Pumpkin Patching

 Adler's class met one Saturday at Berry Patch Farms for a little fall festival.  

 Of course it included choosing a pumpkin!

 Landon was able to join us because it was Saturday!

 And daddy too!  They had beautiful xylophone musicians playing, a pinata (without enough candy for all the kids...), food trucks, hay rides etc.

And once again I was lucky enough to be able to go back to Sunflower Farm with Landon's class.  Adler chose not to go this time, but I am going to insist he comes next year, it is just so magical!  Unfortunately I only took this one picture of Landon playing teatherball with his buddies.

Random Pics from the last few months

 One of my closest friends, Roxanne, had her son almost exactly a year before Adler.  We had Ambrose and his mom over to celebrate both of the little guys birthdays!  

 Afterwards, Adler had his 4 year check up and his first eye exam!

 And ice cream for being so brave getting 3 shots.

 LT has fully embraced the idea of play dates.  We often have a friend over, which is really fun!  These two silly kids decided (in the pouring rain and no coats or shoes), to pick mint and make mint juice.  

 Landon's teacher was so kind to invite every kid in the class to her wedding!  

 A friend of Adler's gave us a "Kiwi Crate" for his birthday.  If you haven't heard of them, they are fabulous.  It is a shoebox that comes filled with art activities and fun learning tools.  You can even get sibling crates which come with multiple materials for each kid, brilliant!

And their art studio!

Halloween '13

Adler decided months ago that he was going to be Bob the Builder for Halloween this year. LT was less certain about his choice but wanted to be an astronaut. As the big day approached Adler informed Kari and I that we too were going to be characters from Bob the Builder. She was to be Wendy the builder and I got the very minor role of Mr. Bentley the inspector. Landon didn't want to be left out but, to his credit, stayed true to his choice while joining the family theme and decided that he'd be a space builder. 

I forgot my glasses for this photo, unfortunately. I did try and shave so my beard and mustache would look like Mr. Bentley but I stopped short of shaving my head.

The boys and I did a lot of pumpkin carving this year and a few of the pumpkins were actually grown in our own backyard.

Harvest Festival at Berry Patch Farms

Turning four is kind of a big deal

Such a big deal that I've almost lost count of how many different times Alder got to celebrate his birthday. He got to celebrate at school and had a fun party with his friends. He was supposed to have soccer on the day of his actual birthday but it was rained out. Luckily his buddy Sam invited him over to play at the last minute and the cupcakes we were going to share at soccer didn't go to waste (though there were a few extras, which made a nice complement to coffee the next morning). Adler had a great birthday with one of his best friends and especially enjoyed some of Sam's toy tools, including his safety goggles.

We also did a birthday dinner with all the grandparents at White Fence Farm, which is always fun.

Soccer

Adler is doing soccer this fall and some of his buddies from his class last year, including Sam, are doing it with him. I'm not sure anyone in this family has a future in the sport but Adler's doing better with it than his brother, who's soccer career is likely already over.

Back to the Home Depot

Just like his brother, Adler had his birthday party this year at Home Depot. I have to admit it's a pretty nice venue for a kid's party, if the kids are into building or constitution at all.  And it seems like most are. Home Depot provides a room and little building kits for each of the kids as well as someone to walk the kids though assembling the kit (though parent assistance is still needed). And they provide all that for free, which is kind of nice. So you just need to show up with a cake and some snacks and drinks. And clean up is relatively easy. It doesn't take all the stress out of the birthday party experience but it's a pretty good way to go and the kids really seem to really enjoy it.

Adler was very serious about putting the right amount of sprinkles in just the right places on his cake. This was the second cake that Kari baked that day but that's a different story.

Heading out to the Home Depot.

Adler chose to make toolboxes at his party. We got there a bit early to set up and it was a little hard to wait to get started.

If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail (paraphrasing Maslow's law of the instrument, of course).

I guess if you get a bunch of young kids together in a little room and give each of them a hammer, at least a few tears are kind of inevitable. 

I'm not sure why but Adler was very worried that the other kids would blow out the candles. Maybe because he and LT had recently insisted on blowing out the candles on Baba's birthday cake. Everything turned out okay with the candles though.

Another nice thing is being able to use the big Home Depot shopping carts to help bring things in and out from the party. The boys wanted to carry their own newly constructed and painted tool boxes though.