Happy Halloween 2014!

 Christian was an awesome minion from Despicable Me :)

Here he is with the other minions from his ortho residency!

 Our friends little girls were so adorable!  A cheerleader and a bumble-bee!
In case you're wondering, Austin lost his front tooth while sword fighting with pool noodles on the bed.  He lunged forward and ate it on the foot of the bed.  After cleaning it up, he said, "I wanted Daddy to take out my tooth, not the bed!"  The tooth fairy came and left a $2 bill under his pillow (it's what she had on hand thanks to Great Grandma and Grandpa Tengelsen!).  He, however, was not interested in the money.  He just wanted his tooth back!  He told his teacher that his parents put the money under his pillow--how he figured that out is news to me!  So much for being sneaky!

Here are our yummy mummies!  We started running out of wrappings by the end!  The boys had a blast making these! (These make me laugh because the first two times we ever had them, we had our friends the Luffs over--I think I burned them both times! Thanks for eating with us anyway!)

And we had a blast sharing them with friends!  Notice the flowers and pumpkins in the background?  We got them for free at the farmer's market!  The nice farmer just started loading up my car with them!  When I told him I didn't pay for them he said, "I know.  I'm just done!"  After that he took off!  It was awesome!

Here's our pirate friends! (We shared Christmas with them last year!)

 

Our Superhero friends (We shared Thanksgiving with them last year!  She brought the fun plates and napkins!  The kids loved them!  Sometimes I think it's the details that make such a difference to a kid!)

A UK Wildcat--he is so cute! And sadly we missed pictures of some of our other dear friends who came!  We love them all!

 Here we are just before sending the boys out to get some candy!

 Neal aka batman had to stay home with me and hand out candy! (One of my other dear friends and her baby stayed to man the fort as well!  It was so fun!)

 It was surprisingly cold, but gorgeous outside!  The city has a two hour time limit for trick-or-treating so they had to run!

Thank you to Crystal (my friend from San Antonio) who was the first to introduce us to yummy mummies!  What a fun tradition!

 Here they go!  The first half hour of trick or treating has got to be one of my favorite times!  The kids are just so stinkin' cute and excited!

 It got so cold, one boy came and knocked on the door with his head, since his hands couldn't do it anymore!

As usual, these boys were pretty thrilled!  Happy Halloween!

 

Grandma in Kentucky!

We were so lucky to have Grandma Francis come and visit us in Kentucky this year!  It was seriously one of the best vacations I've had!  She was the perfect guest and we all just love her!

She found these awesome knight and fighter pilot costumes at goodwill and brought them for us.  The boys were so excited!  She also brought two more superman suits just in case they'd prefer to be that again (year three for Tyson!!)

She was so fun to play right with the boys!  She fixed up the frog tent and she and Neal are attacking the older boys with dinosaurs!

We went to feed the ducks (and non-existent koi!)

She is so much fun to be around!

Tyson helping Neal get some fish/duck food!

Austin cheesing fro the camera!

I love him!

Tyson and Grandma inside!

We played games...

We went to see Keeneland and meet the horses!  The people here are so nice!

We went to several (and I mean several) parks!

Grandma played right along with us!

 

She and Austin found this sweet preying mantis on one of their walks and took the time to stop and pick it up!  That's one sweet thing about Grandma, is she always takes the time to enjoy being present.  It's refreshing!

Austin and me coming down a slide!

We went and hiked up to the Natural Bridge and it was gorgeous!

Just look at that!

Grandma found a leaf as big as Austin's head!

My two big boys!

Playing on a rock

Cool formations!

Tyson and his daddy.  He is just like him and he loves him (and vice versa!)

Hiking on the trail!

We made it to the top!  Tyson had just sneezed right before this picture was taken!

It's gorgeous!

Austin fit in this tree!

Look at this awesome leaf I found!

The colors are so vibrant and beautiful!  Sandra is quite the photographer!

Christian was doing pull ups along the trail!  I guess the hike was too easy for him!

Balanced rock--or something like that!

Greenery!

We went to this awesome pizza place (Miguel's) after our hike and it was so yummy and fun! Super down-to-earth and delicious!  You could put ANYthing you wanted on your pizza (or noodles or beans).  It was seriously awesome!

This is perhaps one of my favorite pictures of all time!

The kids played basketball while we waited for our food!

Sandra was so thoughtful and kind and helped us with all sorts of projects around the house.  Here she is helping Austin to fix the blinds :)

We went to Boyd's orchards to play and because it was raining, we got in for free!  Sandra got this hat and these boots for Austin and he was so cute in them!

Neal and the pumpkins!

Our three boys!

Neal and Christian coming down the slide!  I love that he's always happy to play with them!

Christian and Sandy!

Christian and his mom racing to the top! The hay bales were covered due to the rain but that's why it was free! (It rained almost every day Sandra was here but it is usually quite sunny!)

We went to see the animals and Austin started chasing a chicken.  It sliced his finger and stomped all over his feet.  Luckily, he didn't even cry, but I was horrified.  We left directly!

Christian was able to get this moving shot of Neal in a car swing!  Way to go!

We got apple-cider donuts to eat when we got home with our hot chocolate and it was divine!  I can still taste their goodness!

We went to see the capitol building and the governor's mansion in Frankfort.  It was beautiful!

We found all sorts of treasures there!

Austin climbing up to see this giant floral clock :)

Christian couldn't help but take this picture of this awesome Mohawk!  He was pretending to want one of the red-tailed hawk :)  Nice one!

We went to Salato Wildlife Preserve and it was so cool!  There were buffalo (one fighting with an elk), deer, bear, bobcats, and all sorts of interactive exhibits.  We all had a blast.  We also made rolo sandwiches, and played games, and just enjoyed being together.  After ten days, I was so sad to see Sandra go!  She is welcome back anytime for any amount of time!  We love you!