Zander Turns 5!

We threw Zander his first birthday party this year....not just any birthday party--a Star Wars party! I have to admit I was probably a little too ambitious, but there is so much good stuff out there on how to throw an awesome Star Wars party. Zander ended up inviting 16 friends but we only ended up with about half of them. Stephen and I made pool noodle lightsabers for the kids' party favors and we made our own Death Star pinata. We played pin the lightsaber on Yoda and then the kids had to go through Jedi training that included crawling through the ventilation system (a play tunnel) and do a somersault to sneak past the storm troopers. As they made their way downstairs a lone trooper spotted them and started shooting at them so they had to dodge the laser beams. Then we went back upstairs and they had to get through the lava field to earn their lightsabers. It was was a good thing too because we felt a great disturbance in the force and Darth Vader appeared and attacked! But the newly trained jedis were too powerful and defeated him. After taking on Darth Vader they were ready to take on the Death Star and destroy it. They reaped their rewards after the deed was done.

After the pinata we went back inside to sing Happy Birthday, eat cake, and open presents. Zander was in Star Wars heaven! He had an epic party; kids and parents were talking about it at church the next day.

Zander, you are growing up to be such a great kid. I love your enthusiasm, your love, and your snuggles. You are such a good big brother and so smart! We love you so much!

Halloween

The Star Wars theme song is still being sung in our house all day every day, so of course, we had to be a Star Wars family this year. I was shocked when Zander chose to be Luke Skywalker instead of one of the bad guys, and Lucas begged to be Darth Maul. I just happened to find a Darth Vader outfit in Hannah's size on clearance, and Dad decided to join forces with the dark side and be a Sith Lord while I sided with Zander as Princess Leia.

We spotted the headless horseman riding through the neighborhood this year. The boys were captivated by him and tried looking for him every time he disappeared. I had to tell them the legend of Sleep Hollow so they understood who he was. We had a blast trick or treating and Hannah lasted a lot longer than I thought she would, although she was like a cat in a costume--she wouldn't walk she'd only fall over and not move. We got lots of loot including regular sized candy bars!

I Adore These Kids

Since Hannah has been walking she has been climbing onto and into anything and everything. Today she got stuck.

 Watching big brother at wrestling practice

These two boys are the best of frienemies. And I cannot, for the life of me, get Lucas to ever give me a nice smile AND look at the camera at the same time.

Girls Camp

These girls were So. Much. Fun. to hang out with over the weekend. I'm glad I got to participate in their girls camp this year. I taught them how to make apple pie for their activity while grandma and grandpa were out for the day.

Spokane

I finally got to go back to Spokane to visit Becky and see her new house thanks to mom who was willing to drive up there with me. I had so much fun! (and took lots of pictures) Mom and I drove up Thursday morning and got in by sun down that night. The kids did great on the drive up; I didn't even have to use the tablet for movies. They played and watched for things out the window. We stopped once for gas and lunch half way there, and then again for 10 minutes for a bathroom break because they drank so much pop at lunch time.

We got settled in and the next day we worked outside planting spring bulbs and clearing out weeds, flowers and lots of pine needles out of Becky's flower beds. Becky found a giant slug that the kids played with and watched for a while, and they have a pretty cool rope swing in their back yard that even mom and I had to try out. That evening Becky took us to a vintage fair so we could get some mom/daughter time for a few hours. There was a lot fun stuff to see and explore and I think we all took at least one thing home. The rest of the weekend we listened to general conference.

 Monday we worked in the yard some more to finish clearing out the flower beds. One day Zander went outside to play on the trampoline after it had rained. As he was jumping he slipped and fell hitting his face on the bar of the trampoline. He split his eye and bruised it around the socket and across his nose to his forehead. That boy is one tough kid I'll give him that. This will be his third black eye this year. The rest of the week we shopped and ate and played with the kids. All the kids, including Hannah and Ezra, were either trying to one-up each other or compete in one way or another...it was probably mostly due to my kids; they compete with each other all the time but they had a great time with their cousins.

We went to Green Bluff at Walter's farm to get the kids out of the house for a while and pick out pumpkins. I love this place! We took a tractor ride through the apple orchard, the kids played in the pea pit, the slide, pallet maze (that we couldn't get out of), and watched the sheep. What a great day.

Lance=best uncle ever! Lance watched the kids for a while so we could do some more shopping withe the babies. We came home and found the kids sliding down the stairs on Ezra's mattress. Boy did they have fun!

 Our last adventure before we had to go home was to the Finch Arboretum. It was a nice sunny day to take a stroll through the park and have a picnic. The boys tried some Elderberries, climbed rocks, saw wild turkeys, and poor Lucas bruised his eye by tripping on the asphalt in the parking lot and face planting it.

Saturday came and it was time for us to head home. We stopped in Boise to visit with Grandma Watson for a little bit. It was really good to see her and see what she has been up to since the reunion. The boys were a little rambunctious from sitting in the car for 6 hours, so we didn't stay long for grandma's sake.We had to make an emergency stop on the side of the road between Boise and Twin because Lucas thought it'd be a good idea to stick a sixlet up his nose. Leave it to Lucas...I got out of the car to help him blow it out, but it was stuck in there pretty far (probably because he kept sniffing instead of blowing) luckily it had been in there long enough for it to melt a little so he was able to blow a good chunk of it out. He was screaming and crying the whole time until it came out and then he was calm and fell right to sleep.

We stayed a few extra days in Twin with grandma and grandpa since Stephen was in D.C. that week. The boys painted the pumpkins they got at the farm, raked and played in the leaves, chased grandpa around the house, and made dinner for the missionaries. Dad also took me to the Blue Lakes house to see the progress they had been making. We had a really fun two week vacation, and we were ready to be home and see dad.