Fall festivities

Summer in Dallas is pretty mellow.  No one does much except swim cause it's so insanely hot, but fall is a different story.  There are so many events, festivals, fairs and other such festivities that I fell like the holiday season business actually starts at the end of October.  Two weekends ago we did a triple header: State fair, trunk-or-treat, and school fall festival.  

This year was the first time we have gone to the State Fair.  It was fun, but insanely expensive.  Like $4 for a corn dog, ew.  It was fun though.  We enjoyed experiencing a Texas tradition.

We tried some yummy fair food.  Fried snickers was my favorite. 

Jaxon and Colton got to pick one ride.

Madi got her face painted.

and we took this super blurry picture in front of Big Tex, who is a Texas icon

which turned out to be a good thing, cause he burned down the next day

The next night was Madi's fall festival at school.  Another crazy, crowded activity, but the kids had fun.  Madi got her face painted like a cat.  I decided I'm going to learn to paint faces, cause every kid on the planet loves having their face painted and the line is always a million people long with only one or two "painters."  

Then there was trunk-or-treat.  Madi brought her bff from school, Lizzy.

I got some cuddle time with my neice.  I have four, almost five, possibly six (if Danielle, my sister, has a boy) nephews.  And one niece.  It's a good thing she's a cutie.

Here's a fun action shot with cousin Ethan and the robot chicken. :)

By the time we got home Jaxon was beat, so he just cuddled with Daddy.

Madison and Lizzy spent some time doing the traditional candy sort.

 Monday was Jaxon's school field trip to the pumpkin patch.  I'm pretty sure this was our fifth or sixth trip to this pumpkin patch.  It is fun that the kids can feed the animals, though.

Colton loved riding on the tractor.  

This might be my new favorite picture of the boys.  I love them and they are becoming great friends!

We each got to pick a little pumpkin, which the boys were very excited about.

For FHE that night we decorated our pumpkins lazy style, these things are great and SO easy!

Then Madi got strep, lame.

She perked right back up after she got the meds, though, which means that she was home and bored for two days until she was no longer contagious. So, we carved some big pumpkins the old fashioned way.

I think they turned out cute, although my hand about fell off in the process cause obviously I did all the cutting.

Friday was freezing (Texas freezing, meaning it was 50 degrees outside), so I took the boys swimming at the indoor pool.  They loved it!

Friday night we took the kids on a rare outing to the movies.  We are usually dollar movie people, but the kids really wanted to see Hotel Transylvania.  It was a fun night!

And finally.  Soccer season is almost over!  It went so fast.  Jaxon has two more games and then we are off until spring.  His game Saturday was so cold that we all had to bundle up.  I just couldn't resist taking a picture of these two cuties!