The Dotsons

This afternoon, we went to the fall festival (First Fest) at our church. We have heard it jokingly called "Baptist Halloween" - ha! Our friends, Jenn & Jarod, came with us and brought Camille and we also met up with Haylee, Daniel, Isaiah, Stephanie, Brandon and Eden! The church puts on a great festival for the kids. It's geared mostly for older kids (4+) but they do have a little kids area for age 4 and under. It had two bouncy things, a little playground set, some foam mats and tunnels for the kids climb on and crawl through, a little ball pit and building block area. I tried to get some cute pictures of the little ones, but as you will soon see, it was pretty much impossible to get them to cooperate with so much activity going on! Oh well, I think they all had fun and that's what matters

Batman, patiently awaiting the arrival of his friends, Princess Bumble Bee, Superman, and Princess Pumpkin. Who needs a Batmobile when you've got an umbrella stroller and a daddy to push you around?!

"So this is what it must feel like to be a Ninja Turtle crawling through the sewer! I think I'll stick with fighting crime above the streets."

Batman and Robin?? No! Batman and Princess Bumble Bee!

Even Batman needs a day off just to play!

Princess Bumble Bee is taking flight...

Superheroes unite! ...to fight crime...at the church? yeah, that's right!

Superman, Batman, and Princess Pumpkin (turned Aggie fan)

That's it, we're outta here!

Batman with his mommy & daddy

Caleb and I have had a lot of fun things to do with our friends lately! We had a "Pumpkins at the Park" playdate yesterday. As the name implies, we met at a park and brought some pumpkins along to take some pictures of the kiddos in their Halloween costumes. The weather was nice but a little too hot for me to want to put Caleb in his costume. It is a long sleeved shirt and sweatpants so I knew he would get too hot. So, he wore his homemade pumpkin shirt instead! We attempted to get a group picture but that turned out to be impossible as Cinderella was late for the ball and just wouldn't sit still! :) Thankfully, Caleb napped in the car on the way there so he was in a good mood...plus, he loves being outside so he was a happy boy!

Dylan (2): a Disney princess but not sure which one!
Audrey (I think she is almost 3): Wonderwoman
Caleb P. (almost 2): an astronaut
Eden (10 months): she had a cute Halloween dress on and a pumpkin costume later
Caleb (14 months): mommy's little pumpkin...and his real costume is Batman
Marley (2): Cinderella (Dylan & Marley are twins)

Here's Caleb and his friend, Eden. Yes, Caleb is sitting on a hand towel. I'm telling you, that boy hates grass! I first tried it without the towel and he immediately starting whining/fussing so I knew the pictures would be a no-go without it. Once I sat him on the towel instead of the grass, he was fine!

another failed group shot attempt, LOL

Caleb had fun hitting the little pumpkins together

Caleb brought along Ruff Ruff

Caleb and Mommy

I tried to get some individual shots of Caleb but he was more interested in the tiny pumpkins than taking pictures!

There's a little smile!

Picking the Scarecrow's nose

Saturday, we attended our Sunday school class (S2S = Saved 2 Serve) Costume Party Scavenger Hunt. It was a lot of fun! We were divided into teams of 6 and given a list of I don't even know how many items...there were a lot. We had 3 hours to take pictures of as many items as we possibly could. Our team did not win but we sure did have a lot of fun! Here are some of our pictures as well as some pics from other teams...

entire team in front of Houston's First Baptist sign (our church): Alex & Jane (Ghostbusters), me & Rhett (Batgirl & The Joker), and Rick & Holly (KISS fans)



The Beatles' Abbey Road album cover pose

teammate hanging from a basketball goal (taken at our church gym. we definitely got some looks)

all team members on a slide



entire team with feet off the ground



teammate cleaning their ear with a toilet brush



walking on water



tasting the rainbow



killing two birds with one stone



teammate with a bologna mask



a twinkie on fire (twinkies are very fire-resistant by the way!)



teammate with a mouthful of toothpaste



teammate pretending to drink water from a toilet with a straw (yes, that's me and that's my toilet)




someone covered in post it notes (double points if a stranger-obviously Rick is not a stranger)



teammate ripping a phone book in half



entire team doing "chubby bunny"



teammate slipping on a banana peel



entire team with spoons hanging from noses (we totally staged this one...we're all holding our spoons b/c it's impossible for everyone to get theirs to stick at the same time!)



teammates shoes hanging from a power line (these are Rhett's old tennis shoes and he got them up there after only 2 tries! we see these now every time we go anywhere...it's in our subdivision, LOL)



pumping a stranger's gas



bagging a stranger's groceries (we were told you can't take pictures in HEB...oops!) Rhett scared a lot of people in HEB!


losing an arm wrestling match with a stranger (thanks, Jose at HEB!)



picking up litter (our interpretation!)



as many teammates as you can fit in a shopping cart



picture of a movie theater audience taken from the front row (Rick actually bought a ticket, went in, snapped the picture, then left...and the movie was actually playing)



Here are some of the other teams' pictures...

tasting the rainbow (rainbow bright, that is!) - Grace, Ryan, Michaela, Sheila, Kevin, Becky, and Michelle



male teammate getting a mani/pedi



entire team hugging a bald man



teammate sitting on a toilet at Lowes





group picture with Andrew (who is in our class) - he was working at PF Changs that night, apparently. This is Brent, Adam, Andrew, Aaron, Carissa, Melanie and Jamie.



live nativity scene



entire group doing the YMCA in front of a YMCA



entire team doing the conga w/10 or more people



a stranger covered in post it notes



sitting on a toilet at Lowes



entire team having a mock cookout at a store. This is Jose, Dave, Amber, Jeremy, Julie and Nancy.



I have no idea what they're doing, actually...but this is Gina, Jessica, Stephanie, Brandon, Terence and Andre.



Instead of doing all the clues, they just decided to wrap as many houses as they could...not strangers' houses, but couples in our class (who were actually doing the scavenger hunt). Nobody knew they were doing this and we didn't find out until the end when we all gathered to view the pictures. It was hilarious!

wrapping Jeremy & Nancy's house



wrapping Michael and Sheila's house



wrapping Rick and Holly's house



wrapping Adam and Carissa's house



and finally, wrapping Josh and Grace's house...where we all were inside eating and waiting for them to get there!