Halloween on Sesame Street

 Ben decided they would be Bert and Ernie for Halloween a couple of months ago.  It turns out that no one makes Bert and Ernie costumes for children.  There were one of each available on Ebay from 1979.  We passed on the retro costumes and made our own.  Nana made their shirts and MawMaw made their masks.  Last year I threw a costume together at the last minute so this year I planned ahead and bought a Cookie Monster t-shirt and made a googly eye headband.

 This is how they ended up wearing their masks since they didn't like having them covering their faces. 

 Our first stop, next door to see Mrs. Judy and Mr. Gerald.

 Getting candy from Mrs. Judy and Lucy (her chihuahua).

A few houses down we met up with Ben's good friend Sam (a Ninja Turtle) and his dad.  Sam wanted to join us trick-or-treating so John headed down the street with kids while I returned home to hand out candy.  They arrived back at home with buckets full of candy an hour and a half later.  They had gone down our street and then down to the next neighhood.  They came home laughing about Ben who had dropped a Skittle.  He didn't want to lose that Skittle so he reached down and picked it up off the ground.  He quickly spit out the Skittle-sized rock that he had accidentally put in his mouth.

Fall Festival

After Rylee's birthday party, we went to the fall festival at Mama's church.

 Mrs. Katie painted a duck on one cheek and a deer on the other.  Mrs. Katie was my Sunday School teacher nearly my entire childhood it seems.  Ben LOVES Mrs. Katie.  She was his VBS teacher when we went with Mama two years ago and he hasn't forgotten.  He's told me at least a dozen times since we've been home that Mrs. Katie was sitting in the chair across from him at the end of the cake walk.  (We won a chocolate chip cookie cake, by the way.)

 Mollie decorating her pumpkin.

 Ben, Mollie, Emalee, and Rylee posing for a fall pic.

 Ben and Mama pumpkin racing.

 Mollie wanted to keep the duck.

 Spinning, spinning, spinning with Emalee.

 Ben took these pictures of Emalee and Rylee with their faces painted.

After roasting weinies outside on a fire, we went on a hayride.  I sent Mollie home with Mama after Mollie declared she was hot, stripped her shirt off and laid in the floor of the fellowship hall refusing to put her shirt back on.  The hayride went past Mama and Daddy's house, so Ben and I got off there.  I'm pretty sure that Ben fell asleep along the way but he swears that he didn't.

Birthday Party

This weekend we went home for Rylee's birthday party.  Ben particularly loves going to visit MawMaw and PawPaw.  When we drove up at the house, he said, "This is my favorite place." This time Mollie didn't want to leave.  After driving four hours, when we turned onto our street she said, "I don't want to go this way.  I want to go to MawMaw's."

Peter and Tink

We've been watching Disney movies on Friday nights. Can you guess what we watched last night? Ben created his own Peter Pan outfit while Mollie got this awesome Tinker Bell costume from Janey. Mollie ran around saying, "I fly in the sky. I fly in the sky." She is very interested in watching airplanes when they fly over. The other day I asked her if she would like to fly in an airplane. She responded, "I jump out." She wants to parachute out of an airplane not just ride in it. That sums up Mollie pretty well.

 Ben has been in his Peter Pan costume all day.  Mollie's changed costumes a few times including being a pirate for a while. 

 Mollie's "Aaaarrrrgh Matey" face.

Ben's drawing of Peter Pan.

Goodbye Beach

 After we took down our tent and loaded all our stuff, we made one last ride down to the beach.

 These are black bear tracks that you could see in the sand dunes from the boardwalk.

 Goodbye beach.

We rode right by this deer standing on the side of the road.  She wasn't the least bit afraid of us or our bicycles.

Smores

 Got to roast marshmellows for Smores when you're camping.

 Ben painted this pictures of John grilling burgers over the fire pit.

Monday night it got cold so the kids were in warm pajamas snuggled into their super thick sleeping bags.

Bicycles

 What made this trip super fun was that we took our bicycles.  The campsites are about 3/4 mile from the beach and no cars are allowed down the beach road.  The only way to access the beach is by trolley, bike, or walking.  In May, we rode the trolley which runs on the hour.  Having our bikes gave us more freedom to come and go on our own schedule plus they were just fun to ride.  We spent so much time on our bikes that Ben gave them names.  He named John's bike Rocky, mine Hazel and his Johnny or sometimes Raffi.  (Florida state law requires that children wear helmets so we had to buy Ben one for the trip.)

 On Monday evening we took a bike ride down a paved nature trail.

 We stopped to admire the view of the lake and the dunes.  Ben picked wildflowers for Mollie and me.

 As we were riding back our campsite, Mollie said, "I've got a whawhawha (imagine Charlie Brown's teacher) in my nose."  I said, "You've got a booger in your nose?  Don't pick your nose."  Mollie. "No, I've got a whawhawha in my nose."  Me, "You've got a bug in your nose?" I had gotten two bugs in my eyes so that seemed reasonable.  Mollie, "No, I've got a flower in my nose?"  Me, "YOU'VE GOT A FLOWER IN YOUR NOSE.  GET YOUR FINGER OUT OF YOUR NOSE!!"  Mollie had stuck her flower in her nose, we're on bicycles, it's nearly dark, and we're still about 1/2 a mile from our tent. Once we got back to our tent, I grabbed my makeup bag which has a pair of tweazers in it and took Mollie to the bathhouse.  I only managed to push the flower farther into her nose.  I returned to the campsite and called Aunt Connie to ask if we would need to take Mollie to the emergency room if I couldn't get the flower out of her nose.  Cara answered and suggested using a bobbie pin. 

Finally I was able to get it moving with a bobbie pin and Mollie blew this out of her nose. That's John's pointer finger as comparison.  Every time Mollie gave a good blow, I would say, "Awesome job, Mollie."  After we got the flower out of her nose, Mollie walked around saying, "Was that awesome, Ben?  Was that awesome?"  We explained that sticking things in her nose was NOT awesome.

Monday

 We woke up Monday morning to find racoon tracks all around our campsite.  You can see where one tried to open this storage box.  It wouldn't have found anything to eat since this box had things like batteries and clothesline in it.

 The water was amazingly warm for mid-October.  We had not planned to even take our swimsuits until we talked to friends at church the Wednesday before we left that had just got back from Florida.  I'm glad we talked to them because it was perfect beach weather.

Evening at the Beach

 Sunday afternoon we left Jim and Fran's and headed to Topsail Hill State Park to camp for two nights.  After we unloaded and set up our tent, we were able to spend about an hour near sunset wading and playing in the sand.

 I'm not sure what Mollie's doing.  It looks like a karate kid move.

 Digging a big hole.

 Waiting for the wave to fill the big hole.

 Mollie loved the beach this time.

Racing.

Saturday Night

 I love this picture of Mollie and Janey swinging together.  They look very similar with their blond hair, blue eyes, and maroon Mississippi State t-shirts.  The kids were all supporting the Bulldogs as they played Tennessee Saturday night.

 Ben thought it was very cool that MV and Janey decorate their swingset with chalk.  He has, of course, been coloring our swingset since we've been home.

We put them to bed faced in the same direction, but this is how I found them sleeping Saturday night.

Vettes at the Village

Jim and John headed to Vettes at the Village.

 Jim's car.

 John's car.

Family pic.

 All the kids decorated hats while we waited for lunch.

 Mollie's hat.

Ben was particularly proud of his hat.  I didn't realize that he wanted to take it with us and left it on the table.  By the time I realized that it was important to him and we returned to the restaurant, our table had been cleaned and another group was seated at the table.  Ben was sad.

John's car won 2nd place in the C4 class.  The awards were given after we left and Jim took this picture.