was still cool to see.

On Anthony's last day of working Saturdays the local Kiwanis club had a fishing derby for kids. I was a little nervous to take the boys by myself since dealing with baiting the hooks and all that other fishy stuff is usually Anthony's thing but I decided to give it a try and do my best. We ended up having the best time! They must chum the water or something because I have never seen so many people catching so many fish! I was worried that the boys would get bored waiting to catch sometime but they never got a chance to be still. For two hours straight it was nonstop catching fish, taking it to the tables to be measured and then back to catching. At the end they had trophies in each age group for the most fish, the longest fish, and the smallest fish. James got pretty close to catching the most fish, only 3 behind the winner!

We got tickets to the circus and took the boys since we have never gone. It was a little bit of a let down and very small. They only had a few acts and charged a ridiculous amount of money for the elephant and camel rides before the show and during intermission, so we spent a lot of time telling the boys no when they asked to do things. The boys really loved the clowns the best and my favorite was the elephants.

Waiting for the show to begin:

Laughing at the clowns:

This lady was crazy! She did a handstand and then used her feet to shoot an arrow into a balloon!

For some reason these little frogs started showing up on the wire to the electric fence and on the wire holders. The first time I saw them there I was surprised that they could just sit on it and not get shocked, so I thought that maybe the fence was off. So I grabbed it to test it and it shocked me hard! Not smart :)

Cool caterpillar on Seabiscuit's fence:

James' school had their international night where each classroom decorates and has activities for a different country. You get a passport and go around collecting stamps from each room and learning about the country. Anthony didn't want to come, so I took the boys and we had a blast. We went around with one of James' friends from school, Ruby, and her mom. They loved all the photo booth areas!

James' classroom did Canada:

Australia:

Mexico:

This is the face he gave me when I told him to smile:

Scotland:

We were sitting watching TV together and I noticed James and Anthony holding hands. So sweet!

Eating a snack at the new picnic tables we bought for the backyard:

Saying hi to Seabiscuit:

Rett found this big branch and pretended to be a monster:

I was outside mowing the lawn one morning and when I came in I saw this at the pantry. Rett really wanted to eat some Vanilla Wafers that were at the very top shelf of the pantry, so he figured out a way to get them!

A friend came over to visit and took some beautiful pictures of the chickens and Seabiscuit:

Playing nerf guns:

I had this sign made for the outside of Seabiscuit's pen. Isn't it so cute??

Halloween Activities and Visiting the Fair

Since we have season passes, we decided to go to Boo at the Zoo. Now that Anthony has Saturdays off of work, he got to go with us and see the animals too. Rett's hair was so wild I asked him to let me put a headband in it. He liked it for a little while, but then he took it off.

Feeding the giraffes:

That night was our ward's trunk and treat. It was more laid back than it has been in previous years so we didn't have the hay ride and bouncy house that the boys have come to expect. Thankfully they still had the candy cannon that shoots candy in the air! James was ready to get some, but Rett was afraid of the noise so he put his basket over his head.

Then it was time for trunk or treating! I underestimated how many kids were going to be there and bought two boxes of fruit snacks to hand out at our trunk. They were gone in a flash! Thankfully everyone else still had tons of candy. I went around with Rett, but James ran off to go around the trunks with friends. I can't believe we are getting to that age already!!

Rett was a little scared of their decorations. Look at his face!!

One car had these cups for the kids to punch to get their candy. What a fun idea! I might need to steal that one for next year.

Our city has trick or treating on the actual day of Halloween, regardless of which day of the week it falls on so on the Tuesday of the real Halloween after I picked James up from school I took the boys to New Smyrna for the downtown trick or treating at the businesses. They were ready to fill their buckets!

One of the local police officers that was working the street let the kids dressed up as police officers sit on his motorcycle. It was heaven for James!!

We finished downtown around 5pm and as we were driving home I was telling the boys that we would eat dinner and then get ready for trick or treating around the neighborhood. From the backseat of the car they yelled, "Candy for dinner!!" :)

Anthony went with us this time for neighborhood trick or treating. He wore his work costume as Marty McFly from Back to the Future. I thought he did such a good job on it! We went up one street and down the other and the boys got so much candy their buckets were overflowing and they were too heavy for them to carry!! I think because there weren't very many kids on the street, every door just dumped handfuls into their buckets to get rid of it.

Then we got back in the car to drive down to the spooky street on our neighborhood. It was wild how busy that street was!! We had barely seen anyone all night, but when we got to this street you could barely walk there were so many people and cars. The decorations were too scary for Rett, so I stayed with him while Anthony and James checked them out.

Once we got home we had to evaluate the haul. They each got 5 pounds of candy! Now it is all in a bag in the pantry and they have forgotten all about it and I keep eating it. Not a good system! :)

A few days after Halloween, the fair came to town. The first day is always free admission day, so that is the day to go!

Checking out the tractors:

We spent a lot of time in the 4H judging area seeing all the different kinds of chickens, turkeys, and rabbits that kids entered into the fair. After looking at all of the chickens, I kept thinking that ours were prettier than the ones there so I think we are going to try to have James enter a chicken in the competition next year. How fun would that be?

After the boys put up with us looking around at everything, they were ready for the rides! They wanted to ride everything a million times, especially this race car ride. Rett could have ridden this one nonstop the entire time and been completely happy. This is him giving us a thumbs up (he just puts his first finger up)

Bumper boats:

James ran into his very best friend from school, Harmony. He loves that girl so much! He talks about her all the time. When we were talking to her family, we said that our son was James and they went, "Oh!! That is James? We hear about James ALL the time!" They were so happy to get to ride the rides together. Look at her face!! So adorable.

While the bigger kids rode a ride that Rett was too short for, Rett decided to play "dead" while Anthony was holding him. Such a goofball!