Trick-or-Treating Fun!

Today was a great day for us here. This is the first year that Dane has really started to understand the concept of Trick-or-Treating. I was a little concerned at first because we had bought white tights to go under Dane's costume. I was a little afraid that I might be scarring him for life, since, as I was putting them on him, he started crying, "No thanks, Mom! No thanks!" Lately, when he gets upset or embarrassed, he runs to the corner of the dining room and sulks, and that is what he did after I got his costume on. However, he started coming around to the idea of it once I showed him how he will get candy in his basket. So, no harm done, I don't think!

From 3:30 to 5:30, all of the merchants in downtown Kilgore passed out candy to the kids. They blocked off most of the downtown streets, and there was a huge turnout from the town. We met our friends Holly and her daughter Winter, so that Dane and Winter could walk around together. They both went as M&M's, Winter as the green dark chocolate one, and Dane as the blue almond one. They were really cute together. One of the highlights of our experience there was getting candy from the biker dudes at the motorcycle shop. Dane really liked that, especially when he saw a motorcycle parked on the sidewalk. He walked away making motorcycle noises! Then, later on, upon spotting one of many Spiderman costumes, he screamed, "Mom, I found Spiderman! I found Spiderman!" I think he really liked seeing all of the different costumes.

After we got tired of waiting in line and walking around downtown, we took the kids to McDonald's for a quick supper. As we got out of the car, Dane exclaimed that he needed to get his basket out. I had to explain that we weren't there for candy, just dinner. So, I guess he was beginning to get the idea of trick-or-treating.

Then, from 5:30-6:45, our church did a Trunk-or-Treat out on the front lawn and parking lot. The neighborhood that our church is in literally draws hundreds and hundreds of kids, so we thought it would be a good way to reach out to everybody. We had a lot of people participate, and we all had a great time!

After our evening service and Bible class, we headed over across the street to the home of one of our church members, who hosts a Halloween party every year.

So, once everything was all said and done, Dane and I had been trick-or-treating and partying for basically 4 hours, if you subtract the hour spent at church. We had a great time together, and it really brought back a lot of fun memories from when I was a little girl!

Dane's 2nd Birthday Party!

Well, it's very hard to believe that it's already time to have another birthday party for Dane! His birthday is not actually until Thursday, the 25th, but it was most convenient for us to have his party this past Saturday. There was no question that Dane wanted a Cars themed party. I had taken him to the party supply store a few weeks back, and he saw the Cars stuff and said, "Mater!!!". That's one of the characters in the movie that he loves, so I knew it would be a hit!

We had a lot of people from church as well as some of our family come, and we had fun and opened presents and ate cake and ice cream and then ate stuffed baked potatoes, and then played with all of the presents Dane got for a while. I will say this...a 2 year old party is a whole lot livelier than a 1 year old party, but it was lots and lots of fun, too!

Here are some pictures from our fun day...

Dane made sure that he had on proper headgear for opening presents! He insisted on wearing his bike helmet for a lot of the party.

Trying to pry open the packaging to this car! He told me, "Mom, I need scissors!" For some reason, that's a new and often request with him lately. Not sure where he learned about scissors - I guess Sunday school?

Nana & Pa Pa came through big-time with this full A&M football uniform, complete with helmet, shoulder pads, jersey and pants! Dane immediately switched over to wear his new helmet, shoulder pads and jersey for the remainder of the party.

As usual, my mom went above and beyond on the birthday cake. Thanks for the great cake, Granna!

Growing up, it never occurred to me to ask if I could blow out the birthday candles over and over again. For some reason, I thought we should keep on relighting the candle to let Dane get the hang of it. It was lots of fun. I think I blew it out the first time, then Lane the second time, and the third time, Dane really blew it out all on his own! That was really exciting!

Enjoying eating some good cake and ice cream!

Just some weird shots from a weird boy!

The last few weeks, Dane has come up with some very interesting outfits all on his own. While we were watching the Texas A&M/Oklahoma State football game, he came in wearing his own version of shoulder pads. He figured out where Lane's underwear drawer is, and he takes about 10 pairs of underwear and wears them over his head on his shoulders, and then runs around with a football. I think it's the weirdest thing I've seen him do yet! Thankfully, he only uses clean underwear. I usually try to keep all of the dirty laundry picked up anyway, but this new uniform development has really made that one of my top housecleaning priorities!

I'm not too sure, but I think he uses this basketball basket as a helmet. It is a cushiony basket, so I guess it's a pretty good choice for a makeshift helmet. As you can see, it is useful to help his mom clean the sidetables as well as to ride his 4-wheeler!

What do you think - I probably need to get this little guy a football helmet and shoulder pads, huh?

1st Annual Pa & Granna Campout

It's been a while since I posted, so I've got quite a lot to catch up on. We've been really busy around here. A few weeks back, Dane, me and Robyn and her three kids all met at Mama & Daddy's house for the 1st Annual Bowers Cousins Cookout & Campout! Daddy built a fire out back to roast hotdogs and marshmallows. He set up their tent about 2 feet from the back door. Honestly, I really doubted that the kids would want to stay in the tent for very long, but they surprised us all. We had lots of fun hanging out by the campfire, and we even sang the "Weinie Man" song from Camp Deer Run before we cooked the hotdogs. As you can see from the pictures, the kids mainly filled up on the cold hotdogs in the package, while we were cooking the rest. So, by the time they were cooked, the kids were pretty much already full! It was still lots of fun, though. At about 9:00 that night, we all got our jammies on and piled into the tent for some more fun! Poor Mary Nan had a pretty nasty cold, so she and J.J. went into the house and went to bed at about 9:30. Dane and Laura stayed in the tent until about 10:00, which we thought was pretty good for as young as they are. It was so much fun, and I hope that Mama and Daddy will let us make it a tradition each year!

Daddy and the fabulous campfire

Dane, relaxing by the fireside

The kids seemed to prefer the hotdogs straight from the package!

Too much excitement to look at the camera!

Dane & J.J. really enjoyed playing with Pa and his flashlight in the tent.

Dane also enjoyed climbing over Pa for about 15 minutes!

Looking for Terry Cat outside the tent window!