A Fall Blog...

As we were outside tonight taking down the Halloween decorations, Tom commented to me that it was actually starting to feel like fall here in Houma, so I decided it was finally time to sit down and create my fall blog. Fall is my favorite season, or at least it was when I lived in a state that actually had the four seasons! Here in Houma we don't get a real fall. Sure, the leaves fall off some of the trees, but you don't get that glorious burst of color that you do up north. And there just isn't that crispness in the evenings that I love. I also find it rather strange to be raking leaves when it is in the mid nineties...oh, well! This picture of Binkey (Natalie) was taken on one of the first nights that we raked leaves back in mid-September. She really liked the idea behind leaf jumping, especially being buried in them!

I had to include this picture of William because I was blown away by how high he could actually jump! Knowing that Tom can't get too high off the ground, I think I finally get to claim these genes as mine. He is my son!

There are about 20 more pictures just like this on my camera, but I'll just include this last one. He just loved jumping in the leaves and posing for the camera!

Mid-October we went to the local pumpkin patch for our Family Home Evening activity. The kids loved walking through all the pumpkin clusters until they found the perfect pumpkin. Of course they wanted to rush home and start carving the pumpkins, but we just can't do that here! I swear when we lived in Ohio we could have carved pumpkins in September and they would have lasted till Halloween because of the cool weather. Can't do that here! We ended up carving them on the Sunday night before Halloween. They barely made it...

Here are the four jack-o-lanterns in all their glowing splendor! From left to right: Christa's, Natalie's, William's, and Tom's.

The Saturday before Halloween we attended a charity event held at the New Orleans Zoo called "Boo at the Zoo." It benefits the local children's hospital. We had to buy our tickets back in August because this is such a popular event here. They open the zoo in the evening with all sorts of Halloween activities. There was a non-scary haunted house, all sorts of little activity booths, big bounce houses, a trick-or-treating alley, and a haunted train ride. The kids (and adults) had such a blast! William and Natalie have completely fallen in love with Peter Pan, so naturally our costumes reflected that. William was, of course, Peter Pan. Tom was his Captain Hook. Natalie was Tinkerbell, and I was Wendy. It was the first time in the history of our marriage that Tom didn't dress as a World War II soldier. I was very excited! It was fun for all of us to be in costume together!

Just another of us all in costume together!

On Halloween night, I stayed home and handed out candy to all the local trick-or-treaters and Tom took the kids around a few blocks. He was such a good sport, he even dressed up again! One interesting thing here in Houma; on Halloween, kids only go to houses where people sit outside in their driveways. Last year, I didn't know this. I had purchased all this candy and the kids and I waited to hand it all out in our living room. No one rang our doorbell, even though all the outside lights were on. I just couldn't figure it out! The next day, stuck with loads of candy, I asked my neighbor what I did wrong. She pointed out that I needed to be outside. Lesson learned!

Such a beautiful little fairy! What a fun "Fall!"