Easter Fun!

We had our first egg hunt last Wednesday evening at church (resurrection eggs, egg hunt, and hot dogs before Bible class). As I've said before, the girls and I have been having for-fun hunts in our yard for a few weeks, so even little Anna knew what to do.


Our next stop on the Easter fun train was the Thursday School Easter egg hunt (straight from Anna's dr. appt). Pictured above are Claire's cousin Katelyn and her friend (sometimes boyfriend), Zeek before the hunt. I also mentioned on fb that it POURED during the 10 minutes the kids were hunting. I had my camera and Anna, so I scurried under a tree while Claire kept on hunting.

Then Friday Claire got to go watch Hop with Grandmom and Tyler while I worked on a writing assignment. Got 'er done!

And Saturday was the big Pannell get-together at my mom's house. Almost all the kids, from Claire to Kyle, even went swimming, despite the 65-degree temps! We hid a ton of eggs, with an area for the six toddlers and preschoolers, and a huge area for the six big kids. It was perfect; everyone got a bunch of eggs. But that night storms started rolling in, so after we ate pizza, everyone gathered around the TV to watch the radar.

Yum! Anna opened this egg and handed the candy to daddy, so of course he had to give it to her! She had so much candy yesterday!

We ended up staying the night at Mom's to avoid driving in bad weather or worrying about tornados when we got home. But that meant that when we woke up Sunday we had to drive down to Durant, do baths and Easter finery, and even a visit from the Easter bunny, and then drive back to Coleman for church. Only 10 minutes late--that was doing pretty good I think! I'm glad we got to come; it was an excellent service and we got to see some great people we don't get to very often, and then enjoy some more family time at lunch at Nana's.

....and now it's back to the grind!

But first, a pic of Anna's funny face! She loves to entertain people with this...when she feels like it. We can rarely get her to do it on demand, and this is the first time I've captured it on camera. She was doing it over and over at Nana's during lunch today.

First 5K, Coleman Octoberfest

A bit belated, but here's my report on my first 5K. When I first thought about running this thing, I thought it seemed a little extreme to call preparing to run 3.2 miles "training." I mean, how hard could that be? Well, if I was 17, I'm sure it wouldn't be that tough, but this mom of two definitely had to train to be able to actually run this race! My workout buddy and I switched from P90 to running in her church gym during the super-hot weather, and then we ran outside the last four or five runs before the race, letting our hubbies watch the kids in the evenings. I never thought I would actually enjoy running, but I actually did enjoy the couple runs where we beat a personal record. The day of the race, the energy was so exhilarating! It was better than a competition-type energy, because that always includes a note of anxiety, at least for me. This was just camaraderie, anticipation, excitement. There were high school track runners and college guys, but also middle-aged professionals and young kids. There weren't many people in their 20s, Ashley and I noticed, and started to get our hopes up to take home medals! Sure enough, our wish came true: when the announcer finally called the winners for the 20-29-year-old women, I was second and Ashley first! There was no third place, so that means Ashley and I were indeed the only two runners in that category! Ha, we were proud nonetheless: we got our best-ever time and had a great time being outside in God's creation, pushing the bodies He made to do their best!

Anna demolished a peach and had a great time! She gets SO intrigued and excited if you give her an entire piece of fruit--we've tried both peaches and pears, and she lays waste to them!

We went to Coleman's second annual town festival last weekend, and were happy to see Uncle Matt, Aunt Michelle, and Holly, Jenny, and Mattie there. Amanda also came down and brought her boyfriend James, and we got to see several other aunts, uncles, cousins, and other old friends and family members. Of course, I never think to get big-picture photos of floats or the event; I just glance up at my girls and go, "Oh that's a good picture!" and then go on talking and looking around.


Amanda holds Anna, Jenny holds Claire, and Mattie, geared up for Ranger baseball. Jenny did a great job babysitting Claire--taking her to the bounce house and following her around.


Claire enjoys the view from Uncle Matt's shoulders.


Mom and Ty prepped and rode in the 4-H float; Claire just hopped up there before the parade.

Labor Day, Milestones

Okay, I know I'm a little behind, but here are some pics anyway of our Labor Day weekend! Some of my faithful readers might have already seen these on fb, as my photog-SIL posted a bunch of great ones there. We had a great time riding four-wheelers, wading in Blue River, and having a weenie roast at my Uncle Gary's beautiful ranch.

This pic below is hilarious I think; it's six people on a four-wheeler: Paul, Diane, Claire, Kerrigan, me, and Anna! We had 11 people on three four-wheelers, although four of the people were six and under. And I can now say that I have nursed a baby while on the back of a moving four-wheeler (not in this picture). As my BIL Kyle said, Anna was getting a milkshake!! Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do.



Carson helps the girls get to the rock. The water was rushing pretty quickly in spots.


I'm smiling, but my bottom is in for a world of hurt in just a second!!


Anna loved it!! But she did wish she could get down and crawl around. She's getting to be quite the wiggleworm, making church tough at times! I must also mention that her hair is very reddish in sunlight, but more of a golden red inside. We get tons of comments on her being a redhead. We'll see!




Anna loves getting to gum on a whole piece of fruit!! This is Diane feeding her a peach. Right now, AJ will eat chunks of very soft fruit, puffs, rice rusks, and teething biscuits. She has yet to warm up to any veggies very much, although she'll occasionally take a few bites of sweet potato or carrots.



Also, in the milestone department, Anna is now cruising! Big Sis helped her on this one, I think, as Claire has been pushing her on her walker for a couple weeks now. Now, Anna moves right along on it, or along the couch or bathtub. She is thrilled with herself.

Aunt Manda

Claire is four weeks older than Anna in this pic. Hopefully Anna will be able to wear that same little ruffley onesie in a month! Amanda spent a night with us this weekend--good times! Claire was so excited to spend some time with Manda, but she was also very tired from spending the night at Mom's house the night before, and then going shopping with all of us that day and skipping her nap. So we put on The Princess and the Frog at about 7pm, and she was asleep flat on her back on the floor by 7:30 and slept until 8 the next morning! Thankfully, Manda was still there that morning to play with her!

Getting into a routine

Midweek visit with Aunt Manda!

This is one of those perfect "Write your own caption" photos. How about, "Oh no you didn't!!" or "Uncle Kyle, what big lips you have!"

Blue Steele. Or is that Magnum? Either way, it's money, baby.

Starting to be mesmerized with toys.

Well, this entry's title is a little misleading. It seems like with two kids, every day is a totally new challenge! But I can definitely say I'm feeling more relaxed, more rested, more in control this week than I have so far. Anna's tummy is doing much better, and Claire's sleep habits are improving by leaps and bounds this week! No fits or super-late naps (after all the reading and delay tactics she can handle) at all. We are planning a trip to Chuck E. Cheese this weekend to reward her for her big-girl behavior. Now that I've said that, I've probably just jinxed us, and we'll have a mother of a meltdown tonight or tomorrow!

We had a very relaxing weekend, and have so far had a good week, except poor Jay has been down with a cold. He got a Z-pack Monday though, and is doing well enough to go to work, as much work as he can do with all this rain. He's got about 10 houses under contract to start building in the near future, but can't begin b/c it's been too wet.

The girls and I drove out to Wapanucka on Monday to see my little brother Tyler play basketball. My sister Amanda was down for two nights, so she was there, too. Claire LOVES Aunt Manda; here's how much. At Mamaw and Papaw's house, if I tell her Manda is coming over that afternoon, she will jump up and say, "I have to go bye-bye, Manda's coming on her way!" If she will willingly and immediately be ready to leave Mamaw and Papaw's, she must really be excited about something! We are very proud of Tyler, who worked hard during his game--he was playing on a team of only fourth-graders, so they only had six kids, so all the kids played a lot more than they're used to. He shot several times, played defense, and made some good passes (no points tonight though, so he was disappointed!).

After Ty's game, we had dinner and got to go visit Nana, Grandad, Dani, and Molly at Nana and Grandad's house, so that was fun, too. Molly loved patting Anna, and saying "bebe!" And Claire and Molly are both big fans of hide and seek (they will both actually go somewhere by themselves and stay quiet while someone looks for them), so they had a big time playing hide and seek with Manda and Tyler.

Tuesday after I went to class and got the girls home from Mamaw and Papaw's (at about noon), Manda came over to spend the afternoon and night at our house. We really know how to show a hip, intelligent grad student a good time, let me tell ya: holding Anna, playing hide and seek and dollhouse with Claire, and watching a movie with big sis on the couch after everyone else was asleep. We had a great time, and hope Manda can take advantage of her laid-back semester with more midweek trips to our house.

An attempt to get a family picture!

Anna's screaming and Claire's being a stinker!


Let's try getting Claire to hold Anna...nope, she's not going for that, either.

She does want to love on Baby Sister, but does NOT want to have her picture taken doing it...



Maybe next time! The bad thing is, there are so few times when we are all dressed up at the same time! Last night though, Jay and I got to have a Valentine's Day date! Paul and Diane kindly kept the girls, and Anna slept the entire time while Claire tromped them from the Polly room to the computer to the dress-up box. We went to Johnny Carino's and Starbucks. Yum! Claire spent the night at their house while Jay and I ate a yummy chocolate dessert and watched (500) Days of Summer, which I thought was an original, refreshing, well-acted and well-written film. Jay, however, was not so into it, mostly just because he couldn't separate Summer the character from the movie.

Meanwhile, Claire is still being more needy at bedtime than she was before Christmas. But I just have to cherish these times, when she asks to hold my hand while she goes to sleep, lets me stroke her hair, and then when I tell her I'm going to go, but will come back to check on her before I go to bed, and she says, "I'll just wait on you." I'm sure there will be times in coming years when I just wish she would let me do those things, but she won't let me!

Done with school!

More pictures taken by my photography-inclined brother!

Claire pretends to hang an ornament showing our dearly departed Shadow. Just a sidenote on that loss: This has made me realize how perceptive Claire is (and I'm sure most children are) of my feelings. Several times in the last week, when I sigh, sniffle, or am just quiet for a little while, she'll say, "Are you sad, Mama? Sad about Shadow?" And I'll say something along the lines of, "No, I wasn't thinking about Shadow, but it does make me sad to think about him." And she'll say, "Shadow was a good boy." That's what I told her in the couple days after he died, when I was still crying sometimes, that it was okay to be sad, because Shadow was a good boy and we will miss him.

Claire hanging her stocking: we're going to try putting her pacis in here on Christmas Eve, so that Santa can take them to younger kids who need pacis ;), and she can get treats in her stocking. She still gets her paci at naptime and bedtime, and that's it, but she definitely wants it at those times! She has mentioned Santa taking her pacis and leaving stuff in her stocking two different times out of the blue since we talked about it, as though it is part of the plan, so we'll see how it goes! (I know it's kind of a weenie approach; I should just say NO and take it away, no bribery or silly stuff, but I'll try that if the Santa thing doesn't work!)

Loving on Mama's belly! She sometimes lays her head on my belly and says, "Love you, Baby Sister." She did this once at my suggestion, and I guess she could tell I was so pleased with it that she has done it quite a few times of her own volition now.

So I posted my final grades on Friday, and that makes me DONE with school until next year at least! I still feel a a bit of stress over getting my curriculum for next semester ready, considering I want to arrange the first couple weeks of my semester so that I can do part or all online work. I'm teaching one section of Comp 1 on Tuesday and Thursday mornings at 9:30, so that's a nice, light schedule, but it's anyone's guess how those first couple weeks will go, depending on when Baby Sister decides to make her appearance and how long it takes me to recover.

We had a great weekend, with Jay and I taking a semi-successful date night on Friday while Claire spent the night with Grandmom and Papa in Coleman. Saturday, Claire and I did a bit of Christmas shopping with Mom and Tyler while Jay went hunting. Then we went over to Paul and Diane's house to wish Paul a happy birthday and eat a quick bite before going to watch the SE men's basketball team get slaughtered. They're actually much better this year than last, but they were playing an undefeated, nationally ranked team. Came home and watched the Heisman ceremony after putting Claire down--disappointed Colt didn't get it! Jay's gotten quite a few comments this year that he looks a lot like Colt McCoy--I see that they both have round cheeks, green/blue eyes, and blond hair, but the resemblance stops there in my opinion. Jay is definitely way better looking! (And that's a compliment to Jay, as he is always accusing me of thinking every college athlete is cute :)

Today we had a baby shower in between church services! Our church family is so good to have a shower for us for our second child, and our TWELVE hostesses got us a Sit and Stand stroller so that Claire can ride along with baby sister. It's also compatible with the baby carseat we have.

This week, I've got a story to work on, Christmas cards to get out, a bit of Christmas shopping to finish up, and a smaller baby shower on Saturday! I'm putting off getting everything set up for Baby Sister until at least next week, so let's hope she waits that long to join us! Everyone keeps giving me that knowing grin and asking or telling me about how "READY" I am to have this baby--apparently misery is written all over my face and posture. Anyway, I am so NOT ready!! Not only would Baby Sister have no place to sleep (bassinet not assembled yet), no clothes to wear (they're all in the attic or in gift bags with tags attached), and no diapers (am going to go with washable ones this time), but I still don't feel mentally prepared for being a mother of TWO!! One is suddenly seeming entirely too easy, and I'm already feeling bittersweet about saying good-bye to these days of picking up and going wherever with my one laid-back daughter. I'm worried that when I finally get all my baby girl stuff down and organized, I'll realize there actually are more things I need that I didn't tell anyone before my showers and I still have shopping to do!! Anyway, to answer everyone's "I bet you are SO READY," I would like to say I am most certainly NOT, mentally or physically. Give me just a couple more weeks of lugging around this basketball-belly, Baby Sister!

Chill Family Weekend

I have officially taught my last session of Comp 1 this semester! No, the semester is not over yet. But this week and next Monday before the break, I'm just meeting with students individually for their final papers and presentations, and then the week in between the break and finals week, the students will be doing their presentations. That's a little bit of pressure off, but I still have the dark cloud of final grading looming over my head!! One more month until it's all over, and then another month until my due date!

After last weekend's hustle and bustle, it was so nice to take it easy this weekend. Friday night, Jay worked until dark and then came home to our first ever Family Movie Night! Even though Jay fell asleep within 20 minutes of Monsters Versus Aliens, it was still a great night. Claire and I fixed chili and cornbread, and then hot cocoa and popcorn. We made a pallet in the floor and watched it "all togever," as Claire said with delight. I considered taking Claire to see that movie in the theater, and I'm glad we didn't end up doing that--it was neat in parts, but definitely slow in others. I was glad we could pause it for bathroom breaks and talk and read during the Presidential conferences.

Saturday, Claire and I hit the library and a couple stores in downtown Durant before lunch. Claire and I both scored big--both shop owners just loved Claire, and gave her free candy, and I actually got two people marked off my Christmas list!

I savor these casual shopping trips--Claire is such a good shopper, even in a gift shop like The Hollow Tree with quite a few breakables and racks of jewelry and such. She loves to pick things up and say, "Oh, that's cool" or "That's cute." Anyway, I know these days are numbered, as when Baby Sister comes, shopping will be a bit more trouble, although I'm sure still doable while she's still content in her carseat/stroller.

Jay came home to "work on some floor plans" after a morning of work in Calera and golf with a college buddy, which meant he ate lunch, watched football, and then headed to the office and made phone calls until Claire and I got home from an afternoon of more shopping! This time, we were on a mission for winter clothes for Claire, which we found along with Mom and Ty. Mom and Grant celebrated their SECOND ANNIVERSARY on Saturday--I cannot believe it's been two years already!!--so Grant met us in Sherman to take Mom on a date, and we took Ty back home with us. That night, we went to our church Harvest Dinner. While Claire napped yesterday, I made a strawberry pretzel salad and a caramel pecan pie for the dinner--both were great! I will try to post them on the sadly neglected cooking blog.

Here's a video of Claire "reading" her toddler Bible--she'd only heard these three stories once a few minutes before when I read them to her, and then I came back in the living room to find her re-reading them. I was really pleased to hear her say, "Look at the birds people! God doesn't feed them!" from Jesus' awesome "Consider the lilies" passage. She loves to "read" her books and is getting to where she loves for Jay and I to tell her stories about her and her friends. These are usually adaptations of her favorite books and movies--usually either Goldie (a spin on "Goldilocks and the Three Bears), The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, or The Three Little Pigs, with her and her friends' names substituted for the character names.

I've got to write this down before I forget it. A couple nights ago, Claire woke up a little while after I'd put her to bed saying she needed to go pee-pee. This is almost always either a stalling tactic or a signal that she's just woken up for some reason and wants me to put her back in bed. So after a fairly unproductive sit on the potty, we went back to her room, and Claire said, "I saw something in my room just now." This is a new thing; I can't remember her telling me she was scared of something or even telling me a story about something happening like that. So I looked around and said, "There's not anything in your room right now. Did it scare you?" She said, "Yeah. Sometimes, in my room, I see something over there," and pointed to her dresser. So I did my best to explain to her that she doesn't need to be afraid and that sometimes things look different in the dark and that can feel a little scary. I just thought that was so sad and sweet that her imagination is starting to sort of backfire on her, and that this has apparently happened before, but she is just now telling me about it.

Proud moments for the Mauck family!

We welcomed our hunting hubby/daddy home Friday night from his WEEK-LONG trip to western Kansas. Claire and I spent the week in Coleman at Nana and Grandad's old house/Mom, Grant, and Ty's temporary house while Jay was gone. I really don't mind staying by myself that much, but last week I had a story assignment to travel and write for, and a slew of papers to grade, so I really needed some built-in evening babysitting help. I ended up coming back to Durant everyday to feed our animals and run errands, even when I didn't have to be at school. Claire stayed with Nana and Grandad two mornings while I went to school, and really enjoyed playing with their toys (that trash bucket full of toys has served many grandkids, and now great-grandkids!) and spending time with them, along with Aunt Betty of course. I liked getting to watch Dancing with the Stars and Project Runway with fellow fans who aren't two and a half (Love dancing with Claire, but adult conversation is nice occasionally, too!).

Jay spent the week waking up at the crack of dawn, hunting until lunch, coming back for lunch and a bit of a rest, and then heading back out at 2 or 3 and staying out until dark. NO cell phone signal meant we didn't get to talk for THREE DAYS, probably the longest ever in our relationship. Maybe it was just pregnancy hormones, but I probably could have just sat down and cried a couple times if I had thought too hard about that. Jay did get a Kansas buck, a 200-pounder we will use for meat and mount for our wall. We have a nice upper corner of our cathedral ceiling in the living room where a deer is barely visible unless it is pointed out. I still am not a huge fan of feeling a dead animal's glassy eyes staring down on me.

Saturday morning, Jay got back behind the wheel, this time with his wife and daughter in tow, to head to Edmond for Jay's induction into the Oklahoma Christian Athletic Hall of Fame. Paul, Diane, and Ike Miller, a family friend from our church who has taught Jay to golf, and has watched him play basketball since he was in elementary school, followed fairly close behind us.

I'll just go ahead and brag on my talented hubby for just a minute. During Jay's three years at OC, he broke the career scoring record (even with a knee injury that cut a year out of his career!), and led the OC men's basketball team to one of its best seasons ever. He was NAIA Player of the Year his junior year (again, even after his season-ending injury), and is the OC record-holder for most 3-pointers in a game and season.

Too bad I never got to see any of those things! I was just telling Jay it's ironic that so many people know him because of watching him play basketball, and I am probably the person who knows him better than anyone else, and have never seen him play! I probably saw him play in high school, but I was four years younger, and didn't play close enough attention to really remember.

Anyway, Jay dropped Claire and I off in Norman after we ate lunch with Amanda, so that Claire could get a nap and be rested for our long afternoon and evening. Don't know how much good that did, as this little one was a LIVE WIRE during the basketball games and the banquet. Jay got to watch the women's game, seeing a girl from our church who graduated from Durant High School last year, score 11 points for OC! I wish I could have seen that; hopefully we'll get to watch them again this year. Amanda and I came on a bit later, and slid into our seats just in time to see Jay's slideshow go up on the big screens. Whew!

After the slideshow, with an announcer voice-over that told all about Jay's accomplishments, the OC Athletic Director Curtis Janz went out to center-court with Jay and held up the banner of him that will be hung up in the gym. He got a standing O!

Girl-cousins at the game! It was so hot in there, no matter what skinny old Amanda says.

For the banquet that night, the program was really neat. Also being honored with Jay were Stan and Betty Green, the longtime OC Sports Information Director and his wife, who was a longtime athletic department secretary. After they got up with several pages of notes for their speech, Jay and I exchanged nervous grins--of course, Jay had only written down a few words on his iPhone by way of notes. For Jay's part of the program, they of course read a bunch of his most impressive awards and records, and then showed the slideshow from the basketball game, and some game footage from the OC/OKCU game where Jay turned it around in the last few minutes with some three-pointers.

Then four people got up and gave testmonials of all Jay had done for OC. His freshman-year roommate, Clint Vaughn, who also played baseball at OC, talked about how Jay was not a big man on campus, even though he could have been. He was kind to everyone and humble, despite his ball-hogging on the court--hehee, couldn't resist!

Then the national championship winning OC golf coach, Kelsey Cline, who didn't know Jay personally, but was a fan of his, talked about the fan base Jay and his team built up for the basketball team, and how he still tells people today that Jay is the best college point guard ever. (Lots of tossing around of the word "best" tonight.)

Then Jay's former teammate, Rob Seat, got up to really warm up the crowd. He got them laughing so much that by the time Coach Hayes and Jay got up to give their talks, we already had big smiles on our faces. Since Rob is also 5'8", he cracked a joke about how he and Jay were one of the most intimidating 1-2 combos many players had ever seen. He also made a real crowd-pleasing joke about Coach Janz' hair, which of course, is a favorite subject for any OC basketball fan.

Coach Hayes also talked about Jay, of course, and it almost brought tears to my eyes when he described watching Jay get injured at the OBU game. I can't imagine what a heartbreaker that was for the Maucks, Jay's team, and all the OC fans, when they were so close to conference play in an undefeated season. Many people will make comments about Jay's talents using the phrasing "pound for pound" or "inch for inch," qualifying his abilities by saying that for a player his size, he's the best. But Coach Hayes said there is no pound for pound or inch for inch. He was simply the best point guard and best shooter he's ever seen. *tear*

Then Jay got up to give his talk, which of course, was mostly off the top of his head, but totally heartfelt. He said that OC is a family, and you don't realize what a support system you have until you leave. He also talked about how difficult it was to transition to not being an Eagle anymore, how that at the first Southeastern huddle he was a part of, he actually shouted "Eagles!" at the end when everyone else said "Savages!" He told a couple stories about people not believing that he was a basketball player when he was trying to charge his books to his athletic scholarship in the bookstore (the worker actually called to verify it), or at the pre-game dinner for basketball players.

Here's the Paul Mauck family who was present: oldest brother Brian, his wife Jennifer and their kids Zach and Abby, middle brother Kyle (his wife Audrey was at a church retreat, and his kids Carson and Kerrigan were home with Mimi), and Paul and Diane. Hopefully the OC staff got one of Jay looking at the camera; Amanda, my faithful photographer, was a little rushed. Other Maucks who were present were Jay's cousin Tracy, an OC alum who opens her home up to us every Thanksgiving, and who was in for a reunion of her college track team, and Jay's uncle Don, Paul's brother and another OC alum (most of them are!), who was in for a class reunion.

The proud family!

And one of the sisters! Look closely; there are actually TWO sets of sisters in this one! So exciting! I was glad Amanda got to be here for this, both to share this neat time with her, and so that she could help with Claire, who really needed to do some running around during this two-hour-plus banquet.

Even though I didn't ever get to see Jay in his basketball glory days, I am still so proud of him, not just for his God-given and hard-practiced physical abilities, but for his good heart and friendly smile. Those are what bring so many people to his team, not just for Calera, or OC, or later, for Southeastern, but through all of those experiences where he excelled, the light that Jay projects has always been for Christ.

Trunk or Treat

Tonight, we went to the Trunk or Treat and Carnival at 7th and Beech Church of Christ, which was a lot of fun. Here's Claire and Katelyn, who was an adorable butterfly.




I could not choose between these two pictures; both too cute!



She shoots, she SCORES! Aralyn (in the Cinderella dress to the left) and Jay were both coaching her along.

Bounce house, always a highlight. Claire discovered she could go down on her belly, and did that probably 20 times. Kate Albright, to the right on the slide, is in Claire's Thursday School class, and was Bob the Tomato.

Pumpkin Patch!

Holidays are when you really realize how much FUN it is to have a child! It's suddenly totally okay to be unabashedly thrilled over kids' Halloween costumes, getting free candy, playing cheesy carnival games, and going to an awesome place like a pumpkin patch!

Claire got to wear her Halloween costume four times this year, and we lost a crucial piece to it each time, so that by the end, she was fairly unrecognizable as Abby Cadabby. Her poof pigtails and wand both *poof* disappeared, so we had ourselves one very cute fairy or butterfly.

Since my last post, we've been to the Coleman Halloween Carnival--a total madhouse, definitely no photo ops there--Baker's Acres pumpkin patch in Tishomingo, and the 7th and Beech Trunk or Treat and Carnival (another post on that to come).

Mom, Tyler, Dani Rose, Molly, and Aunt Donola went with us this morning to the pumpkin patch, and it was surprisingly almost empty! We had every attraction almost completely to ourselves, including a private hayride! It was amazing! And this place had so much to do, as you will soon see.

Claire and Molly on the hayride.

This train cracks me up: it was plastic feed barrels with holes cut in the side, welded to wheels and a frame, and attached to a four-wheeler! The seats were 2 x 4 that the kids straddled, so ouch-ee-momma for the mommas who had to ride, like Dani!

Hay slide! Tyler is so good about helping Claire get along, and doing it as many times as she wants. Oh the perks of having older siblings, which we will very soon know!

Huge barrel full of corn, with lots of scoops and buckets to play with? Wow, what an easy, fun thing for little ones, right? Totally, until they get up, and fish HANDFULS of corn out of their underwear. Not surprising for Tyler, but Claire just sat down for a few minutes at the end! We had them throw their bobo corn onto the ground of course, but think of how many kids didn't!

Feeding the donkeys! There were buckets of feed for each set of animals just sitting in the middle of the barn with cups, so we could get as much corn or pellets or whatever as we wanted. The goats enjoyed this a little too much, of course. Enjoyed meaning butted each other out of the way to shove their noses into our cups. There were also bunnies, chickens, calves, and pigs. Seriously, I would have no chance to coo over these adorable--and if not adorable, then funny--animals if it weren't for Claire!

Tyler got into these duck races a little too much. You pump the water down this sawed-off PVC pipe so that a rubber ducky shoots down the stream and into a tub at the other end. Mom showed that we are definitely related when she bent over to pick up a duck and her sunglasses fell off her head and into the tank. Ha! So something I would do.

Neat little race track with pedal go-karts. Ty and Claire were not ready to stop, but for Mom's sake, we promised caramel apples and they hopped right off.

YUM!!