October 31st

Every year I always ask myself the question of do we or don't we go trick or treating on Halloween? Last year I read this article here. After reading it we decided we were in a new neighborhood and we would just stay home and hand out candy and meet our neighbors who came to us. Great plan! Then we had two, count them with me....1...2 trick or treaters. Oh well. This year we had the fall festival with our church family on Sunday afternoon, which was magnificent. But Halloween was on Monday. So what do we do Monday night? Even though I'm not a huge fan of Halloween with Jack-O-lanterns, ghosts and goblins. I'm not against dressing the kids up as long as it's not anything gory or scarey to go knock on doors and get candy. So we made it a family fun night (with a few friends & grandparents joining in on the fun).

Even though Caden dressed up as a bat at the festival, his actual costume of the year was Dry, Dry Bones from Mario Kart Wii. The turtle shell just wasn't complete by festival time. Ben took on the challenge and made it all himself. I bet you can't guess from what? Yup, cardboard and duck tape. The mouth is duck tape on top of a ball frame, turtle shell is cardboard stuck together with duck tape and the shirt is duck tape turtle bones. We can't survive in this house without duck tape.

Even though Grandaddy is a big Alabama fan, he couldn't resist his picture being made with Aubie.

We went to a neighborhood that ended up not a lot of people were trick or treating in. Kids benefited from it though because when you don't have many trick or treaters then the ones that do come by get more candy. These three didn't mind at all.

We were with some friends who told us where the "candy man" lived, so we paid him a visit as well. He had a nice little set up and definitely earned his name.

Even this little lion got something from the candy man.

After the trunk was full we headed home.

Unfortunately now I have this to resist every time I pass through the kitchen!

It was a fun night spent together with family & friends. So even though it's a few days after....Happy Halloween from the DeLoach's :)

Fall Festival

I realize that I have not posted about our church and really hope to do that one day soon. I want to spend focused time on telling you about how we worship as a church family and focused time without distractions is not something I find a lot of. Most of my blog post are written while holding a baby or turning around to answer a question from a 4, 7 or 8 yr old. So today this will have to do. As I rock the baby's bouncer with my foot :)

Our church - The Church @ South East Lake had a "fall festival" in East Lake Park this past Sunday afternoon. I put fall festival in "" only because we didn't know what else to call it. We have $ from our tithe's and offering, but we didn't want to spend it if we didn't absolutely have to. Most of our games were more field day type games. Three legged race, flag football, corn hole (which we borrowed) and ultimate Frisbee.


We also had a table to make bracelets (where we were able to share the gospel story using the color beads) as well as tables for face painting & nail painting.

Some were too little to play the games or get nails painted so they just sat in a bucket and watched :)


Our focus of this festival was to create a family type atmosphere and get to know some of our neighbors better. We also invited all the kids from our Discovery Club group that some of us are a part of on Tuesday afternoons @ Robinson Elementary. More information on Discovery Clubs to come in a later post. We had a wonderful turn out and got to meet lots of the parents of the kids we work with. One of the main goals of having the festival in the first place.

We did provide (some of which was donated) hot dogs, chips, cookies, water and a goodie bag full of candy for everyone. It was a wonderful time of fellowship with our church family as well as our neighbors. It was a costume optional festival, but my kids were not about to miss an opportunity to dress up.

Meet Cannon the Lion.

Carter a.k.a. Thor
Caden a bat and Parrish a knight.


and my favorite costume of the night....Izzy as Aubie!

Not Me Monday

I did NOT look for my car keys for 30 min. and NOT find that I had left them in the door...

Fall Break

A couple of weeks ago the kids had a fall break from the co-op and Ben needed to get some work accomplished. So the kids and I decided to take a trip to my parents. It was a week packed full of fun.

Here's my favorite picture from the week. Every time we visit, it's a must that Gigi reads a bed time story and this time Cannon even got invited.

Favorite Chicken

My kids are getting better about being picky eaters, we'll sorta. This is something that they all absolutely love so I thought I would share. I wasn't sure what to call it, but around our house we call it favorite chicken.

Take a can of chicken.

Add these spices (I can't tell you how much, I just shake, but I do add more chili powder than the others).

Cook on the stove top until you get this.

Add a little of this on top.

And ta-da, you have favorite chicken!

Where is Cannon?

Kids were all in the living room with Ben - big boys on the couch - Izzy in the floor - Cannon in the swing. As I finished putting yet another load of clothes in the washer I came into the living room to get Cannon to feed him. My heart jumped a beat when I looked & he wasn't in the swing! Can you find him?

Not Me Monday

I do not have a love / hate relationship with these....