Monday, December 8, 2008

Halloween 2008

Tyler's googlie mooglie eyes. He walked around Halloween night saying, "Hulk Smash! " (in a cute-trying-to-be-tough voice.)
Ivan and I are feeling like pumpkins lately, so we went with the costume idea. Kaylee said she didn't want to break her tradition of being a princess every year so she wanted to be "Kaylee, the Snow Princess." (quite unique eh?) Jayden was obsessed with his friend's darth vador costume which became very difficult to run door to door in, so he dropped off the head part of the costume at our home and went as the reformed Vador. Tyler wanted to wear his "muscle costume," the incredible hulk and just munch down candy. It was fun being together and then ending the night at the Johnson's who go all out to make it special for the kiddos. It was a sugar-filled fun day.
Our precious little pumpkin....Ashlyn-o-lantern...who started the Jack thing anyway.
The happy chubby trio. We gained weight this year and loved every minute of it!
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The Oil Ranch

For our first field trip for our combined home preschool, we decided to go to the Oil Ranch, a kid-friendly farm for their learning. It was mid-October and little 3-year old Tyler loved it. He got to go on a hay ride, really milk a cow, take a train ride around the ranch, and ride a horse.

When he milked the cow we saw how much milk comes out in one squirt. It was quite a bit! Tyler got out of the way just in time as the cow let a pattie go on the next two boys and it splattered all over their clothes. That was a close one!









Tyler, of course, loved the "choo-choo train." I thought it was cute that he wanted to wave hello and good-bye everytime the train went by.
Tyler enjoyed clomping around the pasture on "his" horse. As he rounded the corner he put a pretent lasso over his head and said, "Yee-ha Texas, here I come!" It was funny. He likes to lasso stuff at home, too, with the vacuum cord. Maybe he'll be good at steer wrestling someday; or maybe just good at vacuuming.
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The Hay Ride and Pumpkin Patch


This hay ride at the Oil Ranch gave us a true sense of what it means to feed cattle. We all load up in a tractor and it pulls us right out into the cow's pasture. The driver turns off his engine and all the cows come-a-racin' to put their entire head in to see how much food they can lick up. Tyler got a big cow tongue slurp all over his hand and he said, "He got me, mama!" We were definitely close to nature on that one!
It was also fun to climb to the top of this huge pile of hay and then run down it. This is Tyler showing me his "big muscles."
At the end of the day, we each got to pick out a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. Tyler wanted to take one home to Jayden and Kaylee too, so we worked it out that we could. I thought that was thoughtful of him! We loaded them up and painted little faces on them for family home evening that night. Kaylee named hers Hannah and took it to school the next day in her backpack. It was a fun little day!
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The Aqaurium


Jayden, our new deep-sea diver! We all had fun hanging out at the aqarium. The kids got to watch a shark eat his lunch, touch a friendly sting ray, and even see their first Bengal white tiger. It was a great escape. (Sept.23, 08)

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Play Time at the Aqaurium

The boys especially loved the "choo-choo" ride around the park.
The kids had fun choosing their favorite ocean buddy to ride on. The merry-go-round ended up being one of the highlights...they just chouldn't get enough of it.
Tyler stayed loyal to his very most favorite alligator. He ran to it and rode it everytime! (At least 5 or 6 times).
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Fun at the Aqaurium

Since we were all off work and school from Hurrican Ike, we were able celebrate Ivan's birthday this past September by visiting "The Aquarium" downtown. It was a very enjoyable day full of fun things for the children.
Ashlyn is saying...
"Shhhhh...you'll scare the fish." (4 months)


This is when the tiger is feeling relaxed. Later in the day, we took his food away and this picture shows when he got mad at us...











We barely escaped this one...thanks to Ivan's amazing tiger-fighting skills. He only got a few flesh wounds and bruises. Posted by Picasa