Trick or Treat

Rainy and cold and we braved it all for candy!:) That's pretty much the kind of weather you can expect around here on Halloween! But, it was our first year trick or treating with the kids and we went with friends which makes for a good time!:) We trick or treated downtown where all the area businesses hand out candy. We saw tons of people we know and had a great time!

My little animals - Caedmon a dog and Carys a cat.
(Caedmon did NOT like the hood of his costume!:/)
(Notice how they make baby costumes like snowsuits around here?)

The firefighters handed out candy -
you walked in the truck on one side and walked out on the other.
Pretty neat!

Mikki and her boys, Josh on her shoulders and Bryce next to her.

One of the area churches had carved pumpkins and
had them out for people to vote on the one they liked best.

Miss Sam and Miss Carys

We met up with more friends at the church

Corey didn't trick or treat with us
because he was passing out candy at the church.
Well, passing out candy and playing!:)

The paramedics handed out glow bracelets

I think he thinks the dog is chasing him!:)
The ice cream shop hands out ice cream cones! Mmmm!
Although, a little cold for ice cream!

We had a great time, but were glad to be headed to dry and warm places!:)

Rubber Ducky Festival

This is the morning of the festival. They had games with prizes for the children. Caedmon enjoyed throwing balls and bean bags!

I didn't get any pics of the parade later that day or of the front loader dumping 2000 rubber duckies into the river. Sad to say, Caedmon and Carys' ducks did not win the race.

Music Night Downtown

On Wednesday nights, the town shuts down a side street and brings in a local band. I've really enjoyed going and Caedmon has a good time running around with his little friends. I love small towns and community events!

Spring Round Up

One of the members of our church owns a horse ranch and we had a community event out there a couple weeks ago. We were really excited to have quite a few families with young kids show up! The kids got to ride a horse, enjoy a rock collecting contest (kids will do anything if you make it a contest with prizes!:)), and food of course! We had a great time meeting those in our community and enjoying the beautiful day!

A tractor ride with dada

Looking at the fish in the pond

Collecting rocks...or something!:)

Becoming a Part of the Community

Every year, the town of Bellaire hosts a Scarecrow Festival and the area businesses that belong to the Chamber of Commerce make scarecrows that represent what they do and set them outside their business. Then during the festival there is judging and a winner is picked. A news channel even does a story on them! Yes, that's the kind of thing we do up here for fun!:)

So when Corey let me know that we were asked to make a scarecrow, I thought, how in the world am I going to do that?! But I found some help and we at least made an effort!:)

Our theme was basically "Jesus loves the little children," with a verse from the Gospels about letting the children come to Him because the kingdom belongs to people like them.

A Week Up North

Last week was long, but fun and rewarding! Caedmon and I went up north with Corey for the week. We had a missions team from Alabama coming for the week and doing VBS for our church and I was involved with VBS.

We left our house Sunday morning (July 6) early so as to make it to church up north by 11a.m. We spent the week living out of two places - some friends of ours graciously opened their house to us yet again, and the church basement was our second home for the week. It was crazy living out of two places, neither one being home. Caedmon did well for the most part. About halfway through the week, he became weary of 15 different people who were NOT mom and dad wanting to hold him and get his attention. He was well loved that's for sure!:)

We had a max of 4 children show up for VBS; 0 the first day. I suppose in our standards, we were unsuccessful, but our standards are not God's. In advertising VBS, word got out across the whole town that our church is starting back up again and ready to serve the community. And I believe those children that came are the families God wants us to touch. We had a great time with them, and they received lots of attention!

Friday ended with a block party, which included a huge blow up slide, popcorn, sno cones, and cotton candy, free to all! We probably had about 30 kids at this event. Again, small, but numbers aren't so important as loving well those that cross our path! We cleaned up and headed back down state, getting home around 11:30p.m. What a whirlwind of a week!

I'm excited to get moved up there and begin serving the community in whatever way God has for me!

Improvising, since I'd forgotten his high chair at the church the night before.

Mommy having fun taking pictures while waiting for Dada to pick us up.:)

Taking a break from the slide to watch puppets and dramas.

Kid at heart.:)