A Fall Sunday

A visit to the Botanic Gardens during the day followed by dinner and the Bronco game with their little cousin. 

Playdate on Adler's birthday

For Adler's actual birthday, we went to lunch with one of his best buds at the art museum and then played for awhile.  I ordered Adler some noodles, but he ate my entire goat cheese and beat salad instead while his friend had a huge salad with salmon, funny kids. 

Lots of boys at a pumpkin patch

Yesterday we went to Rock Creek Farm with two of Landon's best friends from school and one of their little brothers (younger than Adler, but quite different in size.  Adler is on the very small side and Will off the charts on the other end).  We started in the large pumpkin patch where you can actually saw off your pumpkin from the vine.  Each boy searched through the fields finding the perfect one for them.   

 Will and Adler in the patch.

After finding the perfect pumpkin, these kids gathered all these pumpkins and carried them into a pile to "make a bench".  I'm not sure what the reasoning behind this was, but it sure was cute to watch them working together.

Eventually we made our way to the kids area where they had mazes, tractors, jumpy castles and a huge slide.  

Big brothers sliding together.

And their younger brothers together.  These two were cracking us up holding hands as they slid down the gigantic slide.  We have had multiple play dates with Will and they have never really connected until yesterday.  

 The boys played in the kids area until they all faded and we quickly left to get everyone fed.

Seen on Papa's Facebook

Making Halloween cookies at Grandma and Papa's house.

House painting

This picture is from this summer, but I had to post it.  Landon and Adler had a friend over and were all playing in the backyard while I made everyone lunch. His friend came in to tell me that Landon was painting the house.  The boys have done this before with paintbrushes and water and so I didn't really think anything of it, but thought I might just check.  This was different, but pretty funny.  Landon had taken chalk and was coloring random bricks.  It is slowly fading, months later, but Brian and I have come to like the colorful addition in the back.

3 amigos

Adler and two of his best buds from his class at school

Meeting/play date

This year I decided to help with the Paddington fall festival and be in charge of the games.  Luckily the committee was some of my good friends as well as Adler's good friends.  The meetings were at fun places for the kids and this picture was no exception.  We met at the Lowry Beer garden for the final meeting.  Adler and two of his best friends were happy to attend as long as the dinosaurs could be a part of the meeting.  

Dinosaur Ridge

Adler has been completely obsessed with dinosaurs recently.  So much that we have many new dino books including n dinosaur encyclopedia, dino figurines and a homemade 6-7 foot long cardboard box ankylosaurus in our kitchen (picture to come later).  A few weeks ago Bri was in Israel for 9 days and we found ourselves with a weekend afternoon with nothing to do.  We took advantage of the beautiful weather and headed 15 minutes west to dinosaur ridge where you can see real dinosaur fossils.  We took a small hike up the ridge and looked at the fossils along the way.  The ridge also has a small museum and a little outdoor area with large dinosaur sculptures.

I told the boys we could either take the hour long bus tour and see more of the fossils than were accessible by our feet or buy something small in the gift shop after the hike.  Adler opted for a hatch a dino and Landon to pan for gems.

Neither boy wanted to bring their sunglasses with us, yet began complaining about how bright it was quickly after we began the hike, hence the lovely facial expression on Adler.

Adler teaching his older brother all about the brachiosaurus.

"homework"

Yesterday the boys gave each other homework and then diligently worked to complete the assignment the other had given them.

Turning Five at Four Mile

Adler's fifth birthday party at Four Mile Historic Park included lots of good friends, panning for fool's gold ("I-RON pyrite"), and a pink dinosaur cake. 

2014 First Tee Family Open

Landon and I played in a golf tournament put on by The First Tee of Denver yesterday with Jason, a (former) co-worker of mine, and his son who's just a couple years older than LT. 

We played the par three course at Kennedy in a modified alternate shot format, which was really nice because it let everyone participate without pressure. Kids under sixteen weren't supposed to drive the carts but I let LT drive some when we were out of view of the clubhouse and he did a great job. His golfing was pretty good too although, honestly, he seems to be getting worse rather than better the more he plays - he probably gets that from me. 

I really enjoyed the day out with my boy and friends. And I think LT had fun too.

extended family photos

Last year during the holidays when lots of family was in town we took some photos, which I'd been meaning to post here for the last ten months. Better late than never!