Winter Beach

There's nothing better than the beach in the winter, although the weather wasn't too winterish this past week. The kids took it upon themselves to gather wood along the shore and build their own "fort". It was actually quite impressive and got many praises from passing beachcombers. They weren't at all too happy when we made them take it down before we left.

We headed back to Houston Wednesday to spend Thanksgiving with Grandma Gerrie and Papa. Maddy is nearly as tall as Grandma Gerrie. Yikes. Ate too much, stayed up too late, put up most of our Christmas decorations, did no shopping, well, maybe a little online. Winter weather arrives tomorrow. And the sprint to Christmas begins...

Hear Ye Hear Ye

Once again took the crew to the Texas Renaissance Festival this weekend. The weather was perfect.... Unfortunately, it seems everybody else along the Gulf Coast had the same idea. Soooo crowded. We didn't dress up this year, too warm, and really didn't even take any pictures, too crowded. We watched the jousting, ate some empanadas, and the kids did a few of the kid things, and that was about it. We didn't really even see the "all out" costumes that we've seen in the past. The Dragon above was the best we saw yesterday, and actually, one that we hadn't seen before. The guy below is one of our favorites, but he was nowhere to be found yesterday.

Haunted Halloween Weekend

Just returned home from a fabulous Haunted Weekend in San Marcos. Maddy took a friend from school with her so she made sure the entire weekend was well planned out. We kicked off with a bonfire (thank goodness it finally rained in Central Texas) and hotdog roast in the woods. Perfect weather for it, we even needed a jacket!

Saturday for me was spent "haunting" the train. The kids stayed at the ranch and made jack o lanterns.

We had all sorts of ghosts and goblins come to the party... here are a few samples....

And a few pics of the party car...

After a yummy dinner of Dave's ribs and cajun boil, we played a few games, did a few crafts, and then moved on to the summoning of the trains resident ghosts.

After a chilling tale of how the railcar "Colton County" came upon the ghosts of an old trainwreck, the kids were a little tentative about actually walking through the car... Last year I made one cry, this year, 3. And that was before they even walked through!

And now I'll introduce you to this years resident ghosts...

First we have Haunted Hannah and her pal skinny skelly in the blacklight room.

Next we have "Byron". I call him that because that's whose shirt he is wearing. We aren't sure who Byron is, or was, but his shirt (with his name in it) and we believe size 11 Nike's were left in a closet on the train. Nobody can remember anybody named Byron ever staying on the train....

Don't really have a name for this guy...

Or this guy...

But I do know this guy...

All in all it was a great weekend. Already have some ideas for next year, although it may take us more than 1 day to decorate. Until next year....