Somewhere over the rainbow

 Halloween has arrived. The excitement is palpable. The children cannot contain themselves. Candy is packaged, children are clothed, and smiles are still spreading from ear to ear.

This year for Halloween we decided to be the Wizard of Oz. It is getting harder to keep coming up with great ideas for dressing up, but as long as the kids are willing to participate with us we will keep doing it. Miles was a very handsome Cowardly Lion, and Allie was a beautiful Dorothy (complete with her very own Toto and red shoes).

Hadley was the majestic Glenda the good witch. She was so excited to get this lovely new dress. 

I got to be the Tin Man (which was slightly uncomfortable, but looked amazing), and Rachel was the Scarecrow (best option for a pregnant woman - it was just a little extra stuffing around the middle).

 This is the whole crew in preparation for our candy extravaganza. It was an interesting evening. I got to be Halloween royalty. I had paparazzi (multiple people took my picture while trying to be sly about it), fan selfies (I was asked to pose with at least three other people), and plenty of cat calls (everyone yelling for the Tin Man). Our costumes were so good that one house pulled out the good stuff for us (they had a secret bowl of full size candy bars for the really good costumes). This year was great, but by the end of the evening there is no place like home.

Pumpkin Carving

It is time for the annual Halloween traditions. Today was pumpkin carving. We held off this year to try and have the pumpkins still in good shape for trick or treating. The kids were excited to pick out their own pumpkins and do some carving.

Allie wanted to do her own pattern and did the whole thing mostly by herself. 

Hadley wanted to do her own carving but still will not touch the guts inside the pumpkin (instead she decided to just stand around looking cute).

Here was Miles and Hadley's pumpkins. They finished first and thus were the only ones in the photo this year. Great time carving and the results are pretty good (along with no cuts, bruises, or major tantrums).

A little dose of crazy

On our last day in Houston, we decided to go around and take some touristy pictures before we headed back up to the airport. There are lots of cool street art areas that make for some lovely pictures, and we couldn't skip them this time.

We found this awesome color drip wall on the side of a paint store, so we had to get a family picture. All these colors just make you want to go a little crazy.

We also got lots of individual shots of the kids. They each got to pick the background color for their pictures.

In this one they all really went crazy. It was a lot of fun to go let loose on the side of the street for everyone to see.

Next we visited a park we used to go to for picnics. It has a giant water wall and makes for a lot of fun pictures. This one is Miles flying up in the air (we have one just like it for both Allie and Hadley, this completes the set).

The kids liked posing in front of the waterfall, but didn't want to get too close (it was kind of loud and would splash all over you). We got lots of good smiles.

Hey look, Rach is pregnant! This may be about the only picture we have of her pregnant this time. She wanted to get a sweet belly photo and this was a great place to take one.

There were lots of oak trees lining the side of the park and we played around with them as well. This photo credit goes to Hadley! 

We found the invasion of caterpillars that were slowly coming to get us. After a little introduction, the kids realized they are lots of fun and nothing to be scared of. They kept finding more and wanted to "rescue" them by placing them on the trees.

The waterwall was a fun stop along the way.

Lastly we went to the Houston Street Art Festival. They have lots of graffiti artists that each get to paint a section of an old warehouse. It was a lot of fun to see the masterpieces from previous years, and see the current creations.

The girls each wanted a picture with some wings, so no problem (unless laying not he ground in a disgusting parking lot is a problem for you) we got the shot.

One of the artists let the girls each help paint a flower on his mural. They thought it was awesome to get to help out.

This is the picture they were helping to paint. A classic portrait that shows dignity and grace and would be a lovely centerpiece of any proper home (kind of).

This is one of the finished pictures we got to see.

This was our last stop on the way to the airport. We had so much fun on our whirlwind tour of Houston! Big thanks to the Shaws and Tingeys for letting us crash the party and take over your homes. I don't know if or when we will be back again, but Houston is still a lot of fun for the Meldrums.

C is for Cookie

After some Tingey time we headed back down for church with the Shaws. It was a great Sunday (but not very relaxing), and after church we enjoyed a wonderful Sunday dinner. At least Rach and I enjoyed it (our girls have still not managed to try new food - sorry Estee). For a little more enjoyment, we made some delicious cookies after dinner.

These buddies were dressed for mayhem. Miles got to know his cousin Rory a bit this week. They got a long for most of the time (as long as tractors were not involved).

The older kids were excited to help make cookies.

They even got to do their own decorating. As you may have imagined, they were heavy on the icing and sprinkles.

Fun on the Farm

 For our second day with the Tingeys, we hit up Oil Ranch which is a big ranch full of activities and dirt - our kids' dreams!  We spent all day there and we basically had to drag the kids away because they were having so much fun.

We started off the morning with unlimited pony rides.  There were not many people there in the morning, so it was basically ride as much as you want, and some people did!

Our next adventure was to milk a real cow!  I have never done it before, so we all got in on the action with this one. 

We also hit up the petting zoo which Miles loved.  The animals were even a bit crazy but he was all about chasing them around.  

A favorite of the day was the hay barn.  They had piles of hay at different levels and they were jumping, playing and pretending there for a long time.

It also had great lighting so I had to grab a picture of two of them holding still.  I think Madison had straw in her mouth the whole day, because that is what a cowgirl does.  

There was roping to try as well as driving a tractor.  Too bad the tractor was stuck bud.  

 We took the train ride to the other side of the park and to take a little break and sit down.  

This might had been the most fun for everyone - the hamster wheels!  They run on little pvc pipe tracks and you can race each other.  My pregnant body didn't fit so well in it, but everyone else had lots of fun!

 At the end of the day we had Christopher's 1st birthday party and the kids all decided to eat their cake and ice-cream in the center turnabout in the culdesac to end our awesome day.  We had so much fun with them and wish we lived closer.