We’ve had quite the Halloween celebration.  I mentioned in a previous post that we took a trip to the pumpkin train, where K picked out a cute little pumpkin.

On Tuesday, we went to our town’s Halloween parade.  K didn’t dress up, but wore his dinosaur jacket.  He loved the fire engines, big trucks, marching bands, and birds flying overhead. (heh?)  We watched it along some friends and cousins…but this is the closest I got to a group shot…

The randomness you see there sums up the night well.  K is feeding snacks to Minnie mouse.  Skunk is confused.  Frog is happy.  Pumpkin is sleeping through it all.

Here’s K with his snag of the night.

Wednesday night we went to the family festival at our church.  The theme was Candy Land, and they did a great job!  (Tons more pics in the slide show).

K tried his paw at a few games.

His favorite game room involved hunting for candy in the kiddie pools full of ball pit balls and packing peanuts. We took a break for a quick sugar fix.  See K below feeding a cookie to a toy M&M.  Is that some form of cannibalism?  He mostly preferred walking on the “candy land” board walkways rather than going in the actual game rooms.  Please excuse him as he blocks the path.  What a cute road block though, right?

Thursday was trick or treat night!  K dressed up as a pirate and hit the streets!

Suckers are his loot of choice.  This is one happy /sticky / messy boy.

And this is one proud, happy, mama.

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On Saturday, we were able to take in a local fall tradition.  We rode the PUMPKIN TRAIN over to pick out K’s very first pumpkin!

Once we made it to the patch, he tried picking up a couple, only to discover they were “too big”.  He eventually spotted a smaller one up in the window of a little shack, and said “Pumpkin!”  I could see that he had made his choice, so we took what was probably a decoration.  Whoops.

As I walked back with two mamas trying to manage their child plus their huge pumpkins…I was thankful for K’s tiny choice!

K enjoyed the inside of the building even more.  He played on the train table, looked at a few different scales of trains in a train room, and was sad to leave!  We’ve decided to take J back sometime soon, and we will definitely return when they are set up for Christmas as well.

All aboard!

*Click on any photo to view larger, or in a slide show format*

We pray with K each night before bed.  We are thankful for lots of things, pray for our family members by name, and ask for a few special, although generally routine requests as well.  As we wrap up, K ends it with an “Amen” and a “night night!”.

Recently, K has even been joining in when we mention our family, often contributing names to pray for.  (Pawpaw and Mipa “Pipa” are frequently his own requests, as are Jordan, and his day care friend Claire).

Since he is starting to participate more, tonight I decided to come up with a few simple phrases and encourage him to say them out loud himself.

With my help, K prayed the following:

“Dear God”

“I love you”

“Thank you for my family”

“Help me be a good boy”

“Amen”

When the tears slowed a bit, I reflected on that simple prayer and compared it to my own rambling prayers.   The prayers in which my mind wanders and I jump from worry to worry, request to request, opinion to opinion with little time for a “thanks” or heaven forbid…time for God to speak.

Perhaps every now and then, simple is…ok.  And faith like a child…desireable.

Dear God,  I love you.  Thank you for everything you have blessed me with.  Help me serve you more.  Amen.