Halloween...

I lOvE fall and we have had such a beautiful one this year! I have loved all of the colors, crisp mornings and evenings but warm days. Halloween was fun this year - it was busy but fun! I think the boys got dressed in their costumes 6 times - 2 family halloween parties, church party, school parties, Uncle Steve's work trick-or-treat (which they loved :) ), and of course Halloween night to trick or treat! A few days before Halloween we went to the local Pumpkin walk - it was quite impressive this year - what talent! This scene was my favorite. They did such a great job!!

They had alot of cut outs of characters - Bryson being silly and being a princess!! :)

Dillon being Harry Potter - his favorite right now.

Logan driving a truck full of pumpkins!

Mason in one of the trains with Thomas the Train.

We carved our pumpkins and this year was Bryson and Dillon's actual first time of carving. Theirs are on the far right. They did a great job and were very careful with the knife.

And these are Logan's and Mason's pumpkins - Logan's was Frankenstein.

The boys dressed up as Halloween characters this year.

Lets just say that they really got into their costume - they played the part. :)

Cute boys! :)

Logan was a spider and if you ask him he was a "nice" spider - not a scary spider.

Mason was a black cat - very fitting as he couldn't keep his hands off this neighbors poor black cat - so this was the best picture I could get of him. He loves kitties.

Halloween Night - right before we left to go trick or treating!

We always trick-or-treat at Grandma and Grandpa Gardner's and while there the boys wanted to play their halloween songs that they have learned while taking piano.

And Mason too...

Finally home and checking out their loot.

Mason loved trick-or-treating! Once he figured out it was candy he was getting he wanted to chow down right there and then! He was so cute though - he would only take one treat and drop it into his pumpkin. I think his favorite were tootsie rolls.

Logan dumped his out and began making a candy train - cute!

And these 2 boys didn't waste any time trading for their candy favorites. Love Halloween!! :)

10 Years Old...

On Friday, the 17th, Bryson turned 10 years old! I can't believe that we have a 10 year old. Wow! He was so excited. Grandma and Grandpa Gardner came over the night before for ice cream and cake. They gave Bryson some books of facts and tidbits on the 50 states - something he has been wanting for a long time now. He loves to learn! :)

When I was at the store getting the party stuff Logan was very insistant that we needed party hats for Bryson's party - just like Curious George wears for his birthday party. He lOvEs Curious George. Cute boy!

Then the morning of his birthday, bright and early before school, he opened his presents from us.

He got a red and black basketball, red and black striped football, red shirt, snorkeling gear and underwater camera, zartz, and a red and black rip stick - did I mention he likes the color red? And he has informed me that his favorite 2 colors together are red and black - funny boy. :)

He wanted to do jungle animals this year. So we did the Krazy Kat Kafe (think wild cats, ie. tigers, panthers...) which is kind of a fun little restaraunt complete with waiters and waitresses (thanks a bunch, Rachel, Austin & Jason) except the menu is in riddle form and they can only order 2 items at a time. So you may order a plate of spaghetti and a toothpick or a glass of water and an after dinner mint. There were jungle sounds in the background and the lights turned down low. The kids loved it. It was a lot of fun.

The kids making Bryson go through the spanking machine.

Waiting for the Safari Birthday Bash Scavenger Hunt to begin.

Let the hunt begin... Red Team, the boys, and the girls were the Green Team. Doing their team yell at the first of the hunt, I can't remember what they yelled but I think it had something to do with a gorilla.

There were 3 categories - photography, collecting items and a project. This is the red team in jungle costume acting like they are in the jungle.

Green team putting on what they found in the box by the suburban.

Green team - best artist on the team had to paint (finger paint) a picture of their favorite jungle animal and the rest had to act like monkeys in the background.

They had to make a giant birthday card for Bryson. I didn't get any pictures of them collecting items but some of them were popping balloons for a secret message about the birthday boy. Going through the wilds of the african jungle (the corn patch :) ) and seeing how many jungle animals they could spot in 20 seconds. Calling in on a walkie talkie and receiving a secret message and listening to jungle sounds on a mp3 player and saying what they were, which was a lot harder then I thought, finding a birthday candle hidden outside, etc.

The project - they had to make a birthday cake out of playdough complete with candles for Bryson.

The red team decided to do cupcakes.

There were also some wild animals running around throughout the party - a ferocious lion, aka. Logan.

A cute little monkey - aka. Jaislyn.

A snappy crocodile, aka. Jake.

And another cute little monkey, aka. Mason.

He then opened presents and he loved loved everything he got. Thanks everyone again. He now totals 3 new footballs, some kinex, a lego game and some cool science experiment stuff.

6 Things We LOVE About Bryson:

1. He is silently competitive - he has an inner drive to do his best.

2. He loves to learn - I don't have to get after him to do his homework, especially reading. :)

3. Loves to play sports - football, basketball and baseball.

4. Loves his brothers and takes good care of them.

5. Loves to tell me how his day was at school or if he went somewhere and I wasn't with him, he fills me in on everything.

6. Loves to play with his cousins!!

LOVE YOU BUD!! :)