Airplanes, football, Thanksgiving and Camping!

November has been a fun month. We're loving Texas weather now that it's cooled down a bit. Mid-70's in November is awesome! The boys are getting bigger and bigger, and Spencer keeps getting sillier, as evidenced here by a few snapshots:

We were outside working on a Saturday morning when we heard this loud droning sound. We looked up and saw a group of three Osprey airplanes! They looked like something out of Avatar and, after some internet research, Brant found out they can rotate their rotors 90 degrees and can take off and land vertically as well as fly horizontally. Spencer and Gavin (and Brant!) were captivated. They flew over our house 5 to 10 times, so they got to relive it again and again.

Because A&M is (unwisely) moving to the SEC for football, this Thanksgiving marked the last Texas A&M vs. University of Texas football game for the foreseeable future. So, the night before, we packed up and went to Kyle Field for 'Yell Practice' (a very intense form of a pep rally). It was fun to get in the stadium and see all the fans (a.k.a. crazy people).

This picture was taken 30 minutes before it started. By the time the rally started, the stadium was filled with probably 30,000 people--for a rally! Crazy.

Unfortunately, we didn't last very long once it started. It got so loud that Gavin was scared after just a few cheers. But, that meant we got a cool picture of the stadium filled with people...and beat traffic :)

We spent Thanksgiving day with some great friends here in College Station. Although we were too preoccupied with the tasty food to take pictures inside, here's a picture of some of the kids having a great time outside.

Because it's so warm here, we decided to camping with some friends the Friday/Saturday after Thanksgiving (unthinkable in Ohio!!). It was awesome!

Spencer, Layla and Jackson fishing and relaxing on the banks of our campsite. We didn't have an actual fishing pole, so Brant cut some rope and tied it to the end of a stick. Spencer loved it :)

The dads overseeing their kids. This was my favorite part of the trip--just relaxing on the banks of the lake, having fun...

...which is much better than actually trying to sleep on a campout! Overnight, there was a massive storm that raged from midnight to about 4 am. So, needless to say, there wasn't a lot of sleeping done. But, we are thankful to our tent because out of five tents, ours was one of only two that kept their occupants dry! So, the next morning was a little wet, but still fun.

Gavin eventually worked up the courage to walk around (also, the fire was out at this point so my fear of him falling in to the fire was gone...which was probably the bigger factor that allowed him to walk around freely!). He had a great time and loved looking at the ducks on the lake. It was a great trip and might just have to be a Thanksgiving tradition!

ice cream and play time

Last month we went to the Blue Bell ice cream factory with some friends. It's supposedly some of the best ice cream in the U.S. It's pretty good, but it's no Graeter's (Ohio ice cream).

Seriously, we're at an ice cream factory guys, show some excitement! Gavin looks absolutely miserable and Spencer looks bored out of his mind. They did get a lot happier once we reached the end of the tour and got ice cream samples.

I love watching Spencer's imagination grow. Who knew that pencil holders made the perfect Batman hands?
This is a favorite hang out spot for the boys: the trampoline on the back patio.
Half our day is spent out here.

Spencer's second favorite place to play is our 'treasure chest' in the living room.
I'm in a 'Mommy Preschool' for Spencer and five of his friends. The moms switch off teaching and then we go on a field trip once a month. This was at the Children's Barnyard where the kids got to see lots of different kinds of animals. Once Spencer worked up the courage to pet the baby chickens, he didn't want to leave.
Back in September Brant and I went to see Brian Regan perform. He's our favorite (and only known) comedian and it was super fun!

Not the best picture, but we had to get something.

Halloween

Spencer is really into super heroes lately. He knew he wanted to be a super hero for Halloween, but was having a really hard time deciding which one. The Hulk came up a lot, Green Lantern, Spiderman, but he finally decided on Batman. I'm glad he did because a Batman costume is a lot easier to make than a Spiderman costume. I just bought some black long johns and used a freezer paper stencil for the symbol. I made a little cape out of felt and freezer paper stenciled again. For the bat belt I painted a piece of belting yellow, velcroed on a felt batman symbol and we attached two batarangs that Spencer got at a birthday party a couple weeks ago. We made a little mask and some bat boots out of felt (I really like using felt and velco) and he was ready to go!

The costume was finished on Wednesday and of course he couldn't wait to put it on. He wore it everyday leading up to Halloween. I was just hoping it wouldn't get ruined before he actually went trick or treating.

As soon as Spencer put on his bat cape he made sure to put his superman cape on Gavin.
Apparently, this is what super heroes do in their down time.
The ward trunk or treat was Saturday night and luckily the costume survived until then. Gavin ended up being a giraffe. He'll probably always end up being what Spencer was 3 years before, though I don't think the Batman costume will still be around.