Halloween

Halloween was lots of fun at the Kall house, as usual this year. We went to the pumpkin patch because Charles insisted, but the other boys had fun too!


The boys by the "UP" display. Every year there are new displays from the various popular kids movie that year. fun!


Charles quickly got lost in the hay maze and had to jump on top to find his way out!

A few days later was Halloween. We met up with our good friends and had a little pre-trick-r-treating party in their garage and driveway. Then it was time to suit up. Joshua was the Riddler from Batman, so we spiked his hair up and painted it orange (like Jim Carrey in the movie). I also attached the mask to his face and blacked out his eyes! Pretty cool.



Thomas wanted to be Michael Jackson. He has been obsessed with him and his music ever since he died this past summer. Steve and I played a lot of his music for the boys just to let him know who he was and how great his music was. Thomas wanted all the songs on his ipod. We got creative with his costume turning an old black shirt of mine into a jacket and using other things we already had. Add a wig and a glove, and you've got Michael Jackson. He really liked wearing the black eyeliner. I know, I know...trouble.



And then there was Charles. He wore an astronaut space shuttle costume to a Halloween party the week before, but on the actual day wanted to be batman. We had an old, cheap dress-up batman costume and that was good enough for him. He didn't want a mask, a hat, make-up, nothing. But boy did he have fun trick-r-treating!



He wore the batman ear "hat" I made for him that afternoon for two seconds for this picture, than went without it the rest of the evening.

Fall Sports

With school starting, that can only mean one thing in the Kall household...fall sports. This is the first time all THREE boys have played a sport at the same time. Joshua played tackle peewee football, Thomas played flag football and Charles played soccer.

Joshua was on the Gators, which turned out to be quite a good little team. He had a great first experience with football and wants to play again next year!



He played on both offense and defense. His biggest play of the season was catching this pass against the number one ranked team, TCU. The Gators later went on to win the game and come out on top for the regular season.



Here he is making a block, and all hot and sweaty after one of their wins.












The Gators went onto the playoffs and won all the way up until the very end. They ended the season in 2nd place. It was lots of fun to watch. Here is Joshua about to get his trophy after the championship game. That is his coach, Rudy, and ex-Dallas Cowboy, Tony Casillas, handing out the trophies.



Thomas played flag football at the YMCA and Steve was the coach. Thomas LOVED playing football. He has been waiting a long time to get to play it, and really had a good time. He was the quarterback most games, and was a darned good one.

















Charles played soccer on the Big Dawgs with his best friend, James.


His first game was not a huge success. He got on the field that first time and would not kick the ball. He just chased everyone around and acted afraid to get into the mix. We were a little baffled because he didn't act this way at practice. At the first time-out I asked him why he wasn't trying to kick the ball and he said, "those guys out there are CRAZY". He had never had to go up against another kid and fight to get the ball. So after practicing on being more aggresive and bribing him with milk shakes, he had break-thru about three game into the season. He scored 5 goals and was so proud of himself. From then on, he was really into the sport and excited to try to score goals. He got very competitive, alway keeping score on the sidelines when he wasn't playing.

Thomas Turns 8

Thomas's birthday is only a month after Charles's, so school starts and we are quickly planning a celebration for Thomas. He decided he wanted to skate again this year, but we chose to roller skate instead of ice skate this time.

We started the morning off with our traditional donuts on the birthday plate. We have done this for so many years now, the kids really look forward to waking up to presents from the family waiting and seeing how mom shaped donuts into their number. Eight was an easy one...It was just two Krispy Kremes from Kroger plopped down onto the plate.



Next Thomas opened Charles's present (a Tony Romo Cowboys jersey) and mom and dads present (a spark scooter). Joshua was still at a friends house from a sleepover the night before. When he got home later, he gave Thomas a set of Bendaroos.

The spark scooter turned out to be pretty cool. It is just a regular razor scooter that has a pad on the back that when pushed down with your foot makes sparks fly. Of course the pad wears down very quickly...something to spend allowance money on, but it's fun while it lasts!

Here is Charles checking Thomas out in front of the house. Working on the best technique.









Sparks are flying!












Later that afternoon we were off to SkateTown for the party. All the kids really did have fun!!

Thomas did pretty well. He only fell a few times.




Here are some of Thomas's buddies that were at the party:



These are Thomas's good friends Jessie and Olivia.


Check out Charles...he started off using one of the cool wheeled frame things to help him, but soon found he did better without it. He was so cute!


Charles's best friend, James, and his mom wheeled around for almost the entire party with the help of this cool little frame.

Even Steve reluctantly strapped on some skates and got out there for a little bit. And of course Joshua had fun racing around, faster each time!

After an hour or so of skating, we moved to the party area where they had hot dogs and chips and were able to cool off a little bit.




Then they played the ice cream game





And ate cake (yes, a cookie cake again. The Kall children are not fond of regular cake). It was a Cowboys cake...kind of.




We opened presents at home so the kids could have more time to skate. It was a really fun afternoon and a great birthday!!

Happy 5th Birthday Charles

Charles is finally 5! He is so thrilled to be 5. Five is that age that is officially no longer a baby. It's off to kindergarten. It's riding a bike without training wheels and big boy stuff.

So we celebrated our baby not being a baby anymore with a party at the house. Since we already celebrated at Sea World in San Antonio with his cousins, this was supposed to just be a little "get together" swimming in the backyard with a few buddies. I planned to have a cake and some balloons and that was it. However, Charles kept saying things like "where are we going to hang the pinata?" Oh darn...I guess I need to get a pinata. Then he said, "lets play the games in the backyard". I asked him "what games" and he said "pin the tail on the donkey of course". So off I went to get that game. He was so cute. I was not going to get away with just swimming and some balloons. We were having a real deal party!!!

Of course we started off the morning with our traditional "donuts in the shape of a 5" and presents from the family. Joshua got Charles the game "perfection"



Thomas got him a blue light saber, and Steve and I got Charles a digital camera. Charles spends hours (and lots of battery life) taking pictures with my phone. He loves it so much, we thought he would enjoy having his own camera. This turned out to be lots of fun for Charles. Seems the apple doesn't fall far from the photography tree.



The party started later that afternoon. The boys swam and then broke open the pinata. It turns out that after only two kids, the Darth Vader head broke in half. Oh well, less time to wait for Candy.




Then we headed in to eat cake (cookie cake again). Our theme this time around was star wars and I was given strict orders to request a cake with very little icing. So the cake was kinda plain. But yummy!




Presents were next...the part Charles couldn't wait for. He got lots of great toys.


This was a really cool star wars blaster from his best friend James.





It's official, there are no more little kids at the Kall house!