After all that Halloween partying, the kids had amassed quite a load of candy. Smile Studio of Wylie was doing a candy drive for  Operation Gratitude, so I figured it would be a great way to part with most of it. Together, the three Littles had over 13lbs to donate! (That didn’t include what the family had already eaten, the two other random bags I found later on, or the very small bags I let them keep!) Wow! Was I SO happy to be rid of all that!

The kids were so excited to get their gift bags, complete with new toothbrush and toothpaste, a free yogurt at TCBY, and raffle tickets for the grand prize of a new razor electric scooter. Never know, they just might win. 😉 After our candy adventures, the boys came back to practice their neglected instruments. I sure know a young man who deserves to be named Brother of the Year!William is the best big brother I have ever seen! He is so very patient with Lucy, and always so loving. He includes her in everything he does, and sees the best in her, even when she is being a pain in the butt.Lucy us also William’s biggest fan! She cheers and dances for him all the time, especially when he is trying to practice or concentrate on something. Yes, that last picture above is her going at him with a sword! (Paper one thank goodness!) William just patiently takes it, and lovingly encourages her. Right now they have these silly aliases. He is Daddy. (Which is confusing the heck out of Sam!) Lucy is Gerald.  Alex is Bernstein. And Khaliyah is Sargent. At least they know who they’re talking about! 🤣Alex sure has taken off wonderfully with piano. He has almost completed Book 1, just since we started at the beginning of the school year. He practices all he time now as well. I really think he enjoys it. I could always tell he had a love for music. So glad to see him being able to express that.We ended our Halloween adventures with Dinner in a Pumpkin a day late, since yesterday was insane! I’ll be so glad not to have to put Lucy in her Emma Wiggle costume again, to find all 4 swords to Alex’s ninja costume, or to HAVE to go by the dragon down the street every time we go anywhere! I’m ready for Thanksgiving and Christmas! I think. 😏

Every year, since before Natalie was born, we have visited the Flower Mound Pumkpin Patch. Today, we decided to make our visit before the season got away from us. We did a bit of school and then headed out.Lucy was so tired from running nonstop lately, she didn’t even make it out of the neighborhood before she was asleep. At least she got a bit of rest during the drive there. She was so excited to wake up and see the pumpkin patch.The boys tried to take her into the hay maze to start with, but there were so many school kids crowded inside, she wanted nothing to do with it. They locked her in jail instead. She thought that was pretty neat. 😜The kids always love to climb these huge piles of hay bails. Even when it makes them all itchy, they still love it and love to jump off.Lucy wasn’t as sure about it though. She kind of posed for one picture and then wanted to head off to the pumpkins. Alex wanted to take one more amazing leap, and then check out the pumpkins too. I told them to see what the biggest Pumpkin was that they could hold. It was funny to watch, because they tried so hard, but could barely budge any of them.Lucy sure cracked me up. She has had me take so many pictures of her, she now poses herself and asks me to take her picture. Silly little ham!!The boys aren’t as eager to jump in the shots, so I just take what I can get!They were such troopers today. We had so many bees flying around us, I thought William was going to lose it. I just kept reminding them not to swat at them and ignore them. They calmed down about it eventually and did great.Lucy thought it was fabulous having a life sized Snappy to take a picture of Snappy with.The kids loved running the obstacle courses ……and as always the merry go round and jungle gym!When the tractor came back for the hayride, we quickly ran to get in line. That’s when Lucy started screaming. I was holding her, and she had her head lying on my shoulder. I didn’t know what was wrong. Then she started yelling, “Get the mosquito off!” I knew exactly what was wrong from there. She held out her hand and there was a bee’s stinger lodged in her pointer finger. Stupid thing stung her and she wasn’t even moving or swatting at it. I had to use my keys to scrape the darn thing out. Lucy was so brave, but I could tell it hurt her really bad too.With an ice pack in tow, we tried to walk around the rest of the property,  Lucy was really hurting, and the bees were still flying around us everywhere we went. The boys were very nervous too.We quickly checked out the petting zoo. Still too many bees!Lucy saw this Cinderella carriage and had to have her picture taken in it before we left. At least she was all smiles for a few moments.Still surrounded by bees,though, we couldn’t get out of there fast enough! The kids were so relieved when we were closed into the truck without any buzzing around us. Lucy was still hurting, so I promised her a dreaded icecream on the way back to help her finger. It worked like a charm! She ate that icecream and fell asleep in the way home. When she woke up, it was as though nothing had ever happened. So glad too, because we finished our afternoon with crazy Cub Scout activities. She was all smiles the entire time. Even with a tummy full of ice cream! 😊