Fun-Filled Fall Days

Every once in awhile, my nine year old daughter, Joy, reminds me of things she's never done....things like never having been to a circus, gone to Disney World, or attended a football game.....yes, can you believe it?......she's never been to a football game. Obviously, we're not big sports oriented folks here, at least not in the football or basketball sense of sports. Both of our kids played soccer and Colt played baseball, and really that's the extent of Joy's going-to-ball-game experience. Therefore...Joy pointed out to me that she had NEVER been to a football game (kind of giving me that deprived look), so when we were invited by Joy's friend, Katie Beth, and her family, to the Jr. High Football game, we decided to go! Now this is also the school from which I attended and graduated, and this was the first time I had been to a ball game there since I graduated (many years ago...1981). I have gone to several graduations there over the years, but never a ball game. Anyway at this game, Katie Beth's brother, Josh, made his very first touchdown, so it was a memorable evening and lots of fun for Joy too (and all of us)!

Here's Joy and Katie Beth at the game (They loved watching the cheerleaders and visiting the concession stand).



They were more into watching the cheerleaders than anything!



Here's the football hero, Josh, ..it was "his" night!



And to make it even more exciting, this was the last game of the season...we won...making the Jr. High team undefeated! So the coach got a surprise attack of ice cold cooler water by the team members. I'm sure he was glad it wasn't as cold outside on this night as it had been just a few days before!

That was Thursday evening.

Friday was a day for costumes and candy (just visited a couple of friends and family members since we missed a festival we thought was going on that evening).

Then Saturday, we began the morning at our local community college for our homeschool group's robotic competition. Joy was on the spirit and sportsmanship part of the team.




Although we were only able to attend for about an hour and a half because of our committment with our next activity, we were happy to be there to support our team, the Eagles, who did a great job on preparing and competing.



Then, from there, it was on to our church for our annual Harvest Festival. Our family looks forward to this every year for different reasons....Joy for the fun games & whole social atmosphere....me for the silent auction (although I didn't win anything this year), bake sale and craft sale.....and Jason for the food! Again, Colt was working, so he wasn't able to attend.

Here's a picture later in the day...our official face painter left the table and some of the kids took over. Joy is painting little Riley's face.



New this year was a costume contest which allowed votes by putting money in your favorite costume's bag. Now Joy had already taken this into consideration and sweet-talked her Grandmama and Pop into bringing LOTS of their pennies they had saved in a huge crock. I guess it "paid off" since she won a trophy in her category. She was dressed as Pocahontas. Here she is in the first picture going across the stage in character. They had to parade across the stage doing something that represented their character.



Here's a picture with the trophy. By this time, she had shed the headdress. She loved dressing as Pocahontas since we had been studying her and reading books about her the last month or so.



And her best friend, Katie Beth, won a ribbon in her cute costume as Wonder Woman.



Here's a picture of the winners. Alot of them had already changed out of their costumes when they announced it. There were three categories.




Can you tell Joy loves little ones? She's very often seen either holding the hand of a little one leading them around, or carrying a baby in her arms! (The other night at a Mexican restaurant...she fell in love with a little Spanish toddler that took up with her and wanted to come home with Joy...and Joy decided she was adopting a Spanish baby one day!) lol! She reminds me of me at that age really...always where the babies were!



And here she is leading little Haley around on the cake walk. Haley was dressed as a forest fairy.



Then on Sunday afternoon, Katie Beth, came home with us after church and spent the afternoon with Joy. They had a great time playing outdoors. Then after church Sunday evening, they had fun playing with this little guy, Levi. He was an arm load, but they loved every minute of it! I didn't get a picture of that, as I didn't have my camera then, but I did get this picture of him the day before at the Harvest Festival with his mom). Isn't he a handsome little guy? I love the hair!



This was actually the bean bag game, but Joy and friend, Casey, found another use for it!



I don't think we could have packed much more into these past few days that would have made Joy any happier....and I don't think I would have had the energy even if we could have! I wish I had just a "smidge" of energy level that my daughter has!

And on the agenda for this week is a week of housecleaning and pulling out the Christmas decorations! Yes, I know it's a little early, but I'm really in the Christmas spirt and since I'm having our church ladies Christmas party here on December 5th, I wanted to get a head start on decorating. Jason is off this week too so it's a good week to get this accomplished. Hopefully, by this time next week, I'll have some Christmas photos to share. Until then....let the Christmas decorating fun begin! :)