Happy Thanksgiving!

The Tofurkey

Cooking

Tristan getting ready to eat

JR ready to eat

The table

The feast

Cheers!

He's officially 8

JR's birthday was today, and just like his birthday party, he had the day all planned out. Most importantly, JR has designated it as a family only day (the main reason we had his party last weekend). His big day started out with opening presents at 7AM.

7AM presents

The main items on the agenda were John's Incredible pizza and a movie. So after present openning some breakfast was had. Then JR filled the time until it was time to leave with building some of his numerous Lego sets he received.

The Lego building begins

John's Incredible Pizza was lots of fun. We filled up with pizza and pasta buffet followed by the dessert buffet. (I think I was the only one who hit up the salad buffet). Then we hit the games. Although it took a while to get to the games because we sat in a room called "Toon Town" filled with TV's playing cartoons. The kids were a little distracted by the TV's and had a hard time remembering they had food in front of them.

Eating pizza in Toon town

JR went off with James to win some tickets. Tristan heard there were rides so we were off to the roller coaster and some Drop-Zone type kiddie ride. It was entertaining for all.

Riding the rides

Winning some tickets

We cashed in our tickets for some really cheap toys and then were off to the movie theater. The only kids movie playing was Megamind. JR saw it this past week on a field trip with day care, but he was up for seeing it again. Tristan was super excited to see it. It was a good movie but we consumed (and by we, I mean JR, Tristan, and James) way too much popcorn and Mike and Ike candy.

At the movies

So we headed home where I made them eat spinach and butternut squash before indulging in some cheesecake for JR's birthday cake for dessert. JR spent all remaining time working on his Lego sets. I think he enjoyed his day.

Cheesecake

More Lego building

Happy Birthday JR!

Monster Tristan

JR's art

JR has just recently gotten into detailed drawings, or at least drawing for me. I am really pleased with his level of detail and his imagination. Here are some of his latest works.

The fair.

The beach.

The jungle.

JR's sick day creation

JR has been home sick yesterday and today. Today he is feeling much better so he and James built the marble run.

The white marks at the end of the track mark how far the marble made it.

The ultimate 8 year old's birthday party

JR turns 8 next week so this past weekend he had his birthday party. I told him he could invite a few friends over and I would take them out someplace special. He came up with a great birthday plan: a trip to Monster mini golf, followed by a pizza dinner and ice cream dessert, and then a sleepover and to conclude with a 5AM wakeup and Wii playing for the rest of the morning.


He invited 3 friends over and we took them out to Monster mini golf and video games.

The Monsters

Then we came home and they all played Wii while James and Tristan went to pick up the pizza.

Playing Wii

After dinner, James set up the strobe light in the living room for some dancing so the kids could burn off some energy while we cleaned up dinner. When we had finished cleaning, we had the kids play a game of freeze dance with prizes. After that we moved to the kitchen for a game where the kids had to find gummy bears in a plate of whip cream with their face - the first one to get all the gummy bears out wins. The kids loved both of these games. After we cleaned their faces a bit, we scooped ice cream into their gummy bear bowls and let them build their own sundaes.

Ice cream sundaes

The night ended with a viewing of "How to Train a Dragon" and then some shushing and separating. And as promised, they woke up at 5AM and played Wii for 4 hours only to be interrupted a little bit by some pancake and egg breakfast.

Happy Halloween!

Yoshi and the Knight

Pre Halloween party game of washers in the yard.

The gang, filled up with pizza, and ready to go!

Add another one to the list

JR is now playing flag football. He is also currently doing soccer and just had tryouts for the upcoming basketball season. He is a busy boy. Here's a couple clips of his very first flag football game. Go Patriots!

The day we got our pumpkins

We went to the pumpkin patch today. It's one of my favorite yearly activities, mostly for the great family pictures. I was kind of worried that it was going to be 90 degrees while we were picking our pumpkins because it has been unseasonable warm lately even for here, but it turned to fall just this morning and we had overcast skies, a little rain, and temperatures in the 60's. (Although you'll notice my boys are still wearing shorts and t-shirts).

Tristan took this picture

The family

Me and my cuddle bug

Each of the boys insisted on taking a picture alone with me - how sweet!

We had friends come along with us. This is Tabitha, JR, Grant, and Tristan

Tristan in the corn

The gang!

Gotta love the tractors

My boys!

Back to (Pre) School Night

Tristan had his annual "Back to School" night tonight. The preschool has each class do a little performance and then there are cookies and treats available and classrooms with artwork to show off. It's so cute to see the little ones sing and show off what they are doing in class. Tristan was one of the best singers for his apple song so he got to wear a giant apple and be up front. And he had a blast showing me all his art in his classroom. He really loves music and art.

The apple song

Tristan showing off his art work at his table

Tristan enjoying the cookies with his friends

Tristan sitting on the fall decorations at the school