October is the best time of the year for our kids: state fair, pumpkin patch, trunk or treat, all in one month! I sensed that it raised the bar for the activity level for the rest of the year already. As always, before the pictures take over, here is the summery of us:
Emily continues enjoying her school. She had so much fun there. During October, she made lots of crafts, made some cookies, had pumpkin patch and petting zoo, learned many new Spanish words at school. Unfortunately she got sick more often too.
Andy's vocabulary is expanding everyday. He says whatever he sees. He likes to generalize things: he calls both moon and sun "Moon"; he calls all the utensil "fork"; he calls all the videos "Dora" (thanks to Emily); whenever he needs something, he says "Help!"; whether he wants to get up, down, or out, he says "Up"... He tells me "Poopoo" everytime after he had a dirty diaper. Only a couple of times he told us right before he had a poopy. He absolutely loves pumpkins. As soon as he sees one, he starts to squeal with excitement "Pumpkin!!!" He had lots of fun at pumpkin patch and trunk or treat. So did the rest of us.
We had several visitors this month. We just love spending time with them. Laura and Ryan visited us early October. It was the first time we met Ryan. We enjoyed getting to know him and catching up with Laura. Darren visited us when he came to Dallas for a conference. We were so glad that he got to stay with us for two days. Andrew and Jamie visited us before they took off to visit their family. Of course, we got to play with Lucia for a little while. Leslie came over to have lunch with us. He showed us his mission trip pictures to Brazil. Dad stopped here on his way to Austin during the Halloween weekend. He and David worked on some home project to fix the washing machine and smoke detector. He was a lot of help! We also enjoyed having Brian over for dinner sometimes. Emily designated one chair for Brian and she thinks Brian was one of our family members. One day we were talking about our last names, Emily said to herself, "Emily Woodward, Andy Woodward, Mommy Woodward, Daddy Woodward, Brian Woodward, ..."
David went to the conference with Darren for one night. Then I attended a women's retreat called "Beauty for Ashes" by North Richland Hills COC. It was conducted by a missionary in China who wanted to video tape the retreat to distribute her curriculum to the Chinese. She had such an extrordinary experience that it went with her teaching beautifully. David stayed with the kids for three days. He had planned to attend several missions workshops the following week, but he missed most of them because of the sickness.
We went to the State Fair in early October. It was the first time for Emily and Andy to be there. We visited the Little Hand on the Farm, had a tour in the animal barns, ate Frito Pie, Turkey leg, and Funnel cake, watched part of the Bird show, and took a ride on the Farris Wheel. Emily set her mind to get on the Farris Wheel even before we went to the Fair. She was so proud that she did it. She talked it for days to everyone she saw afterwards.
Emily's school asked everyone to bring a non-carved decorated pumpkin for their pumpkin patch. We had fun decorating the pumpkin. They also had a trick or treat at school. Andy and I volunteered to hand out the candies at one station. Emily was in the very front of her class line dressed up as a butterfly fairy. She was so excited to see us there. After it finished, I walked by the chapel. I happened to see all the kids lined up in several rows in their costumes. Emily was in the very front again, clapping and singing and dancing ... I wished I had a camera with me!
Below are some pictures taken when I did have my camera:
Andy at the petting zoo feeding the goats. He loves animals. Everywhere he sees an animal, he just stretches both his arms trying to embrace it.
Emily feeding a black goat
The decorated pumpkin front view (on the back are some flowers and butterflies)
Andy roaming at the pumpkin patch
Little Hand on the Farm (the kids got to water the peach tree, pick the peaches, feed the animals, milk the cow, plant the seeds, pick the vegetable, collect the eggs, drive their produce to the store and sell them. In the end, they buy a snack with the money from their produce sales.)
The Beauty for Ashes retreat
Emily loved playing with Darren in the tent
The picture party with Leslie
Brian's birthday dinner
Gayla's birthday lunch
Grandpa's visit
Emily's school Halloween Party (her teacher said she always sat on the same spot every time she arrived at the calss)
She was so happy to see Daddy there (the only Daddy who made to the class party)
Her teacher Mrs Michelle loves her
For Trunk or Treat, Emily and Andy dressed up as "Jack and Jill". Here comes Jill:
This is Jack:
Who fell down?
Our favorite trunk from our friends the Hobbs - "Let Your Light Shine": each kid got a lighted bracelet besides a candy
"Counting your blessings one by one"
On Halloween night, when I asked Emily whether she wanted to do "trick or treat", she said, "I already did it." So we stayed at home waiting for the trick-or-treaters. But to our disappointment, none of the kids knocked on our door. So David took all the candies to work the next day.
We also had a Halloween party at Dawn and Jarrod's neighborhood playground. It was great to see some of our friends and their kids. We had to leave early. The kids had fun decorating the treat from the Webbs after we got home.
Below are some extra pictures. Emily loves playing with Andy. But as soon as she sees the camera, she stops doing whatever she is doing - a typical girl!
Notice in this picture, Emily pushed her toy far away so Andy couldn't reach it.
I caught this on camera through the window. I had no idea why she kissed Andy on the back of his head.
