To the zoo for school

Charlotte's school is studying animals, so naturally we go to the zoo for science quite often.  One of her classmates, who happens to be a neighbor, came with us, so of course it was the coolest trip ever. We were studying the primates this time.

Halloween

Halloween this year kinda snuck up on me.  The girls had told me weeks ago they wanted to be Stellaluna (a bat) and a minion, so it was easy to put off costumes, but we really pushed last minute this year.  That's ok, the girls loved it, and they thought it was great that they got to pick Jacob's costume (baby Jack Jack from The Incredibles, a movie).  I was a tired mom.  Before we headed out, we dressed Jacob up in Koby's first Halloween costume - it's a tradition!

Happy birthday, Daddy!

 

Daddy turned 34 and we made birthday brownies.  Before I knew what was happening, Paige was licking her plate clean.  So I really just have the after-party pictures, I guess!

Paige and Jacob.

 

Jacob is all over the place.  He loves to play with his sisters, but that can lead to some unhappiness on their part.  For example, he would NOT let Paige take that bucket off of her head, and yet he kept pulling on it (hurting her nose). He also sits on her, which she loves/hates.  This playtime was so joyful - until it wasn't!

We were all set up for movie time, but Jacob just saw an unclimbed area of the house.

He also tries to either hitch a ride on the tricycle, or push it from behind while Paige rides it, both of which she hates!

 (Charlotte heard I was taking pictures and wanted to be part of the fun.)

Camping time

Our traditional fall camping trip took a last-minute turn this year.  The night before we were supposed to go to Buescher State Park, we found out it had caught on fire.  Wildfires had sprung up all over the area and it was completely shut down.  So we ended up going to Oma and Opa's land for the weekend and it was really great!

Opa mowed the meadow for us and we set the tents up under some oak trees, then had a hasty dinner and a tiny fire (there was a fire ban!) and s'mores.

The next morning Parks was set on hunting up his own breakfast in the form of cactus tunas.  He enjoyed it enough to have a second round!  It (of course) led to playing with cactus (and a few thorny fingers).

Then we went to "hike a mountain."  Didn't you know San Marcos has a mountain?  Charlotte kept calling it Pike's Peak.  (Really, we just went to a nearby green space with some trails up a hill.  But it was lots of fun.)

After hiking, we laid around at the campsite for several hours, then went to the San Marcos river to canoe for a bit.  While we waited for the canoes, the kiddoes played on the playground.

Snack time!