Happy (belated) Halloween!

Yes

I am a little behind!

I have been struggling getting pictures from 

my phone

to the computer.

I tried downloading them to google docs,

sending them to myself via e-mai,

having Joey send them to me...

then FINALLY 

dug the USB cable

out of our

"cable bin"

and connected my 

stinking phone directly

to my computer!

Why hadn't I done that before?

Couldn't find the cable!

So that will hopefully not happen again,

and I should be able to update

WITH pictures

more easily!

With the move, Halloween was

kinda put on the back burner...

luckily they sell costumes here

in Texas!  

We took the kids to the typical

kids costume stores:

Target

Wal-Mart

Party City

R thought he wanted to be something gross and scary

Like those ghoulish things that scared him silly at SeaWorld?

Yep - like those...

That is until we went to SeaWorld and he saw all those things...

So he went with a Vampire.

J wanted to be a ninja again.

First, he was a ninja 2 years ago and I keep all of their

costumes in a "costume bin" in the 

bottom of their closet...

so if he wanted to be a ninja, he could

dig the old costume out!

Second, I wasn't digging that idea,

cause we do calendars 

(thanks to my sisters for the idea YEARS ago)

of the kids each year for the aunts & grands & godparents.

So I didn't want the same kid in the same costume.  :)

So we finally caved and let him be a different ninja.

A was hung up on being a witch.

Not really sure where the idea came from, but whatever.

So she kept talking about a witch at 2 different stores.

At Party City, they have pictures

of all the costumes 

lining the wall from floor to ceiling

divided by age group and gender.

There were 2 little witch costumes at her

eye level and this little tiny girl

turns to her big ole daddy

and grasping her hands 

looks up at him 

and says

"Please, please, please"

A-DOR-A-BLE!

(but where the heck did she get that from?!!?)

So the next question, did it work?

Yes, it did.

Daddy said she could have it.

Then he picked her up

and she became eye level 

with a Hello Kitty costume.

And my almost 3 year old daughter is

OBSESSED

with 

"my kitty"

(as she refers to it).

So she squealed with delight and 

just started exclaiming

"my kitty, my kitty".

(this child starts hollering 

"my kitty, my kitty"

ANYTIME we see ANYTHING

Hello Kitty 

in the store -

including items on other little girls!)

So the witch idea QUICKLY 

rode out the window on its broom!

She got her Hello Kitty costume.

The kids all chimed in and helped pick out 

a little costume for 

Tony Cruz...

I present you with...

Halloween!

(here are 3 of the 10 pictures we took)

(this is the only one in focus with all 4 kids looking 

toward the camera!) 

The Haul! 

HAPPY (belated) HALLOWEEN!!

Weekend of Fun!

I think we are slowly getting used to our new life.

We are all enjoying the new work hours 

for daddy.

For as long as we have been working,

I think the earliest my husband

has been home from work on a 

daily basis 

was when he worked for 

the government and we lived

about 15 min from his office.

We would see him about 5:30pm

Since he has gotten used to getting up and into the office

before 7am (owning your own business will do that to you)...

he kept the hours going here.

When we owned our business back in NC,

he would be out of the house by 6:30am

and we wouldn't see him 

until 6:30pm.

That is 12 hours!

And to us - that wasn't a whole lot of fun.

He kept with the early to work mindset here...

but now he gets home around 3:30pm!

None of us are quite sure how to act!  

HA!

Because of these awesome hours...

we are able to do things in the afternoons

after daddy gets home.

School is done,

naps are done,

no homework...

So we decided to take a little time to do some fun stuff

as a family this past weekend.

(Weekend before Halloween)

Friday
 Daddy got home around 1:30pm

We had some errands to run, but loaded up the kids

and headed out to SeaWorld!

SeaWorld San Antonio is only about 15 minutes 

from our door!

And my father-in-law, purchased us season tickets

as a "welcome to Texas"

gift.

So we ventured out to SeaWorld on Friday afternoon.

SeaWorld apparently does the holidays up right!

There is something called "Howl-O-Scream"

at SeaWorld.

They had the whole park

decked out in 

pumpkins,

jack-o-lanters,

ghouls,

and 

other 

Halloween creatures.

We had a great time, until we ventured into the

"Scare Zone".

And discovered that the 

ghouls and goblins

come out in force

in the Scare Zone

after 6pm!

I was VERY impressed

with the production 

that this park put on for 

Halloween!

My children -

not so much!

Taking a 7 yo, 5 yo, 2 1/2 yo and 1 yo 

through a "haunted" theme park...

not the best idea.

My oldest two boys were crawling up 

UNDER 

me and my husband.

The little ones were pretty clueless

but not the bigger ones.

I was worried that we would have 

both of them staring us down 

in the middle of the night

begging to crawl into our 

bed...

surprisingly we made it through the night

with no extra bodies in there!

Unfortunately,
I didn't think to take any pictures
of the ghouls and goblins...

I did, however, get a shot of daddy
taking three of the kids on a ride.

T.C. enjoying
"The Monster Mash"

I am going to try and flip it but
was to anxious to share...

Saturday 

we went to

the library

to paint sugar skulls

for

Dia de los Muertos.

Sunday

After the rest of our "stuff"

arrived from North Carolina and was unloaded...

we traveled about 30 minutes south of San Antonio

to a little town called Devine, Texas

to visit

Devine Acres Farm.

I am a LOVER of

Hillridge Farms in Youngsville, NC.

I absolutely enjoy

taking the kids there every year...

I was hoping that this place would be similar.

Not so much.

It was nice

but unfortunately

it has pretty big shoes to fill

and it left me a tad

disappointed.

But we had fun anyways

and 

got to scope out potential 

Christmas Trees

on their farm!!