Trunks of Treats

Saturday night we went to Trunks of Treats at Heartland of Beavercreek Nursing home. It was free for the kids to Trunk or Treat out of Corvette trunks, bounce in a pirate bouncy house, play games, and have treats. We trunk or treated first. They played two games: Duck pond and Ball toss. Got our picture taken, then they bounced around. We were only there for 45 mins, but they had fun. It was simple and not crowded. It was a bit cool, but we have plenty of cold weather gear.
I'm enjoying hot chocolate while the two older kiddos bounce around. See Oscar the Grouch behind me?Travis's dream is to build a 1968 black Stingray Corvette with Trouble while he's in High School. The goal is to have it finished his senior year so he can use it take his date to prom. While we were at the Trunks of Treats Travis told Trouble, "When you're in High School we'll build a car like this" referring to the Corvettes. Trouble said, "How about Preschool?" Guess he couldn't wait to get started!The kids went earlier in the day to a junk yard with Travis to find a part for his car. They got to see all the 'dead' cars, ride in a truck and get dirty. He saved over $100 on the part! Travis spend the rest of the day playing games with the kids and doing homework. The kids and I made our bi-weekly visit to Petsmart to get crickets. Then went to this event. We did stop by Goodwill on our way home. Travis can't resist a good deal. We came home with 2 games and books to add to our never ending collections!!

Ward Halloween Party

We went to our fabulous ward Halloween party on Friday night. They kids were ultra excited. We've been compiling their costumes all week so they were excited to get them on.
Backpack as a lion. This is the same costume Trouble wore when he was 11 months. Our Goodwill $1 find!! He was practicing his roar. Couldn't you just eat this kid up!?!

Trouble went as a Monster Truck. He's loved Monster Trucks ever since we went to the that Rally. I saw this in a catalog for $50! So we saved a little money and made our own. He named it "The Blue Squid". We unsuccessfully tried to talk him into calling it Blue Cyclone (the name of Travis' old 1972 Chevy Malibu Station wagon....which would be more along the lines of the type of cars the Monster Trucks jump over).

Complete with flashing tail lights!

Dynomite went as a Fairy Princess. Last year's costume but with wings and wand. She has another princess dress that she'll wear next week. This one is from Yaya, the other from Grammy. What can we say, she's the first granddaughter on both sides!!

Our ward party was great! First they did a costume show. Cathy had all the kids say their name and what they were for Halloween

There were some very clever costumes. One guy was a 'baker' and his wife wore a shirt that had a 'bun in the oven', she's preggo! The tooth fairy was there giving out toothbrushes.

After the costume show we got to go to two different fun houses. One was scary for the older group and one was fun for the youngster. Then everyone migrated outside for Trunk or Treat.

When that wrapped up we went inside for the winners of the costume show.

'The Romans' were present! Or the official God and Goddess of our ward.

A picture of one of our favorite families:

I guess I didn't get a picture of our other favorite family, but they should know who they are :-)

Best adult costume goes to this bum: (Minot is in the area where he will be serving his mission, so look out for bums with a name tag and tie!!)

Cutest kids costume winner:

Honestly, this kid should get an award for the best impression. We asked him if his mom told him to pose like that...he said no! I just had to get a picture!!

We had a great time and we...okay the kids....got tons of candy. But that hasn't stopped us from digging through it!

HaPPy HaLLowEEn, EvEryOnE!!

Majestic Amazing Maze

On Saturday we held true to our promise to the kiddos to take them to a farm for pumpkins and a corn maze. We chose to go to Majestic Nursery & Gardens.They used GPS mapping to make this picture into their corn field:

Here we are starting our little adventure. Dynomite is in starting formation to put her hands on her hips to protest walking! We first followed the outline of the picture to get to an observation deck in the top right-hand corner of the maze.
The view from the deck:

We were grateful for a beautiful day. It was a bit chilly because a slight wind was blowing, but once we entered the maze the corn kept us at a comfortable temperature.

Throughout the maze was hidden 5 scarecrows. You needed to return to the start with a paper from each scarecrow to get a prize. We didn't want to bother with this 'treasure hunt' until we found scarecrow numbers 1,2, and 3. Then Travis' determination kicked in and we were on a mission to find 5 and 6.

Scarecrow#1 was easy to find:

As was #2:

#3 caught us by surprise:

#4 took some searching:
#5 was well hidden:Can you see #5 now? Mostly I liked Trouble's look of "Are we done yet?!?"

Jokes were written on each paper! Trouble loves jokes so this was exciting for him. He's even taken to memorize a few.
Dynomite's favorite thing was there too....MUD!!Our big prize was...mini pumpkins! or funny looking gourds:

Backpack wondering what this thing is:

He's still not sure, even with an explination from Dad:

We let the kids play for a bit. We thought the wood structures were neat. Backpack had a blast going down the slide. We thought Trouble would be all over this but we was focused on the bikes.

Backpack was really excited to pet a goat.

Giving Daddy kisses:

Another great adventure had by the Tubbs Family. Thank you Ohio for giving us Fall!!

Fall Fun with the Matt, Jen, and Family!

Our friends, Matt and Jen, that we first met in CA and then stationed in ND with us were home this past weekend in Ohio. The day was an open house for friends and family to stop by and see Matt and Jen before they headed home. This was our chance to drive north to visit with them and Matt's family before they headed back to where they are stationed now. Jen and Matt's parents came and saw us when we first moved here. You can read about that here.

Sunday Morning we left and drove to Matt's parent's, Carol and Mark, home. Carol and Mark frequently visited Matt and Jen so we've gotten to know them throughout the years we all spent in Minot. They are all very welcoming and accommodating. When we arrived they had lunch ready! After we ate and introduced us to the family we went to down to the stream that ran behind the house. Trouble got stung by stinging needle, leave it to him to find that! Then we went to another farm. It was the house that Mark and his Dad both grew up in! Dynomite liked the kittens: She was also very excited to hold a caterpillar:

The house is now vacant. They have hired one of the Amish workers nearby to fix the foundation. The best part about the house is what is inside. Carol and the other ladies in the family have set it up as their personal scrapbooking/craft space! How awesome is that!!!

Here is Trouble thrilled to play in the dirt mound:

Next we went to another farm where Mark's brother lives with his family. This house is where Mark's Mom grew up. The kids had a blast feeding the fish in the pond and playing in the leaves. It is nice for them to experience fall, where it is chilly but you can still go outside and play.

Oh yeah, I got a leaf:

And some cute pictures of Backpack:

Sweet revenge:

Jen getting in on the action:

Mark gave the kids, Matt and Travis a mini hay ride. Except they didn't come back for Jen and I:

The kids got cold, so they continued back up the Mark's house. All the farms are connected! Each family still has their own place to live and their own lives. They're such a close knit happy family. We've been really impressed with Matt and Jen and all the family.

While we were gone Matt and Jen's son (just a few weeks older than Backpack) was sleeping. When we returned (Jen and I drove back after Jen got a call that they weren't coming back for us) he was awake and decided he wanted to be with Travis! He hammed it up a bit while we were taking picture. Backpack isn't a good at sharing, so he climbed on Travis' lap as well:

Soon all the kids climbed on and decided it was story time:

But alas, it was time to go! It was a beautiful day to go and we love the Ohio countryside. It was a pleasure to see the family. Here is a picture of their little lady. As cute as ever:

When we left they told us the way to go pass the Amish community. Travis was dead set on seeing some Amish people. We found a house:

A buggy in a barn:

And a rider:

I was a little embarrassed to take pictures of them. I just seemed odd and contradicting, but Travis has no shame :-) They did wave, so maybe they're use to it?? --by the way-Amish Dude-we put you on our blog, hope you don't mind!