Halloween

Tate never ceases to amaze me. Tonight we went trick-or-treating with The Streets.


At the first house we coax Tate to the front door and prompt him to say "trick or treat." Well I'm not sure if he actually said trick or treat or not. However, after the nice lady put candy in his neon green jack-o-lantern he promptly pushed past the woman of the house, following their yellow lab. Apparently once inside he plopped down to dig in to his candy and hang out with their dog. Chuck went in after him. As the guys were coming out the man came out and was talking to us. He said, "hey I know you!" I looked and sure enough it was the "rug guy." You know the guy that brings the rugs to the office and takes away the others away to be cleaned. So I guess that made me feel a little better knowing that Tate didn't help himself into a complete strangers house. Oh well!


We pressed on. The kids hit a few more house before Tate discovered there were leaves on the ground. I don't know why, but Tate is fascinated with leaves. Every time we're outside Tate brings me a leaf. It's almost like he's bringing me a flower.
Anyhow I think we ended up with 3 leaves in his jack-o-lantern.


If you didn't notice in the last picture Chuck dressed up for Halloween too. He was the one and only Shaggy. They were so cute together!


The little guy was really getting into the swing of things, checking his stash every so often.


Finally we got home and Tate dove into his buck-o-candy. "CANDY!" he said as he came up with a Hershey's chocolate sucker. Apparently it was pretty good because he was walking around the house showing it off.


On Friday Tate was allowed to dress up at daycare for Halloween. I didn't want to deal with the Scooby costume. At our church's fall festival Wednesday evening I learned the Scooby costume is hot. So I opted for something a little more simple. Thinking quick on my feet I decided on a fireman. It worked out well. Tate loves his rain boots and is constantly running around the house in his fire hat.


By the way, here's a little something to back up the theory about Tate being too hot in the Scooby costume indoors.


That's right this is Tate in his underwear in a bounce house at our church's fall festival. Once inside the bounce and safely out of the reach of his mommy he striped out of his costume and threw it over the side.

Run Tate Run!

Last weekend Tate found himself in Conway.
What was he doing in Conway?
Well, he was there to cheer his mom on. You see she was running in a half marathon. He missed seeing her cross the finish line by just a few minutes, that and one other small detail: He was asleep.
Thanks to Grandpa Mike, who carried him a long, long way from the parking spot to the finish line, Tate finally made it. Not long after he arrived at the finish line he woke up, happy to see mom and dad and even more excited to see a big bounce house slide. He played there for several minutes, giving his mom a chance to catch her breathe. Eventually he posed for a picture with mom and dad.

Parker Homestead

I've lived in Jonesboro for 13 years and I had never been to Parker Homestead (south of Harrisburg near Whitehall). The other day Chuck brought home a flyer promoting dates for the "homecoming" weekends. What the heck, I thought, let's take Tate. It'll be fun! I was right and wrong.
First off it was extremely muddy! Yuck! Stir in chilly weather and you have the makings for a rather cranky child and an even more cranky mother. Chuck, he could have cared less. Being part little boy, the mud didn't bother him and being well insulated the cold didn't phase him either.
Everything started off well enough. We caravaned down with the Streets (John, Becky and Emalyn). They brought a wagon for the kids to ride in, a stroke of genius on their part.
First stop, a gigantic barn, which the kids thought was cool. Next we dallied over to pet this ornery old white mule.


Tate had fun on the see-saw with Uncle John...

And rocking on the front porch with Emalyn...
He was mesmerized by all the sites. He was especially fond of the blacksmith and, of course, the cannon!
Tate loves music. So you can imagine how he was drawn to the guys that were "pickin' and a grinnin.'" He had a bird's eye view from his perch on Chuck's shoulder.

The boys paused for a moment at the mouth of the covered bridge. This was mainly so I could take a picture. We explained to him the covered bridge was like a tunnel. He thinks tunnels are cool, so I think Tate enjoyed studying it.

He made friends the rooster and the scarecrow, who he promptly introduced Chuck and I to.
It went something like this:
Hi! Me Tate! This is mommy, daddy.

He happened upon this unmanned miniature booth that offered dry goods, such as canned jams. Tate, being the good natured little guy that he is, he thought he'd lend a helping hand.

We visited the church...

Then it was time to study the tractors!


Somewhere in the middle of all that Tate had a little melt down. Thankfully it was short-lived. All in all it was a good day and a fun family outing!