Couldn't Leaf it Alone

Nothing better than when the lawn care guys blow all the leaves into giant piles and then go home for the day.

Guess Who Started Writing!

The other day James totally surprised me by starting to write. It's pretty tricky to see---so just squint your eyes a little bit, but I was super proud of him! More than that, it was fun to see how excited he was.

Amazing Maze

In Kelsey tradition, we went to the corn maze again this year. It blows my mind to think this is what James looked like the first time we went!

 

He's grown quite a bit, don't you think?

 This year there was a farm theme. Kate lead us through the whole maze.

After the maze the kids got to send corn cobs through this machine. 

And also got to jump and the big inflatable pillow.

Surprisingly, in the 4 years that we've been to the corn maze, we've never seen this playground before. It was a pretty good find!

Halloween Week

At our house Halloween lasted a whole week, maybe more. We had all sorts of events. It started with Boo at the Zoo where the kids met Elsa and a talking pumpkin.

Next we went to the Halloween party at the church. Kate actually wore her witch costume for this one. She sure does make a cute witch!!

 James decided he wanted to wear a different costume as well, so he wore his Prince James costume.

Kate was so excited that her friend Jessica was also dressed as a witch.

 Jessica was kind enough to paint Kate and James' faces. I was grateful because it turns out face paint is harder than it looks!

There were lots of fun games!

My friends were in the process of moving (Boo! and not the spooky Halloween kind of boo), so we got to bring this cute girl with us to the party 

After the party the kids decided to change their costumes again.

And again.

Monday we carved pumpkins.

Luckily, everyone pitched in to take out the pumpkin guts.

 

I think they turned out pretty well!

 Tuesday morning we headed off to school. Kate brought her book to share with her class at school. James, not to be left out, brought his book too.

 

I was able to snap a picture with Kate and one of her best friends, Lucy while they were at recess.

 

James had preschool that morning. It's only once a month, but it's really fun!

 

 This is a super blurry picture, but isn't Kate's teacher adorable? She was Pinkalicious for Halloween.

 At the store on Thursday, I found these little monsters.

Friday we went out trick-or-treating. Kate lamented for a long time, trying to decide if she was going to go as a witch or a dragon. She finally settled on dragon. 

The kids came home with a load of candy, and very kindly shared with mom and dad.

Boris the Baby Dragon

Kate decided she wanted to be a witch for Halloween. We got everything ready. Then the week before Halloween, her school reminded her that the kids that they were supposed to have a costume from their favorite book. I told Kate we could look for a witch book, but she reminded me that her favorite book is really 'My Father's Dragon'. She told me she could wear blue and wear her dinosaur tail. I thought about it, and in about and hour and a half, came up with this costume. She couldn't have been happier!!!! 

 In the morning when she saw it finished, she immediately put it on. James quickly put on an 'Elmer Elevator' costume and they spent the whole morning playing 'My Father's Dragon'.

They even went back to the book to review the story.

Kate continued to wear the costume (at least the sweatshirt) every day for the next week. Every time she wore it, she said, "I just feel so special in my Baby Dragon costume".

Family!

My parents and sister met us in Nebraska and then came back to Denver with us. The kids had been waiting for their visit all month! They were literally counting the days.

My parents rented a cute little house in Denver. The whole inside was decorated in wood, so my kids named it the Log Cabin. James and Kate got to sleep in the Log Cabin every night.Christian and I thought that was great because we got to go out on dates!

 

One of my favorite outings together was to the Botanic Gardens. Kate wanted to spend most of her time with her beloved Aunt Carrie.

We ate artsy food and enjoyed the artsy Chihully Exhibit. 

 Kate really wanted to throw my dad a surprise party. We picked out birthday stuff a week in advance. The day of, we went to the store and bought a cake. She hid out in the kitchen all of naptime, ready to jump out and say surprise. In the end, he woke up, walked into the kitchen, and started to talking to her. She realized what was happening and frantically shouted SURPRISE!

A Gold trip wouldn't be complete without a round of mini golf. We tried out a new course this time. 

 I sure do love seeing these wonderful people!

Creepy Crawlies

For a long time, James had a terrible fear for bugs. He would scream and run if he saw one. I'm not sure what happened, but in the last couple of months, that all changed.

 

Nebraska or Bust.....or Nebraska and Bust

I have now upped my road trip length. I drove by myself with the kids to Scottsbluff, Nebraska to visit family. It was only three and a half hours, which in road trip world is ridiculously short, but it was definitely long enough for me. The kids were wonderful! They were great travel buddies.

    

So, I have never driven very far by myself. I think my longest trip by myself  was probably Salt Lake to Provo. Or maybe Sacramento to the Jelly Belly Factory, I'm not sure which one was farther.

The kids were so excited to get to stay at my grandparents' place. 

Aren't these two a sweet couple? It's fun to see how much they love each other.

 

We all headed over to my Uncle Lou's house. My kids would have happily lived at Uncle Lou's house for the rest of their lives. 

I mean, who wouldn't? There were cars to drive. 

And trailer rides to be had. 

There were even toys for the big kids.

 

After playing outside, we went inside to play more. 

I love how much James and my cousin's son Auggie got along. They were a cute little pair!

We had dinner and enjoyed each others' company. 

 The next morning Lou took the kids on a tour of the garden. They got to pick all sorts of fruits and vegetables.

We also ate the most DELICIOUS apples straight off the tree. 

 It was the perfect trip.....up until the point we packed up to go and I backed straight into a tree. Oops!

For the record, I have the best husband in the world. He asked me, "Is everyone ok?" When I said yes, he said, "Well, then there is no need to get upset about it." Then he scheduled with the shop, and even took the car in for me the next day.

Lou helped me wrap up my car for the ride home. 

 He also came up with an idea of how to keep James quiet on the ride home. James was so excited when he ran around the corner to show me this.