Bounce House

A couple of weeks ago, we didn't have anything planned one Friday, so we went and tried out a bounce house place that is super close to our house.  I wasn't sure if it would be suitable for younger kids but it turned out great!  There were only 3 or 4 other kids there so we really had the whole huge place to ourselves.

Joseph is getting more and more brave at big tall bounce houses and slides so it was perfect.  And Andrew had just as much fun running around everything and then I just had to stay near by to help get him out when he got to something to big for him and he got stuck.  It was a great way for the boys to run around and let out some energy, and it's sweet to me to see them play around together like little buddies. 

Here are a few pictures I captured with my phone while we were there:

They had a neat little baseball one where the ball would float above the cone and you could hit it with a bat into the inflatable tent.  Joseph had lots of fun with it but it sure was tricky keeping Andrew out of the way so he didn't get wacked by the bat!

Batter up!

There was one big circular bouncy with a big pillow in the middle.  It was my favorite one because the boys could just run in circles.  :)

This was one part of this neat obstacle course bouncy that was huge and connected in with another bouncy that ended in a huge slide.  Joseph loved this one.  But Andrew couldn't get up the rock wall thing so I always had to lift him out.

Wait for me Joseph!

I'm not sure either of them ever made it up this one.  Joseph has done one like this in other places but he and Andrew ended up just getting silly with it and purposely kept falling down after going up a step or two. 

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving at my parent's house in Kilgore this year!  Michael was able to take off on Wednesday so we headed up Tuesday night late after he got home from work.

We had a great feast on Thanksgiving.   My sister Kristina was there with her family as well as my aunt and uncle and my cousin Kyle and his wife Erin. We had a fried turkey as well as a smoked turkey and they were both delicious.  I tried a new recipe of "creamy rosemary potatoes" and yum!  Joseph had so much fun helping Grandma set the table and put out the Thanksgiving decorations!

The remainder of our days there were spent just playing around outside at my parents house.  The boys had so fun playing on all the toys my parents have there - riding the little cars, jumping on the trampoline, playing on the playset and feeding the cows & donkeys.   Michael and my Dad spent a few days working on the welding for this new smoker/bbq pit that my dad is building.  Michael loves those kinds of projects and it's always a good stress relief for him!

Another special part of Thanksgiving was that Michael and I asked Kristina and Oscar to be the Godparents for our sweet baby boy coming soon! We were honored that they excitedly said yes!  I just submitted all the paperwork last week so hopefully we will get it officially on the schedule soon!

In addition, the week before Thanksgiving Joseph had his Thanksgiving feast at school.  Andrew and I were able to attend and it was really cute. They had the tables decorated so cute with placemats and decorations that they made in their class.  The kids were all dressed up as Indians too and they sang a few little songs with their music teacher Ms. Janelle when they came into the room.  For lunch, they brought in Luby's lunch for the kids: chicken strips, mac & cheese, corn, jello & bread. 

As usual, I didn't capture the best pics of the actual feast, but here are a few of the pics I got from both events:

Joseph's little place setting at his school feast - love his little face on the Indian in the back!

Singing their songs...Joseph is on the front row and is the one looking behind him

Enjoying his feast

His class is at the first half of this table, about 15 kids

Hard to get a good pic, but had to get one of me and my little guy

Andrew had so fun too!

And then on to my parent's for Thanksgiving:

My dad has to log on each morning to do a quick report for work.  As soon as Andrew got up he went straight to my Dad and wanted to sit in his lap!

Joseph helping my mom get out the china and decorate the table for Thanksgiving dinner

Feeding the donkeys

Michael and my dad welding on the bbq smoker pit

Mom took all the kids on a 4 wheeler ride

Even Andrew had so fun on his ride - nice & slow of course  ;)

Sweet pic of Joseph and Grace