Halloween Surprise!

It's always fun to see the kids, grandkids, nieces, and their kids come parading up to the house on Halloween. This year they really went all out with great costumes.

I'm not sure Sadie knew quite what to make of all the strange creatures she saw when she came to our house for Halloween.  She was dressed like a pretty little senorita, and look at the group she encountered! 

I won't even try to identify them for you.  Does it really matter?

Zane has the red eyes.  Kelly is The Hulk, Gage is on the right.

The Freeman family: Billy is Daddy Big Foot; Joey is Little Bigfoot; Christy is trying to keep Joey in his costume; Molly is a unicorn.

Always bashful Brent with boxer Jax, rock star Carlee and witch Kate.

Halle made a great vampire!

When everyone else was leaving and Wayne and I were walking back into the house, Robin, Chad and Sadie came in with us.  My thought: you're not leaving -- why not?

But, in they came and as we stood in the kitchen chatting, Robin had to call attention to her shirt, which had previously been hidden under another shirt.  This was her announcement to us that Sadie was going to be a big sister next year.

We had to keep quiet about it for almost a month, but as she is in the 2nd trimester now, we have been granted permission to share the wonderful news.  Baby Hensley is due about June 4.  If this one does the same as Sadie, however, look for his/her appearance around June 11.  

Happy?  Oh, yes!

Our Thanksgiving

Zane, Gage, Jax, Kate, Carlee, Robin, Sadie

Just as we have done for the past several years, we had our family Thanksgiving early.  Saturday, November 23, was our chosen date this year. 

Our plan was to meet at 9 AM and make our way to the pecan trees near the river to have a family photo taken by Chad's sister, photographer Alicia Stary.  Weather reports were not promising, in fact, they were downright grim.  It was to be windy, cold, and quite possibly, raining.  At midnight on Friday, Robin sent out a text warning that we might have to cancel.  And, Saturday morning by a little after 7, we had to admit that it would be an exercise in futility -- so, we called it off.

By 10 AM we had started gathering at Carolyn's, bringing all our Thanksgiving meal menu items.  My dishes were the dressing, gravy, noodles and croutons, rolls and the chocolate/banana supreme dessert.  Carolyn made her sweet potato souffle, cranberry sauce and provided whatever incidentals were needed.  Wendy made our traditional German-style slaw and also brought deviled eggs.  Chad fried two turkeys -- one to eat at our meal, and one to split up for leftovers.  Robin brought green beans with bacon, also made by Chad.  Our dear friend and neighbor, Miss Dee, brought sweet corn and a huge pecan pie. 

All the grandkids, except Sadie, headed upstairs, with orders to "Shut the door!"  We saw very little of them until we called them for the Thanksgiving meal, which we served at about noon or thereabout.  They sat at their own table and were just about finished eating by the time the adults had sat down with their plates.  So, they disappeared upstairs again, with promises that we would call them for dessert, which we did.  And then they were off, again -- and stayed upstairs for at least another hour.  We heard some screaming that seemed to go on for quite a while, but really didn't pay much attention to it. 

It wasn't until Wayne was ready to leave and went upstairs to tell them good-bye that we discovered that Gage, Zane, Kate and Jax had all gotten "accidentally" locked in the art room.  All the earlier screaming was for us to let them out.  The art room, used to be the upstairs deck off the playroom.  It got closed in with windows almost all the way around, and there isn't any a/c or heat in the room.  So, it was probably a little cool in there.  They had a space heater and a blanket that they said they all got under.  Carlee was downstairs, meanwhile, enjoying playing with Sadie.  We're not sure how the door got locked.   Carlee swears she didn't do it.  Oh, well -- no harm done. 

Hope everyone out there has as wonderful a Thanksgiving as we did!