Corn Maze fun!

We took the kids up to Beth's Mom's house the weekend before Halloween and we went to a local corn maze!  The kids had so much fun, they navigated through the maze then bounced on a really cool bouncer, and of course Maura had to get her face painted!  The farm used to be a working dairy farm, and one of the workers showed us how they use machinery to milk the cows.  We also saw a pig race, fed some goats, and got mini pumpkins to take home!

Got the GoPro ready to go in the maze!

Ready to go!

Cousins!

Getting her rainbow painted

Done!

The cool bouncer!

Whee!

Cow demonstration - showing how they curl their tongues to eat food!

Feeding the goats

TKD Brown Belt Level 2!

Aiden is now a Level 2 Brown Belt in Tae Kwon Do!

Another photo shoot

When she says "Take my picture!!" you better obey :)

Dragon*Con!

Matt and Beth headed to Atlanta for one day of Dragon*Con ('cause we're only a little bit crazy!).  This was both our first time, but Beth's been wanting to go for years!  She cosplayed as her favorite "Doctor Who" character, River Song, and met up with other cosplayers as the day went on.  We went to a couple of panels, one was the Ghost Hunters guys who were hysterical, and the other was Karen Gillan, who was a major character on "Doctor Who" and most recently played Nebula on "Guardians of the Galaxy".  We had to wait in line for 2 hours to get into her panel!!  We also met up with a high school friend, Almonz, who we hadn't seen in the better part of a decade.  Beth also found her friend Gina who goes to Dragon*Con for the whole weekend every year (and Beth hopes to maybe stay with her next year!!).  The most fun was just looking around at the amazing cosplayers - some costumes were absolutely astounding!

Ghost Hunters!  Steve and Tango on the far left.

This guy was just standing around a corner, freaking people out.

STARLORD!

Watch out, River!

Two Rivers...but what's that behind us??

Karen's panel (this was as close as we got!)

A fully working TARS from "Interstellar" (the back was open so someone could stand inside and walk around!)

Beautiful "Hunger Games" ladies

Beth and her friend Gina

A 10th Doctor and River Song

The Phantom and Masquerade ladies

Their dresses and masks were handmade!

Cobra Kai from "The Karate Kid"

This Doc Ock (from "Spiderman") kid was AMAZING

First days of school!

Aiden started third grade the first week of August, and Maura began Pre-K later in the month!  Unfortunately they aren't at the same school this year, Pre-K moved down the street to the other Elementary school, but it's close enough that I can walk with her.  And she only goes a couple hours in the mornings, so we'll still have lunches together and naps in the afternoon (well, hopefully!).  The night before her first day she cried a little and said she was scared.  Aiden talked to her in the morning and she felt much better, and when we dropped her off she walked right in to the classroom and sat down with the rest of the kids on the carpet!  She said she had a great first day, they went on the playground and sang some songs!

Dropping brother off on his first day, standing next to "Herbie"

Maura on her first day of school, next to a Lion statue (that's her school's mascot)

Arkansas visit July 2015

We had a great time visiting Gramma and Grampa Holt in Arkansas in July!  We fished in their pond, went out on the pontoon boat, and went up to Branson for a couple of days.

Aiden caught one!

Beth caught one!

Dragonfly on Aiden's leg

Aiden and Matt riding in the tube

Riding a caterpillar at Silver Dollar City

Ladybug ride

Built herself a castle!  And got a princess face paint, of course.

Outside the Butterfly Palace

In the butterfly atrium

Maura got to help feed the piranhas!

Largest roll of toilet paper in Ripley's Believe it or Not! Museum (Pee-yew!)

You wouldn't want to make them angry...

Standing next to a replica of the world's tallest man

Transformer made out of car parts outside Ripley's