Festival Time!

Fall Festival time was finally here. After the muddiest soccer game of the year, we rushed home, sponged off our mud-caked Boys and got them dressed for the Fest.

This year, First Baptist Garland hosted their annual festival at Firewheel Mall to be more of an out-reach. I think it worked! Never have I seen so many people, the lines so long!

We met up with this Guy. Aaargh!

Papa finally found us in the crowd. Nosy was a little off at the Festival. I'm not sure if it was all the people crowding around or what. He chose not to participate in a single one of the fun activities.

He did muster up the strength to play quite a bit of football.

O rode down a super-huge bounce house slide.

This is the best picture I got of "The Plant." The Boy avoids my camera like the plague. Erica made Oliver the cutest plant costume I have ever seen. Here he is enjoying his cousin Olivia.

There's a tiny smile from Noah. We were waiting in the endless line for pony rides.

There was no shortage of smiles from this happy Guy!

We finally made it! After about a 45 minute wait, O got to ride that pony. Was it everything he'd dreamed of while enduring the line. I think so!

After the pony ride, we called it a night and went out for a fun pizza dinner with Gigi and Papa.

Hutt, Hutt!

The Boys' costumes have gotten so much use this year! Before we ever headed to a Fall Festival, they had already played hours worth of real football in the backyard. I spent one whole afternoon scrubbing grass stains out of little knees so they could wear clean uniforms to the Fall Fest. After the fact, I wondered if I should have just let them stay. They made the outfits look all the more authentic.

Hutt, hutt, Team Halpin!

Experts, We Are Not!

Wow, have I been impressed with so many of my friends' and family's posts with pictures of their fabulous carved pumpkins. Let's just say, pumpkin carving is not our forte! But, being part of our Fall celebration, pictures of our sad pumpkin must be posted.

We all got a turn and we all had a fun time, even if our pumpkin guy is just the plain ol' grinning kind. We were kind of partial to him.

How Goes It

School at The House of Halpin has been going great. O loves to learn, making teaching him such a joy. He has gained such confidence in his ability to read and do math problems. Neither one of us enjoy handwriting quite as much as the other subjects, but we patiently work through it each day.

If I had to name one struggle in schooling O, I would say distraction. Owen is so much like me, poor Guy. If there is anything else going on, he is observing rather than doing his work. I used to get in such trouble for this same thing in elementary school. I'd always get my work done, but I'd often leave it until the last minute because I was too busy watching my friends do their work. O's main distraction is his busy, noisy little brother.

So I spend a good deal of time trying to come up with creative things to keep Nosy occupied at our school table. He sits quietly through Bible class, but then he is clamors for things to do. Once a week, on my busiest day with O, he watches a Leap Frog DVD in my room while O and I work hard. He zips through puzzles and coloring pages at lightening speed, meaning I spend too much time gathering more for him when I need to be focusing on helping Owen. I love having him with us at the table, but I was at a loss as to how to keep him busy and content. One day, I tried this idea:

I filled a ziplock freezer bag with tempera paint and taped it to the table.

He thought it was very fun to scribble on it with his finger to make designs, and I anticipated a quiet, fun school morning...until about one minute later when he pierced the bag with a pencil and the paint proceeded to ooze all over the table. Yuck!

Never fear! I quickly made another paint bag, removed sharp objects and handed him a q-tip to paint with. This is definitely a trick I will repeat in future weeks to occupy my little guy.

Noah also loves doing his "worksheets" to be just like O. He always surprises me at how much he comprehends and can actually do correctly out of our pre-school curriculum.

Anything that involves cutting with "cissors" is always a huge hit! Slowly, Nosy's attention span is increasing, and he has been enjoying his time at the school table more and more. I love having him there with us, learning little bits as we go.

And not to forget O! Here he is hard at work on the dreaded handwriting.

"4's" and "8's" are his very favorites to write, so he always writes them twice. Funny Boy!

Such nice penmanship, Owie!

For These I Am So Grateful

If a Picture's Worth a Thousand Words...

...then this one's awfully wordy!

We met these guys at the Arbo on the first sunshiny day we'd had in quite awhile. Little did we know, it would be the last one for over a week.

On your mark, get set, GO!!!


Owie looks so horribly grown up!

Run, Ollie! Run!

I really did try to get a good shot of the two of them together. Maybe next year!

Three goofy boys and one demure little girl.

Truey was intrigued by the floating pumpkins.

We had so much fun enjoying wonderful friends and the beauty of God's creation.

He Is My Child

He may not

look like me

or

think like me

or

act like me...

...but he sure does love to eat like me!

Noah is licking every last drop of peanut butter straight off the spoon, one of my favorite snacks!

Game Day #2: Vast Improvement

Two weeks had passed since the first game due to rain. We could hardly wait to see how O did this time around.

He's got his game face on!

There he is! The O we know so well. Right in the thick of things, fighting for the ball. O kicked and kicked and kicked the ball today, even stealing it from the other team a time or two.

After every impressive play he made, O would search for his fans on the sidelines and grin and wave. At least he remembers the little people!

About half way through the game we heard the relieving news that UT had beat out OU. Jeremy was much more relaxed after that!

While O took a break, Gramps spent some time explaining strategy.

And then it happened! O got possession of the ball, and began dribbling it towards their goal. He ran and ran, breaking away from the pack. KICK! SCORE! Owie scored a goal!!!! You would have thought he'd scored the winning goal at the World Cup for all the jumping up and down and obnoxious yelling coming from the sidelines. But he did it!! Way to go, Owie! And the Boy was beaming from the inside out.

Owie's Hugest Fans

Soccer Game #2

Father-Son chest bump

(a tradition I missed out on growing up with a sister)

High fives from Gramps, who was actually hoarse for several days after the game from cheering O on to greatness.

Congratulations for a game well played from Papa

We so appreciate O's faithful fan club for spending their busy Saturdays rooting for our Guy. He loves to see your faces in the crowd!