What?!? Halloween is NOT 10/30

I am trying to understand...really, I am. Local politicians, for whatever reason, love to change the day Halloween is celebrated by trick-or-treating to a day "convenient" for, for, for.... I have NO idea who. Come on. The act of trick-or-treating lasts approximately two hours-- 6-8ish...Anyway, at the last minute, I realized High Springs decided 10/30/10 was trick-or-treat night. Normally, I like to go against the "rules," but tonight I gave in... and tomorrow night I will revolt and trick-or-treat all over again... Take a stand, folks!

Dragging the boys across town into the "historic district"

Complete with snacks. Noah refusing to wear his ears. Officially he is a baby with a black nose dressed in brown clothes...

...telling McKinnely a secret.

At least some of the folks got the memo.

Gavin was so proud of his hard-earned candy. He examined his bag every few feet, "Look at all those suckers!" Most of these homes were very well decorated with large spiders (poor Gavin, I think he has a new found phobia), tombstones, lights, and scary sounds. And the candy! Good, good, candy-- Kit Kats, Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, Almond Joy, M&Ms, oh be still my heart!

Look for round two...

Puppies!

My little puppies! Yes, I am dedicating one whole post to these cutie pie puppies.

Noah refuses to wear his ears and he rubs his little nose off every chance he gets...

Gavin, on the flip side, stays in character. He will not respond unless you call him "Clifford" or "little puppy." Also, he barks-- nonstop. And growls.

Sweet, little puppies

Jack... as in Jack-O-Lantern

We know better than to carve the pumpkin earlier than the week before Halloween... we know because we swim in humidity from late April to mid November. Humidity = rotten carved gourd. This time we outdid ourselves... our pumpkin was rotten before we carved it. Surely a little bit of mold was NOT going to stop this creation (and we didn't know it was rotten until we cut the top off...)

The rot. I was really looking forward to letting the boys play with pumpkin guts. Not this year. Instead, Daddy will do the honors.

Gavin was our creative designer for the pumpkin face. He drew his interpretation of a jack-o-lantern on a piece of paper (inside a circle I drew; top left picture) and handed it to his Daddy to replicate on the pumpkin.

P.S. Gavin is wearing his unfinished puppy dog ears during this creative endeavor...

Noah, on the other hand, is harrassing the cat (I guess his way of practicing his puppy role) and exploring...

Hello, Jack.

Ag Expo in Moultrie

Field trip!!! Pop, Gavin and Myself ventured into Georgia for the Ag Expo. Everything agriculture all in one, big open field.... This is not for the faint of heart. We saw everything from log splitters, to livestock, to stocked ponds, and tractors, tractors, tractors!

Ice cream...homemade... blueberry and vanilla... at 10 am...Gavin also ate fried peanut butter sandwhiches, boiled peanuts, roasted peanuts, ice cream sandwiches, a bite of catfish, and a pulled pork sandwhich.

After walking around for hours, we happened upon John Deere Land-- no, this is even better than that-- John Deere Universe. And yes, we sat and tried to steer every tractor. And we bought out the toy booth. Thank you Pop for the next year's worth supply of tractors. Noah will not be empty handed-- Pop has decided that Noah will be a collector of red tractors. So Pop bought him a Case tractor. I was also informed that Noah will be a fan of Massey Ferguson as well...

Does anyone else out there have a love for walking sticks? My whole life, I have always known a walking stick is more of a necessity than shoes. This man taught me that and it looks like that lesson may have just been passed down. These sticks were being given out by the Fellowship of Christian Farmers. A leather strap strung with beads (gold, black, red, white, and green) symbolizes the story of Christ.

Sorry, back to the Deeres...

What a great, great trip we had! I think all three of us really enjoyed this. Pop was a huge influence in my love of the outdoors, my country-fied-ness. He indulged me in my love of horses (lots of money and time later, I still get knobbied knees around those animals) and ventures into agriculture (sorry about that Seed Savers shenanigans; but you know, this goat meat business will end up being a GREAT idea, I know it!) And now Gavin and his John Deere thing... Not to mention the future brainwashing of sweet, little, No-No...

Happy First Birthday, Noah!

CAKE!

Mr. Noah loves cake. So he decided to wear his at his birthday party. Yup, he had his very own dinosaur cake. And we let him sit in it. Don't say we never give in.

Gifts, Grilling, and Chillin'

We had a roarin' party for Noah's first birthday! With a Dinosaur theme and a bevy of kids (Birthday boy Noah, Gavin, Dylan, Tyler, Ryan, Phoebe, and Aurora), good times were waiting! Bronto burgers, t-rex dogs, and tons of sides were on the menu. Followed by a snappy birthday song and a slice of our friendly dinosaur cake (see prior post). Presents were opened- THANK YOU to everyone for the abundance of gifts!!! We had a great time and appreciate all our wonderful family and friends!