Soccer comes to an end!

This season G played for The Snakes once again.  We have a lot of fun with this team because not only is G friends with the other boys, but I am friends with the other moms.  :)  This year I also happened to volunteer to be the "Team Mom".

At the end of this fun season we had a great team party over at our home.  Earlier in the morning we met on the field for our last game.  To celebrate, the boys got all painted up!

Nice!

 

After a tough game we headed over to our house for the pizza party!  We started out with Coach Scott talking with all the boys and family members.  He has been a great coach and we so appreciate all the time he has put into this team!

Then trophies were handed out to each boy.

The the team "posed" for a team picture.  ;)

I'm sure I wasn't alone when I thought "What a relief " when it was all over...until next year.  :)

Trunk-or-Treat!

This year Halloween falls on a Sunday.  Because Sundays are special for our family and we do our best to keep them holy, we decided we wouldn't trick-or-treat in our neighborhood.  This was a sacrifice for our kids as well as The Big Guy Lowe and I because we have such a wonderful neighborhood and we love participating in our fun activities.  But just as fun as it would have been, we all agreed that we would be just a happy participating in our church's Trunk-or-Treat instead.

The boys got all dressed up and we were ready to go!  Never a better group of Star Wars characters! (And take a look at those jack-o-lanterns!)

 

Our congregation had a full on party before the trunk-or-treating began.  While it was fun and there were good treats, the boys were ready for the candy!

I walked around with the boys as they gathered a huge amount of candy is a short amount of time.  The Big Guy Lowe manned our car passing out candy to all that came...

and he made sure he wasn't left out of the good stuff either! 

The boys (dad included) had a great time with all the candy!

Whew!

Grammy's Halloween Party

Every year Grammy has a Halloween party for all the cousins living in the area.  It's something they look forward to as there are always fun things to do...games, crafts, fun things to eat, trick-or-treating inside the house.  This year did not disappoint!  One of the games was eating a "witch's wand" (pretzel rod dipped in chocolate) hanging out back.  Our entire family gave it a try!  Starting with G,

Big D,

and even J...even though he opted to just eat it with daddy! 

That didn't stop The Big Guy Lowe from giving it a shot though!  He has skills.  ;) 

Then there were games inside

followed by decorating "monster" cupcakes.

We were Halloweened-out by the end of the evening, but loved every minute of it!  Thanks Grammy for loving your grandkids so much!!  We love you right back!!

The Snakes 2010

We had a pretty fun soccer season this year.  While we had many of the same players from last year, we had some great new additions which made the team, and friends, even better!

G had a lot of fun throughout the season.  These are a few shots taken that day by the photographer.

We love our soccer player!!

Pumpkin carving 2010

After a successful trip to the pumpkin patch(es), we were ready to do some carving!

G dove right in with his steele-trap focus!

Focus doesn't keep you from having fun though!

The Big Guy Lowe helped D with his pumpkin. 

While J made the best use of his time having Grammie read to him

then running around the house.

After they were finished carving, the boys played with Aunt Christina!

A few days later, Big D had another chance to carve a pumpkin...all by himself!

He was pretty determined for a new four year old. 

 

He was extremely happy with his results! 

Yea for jack-o-lanterns!



Great Wolf Lodge and family

Great Wolf Lodge.  Have ya heard of it?

Emily and Jacob were going to be heading up to our neck of the woods and we all thought it would be fun to have all the families get together and play in the water...even if it was October!

We got there a bit early, but we were able to still use the water park even before our rooms were ready.  We were a bit surprised to see so many people bringing in substantial groceries.  I hadn't realized that the rooms came with a not-so-small fridge and microwave, and then some of the suites come with full kitchens.  More on that later though.  :)

The waterpark was so impressive!  And all indoors!!  These are a few shots that I got online as I didn't bring my camera with us by the water--to busy playing!!

The wave pool was great and we spent quite a bit of time there.  J was pretty slow to get comfortable, but towards the end of our stay he was loving it with the rest of us!

This was one of The Big Guy Lowe's and my favorite rides--pretty impressive!

You start out very high because you have just climbed MANY stairs--well worth the climb though.  After riding through a tube you drop into this HUGE funnel!  We had so much fun that evening when the two little boys stayed in the room with a few of the other younger cousins and Grammy HB watching a movie, while G, The Big Guy Lowe, Grandpa, and other aunts, uncles, and cousins were able to go play!  YAHOO!!

Earlier in the evening we all got together to have dinner.

(another shot of the place)

We had fun at dinner...note the wolf ears

again, note the wolf ears!

That evening we were able to play throughout the resort before going back to the waterslides.  While it was fun, we were amazed at how expensive everything was...especially the food.  We don't mind paying a decent amount of money on food if it is good, but when it's mediocre or bad, it's pretty frustrating.  That was when we realized why we saw so many people bringing so much food with them when checking in.  We'll learn for next time!

As we drove away, I tried to get a shot of the HUGE funnel.  This was what I got.  The red and yellow tube comes out of the building and then drops into the funnel on the left.  So impressive!!

Overall, it was a lot of fun and not too far from home.  Fun memories that we look forward to sharing with our Lowe cousins in December!!  Yea!!!

Such a pretty house!

We went to a lot of work this past year to make sure our home was up-to-par.  We powerwashed and stained our fence and then we had our entire house painted.  So what do we do when Halloween comes around?  We cover it up and make it really spooky!

The Big Guy Lowe is such a great dad!  He loves his boys and makes sure they have fun.  Decorating the house was no different!  They all decided it would be SO spooky to cover the house in spiderwebs.  It was.  This is how it all came together...

 

 

 

J decided he would sit and read for a while. 

 

When J did decide to participate, he helped by throwing dirt.  We kept laughing! 

 

Can you believe after all of this we didn't take a final picture?  Crazy!  It was really scary!  The Big Guy Lowe brought the spider webs all the way up to the upper story and they were strung all over the yard.  I think it cost us under $10 total.  Nice.  Next time we'll take a final picture.  ;)