In August, we had a barbecue at our house to which our whole neighborhood was invited. Several families from our church helped us out with this event by providing food and coming to help out. I cooked most of the 40 POUNDS of beef and pork myself (with the help of a whole bunch of crockpots!). I have to say, it turned out really, really awesome. One of these days I will have to share the bbq beef recipe with all of you, it is so so so good. But that is another post for another time.
I think the barbecue was a success. Although, we did not have a huge turnout like we expected, we did get to know some really nice families and found out that they are also excited to do something like this in the future. We will definitely host another one of these next year, but it will NOT be in August. I am pretty sure it was over 100 degrees that day. I am positive that is the reason we did not have a better turnout. I can't really blame anyone who didn't want to sit outside in that heat and eat hot food. I think October will definitely be a much better month for something like this.
In September, Brian's parents came to visit (twice) and Jake turned ONE. We had a small birthday party for him at a local park. I made cake pops,
we ordered a doughnut cake,
and we also had a small store-bought cake and cupcakes for the occasion.
I can't believe my baby is one. He is almost walking now and into EVERYTHING. He is a super fast crawler, too. It is alot of work just keeping up with him everyday. C-A-T says it is alot of work just keeping away from him everyday.
I really can't believe that this was Jake a year ago:
Now it is October. I am excited that my mom is coming to visit next week. The last time I saw my mom was when she came out here last year when Jake was born. She will be here for 5 days. On the 17th, our church is having a fall festival and chili cook-off. I am definitely entering that. It should be fun.
I can't wait for Halloween. While it is definitely NOT my favorite holiday, we are planning to do something really cool this year. Our neighborhood gets ALOT of trick or treaters. It should also be cold(er) on Halloween. At least it seemed cold to me last year (I am a Floridian, after all). We are going to open our garage and have a "warming station" - a place where trick-or-treaters and their parents can come in, get some hot cocoa/cider/tea/coffee and even sit down for a little bit. Of course, we will also have candy!
This is something Brian grew up with in Detroit. I have never heard of such a thing in Florida (where a "cooling station" would probably be more appropriate) but I think it is a fantastic idea and another great way to get to know our neighbors and get involved in the community/neighborhood.
I am not sure how "successful" this will be this year, because one thing we noticed last year was that ALOT of people (ok, most people) now DRIVE their kids around trick-or-treating. Now, I do realize that there are SOME (but I have a hard time believing this about everybody) people who cannot walk long distances. But unless you are disabled in some way and it is not possible for you or kids to walk or if the houses are just SOOO spread apart that driving makes more sense, I just don't get it. A car would literally pull up to our house, kids would jump out and run up our driveway, then jump back in the car to go to the next house. And we live in a residential neighborhood where the houses are really close together. We even have sidewalks.
We are hoping that other families in the neighborhood will like this warming station idea (especially now that we have gotten to know some of them) and maybe next year, we can get one or two more houses (in various parts of the neighborhood) to do the same thing. Maybe this will encourage more community and people to get out of their cars to go trick-or-treating!
I can't believe November is next month! Brian has the week of Thanksgiving off. We are not planning to go anywhere but we have not decided what we are doing yet. Last year, we invited another family from church over that does not have any family nearby, either. We have not decided if we are going to do something similar this year or just take it easy. I also can't believe that as of Thanksgiving, we will have been living in Oklahoma for TWO YEARS.
We have big plans for December. but you already know about that if you read my last blog post. I can't believe it has been almost two years since we have seen so many of you. It will be great to be able to see everybody! I do have to say though, that while I DO MISS EVERYONE I do NOT miss Florida. At all. I really am looking forward to seeing everyone. I am not really too ecstatic to be visiting Florida though. I am actually kind of afraid. lol. Afraid of the humidity (we will see if I still think OK is humid). Afraid of the people who are NOT my family and friends. Afraid of I-4. and the Florida Turnpike and the 408 and whatever other roads we may need to travel on. I think I may have forgotten what a real traffic jam looks like. And you know what? I am completely okay with that. Really.
But I really can't wait to see everyone! And I REALLY can't wait for Jake to meet everyone! especially Sean, Charlie, Eli, Joshua, and Little! They are all going to have so much fun together! I just know it!
That is all for now, until I have time to blog again!
