Second Half of October

Bad, bloggers!  Bad!  Bad!

I know, I know.  It's been a busy month, but that's still no excuse.  I think it's mostly just that by the time we get Walt in bed around 9:00 (and then back in bed at 9:07.  and 9:16.  and 9:22.) we're too exhausted to replay the day's happenings for your reading pleasure.  But as much as we write this blog in order to entertain you, our wonderful audience (and really, of course it's all for you!), we also use this as a repository for memories and images from Walt's childhood.  And at this rate, there's going to be a distinct break between 3-year old Walt and high school-graduate Walt.  So we'd better get on the stick.

And now a review of the second half of October. 

 

The red blur on the right side of this picture is Walt running maniacly through the hay-bale maze at the "pumpkin patch" we visited in north Mississippi.  I put that in quotes because, though we did choose a pumpkin from a field, we also noted many large, empty crates marked "PUMPKINS" behind a shed on the way out.  Cheaters. 

Here's the bigger boys trying to lead their families through the larger corn maze relying only on their knowledge of bat trivia.  Somehow, we made it out alive.

 

Back at the ranch a few days later, the menfolk of the Spickler household worked on creating our jack 'o lantern.  Walt was none too interested in the pumpkin's gooey insides, so Josh ended up doing most of that by himself. 

 

Of course, one of October's main highlights as far as Walt was concerned was his first foray into organized sports.  Soccer, to be precise.  For my purposes, soccer was an excellent motivational tool.  As in, "Do you want to go to soccer today?  Then you'd better (insert task Walt is totally uninterested in doing)!"  A lot of vegetables were eaten, toys picked up and fits averted in the name of going to soccer practice twice a week.  In other words, he absolutely loved it. Especially the medal and pizza party at the end. 

 

 

And no, Walt didn't play soccer barefoot (as he's seen in the first picture), but although the Spicklers came ready to play ball in the frigid (57-degree) weather, it was decided that the little athletes would instead spend the practice running wild in the gym, and cleats are apparently not good for gym floors. 

So I know that Halloween is technically part of October, but I think we'll save the Halloween pics for the next trick-or-treating/marathon post.  What was Walt's costume?  Did Josh finish the race?  Did we find a Gruffalo in the woods?!  Tune in next time to find out!  (I've heard that cliff-hanger endings are a good literary device and I need all the help I can get here.)