Trick or Treating

Our cowgirls and cowboy had fun trick or treating around the block with Grandma Cheryl and Daddy.  Mommy was nominated/volunteered to stay home and hand out candy.  It really was the best choice for the pregnant mama and I loved seeing some familiar faces come to our door.

Halloween at the Zoo

Grandma Cheryl came to visit the weekend of Halloween and we all headed to the zoo for their trick or treat activities.  It was a bit of a rainy day, but we managed to find plenty inside and even checked out a few new places we hadn't yet explored - the tropics and the Minnesota trail.

The kids did a few craft projects and also got some candy and prizes.  It was a fun morning!  We never seem to get photos with Grandma Cheryl, but we managed one snapshot before leaving the zoo premises that morning.

Happy Halloween from our Pumpkins!

These were our best attempts at our annual fall photo to use for our Halloween cards. We had LOTS of outtakes but still ended up with some good options.

I think this was the one we used for the card, but had to crop out the FOUR little pumpkins at the bottom.  The kids LOVED our four pumpkins and our card said, "Love Lesley, Leah, Levi, and our soon to be Pumpkin #4"

Lesley's Halloween Party

A quick picture of our carved pumpkins.  I thought they turned out fantastic!

I wasn't a parent volunteer for the Halloween party, but I managed to sneak away from my desk to join Lesley for about an hour.

It was pretty fun, too much sugar was consumed by the kids, and as always the moms who volunteered did a fantastic job entertaining the kiddos!

And, of course, Lesley and Kaiden were like two peas in a pod, never far from each other.

Carving pumpkins & eating pumpkin pancakes

As is always the case, Daddy was in charge of carving pumpkins with the kids.  Just not a mommy thing!  I was excited this year they did a little research and found some neat examples to follow.

This is about the extent of what she touched.  She's more like her mama than her daddy for sure!

Levi dug right in to help out!  He was not turned off by the slime.

They turned out pretty neat!  I loved the outcomes this year.

Daddy even made orange pumpkin(ish) pancakes with chocolate chips for Halloween morning breakfast.  The kids loved them!

It really was a fun Halloween!

Leah's Parent Day

Just like Lesley, Leah has a few Parent Involvement days where the parents are strongly encouraged to come participate in certain activities with the students.  Her first one was right near Halloween and we were able to join her in the classroom to see and hear what a typical day looks like for Leah and her friends.

The kids "performed" a few songs including the alphabet and number, demonstrated their knowledge of the weather and the days of the week, and showed up around their classroom.

We also worked on a few little projects using playdough.

And, we also did some gluing and painting.  The kids seriously just love, love, love having the parents in the classroom.  What a fun hour we spent with Leah and her friends, and makes us even more thankful for the teachers she has in the Academy classroom.

Halloween at the Park

We opted to try an event at a near by Dakota County Park.  The kids dressed in their Halloween Costumes and we got to go on a hayride, pick out another pumpkin, go trick or treating through the playground, go on a haunted maze (not a good idea daddy!), and also see a puppet show.  Fun night!  And, next year we will know how to be more efficient with our time there.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Mommy planned a fun evening one Friday night.  We checked out a book, rented the matching movie, and made dinner to go with the theme.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

Levi was excited about his mashed potatoes (clouds), carrots (sun), meatballs (rain), broccoli (trees), and green beans (grass).  Apparently a good way to get kids to eat is to make it a game!

After dinner, we sat down to read our book...

...followed by the very much anticipated movie.

And, we even had popcorn!

To be honest, we never finished the movie and ended up paying $4 is late charges at the library.....but regardless, it was still a fun night and hopefully something Mommy can be creative about to repeat in the future, perhaps with a different theme.

More Soccer

Just a few random pictures from our soccer season...

Corn Pit

We don't have a close pumpkin patch to our house like we did in Tulsa, but we did get a free large pumpkin for our CSA share from the local market.  We went to their so called patch to pick it out, but then headed over to their greenhouses to explore their fall activities and get a few more pumpkins using buy one get one free coupons.

They had a giant corn maze that the kiddos LOVED!

The girls had had soccer games that morning so were still dressed in their uniforms.

I actually wanted to get in and play too.  They just had a blast!  There was also a small straw bale maze and some fun decorations to check out.  It wasn't near as cool as our pumpkin back in Tulsa, but it worked for an hour or so of entertainment.  We might have to make the drive to the one recommended by so many natives next year.  Hopefully our calendar won't be quite as busy as it was this year in October!

All Star Leah

Leah loves soccer.  And she is really good at it too.  Granted she was in a group of girls in which she was one of the tallest and probably oldest, but still, we were very impressed with her abilities and aggressiveness.

Before the season started, she kept telling us that she wanted an orange jersey since Lesley got a pink one.  Since her season started a week or so after Lesley's, she had plenty of time to really think about it.  We kept warning her that she may not get orange and encouraging her that no matter what color shirt she got, she would still play like a rockstar.  Well, we were all super excited when she did in fact get an orange shirt!!!!  So pumped that her wish came true!

And, at the end of the season, I went up to the coach to personally thank her for her time and guidance.  She complimented Leah and said, "it's easy to tell which players have older siblings."  I laughed and had to fess up that Leah is actually a better player than Lesley.  Perhaps this is a situation where Little Sister can teach Big Sister some skills!