Fall Festivities

 

This weekend was full of Fall festivities! We went to a pumpkin patch, strolled through an art festival, went to a Boo Bash at the Y and we carved our pumpkin. All that mixed in with a surprise family visit made for a very fun weekend. 

The kids dressed up in their costumes and got to rehearse trick-or-treating at the YMCA's Boo Bash. The festival had various games for the kids and candy of course. They were excited mostly because they got to wear their costumes. I tried to get Addie to enter the costume contest but she wasn't having it and Connor just wanted to jump in the bounce house. 

 

John's younger brother, Andrew, moved to NYC last September and hadn't been back since. He and his girlfriend, Ashley, were in town for the weekend and had arranged for a surprise visit with Grandma on Sunday :) John called her and Papa up Friday night and told them we needed them to drive up to babysit. Papa was in on the story and Grandma doesn't question a trip to see her grandbabies so the surprise was a success! Grandma was shocked to see her baby boy sitting in our living room when they arrived. We all went to lunch and enjoyed the gorgeous day on the patio at Jackson's which over looks the bay. 

 

Afterwards we went to Chris and Marti's for our annual pumpkin carving. I gutted our pumpkin this year while John did the carving. The kids picked a ghost for our pumpkin. Addie and Connor decorated their pumpkins with stickers and paint. One of the other girls got paint on Addie's shirt which really upset her for some reason (probably because she didn't have a nap that day). I tried to clean her up as we didn't have another shirt but she wanted it off. So she went topless the rest of the evening and was happy as can be. Should I be worried? :p

 

We had a great weekend, click here for additional pictures. 

Date Night

 

After 2 years of living in Tampa I can finally say I've been to a Bucs game! John got free tickets to last nights game against the Carolina Panthers. It wasn't a good game (for the Bucs anyway) but we had awesome weather and a great time.  

 

 

Final score: Panthers 31 - Buccaneers 13

Thanks for the tickets, Chris, and thank you Nancy for babysitting!

 

 

MOSI

 

Our YMCA membership entitled us to free admission to the Museum of Science and Industry, aka MOSI, anytime in the month of October. We didn't want to pass up on the offer and finally made it there last weekend. We had been once before, for the Mummy exhibit with BeBe and Grandpa, but didn't get a chance to see the rest of the museum. 

 

While we were there we explored the children's science center, went to the moon (mission: moonbase), experienced a hurricane and tornado, and visited the butterfly garden. There was so much more to do but we had had enough for the day.

 

 

 

 

When the kids get older we'll have to come back for their ropes course and zip line, and maybe get in an IMAX movie experience. 

 

ropes course

 

Aquarium

The kids got to go to the aquarium again this past weekend to attend a birthday party. 

 

 

 

 

This time we also got to enjoy the splash pad afterwards as it was a nice (and hot) day. Addie seems to have ended her strike on the splash pad. For whatever reason she would have nothing to do with them all summer long. Not at school with her friends, not at Busch Gardens with her brother, no where, no how. But she had fun on Saturday!

 

Connor is at the age where we feel comfortable letting him run around with just his friends. We kept an eye on him of course but we used to be right there by his side. He had a blast!

 

 

 

 

Weekend Recap

We babysat the Donnell boys this past Saturday evening. The kids have so much fun together! I think it helps that they are in the same class with one another at school now (Connor is in VPK with Reid and Brody is with Addie in the 2's). 

 

 

The kids being silly with some sombreros they found in our storage room

 

 

We headed to Pass-A-Grille on Sunday to get in one more beach day before the cooler weather rolls in (our pool is already too cold to enjoy). We couldn't have asked for a better day. It was so relaxing, not too hot and there was a nice breeze. There were also several schools of manta rays swimming around us all day and we even saw manatee! 

 

 

Connor passed out at the beach - this never happens!!