October Fun

We were lucky enough to have my sister Katie and her kids come visit. I am not sure how much longer she will be able to pull this off as she has more kids, but I am glad she still can for now. We actually bought pumpkins this year from a pumpkin patch and even got around to carving them, which is a first since our rotting pumpkins our first Halloween in Texas. The pumpkin patch had a little play area for the kids.

John got a great leg workout helping King and Netta on the teeter totters.

Part of the reason Katie was able to visit, was that my parents came up for the weekend and then drove her back with them to Pittsburgh, so she could get 2 trips in one. We decided to head to the fall festival at a local apple orchard. They have amazing donuts and cider. Unfortunately, it was unseasonably warm and we were not ready for that, which led to some grumpy kids. We still were able to have some fun and scare the crap out of our kids by going through the haunted house. It really wasn't scary at all but it was more than Netta or King could handle.

We had a "Witches Night Out" at church for the ladies. It was really fun. Part of it was a scavenger hunt around town. It was really funny to be doing that with a bunch of grown woman and it was even funnier to see who would throw themselves completely into it and who didn't want to get out of the car. HaHa. There was also a hat decorating contest and I decided to go for Dia de los Muertos. I was pretty proud of my cheep finds that let me put the hat together and I was equally as proud of my makeup job. Wasn't sure if I could pull it off, but it may be my go to costume from now on. 

Our realtor is amazing and he sponsored a day trip to Chicago for all his past clients. He rented 2 buses, stocked them with snacks, and then drove us around Chicago to different popular spots. From the invite I thought you were only allowed to bring 2 people, so I told John I wanted to have a special date with King. Being the middle child, means poor King misses out sometimes. EZ, as the oldest has gotten to do a lot one on one with John and I and of course Conrad gets all my attention most days. Netta is technically also a middle child, but being the only girl, she gets more then here fair share of one on one time with John and I. So, King and I had our date and our first stop was the Museum of Science and Industry. They just had had a sweet groupon deal where you could get a year long family membership for half price, so it was perfect timing. Then to make it even better, when we got there they had a special limited time exhibit just about robots. King was in heaven!

We spent most of the day there and then the bus took us up to Water Tower Place and King was once again in heaven in the Lego Store. We spent an hour just in there. From then on King started to crash and so we decided to go get some pizza at Gino's East. I have only been there at lunch and it is so much more affordable than dinner. I still can't believe I spent $50 on a pizza dinner for King and I. Haha. King got a new Mixel lego pack from the store and insisted on keeping it safe in his minion hat. Hence the interesting pump on his head. All and all it was a great day and we found out we could have brought the whole family. I am really glad King and I got our date this time, but if there is a next, we will all be going. 

EZ got to play some of his piano pieces at an old folks home and all the kids playing wore costumes. Christine Velasco, a friend from church, organized the whole thing. EZ is loves piano and actually enjoys working through things when they get hard. I am grateful and amazed by people who organize these kind of things. I wouldn't have even thought of it!

Halloween means Halloween parties at school and this year I got to visit Conrad and EZ. Conrad's preschool had different employees stationed around the Y with candy and toys and the kids walked around the entire place trick or treating. He was surprisingly shy on this visit. Sometimes Conrad is beyond out going, but then he still has those days where he clings to me and acts like he is afraid of people.

Parents at Brown school are very hands on and always willing to volunteer, which is awesome, but it also means sometimes it is hard to get into your kids classroom. For 4th grade you get to sign up to help with one major event and so I was in charge of the Halloween party. I didn't have to really do much except make sure all the different stations were taken care of and there were plenty of volunteers for that. I was in charge of the snack station and I decided it would be fun for the kids to decorate their own monster cookies. They had fun and I didn't have to do as much work. ;)

Here are all the kids in their Halloween glory. EZ and King were both characters from the Skylanders video game and of course if you kids aren't obsessed with those like mine are, you have no idea who they are. Netta was a spunky witch and Conrad was the cutest dinosaur ever. 

Our first year here, Halloween was kind of ruined by horrible weather that came through and this year was kind of the same thing. It rained a ton. EZ went out with some friends and their parents were so miserable in the rain that they finally told the kids they would talk them to Walgreens and buy them candy if they would quite trick or treating. Conrad and Kingston opted out of trick or treating at all and I had the fun of taking Netta and her buddy Elizabeth. They didn't last long and that was fine with me.

September Happenings

School doesn't start here till after Labor Day, so we still have some time in September to squeeze in more summer fun. My friend Katie Richardson, from our MSU days, came down to visit from Grand Haven with her kids. We had Silver Beach Pizza of course and then headed to the beach. Her son Cam is Netta's age, but EZ and him really hit it off and EZ requested a special picture of the 2 of them. 

 We also had time to take a few more pics with the art statues downtown. We have taken so many over the summer that EZ is no longer impressed. 

Labor Day weekend, Uncle Casey was playing volleyball in Cincinnati so we made a little family vacation out of it. It was insanely hot and then it rained like crazy. The rain messed up the schedule so much that a bunch of the games were played late at night and sometimes John was the only representative of our family there.

 Casey is sponsored by Paul Mitchell and they always have a booth at the events. Netta had her hair braided. I was amazed that they could actually get it in a braid. Poor girl loved it and I have never even tried to do it. I better up my game. 

When Casey wasn't playing, we explored Cincinnati and I was pleasantly surprised by it. My bad google directions ended up with us trying to find a Chick-fil-A that was actually in the college stadium and then because that didn't work the next closest one was actually just over the river in Kentucky, so I can now say I have been to Kentucky as well. We also made sure and try some local restaurants, like a really cool grilled cheese place, where actually the best part was the desserts made out of grilled donuts. Our favorite place was the museum center housed in this old train station. It had a really awesome children's museum. 

We all loved cheering for Uncle Casey and they made it to the finals, which was awesome. King was the most excited to see him and to get to have dinner with him after the final game. He is actually smiling in this pic and not ruining it with a crazy face like he usually does. He talked to Casey the entire time at dinner. Casey couldn't always understand him, but he was a good listener. 

As soon as we got back from Cincinnati, it was back to school. I can't believe I have 3 kids in school now. I was really worried about King and how he would do. He has been insisting that he is not going to go to Brown school and that he only wants to stay in preschool. When we went to back to school night to meet his teacher, he wouldn't even look at her. Luckily, at that same event we were able to tour a school bus and actually meet our driver. His name is Mr. Rath, which I think is hilarious, and he was so nice to King. I thought I was going to have to drive King to school the first day and then pry him off my leg when we got there, but he was so excited to ride the bus that he just strolled right on. I still can't believe, but I'll take it!

Since Conrad and I have all this time to ourselves now, we decided to stand in line at a new restaurant, Taco John's, to be one of the first costumers and win fee Potato Oles for a year. They actually aren't that great, but hey I love a deal!

A week after the kids went back to school, Conrad started preschool. He goes 2 days a week at the Y. It was so funny to see him wearing his back pack that is humongous on him. I can't believe that I now have a 3 hours twice a week with on kids. I gotta say it is really nice for actually getting stuff done.

Every fall they have a little festival on the bluff and of course we had to check out all the animals. Usually we would have been running around at soccer in the morning, but this year we gave soccer the boot. EZ just isn't into running that much and Netta loves dance so much and only really played soccer for the candy and I couldn't handle how crazy it made out lives. King wants to try it out, so this year we opted for doing an intro to soccer at the Y. EZ is taking a speed and agility class at the Y in hopes that it can improve his running for when basketball starts. It makes our Wednesdays absolutely crazy, but I love having such lazy Saturdays!