Hurray for the Pirates

This has been a great season.

I've played some serious defense.

I thought it was my job to always

stay back and watch the goal.

I'm pretty good at that.

But then Mom told me

I could and SHOULD go up

and play some offense

(I didn't know goalies weren't

really allowed in my age group).

That changed things up a bit

I'm working on my big kicks

And I definitely hustle

And I REALLY like my team

We celebrated the season

with an ice cream party.

I'm getting some props from

Coach Mick.

And there were trophies too,

of course

It's been a great fall!

See you in the spring, Pirates!

Return of the MIZ!

It's been a few years

since Mom & Dad ventured

to Columbia for a football game.

It's about time

to start that up again!

The usual gang was there:

Pat, Amanda, Marcia, GiGi, Cheryl

and some new faces

like Aunt Kathy

here with Grandpa 

 There was plenty of eating,

drinking,

chatting and laughing

It was a beautiful day for football

With some beautiful company

The band was good as always

As was the post-game "show"

and frivolity

Looks like a fun crew

How long until the 

3 amigos plus one get to join in?

Pumpkin Glow

We decided to try something new this year

and headed to Powell Gardens

to see their "Glow."

This, of course,

required the first outing

of this year's costumes.

After much badgering and

scouring the internet,

we settled on 

Power Ranger Steel Ninja.

I gathered the group with a

"Hands in!

We...are...POWER RANGERS!"

to get everyone psyched up

Weston was less than thrilled.

He was worried we'd be 

the only ones dressed up

B and I didn't care.

Thanks, Grandma GiGi.

These costumes are awesome! 

On with the night!

We tromped all over the gardens.

There were pumpkins

EVERYWHERE!

Lit up in all sorts of designs

Here's every Pokemon you can think of

and fairies

and spiders

 640 pumpkins in all!

The gardens themselves

were all lit up too.

Spooky...

We tried to take a family picture

(plus a Cousin Kayla!)

but their photo booth was a bit too bright

We got a pretty good one of all the kids:

Austin, Kayla, me, B, Wes, Cooper,

Jack, Zack

(and not pictured--Sally and Alene) 

This was Mom's favorite:

A tree full of owl jack-o-lanterns 

The picture is better in the dark

After all that tromping,

we headed to the party tent

to make some wizard wands

and eat our weight in

corndogs and funnel cake

That was pretty cool!

This one might

have to be a repeat event!

Getting lost

We discovered the flashlight corn maze

last year

and had such a good time

we decided it needed a repeat visit

this year.

Flashlights ready!

There were a lot of other things

to check out first...

The giant corn crib

Weston clearly enjoyed it

A hamster wheel

and some rocking tractor wheels

There was a huge hay

climbing mountain

B at the top

but finally it was time

to brave the maze

I LOVE to be the leader

However,

so does everyone else.

Unfortunately,

this often leads to a lot of fighting

and arguing

in the middle of the maze.

In the dark.

In the mud.

 We made it out all the same.

And collected some corn 

along the way to take home

This is my "My mom is weird" look 

We finished things off

with about a hundred slides

down the hay slide.

Look out!

A jumble at the end

is how we usually landed

Even through the disagreements,

we all had a pretty good time

Mom's favorite Halloween tradition

Don't tell anyone,

but we may have been up to no good

tonight!

We packed up some goodies

and hopped in the car

to go booing!

First was Beckett's pick...

her family pulled up in their car

just as we were making a break for it!

So we decided to go home

and go back out incognito...

Then we hit Weston's pick

and Jack's

and finally mine

The pictures are not awesome,

but let's just say

a REALLY awesome time was had

all the same!!!