a few things...

october has been crazy busy.  we've had field trips galore, projects coming out of our ears, dress up days, soccer, and on and on.  i don't know why it all fell in this one month, but goodness gracious….it certainly did!  you might need to buckle up and keep both hands on the wheel to follow the randomness in this post….


**wes and reed took a trip to the pumpkin patch last week.  as you know, i am an expert on every single pumpkin patch in north mississippi.  the one that they went to was not my favorite one, but they went together!  i only had to visit ONE patch this year!  high five to me!

reed and hayes on the bus

wes and chase

(i realize that looks like the same kid in the brown jacket and the yellow car, but look closely…)

it was just a teeny bit crowded, so i lost wes' class for most of the day.  that would be the reason that there are no pics of wes with a pumpkin.  but never fear, he got one and placed it proudly on the front porch by our crotons.  yes….we have crotons again this year.  if you don't remember our croton story from last year, you can refresh your memory!!!

**william had to be jack from jack and the beanstalk for a production.  reed had to be little boy blue for his class on a different day.  in case you don't know me at all, i don't do dress up.  god gave me 3 boys for a reason, and i think that is a big reason why!!  ha!  i just can't do it.  anyway, those characters consist of mostly just regular people clothes (hallelujah!), but i needed a hat.  my friend, myrtle, had a straw hat that we borrowed for both boys.  sure it looks like it belongs at a luau, but that just makes it better!  i'm sure jack and little boy blue needed a little hawaiian flair in their lives anyway!

(as you can tell two pictures above, wes decided our fireplace needed a little halloween flair.  as well as our front door.  there are also signs stuck in the flowerbeds with sticks and duct tape.  i'm not sure he's going to make it on hgtv with those credentials, but it's a start!  fyi…that's a lego dragon on the left.  dragons are in this year.)

**chase also got fancy with the pumpkin carving this year.  each kid wanted his own pumpkin and picked out exactly what chase was supposed to carve.  so he did.  he challenged his brother and brother-in-law to see if they could beat him, but i'm guessing they were too scared of his artistic abilities.  maybe next year!

**in the middle of all of this, my washing machine decided to die.  it took me 4 years to kill a brand new washing machine.  it's no secret that there is no love lost between me and that front loader.  i've said some not nice things to him over the past 4 years.  but with 4 stinky boys in this house, i really, really need that washing machine.  so i hit up the laundromat and waited on the repair man to come fix it.  when he finally came and took it apart and told me it was going to be $800 to fix it, i told him to just get right back in his truck and go back to where he came from.  and then i went and bought a new washing machine.  (not a front loader!!!)  i'm happy to be able to get started on this mountain of clothes, but buying a washing machine is the epitome of joyless spending.  the little people were happy, though!

note to self:  at christmas, just go to the appliance store and ask them for a bunch of boxes.  and duct tape.


**wes also had bible alive day.  this is where each kid is assigned a bible character.  they have to read about and "study" that person and then come up with clues for their character.  they present these clues to their class and all the students get to guess who each one is.  wes was samuel.

if you happen to be keeping score, yes…this is same piece of cloth that william wore when he was paul.  william also wore it when he was japheth in a play.  we've definitely gotten our money's worth out of this little bit of brown fabric!  feel free to mumble under your breath, "those poor boys are stuck with a mama that can't sew a lick."  minus a button.  i can sew a mean button.  

**october was fire safety month.  i happen to live with the cutest fireman in town who made sure that we pushed our smoke "lee-arm" buttons to stay safe!

**our neighborhood trick or treated a night early due to the impending weather.  we had our buddies come over to join us.  they started out in full sprints from house to house.  by the end, they were practically crawling from one house to the next while some were in the back of the truck begging to go home!  we wore them out, and we ended up with a boatload of candy!  success!

i wish wes didn't have his face covered up.  we will never again get 6 boys actually looking at the camera AND smiling!

once we got home, william and wes handed out candy to the last of the trick or treaters while reed dug out the whoppers and made a little pile just for himself!  at least he has good taste.  the other two will pull out the most random stuff….like those orange tootsie rolls.  i mean, really?  who eats those things?

and now comes the time of year when everybody will be posting pictures of their fireplace on Facebook saying that it's their favorite time of year.  don't expect that from me.  my mother-in-law thinks i'm crazy because i'd rather just skip it altogether.  among other things….it's cold.  i don't do cold well at all.  but for now, i'm sitting here in my shorts while trying to decide if i should eat a reese's or a snickers.  happy halloween!