Halloween 2016

Whew!  What a whirlwind the last few days have been with lots of fun Halloween celebrations. 

Things kicked off on Saturday, when we went to the boys' first carnival at a nearby elementary school with some friends.  Jackson was a zookeeper, and Cole was his crazy parrot (wearing the costume J wore when he was two!). They loved the games and activities, and seeing their friends Jameson and Preston, who they went to their previous school with.

 

 

That afternoon, we went to a super fun costume party at the Gossetts. The boys went as a police/SWAT man and firefighter.  We all had a great time, and loved seeing all the costumes everyone came in.  One of the dads dressed as Olaf which amazed Cole, who has been loving Frozen lately (I think he thought it was really Olaf).  Corey and I got a bit creative and dressed as the song "Cake by the Ocean".  

Jackson absolutely could not wait for Halloween this year, ranking it right up there with Christmas. He'd been talking about how excited he was for over a week, and could not contain his excitement the day it finally arrived.

The boys' school had Halloween themed activities planned in class and then went trick-or-treating around the school and in the assisted living facility next door.  I helped out in Jackson's class and had a blast.

The Grammas came over that afternoon so they could trick-or-treat with us. We headed out a bit earlier than normal given that it was a school night and the rain seemed to be holding off for a bit, and luckily we were able to make it through our entire neighborhood before the downpour began.  The boys loved every second of tick-or-treating, and it was so fun to see their excitement over it all. This was the first year Cole actually enjoyed it, and he did a great job running after Jackson, helping pound on each door, and saying "trick-or-treat!" and "thank you!".   Once we returned home, they loved handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters that came to our door.

We all snacked on too much candy and stayed up a bit late, but deemed it totally appropriate given the occasion. What a fun Halloween it was!  

Pumpkins!

With sun in the forecast last Sunday and no big plans in the morning, the boys and I headed to Remlinger with Gramma Joan to pick out our pumpkins (I figured Corey would enjoy watching the Hawks in peace, and offered to take the boys so he could stay home to watch).  It was the perfect morning for our adventure, and there was almost no one there!

As we have the last few years, we picked out our pumpkins first (boys wanted to go home with the first pumpkins they saw, but we were able to get them to look around a bit for the perfect picks).  Once we settled on our pumpkins, we hit up the corn maze (had to do it not one, not two, but three times!) and went on a tractor ride.

It was fun (and helpful!) to have Joan along.  Everyone had a blast.  Looking forward to carving our picks in a few weeks!

We're ready for fall!

New School Year!

After a week of fun, school re-opened for the first day of school last Tuesday, which both boys were super excited about.

Jackson is a Kindergartner!  Because he's still at the same school, the craziness of that hasn't quite set in.  Once he starts first grade at the nearby public school next year, I think it'll really blow my mind.  He's loving class so far, and has been so excited to show me the class schedule and his journal entries (his writing has gotten much better over the last few months, and his confidence is much higher compared to his journaling last year) when I pick him up each day.  And last night, he was SO excited when he remembered they were each being assigned jobs/chores today!

Cole is in the same Early Preschool class he was in for the second half of last year, but he absolutely loves his teacher, and I'm excited to see him take on new, more advanced work in that class. Over the coming months, he'll also be working more on potty training and prepping for preschool next year.

Tomorrow and Wednesday are Back to School Nights where we'll hear from each boy's teacher about all the fun things we have to look forward to this year.

Can't wait to see what they learn and accomplish over the coming few months!

Summer Fun

The boys' school was closed the week before school started so I took the week off to hang with them.  When we aren't at school and working, I always like to do things that we typically don't do on the weekend due to lack of time or wanting to avoid the crowds, so we planned some fun outings and sprinkled in some things around the house.

First up was the Playtorium with Gramma Joan.  And a trip to the Factoria Mall is never complete without rides on the cars.

Some of the sounds from the ball area were too loud so Cole tested out some ear plugs and surprisingly liked them

The boys spent time that afternoon building Legos.

The next day, we visited Corey and work and then took the monorail to the Space Needle.  The boys had a blast.

J was so excited to get a seat near the driver. He was totally impressed with all the buttons and the fact that we went 35 MPH.

That afternoon, the boys made muffins for snack before we took a walk to see the horses.

Next up was KidsQuest (also with Gramma Joan), which the boys always enjoy.  Their favorite part is always the water area, and this time was no different.

During Cole's nap each day, J and I played lots of Uno

And one afternoon, we hit up McDonalds' indoor play area, which the boys  love. We've been a few times and they're entertained and both times they've played nicely with each other for over an hour.  They had milkshakes for a snack and I was able to catch up on a good book (I've been a bit of a bookworm lately), so everyone was happy!

Found out that the boys love to clean windows. Score!

And to round out our week home, the boys bounced their brains out.

We had such a fun week together.  It was the perfect break for all of us to rest and recharge before school started back up.