A Coach's Kid Halloween

This year Halloween fell on a Friday, which meant one thing for this coach's family....we would be spending Halloween at a football game.  Jake had mixed feelings about that, but more on that later.

 

The Sunday before Halloween was Trunk or Treat at our church.  Stephen was working so I got the boys ready and went.  Jake wanted to be Spiderman again this year.  I offered to buy him a new costume, but he wanted to wear the same one as last year.  Hey, it saved me $20 and a trip to Target :)  Since I knew we would not be out trick-or-treating, I didn't really buy Cody a costume.  One of Stephen's former student trainers bought an adorable football onesie for Cody that worked perfectly for Halloween.  Here are the Tyler boys ready to head up to church.

 I have gotten used to having to do things as a single parent during football, but this year was challenging with Cody being so little.  Trunk or treat was the exact same time as Cody's dinner.  I pushed him around in the stroller/gave him a bottle while we walked Jake around playing games.  About halfway through we ran into some of our friends and the guys helped Jake finish up the games.  I was so thankful!

I don't know why I didn't take any pictures, but Stephen got done at work in time to meet us at church as everything was wrapping up.  We let the kids play on the playground for a little while and the guys/girls each had some fun chat time.

 

Now, Jake and I had many conversations about football and Halloween being on the same day.  I knew that trick-or-treating with both boys by myself just wouldn't happen, Cody goes to bed too early.  Also, it wasn't just any football game, we were playing one of the best teams in the state, the Allen Eagles. He was fine with it until that evening and it all sank in.  Check out his face!

 

Thankfully, several of the coach's wives made goodie bags for each of the kids, as well as several players' parents. They actually left with quite a stash of candy and all was good with Jake.

 

Cody's 1st Halloween :)

 Yes, Jake wore his costume to the game.  What else is a coach's kid supposed to do?

 

The boys LOVED that Jake was dressed up.

Here he is with Soso striking a 'spidey' pose 

And of course we had to have a picture with Ejoo

 post game mommy and cody selfie

 Post-game Halloween family pic

The next day the boys got their Halloween package from Grammy.  Cody was taking an extra long nap, but Jake was very excited!  He did have a moment when he realized the package was addressed to Jake AND Cody Tyler.  This was the first time that it wasn't just his package. 

 He was hugging the package, oh my Jake!

 Specialty graham cracker pretzels, they were ah-mazing!

 A craft kit to make a set of race cars

 Pirate Booty!

 He also got Ninja Turtle tattoos and a Chick-fil-a gift card!  Lucky boy!

 When Cody got up from his nap, I let him explore his bag.

 Cody got a card, it tasted good!

 He got two new board books.

 And applesauce!

 Hey, there's that yummy card again!

 mmm, mmm good!  Thanks Grammy!

State Fair 2014

We had THE BEST fair day ever this year and it almost didn't happen!  Typically we squeeze in our fair day during the 'bye week' of football season, however, this year the bye week fell before the fair.  I was very bummed because Stephen would not have any time off for us to go.  He and Jake both got free tickets from the school district and Stephen even managed to snag an extra for me.  Since we had free tickets, we decided to skip church on Sunday and just go, even though we would only have 2 hours before we would have to leave for Stephen to get to work...at least it was better than not getting to go at all.  There was only one Sunday left, the very last day of the fair, and that would be our 'fair morning.'  Then Stephen came home with good news, of all weekends, Coach Hughes said the boys were getting Sunday off, WOO HOO!  We could spend the whole day there!  And then even better news, my best friend and her family were going that day too!  Once we got to the fair, I checked in on facebook and one of my other best friends was there and Stephen's best friend had driven up from Austin and was there too!  It was the craziest thing and we never in a million years could have planned it, but God worked out the details and not only did we get a fair day, but we got to spend it with some of our very favorite people! :)

 

We got up, got ready, and was at the fair when it opened at 10am.  We met up with my bff, Seana, by Big Tex to take family pics for each other before it got crowded, but the sun was right behind the big guy and none of the pictures were turning out :(  Oh well, we were off to the kid rides.

 

Getting his height for the year.  Jake was chosen 'star student' at school for the week so he got to take the class bear home with him for the weekend.  We got to take him with us for the weekend to take pictures for the class book.

 Daddy and Cody

 M and Jakers...he is seriously at underarm level with me now.  Stop growing kid!

 Time for some rides!

 bestie picture

 

After some rides, we all headed over to get lunch.  There is only one thing for lunch at the State Fair of Texas, Fletcher's Corny Dogs, yum! Since Cody has been doing some early finger foods, I gave him some tiny bites of the breading off the corny dog.  He was a big fan!

 

 Kacie and Jake were having fun playing on the tables.

 Cody's first Cotton Bowl picture 

 My college roommate, and one of my best friends met up with us for lunch. 

Roommates and babies picture.

 We stopped by Big Tex for family pics, they were all on Stephen's phone and those pics are coming up.  Then, we were off to the Car Show.  We seriously could have stayed here all day.  I think Jake and Kacie literally sat in every car at the show.  They would climb in, had to buckle up for safety, and then would drive to 'far, far away' and other fun places :)  They were too cute to watch!

 Cody was getting tired, so I took him outside and pushed him around for a nap while everyone finished at the car show.  We cruised the Kids Boardwalk and then stopped for more fair food.  Jake had to have some cotton candy!

 And Cody had to have a bottle :)

Okay, so I am being a lazy blogger...instead of spending time getting them all in order we are now going back to the beginning of the day with the pics from Stephen's phone :)

 

Jake making plans for the day

 His favorite ride of the day were the airplanes, he rode them a few times.

 State Fair Selfie

 More rides, this one blew bubbles

 Corny Dog time!

 Our first Big Tex picture as a family of 4!

 

 Jake and Buddy Bear needed a picture with him too.

  More car show pictures

 Fried yummy goodness

 Kids Boardwalk

  Jake entertaining his little brother.  Cody did GREAT at the fair, of course.

 We met up with Stephen's best friend, Marc and his fiancé, Thea and daughter, Athena.  They were excited to meet Cody.

 

By this time it was about 2:00 in the afternoon.  Cody was ready for another nap and the fair had gotten CROWDED, like crazy crowded!  Stephen was having to clear the way for me to get the stroller through the crowd.  We decided to head out and get home in time to watch the Cowboys game and carve some pumpkins.  It was seriously, the best day!