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With our good weather at the beginning of the month, Finn got some good time in on his new scooter.  It takes a bit of work to get it up our slight hill of a driveway but he loves it.

Finn says his favorite special at school is music.  I don't know how much of that has to do with the fact that he also takes music outside of school, but I'm glad he is enjoying it.  He came home from school one day having learned several verses of "Down By the Bay" and insisted I record him singing each one.  This verse turned out to be my favorite.

We had a LARGE snowstorm the week before Thanksgiving.  It took a while to make a good sled run but it worked out.  The kids LOVED sledding...it was the first time that any of them had gone.

Bree's favorite thing to do in the snow is make snow angels.  It's adorable!

Halloween Week

The week before Halloween was very busy.  Our ward had a ward party/chili cookoff on Tuesday the 27th.  The kids and I went and had a fun time.  There was a whole LOT of chili and a few desserts.  Then the kids rotated around the building playing carnival type games in many of the classrooms.  Bree wanted to play despite the fact that most games were too old for her, but the kids running the games were sweet to let her play her way and she did a good job waiting in line for her turn, so I had to let her have her turn.  After the carnival games were done we headed outside for trunk or treat.  One of my sweet senior primary girls volunteered to take the kids around.  I think she really wanted to take Bree (she's one of Bree's buddies on Sundays) but Bree was too nervous to leave my side, so she took the boys instead.  That was nice as I could focus on Bree.  We had a good time circling the parking lot and the kids got a lot of candy.  It wasn't even Halloween yet and I felt like we had enough candy to call the whole week done!  Haha!

The kids got restless one morning so we went out to paint pumpkins.

On Friday the 30th the kids had their class Halloween parties.  I am the room mom for both Kai and Finn's classes.  That's a long story, but it is what it is this year and it works.  Finn has his class parties from 1 to 2pm and Kai's parties are from 2:30 to 3:40pm.  So, I got to school at 12:15 to start setting up for Finn's party and I was all done with parties by 3:40pm.  Poor Bree was tired but was a good sport for the day.  She missed her nap and was getting clingy and crabby by the time Kai's party was over, but I was proud of her for hanging in there.

Monster Munch

Finn's party was a Pumpkin Patch theme.  We weaved pumpkin mats, had a pumpkin ring toss, did pumpkin scratch off ornaments, and made pumpkin head bands.  Kai's part was a Monster Mash theme.  They played several minute-to-win-it-type games and decorated their treat bags into monsters.  And they also made monster magnets (with a great kit from Oriental Trading Company).  I had a good time planning the treats for their party and they had monster pudding cups, spider eggs (donut holes), monster munch, some awesome sugar cookies that another mom made, and jackolantern juice (which was super yummy and something I need to use again!).  The parties went really well and everyone had a good time.  That was a huge relief.  Only two more parties for each class this year....I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!

Finally, Halloween.  The kids were excited to go trick-or-treating and the weather was actually quite nice.  We headed over to our friend's neighborhood and began trick-or-treating right at sundown.  We covered quite a bit of ground and the kids got a whole LOT more candy.  Bree did well saying "trick-or-treat" and "thank you!" and her costume was a huge hit.  For all of the parties this year I had an astronaut (Kai), Ironman (Finn), and a cupcake (Bree).  She seriously was the cutest cupcake I have ever seen.

It was hard to get good pictures this year.  The kids were excited to get their candy and weren't very cooperative.  And I was clearly outnumbered!

I wish this picture had turned out better because this is a super cute costume.  Oh well!  I did my best!

Our pumpkins are still FULL of candy.  And there was even extra from the parties.  We have more candy than I have ever seen in this house.  And my kids don't eat it that much.  AHHH!!  But I'm glad they had such a fun Halloween.

No pictures of a birthday party!

Our days go quickly, but I have to admit that I am really enjoying this season of life.  We are busy, but not too busy.  We have time to play together, learn together, and just be together.  And as fun as it is, there really isn't too much exciting to take pictures of a lot of the time.  Or maybe it's just that I don't want to pull out my phone to take the pictures!

Anyway, Finn's birthday was on the 17th but we were unable to hold his party until the 24th.  He got to celebrate his birthday for an entire week straight!  He took in birthday treats to school on the 20th and then with his party on the 24th he was hearing "Happy Birthday!" for a long time.

We had his party this year at Sundance Gymnastics Academy, which is just a mile or so from the house.  I will admit to being disappointed in the party.  I thought it would be more structured and that games and activities would be provided for the kids.  Instead it was just open gym time.  The kids all seemed to have a good time, though, so I guess I shouldn't complain.  I don't think we'll do that for a party again, though.  I paid too much money for a free-for-all.

Because the kids were running everywhere and we were in a gym, I did not have my phone to take pictures.  So the only pictures we have are ones that Reid took of Bree.  She had a grand time being thrown into the pit by her dad, walking on the beam, and hanging from the bar.  She also really enjoyed the trampoline.  Finn wanted his party to be all preschool friends, so we invited friends that he hasn't seen in a while and he had a great time playing with them.  They ended up playing a jack-in-the-box type game for quite a while (they built a tunnel out of mats and then covered it up with one of them in it and then they popped out).  It was funny to me that they could run and jump and swing and they chose to do that, but hey, they were playing together and happy.

After an hour in the gym we went up to the party room.  Oh my!  The acoustics in that area was awful.  One little whisper got magnified and echoes.  So imagine the sound of 10 happy little boys bouncing all over the place.  My throat hurt from trying to get their attention by the time we were done...and we were only up there for 30 minutes!  I'm glad Finn had a fun party and was able to see his friends.  And I guess a crazy party fits Finn's personality perfectly, so what can I say?!

During the week the kids got on a scrambled egg kick.  Finn likes his green (think Green eggs and ham) and Bree wanted pink eggs.  They also love to help out in the kitchen.  I constantly am putting chairs back at the table after Bree drags one into the kitchen to help me either cook or do dishes.  This was Thursday for lunch.

Yep, this looks the same doesn't it.  But it's another day and another food.  This is pineapple that she is eating while standing in the kitchen to help me cook.

One of Finn's preschool friends gives really interesting presents.  (He came to Finn's party last year, so I can confirm that interesting presents are a trend with this kid.)  He spent all day writing notes to Finn and then wrapped them up and filled that yellow basket (the party wasn't until 3pm.).  Of course the notes were nothing that Reid or I could decipher, except the one that said, "A B C D E" and so on.  After opening a few at the party we brought the rest to open at home.  Imagine Finn's surprise when the last note contained $1.  I took this picture to text to the kid's mom to show them that we did indeed finish opening all of his notes to Finn.  Good thing I didn't just throw them out, which is what I wanted to do!

She knew just what to do when she got on the beam. It turns out there is a Special Agent Oso episode about how to walk a balance beam.  I thought she was a natural but it turns out she is just an Oso addict!

Birthday Weekend

Parent-teacher conferences mean a 4 day weekend for the elementary school kids.  On Thursday we had conferences in the morning and then we went to lunch (see previous post) and then did some browsing at Target.  (I was trying to figure out what to get Finn for his birthday! And having the other kids point out what they liked is also helpful for the upcoming Christmas season.)  On Friday we headed to Anderson Farm in Eerie, Colorado for their fall festival.  One of my friends is an admitted Pumpkin Patch addict and has raved about this patch and I really wanted to check it out.

It's funny how a drive can seem so much longer when you don't know exactly where you are going.  It sure seemed like a long drive to get there, but in reality it took about an hour and twenty minutes (which isn't bad for the north side of Denver).  I was hoping to get there right as it opened to avoid crowds, but ended up there about an hour later.  And it became very apparent that we weren't the only ones who had decided to go to the pumpkin patch for the day.  We waited a good twenty minutes in line just to get into the farm!  It was a beautiful fall day and based on the crowds I'm guessing most schools were out for fall break.  Just our luck.  The lines for the rides were long and slow moving (and by rides I mean the barrel train, pedal cars, and mine car).  The mine car went the fastest and so we started there.  After watching the barrel train line I decided that I did not have the patience to wait through that, and so we moved on to the pedal cars.  The boys were excited for that and so we waited it out.  After that we had been at the pumpkin patch for over an hour already and were ready for lunch.  We found ourselves a picnic table and enjoyed the Lunchables that we had picked up on our way to the farm.

The line to get in.

Trying to get the kids to look at me for a picture while we were waiting for the mine car to go.

Kai on the pedal cars.  I didn't get a picture of Finn because he was off on the smaller track with a smaller car, but he was really flying!

Bree was wanting to pose for a picture.

I couldn't get all 3 of them to agree on a bench.  Bree was willing to sit for a picture wherever I asked, but the boys weren't quite as cooperative.

From there we headed over to the children's playground area and let the kids run around for a while.  Then we decided to tackle the corn maze.  This might have been my favorite part of the whole farm.  If my kids were only a bit older we could have spent hours working our way through the maze and finding all of the checkpoints.  However, Finn started getting tired and hot and I was already carrying Bree.  I was too nervous to leave them in the maze by themselves due to the very real possibility that they would become lost, so we headed out after only 45 minutes or so.

A look at the main barn at the farm

Playing in the wood train

Corn maze

After that it was time to head out to the pumpkin field and pick our pumpkins.  All of the kids got a pumpkin and enjoyed the ride to the pumpkin patch.  When we got off our ride we had to wait another 20 minutes just to pay for the pumpkins.  I seriously felt like leaving the pumpkins and moving on, but my kids were set on buying the pumpkins.  The family behind us in line did leave, though, and said the experience of picking them was good enough for them.

Picking his pumpkin

I love how she is looking at Kai.

Our pumpkins waiting to be paid for.

After paying for the pumpkins we headed to our car.  Four hours at the pumpkin patch and we were all sufficiently worn out.  It was a fun day, but not one that I think we are going to repeat.

The next day was Finn's 6th birthday.  We had a fun day planned for him that centered around a trip to the North Pole.  The boys had earned the trip by learning to ride their bikes and this was the first Saturday that we didn't have soccer since then.  Our day started early with a trip to Amy's Doughnuts.  I have no idea how I have lived here for almost 8 years and I had just heard of this place.  They had some awesome doughnuts.  I'd guess there were over 50 flavors of doughnuts in the case and they had powdered, glazed, and plain doughnuts with out any filling that you could pick your own filling and it would be done right in front of you.  When we got to Amy's the line was nearly out the door.  The man said that is pretty typical of a Saturday morning.  As we were waiting in line a sweet elderly gentleman approached me and said, "Didn't Amy's tell you that beautiful children can't eat here without junior police officer badges?" and handed all of my kids a sticker.  It was super sweet and made me smile.  Finn had been feeling off the whole morning and wasn't wanting to eat his birthday doughnuts.  He wasn't wanting anything in his tummy actually and so I was nervous about what the rest of the day would hold.

Waiting in line on a carpet donut.

The donut line

The sun was bright and he wasn't feeling good so I gave up on getting a picture of him with all of his birthday donuts.

After getting our doughnuts we headed up the mountain to the North Pole.  We love this place and the time we have together.  Our family tip is to get there at opening and head straight to the back of the park, which we did.  Everyone stops at the rides in the front and so we are able to get through the rides at the back of the park quickly and repeat them as much as we'd like before it gets busy.  The weather was beautiful and the kids were having a blast.  (Oh, and did I mention that Finn threw up in the parking lot when we got there and then headed to the restroom before eventually feeling lots better?  Ugghhh....)  Bree surprised me as we discovered that she is a thrill rider just like her brother Finn.  They both wanted to ride every single ride, no matter what.  Their favorite was the dive bombers.  Unfortunately, my body doesn't handle thrill rides like it used to.  I remember my parents not doing the rides with us as kids and wishing they were like the other "cool" parents who were in the lines.  And now, I'm one of the parents who is barely holding onto her sanity and lunch while trying to support my kids.  I had to ride the dive bombers three times in a row (twice with Bree and then once with Finn--Reid rode one time with Finn) and it nearly took me out for the whole day.  After some lunch and some down time I ventured onto a couple more crazy rides.  I thought for sure that Bree had met her match with the tilt-a-whirl, but I was wrong.  Finally I did two rides in a row on the paratrooper and I was done.  Just done.  Good thing the kids had ridden nearly everything in the park at least once by that point and were ready to go home.

I took a picture of this sign because it is probably the last time that all of our kids can ride these rides together.  Bree is 32 inches tall and Kai is 47 inches.

Bree is riding with Reid

Waiting for a ride

I love this picture.  They were talking about something and just enjoying each other.

Reid gave me bunny ears so they would look for a picture.  This is what we got.

The north pole is cold!

At home we had dinner and then opened Finn's birthday presents.  He LOVED everything we got for him this year.  I was pretty proud of us for really getting it right.  We all had a great weekend celebrating Finn and we are so glad he is a part of our family.

He got an Air Flicker scooter which was too big to wrap so it went in a lawn bag.

A RC car from his brother and sister

What was left of the birthday donuts by the time I remembered I didn't have a picture of them.

Sunday morning he finally felt well enough to try his donuts.

A lazy Sunday together