Trick or Treating!

My little pumpkin boy! Derek was so cute this Halloween! This is the second year he's been some sort of a pumpkin though. Mitch has dibbs on next year - I think Derek's going to be a cowboy with a penciled in beard. :) Might change though. Nana, Papi and Aunt Val picked us up to go trick-or-treating with Aunt Jenn and my cousins, Ally and Tyler. Their neighborhood had some awesome houses (wish I'd thought to take pictures of those!). I was kind of pre-occupied keeping an eye on my little guy. Aunt Val took him up to most of the houses (thanks Val!), so I was able to enjoy the scenery. I'm glad we didn't hit many houses - less candy for Mitch and I to eat! To be fair, though, I let Derek eat the M&Ms and a couple Crunch bars. The rest will be going in Mitch's lunchbox for work. Without further ado, here's the little pumpkin boy!!

Aunt Val got the best pictures of him that night!

Finally saying "Cheese" to the camera!

What Halloween isn't complete without responsible parents scaring their kids?

Before he got dressed, his cousins handcuffed him. :P

He was excited to go trick-or-treating with his cousins, Aunt Val, Nana and Great-Aunt Jen

Check out that cool skeleton candy basket Nana got him!

He was fascinated by all the kids in costumes

Derek wasn't the first to wear this costume... I was! This is me when I was five, I think. All my sisters but the youngest have worn this outfit. I'm amazed it's still in such pristine condition. Here's to hoping the tradition will live on!

Derek figured out what the piggy says...

Cowboy Derek and the Pumpkin Patch

A couple Sundays ago, I brought Derek into my room to play while I finished getting ready. He found Aunt Lanae's cowboy hat and paraded around, entirely too pleased with himself. He loves to play with Grandpa's baseball hat, so a cowboy hat was just another plaything to him. Don't worry, Lanae - we put it back safe and sound.



My Mom and Rick invited us to go to a pumpkin patch about an hour south of McKinney. After a bit of a rocky (and late) start, we met up with them and my Aunt, Uncle and a few of my cousins. My cousins are a few years older than Derek and were more excited about the bouncy houses and tractor rides, but Derek was easily entertained with massive pumpkins. Good thing for me, because I had some pictures I wanted to take. We all got together later that evening to carve pumpkins and watch the 4th game in the World Series. Go Rangers!

You know all those cutesy family pictures people take with props? This was my attempt.

Kind of worked, but he kept grabbing the blocks

Folding arms didn't work very well either. Oh well, he's cute!

He's such a little dude!

Jailbird!

My awesome cousins!

Family!

Mitch was so patient with Derek. Derek kept "asking" to ride the merry-go-round so Mitch squeezed his big frame into the itty bitty space. Twice. This is Derek's excited face. No happy squeals, just quiet. He's such a funny little boy!

Love this face! Looks like another Harry Potter spell moment to me.

Holding out his hand to show me his rocks

And of course, the Big Green (John Deere) Tractor!

Witch's Brew with Nana

Petting the "Puppy"

Like I mentioned, we went back to Uncle Tim and Aunt Jen's house to carve pumpkins and watch the Rangers battle the Cardinals in the World Series. It was fun to hang out with family and roast pumpkin seeds, eat Uncle Tim's pork (YUM!!) and Aunt Jen's cookies (YUM YUM!!) and play with little Jazzy (the Chug). Derek was surprisingly not afraid of Jazzy or Izzy (the boxer). Last time he'd seen dogs, he was not too excited to play. This time, Izzy licked his face, followed him around and pushed him over a couple times and he didn't seem to mind. At first though, he wanted to be in my lap. When Izzy left the immediate vicinity, he'd get down to wander, but when he made eye contact with Izzy (who would immediately start heading his way), Derek would drop everything and run to the nearest lap. Too funny. He stopped this after a bit, but it was funny while it lasted. My little boy is growing up! *sniff sniff*

Mom and Ally took hand carvers to this massive pumpkin.

Then Uncle Tim broke out the Dremel automatic carver. Short work of three pumpkins

Derek wasn't sure what to think of the pumpkin guts

He figured out what the scraper was for pretty quick though!

Kadi's 24th Birthday

The day of the 14th dawned bright and early. It was going to be a GREAT day. My friend, Sheila, had called earlier in the week to invite Derek and I to go the a local museum for a morning of exploration. The Heard Museum of Natural Science had just opened a new exhibit of animatronic, life-size dinosaurs!! We'd only been to The Heard once before, but Derek liked walking around and chasing after Sheila's two boys, Everett and Merritt. Those two boys have just as much personality as Derek, so you can imagine all the fun we have when we're together. :) Here are pictures from that trip.

My lovely friend, Sheila, with Everett and Merritt. We love hanging out with them!

Everett and Derek riding the long-necked little dinosaur

Everett was a little more adventurous, Derek was happier being further back

Riding the other dinosaur

Can you spot the dinosaur?

There it is!! Kind of scrawny looking...

This one was fun. Everett kept trying to feed the Massospondilus a stick. Derek was fascinated

The "Elvisaurus." Not kidding.

Sing it with me! You ain't nuthin but a FO-SSIL!! Crumblin' after time!

The brachiosaurus aka the burping dinosaur (see video)



Sorry about the sideways view, but it's pretty entertaining

Parasaurolophus - gold star if you can pronounce that

This was my favorite dinosaur growing up

Inspecting the tongue of the cool climb-on-me statue. Derek tried to lick it. YUCK!

Hey, I think you have something in your teeth!

Man, this is a cool picture. It looks like the raptor just appeared out of the woods while we were strolling along.

It spat water at unsuspecting passers-by. We have proof! (see video)



Derek was blissfully unaware

Suchomimus

Is it just me, or is that T-Rex kinda chubby?

Still a cool dinosaur!



Roaring at the T-Rex

We caught grasshoppers that were strangely patient with little fingers poking



Everett and Merritt Discuss the Grasshopper (And Derek Can't Quite Reach)

White faced Coatimundi

Ring-tailed Lemur

Big ol' Capybara!

After leaving The Heard, Derek and I went home and enjoyed the rest of the afternoon in a rather passive way: Derek had naptime and I had free-time. :) Then we dressed Derek up and went swimming in the backyard. Brrrrrr! Little chilly, but maybe I should have put the pool in the sunshine rather than in the shadows. Note to self for next time. I had tons a friends wish me facebook happy birthdays and a bunch of calls from family members. It was a GREAT day! Thanks to everyone!!