Ultimate Humungousaur and Thomas the Train

These two little boys made me laugh so much tonight!  Didn't you know Thomas has to show his muscles just as much as Humungousaur?  And didn't you know that Thomas needs his face painted too?

Sam was soooo excited!  He knew what was coming next and he was ready for that candy.  We went Trick-or-Treating with our neighbors and Ben just could not keep up with all the big boys.  When he couldn't take any more he said, "I don't want to hold your hand, Mommy ... I want to hold you!"  With his arms reached up at me, how could I possibly say no!

Ben also refused to say "Trick-or-Treat" and instead mostly said "I want some" ... at least he said "Thank you!"

I figured Sam's mask wouldn't be staying on long so a little face paint would be fun (and a little more menacing than the red hair).

Sam could not sit still no matter how hard he tried.  If he wasn't moving his face, he was moving his body.

I want paint too Mommy!

Again with the tickles!

More pictures of the boys in their costumes ...

Back home with their loot and ready to see how much they can get away with ...

Happy Halloween!!!

Texas State Railroad - Pumpkin Patch Express

We took a weekend trip to go ride the Texas State Railroad last weekend.  The boys had the day off school on Friday for parent/teacher conferences, so we took advantage of that to do something special for Ben's birthday.

It was a special event called Peanuts The Great Pumpkin Patch Express.  It was supposed to be one of the steam engines for this ride, but it ended up being a diesel.  Chris and I were disappointed that we didn't get to see the steam engine, but Sam had really wanted to ride a diesel so he was very excited.  I'm sure it worked out better in the end since the noises the diesel made concerned Ben a little, and the steam engine would have been much louder.

It was a gorgeous day, perfect for a train ride!

The boys were so excited to ride the train.  They'd talked about it for weeks.  I honestly couldn't tell if they were more excited about the train or the pumpkin patch!

They gave out these cool fans.

It was a short 20 - 30 min ride to the pumpkin patch.

Petting zoo

Shooting bottles with a cork gun

That's Sam at the top of the slide and Ben at the bottom.

They had lots of games and prizes.

There was a pumpkin patch and trick-or-treat street.

Hay ride

Ben was tuckered out and slept on my lap the whole way back.

Sam was disappointed that we were head back home and not back to the hotel.  He was not ready for the adventure to be over.

Ben was so exhausted!  I wish he would have napped on the drive home, but he waited until 15 min before we got to the house to fall asleep.  I brought him in the house and he napped in my lap again. 

 Sweet baby, can't believe you are two already!

Love's Lookout

We took a weekend trip to ride the Texas State Railroad last weekend.  We spent the night in Jacksonville.  The boys thought it was a big adventure to spend the night in a hotel.  

We went to check out Love's Lookout before dinner. The ridge is part of a long, flat-topped hill that extends for nine miles, has an elevation of 720 feet above sea level, and rises 240 feet above the surrounding terrain.  It was originally a WPA project, but was recently renovated after being damaged by an earthquake in the 1980's.

This is the view looking East towards Louisiana.

It was great to have a place for the boys to run around after being in the van for about three hours.

The boys loved walking on the wall.

I showed Sam how to pick the seed pods off of the Mimosa trees and get the seeds out.  He "planted" several trees after that.

The sun was setting so it was time to go.

There was also a beautiful butterfly garden there.  The Monarch butterflies migrate through Texas on their way to Mexico in September/October every year so there were tons of butterflies all around.

The boys slept on a sofa bed that night.  Ben is still sleeping in a crib at home, so he didn't seem to really understand that it was time for bed.  I think it was 10:30 or 11:00 before he finally fell asleep!  I thought giving him his binky would be a good signal that it was time for bed, but since that didn't seem to help at all we decided we are done with the binky.  He's slept without it all week and has only asked for it once!