This and That

Bedlam Soccer
The Cowgirls prevailed in Norman on Friday night, 2-0, finishing second in the Big 12 Conference standings and departing with the Bedlam trophy. On Monday they will head to San Antonio for the Big 12 Conference Tournament. Their first game will be Wednesday against Texas Tech, and if they win, they will advance and play the winner of Missouri and Nebraska on Friday, with the championship game on Sunday.

Looks like the Texas losses dropped OSU in the national rankings to 11th, and Texas A&M moved up to 6th. Disappointing, but still pretty impressive.

Brien headed to Norman with Connor and the family to watch the game, while Kenzie, Cooper and I stayed at home. Afterward Connor got to stay in OKC with Kimberly and Graham C. and Pops, for a fun night away from home.

HallowZOOeen
Brien was given HallowZOOeen tickets at work on Friday, so I took Kenzie and Cooper with my Mom to see what the event was all about. We left straight from Kenzie's dance lesson, with no time to spare, so I just grabbed Connor's old dog costume for Kenzie to wear.

Overall, I think it was a great event with plenty to see and do at every turn. I especially liked the Wizard of Oz path and, of course, Ghostbusters!

Three things
1) Buy advance tickets, be a zoo member or get there super early before it starts to buy your ticket. We arrived around 7, and the ticket line was ridiculously long and seemed to be slow moving. Good thing we had tickets.
2) Don't expect to get a lot of candy. The candy lines get long, and while a few candy stops gave a handful, most handed out one piece. The last thing we need is more candy, but we all know kids love to see their bags fill up. On a positive note, they only handed out the good stuff.
3) If you know what the themed exhibits are going to be, consider watching those shows in advance. Kenzie still enjoyed them all, but hadn't seen the Wizard of Oz or Ghostbusters to get what they were all about.

While there we saw this family and I had to ask to take their picture. This costume idea is by far the cutest homemade family idea I've ever seen, and I thought you would enjoy seeing it just like I did. Super creative fun for the whole family. Their fire engine even lit up! Wonder if the dad is a firefighter.

Random Nature
You may have seen the wheel bug picture I posted earlier this month. While at HallowZOOeen, we saw a bug collection featuring a wheel bug. Apparently, they can give people a bad bite, so stay away. Maybe Cooper sensed the wheel bug he pointed at was bad news.

On the subject of nature, I just learned that if you see a baby bird fall out of the nest, you CAN pick it up and put it back. What our mothers told us about the scent from our hands making the mother abandon the bird is a myth. Good to know, as I too would have passed along to my children.

Cooper's One Year Check Up
Brien and I always play a guessing game after one of us takes our kids to their well visits. One says the percentages, and the other guesses whether it's height, weight or head size. Cooper has been consistently the same in all three, so no element of surprise. This time he was 35% weight, 85% height, and 95% head! He has one big noggin, which we attribute to a big brain, of course.

All finished with formula! Our pediatrician said to give 2% or skim milk, no Vitamin D whole milk, which is a change from my first two kids. Must be to help combat childhood obesity. Makes sense and simplifies groceries.

I've Got a Feelin...
In the past, Katy's and Scott's annual Halloween party has always fallen on Halloween, so we would drop by after taking the kids trick or treating to say hello and not worry at all about dressing up. This time around, they scheduled on Saturday, so we had to think of something to dress up as and decided on the Black Eyed Peas. Get it?

Cooper's Birthday Party
Well, we opted to have Cooper's family birthday at Mazzio's since we always eat there on Sundays after church, and it was pretty much impossible to find a window this weekend when everyone was available. We just invited family, and I made a cupcake cake using a Wilton Puzzle Cake Build-a-Cake Set my Mom gave me for Christmas last year. You can make a turtle, bear or goldfish. I chose the gold fish because Cooper gets so excited any time he sees aquarium fish...at PetSmart (still haven't gotten around to renewing my OK Aquarium membership). He ate every last bit of that cupcake, frosting first, by the fistful.

Cooper got the short end of the stick on his birthday as far as his party goes, but we'll make a point to do it bigger in the future when he will actually remember it, and it was SO nice not having to do a big clean up when all was said and done.

Trick or Treat
I know you've already seen the kids in their costumes, so I just wanted to add a few of their offical trick or treat pictures. We started out at my Mom's and Dad's house, and from there went to my in-laws'. They live in the same neighborhood, which is very convenient - especially during the holidays. At one house, a couple gave Kenzie and Connor a handful of candy, and then another, and Kenzie proceeded to say, "And, I have another brother at home," cracking us up. Always negotiating. Had to have a talk with her about that. We trick or treated until they were ready to drop when Kenzie gave in and finally said, "My breath is out of steam" and we carried them home.

There he is - JackOWENtern!

Owen and Cooper stayed behind during the trick or treating.

Trick or treating at Brien's Aunt Tracy's and Uncle Charlie's house

I think next year Kenzie may be Snow White, and the boys the dwarfs...

Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off to Work I Go...
Work is going really well. What I like most (besides the laid back environment and people I work with) is that I am back on a schedule again. And, right now my schedule allows me to still get Kenzie from school and take her to dance lessons - two things that I wouldn't be able to do with normal work hours. My biggest hesitation was whether I'd be able to get everybody up and out the door and make it to work on time. So far, so good - much to do with my very helpful husband. Now, if we can just work on getting everywhere else on time...