Fall Fest

Our fall sports have ended and our winter sports haven't started yet so we get to enjoy some evenings when we aren't rushing out the door.

Nolan wants me to read to him at night but what he really wants is for me to sit next to him while he listens to stories being read to him. Grandpa John and Grandma Julie get the boys books every year for Christmas that they read and record their voices. The boys enjoy them, but Nolan has been really liking them lately.

He wanted to try sleeping in his drawer. Needless to say this didn't last. 

Let me tell you about my eventful lunch! We had some errands to do at the Mall of America. I thought since they were being good we would have lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. First Nolan started crying of course when the thunderstorm went off and the monkeys started moving. He decided whenever this would happen he would hide under the table. Right after the first storm Easton gives me this panicked look and says "MOM! I have puke in my butt!" I had no idea what he was talking about at first. Did he sit in something or did he pee and then it hit me… he had diarrhea! UGH! Of course this was the day I only grabbed the wipes from the diaper bag to bring in. After cleaning up in the bathroom and throwing away a pair of underwear we were back to eating lunch. I tired to take a few bites in-between trying to get Nolan out from under the table and running back and forth with Easton to the bathroom. It's moments like this when all I can really do is laugh. It was a crazy lunch.

Thankfully we were at the mall so we could buy a backup outfit!

Tuesday was voting day. Easton and Nolan had a very important vote happening at their preschool. It was a close race between chocolate and vanilla ice cream. In the end chocolate won. I know it's not polite to share what you voted for but Easton wanted vanilla to win and Nolan wanted chocolate.

I signed the boys up for a little sports sampler class at they Y for during the day. Each week they will try a new sport.

I don't always capture the best pictures! We decided the boys needed out of the house so we saw the movie Big Hero 6. Super cute movie about robots and brothers.

The boys are still doing well with their chores. This day they all had to try fitting in the garbage can.

It was Spencer's turn to walk around Target to make his wish list for Christmas. He searched every aisle of the store.

Ryan and I went and saw the best concert ever. Garth Brooks! He seriously is an amazing performer. Both of us saw him the last time he was at the Target center for his farewell concert. He's only gotten better with age.

Easton requested we go to the salad bar at the grocery store for lunch. Cant argue with that, they usually beg for Mac and Cheese.

Easton also had try hockey for a day on Saturday. I know he's growing up but it's strange to see him doing all of the things Spencer did. He's been waiting a long time for it to finally be his turn.

I've been working hard with Spencer's school parent group to plan their annual Fall Festival. I'm so glad we were able to pull it off. It always takes a lot of time and planning for events like this but the kids have so much fun attending.

A few of the class rooms have games for the kids to play….

They also have some "Minute to win it games."

Here the boys are trying to win a cake. 

Market and Johnson had donated an iPod touch for the schools raffle. Spencer had asked if he could put a ticket in the raffle to try and win it. So I agreed to put 2 tickets in. We were hoping to win the Wild tickets. Well…. he won the iPod. I didn't feel right and he wasn't there to know he won so I told them to redraw. He doesn't actually need an iPod he has an iPad. Once I got home I felt sort of guilty because I know he would have been excited just to win something. So I found my old phone and charged it up for him to play. He's happy as can be. Sorry Spencer, some day when your reading this I took the prize away!

Nolan LOVES to run around naked!

Look what is headed our way…

Let's hope Zappos is quick because I had forgot to order Spencer new boots!

Happy Halloween!

Two big changes happened this week. First Nolan said good bye to the crib/toddler bed. We've only been waiting for his new bed to come since June! He was so excited to find out he was going to have a bed like his brothers.

We are thankful Finley wanted to change out his room and passed on his firetruck bedding to us. Nolan loves his room. In his words he keeps saying "This is so awesome…."

The 2nd big change was trading in my old mini van for a brand new mini van! My van was in need of a lot of work so we decided it was time to just trade it in. 

Wanna know what it's like riding in the van through the eyes of the boys? I have hopes that the boys will help in keeping this car clean but looking at the pictures I have a few doubts. That's a Nolan foot wearing a pair of shoes that are 3 sizes to big but he refuses to take them off.

Grandma Julie and Grandpa John sent Halloween bags….

We carved our pumpkins...

No fancy faces for us or cartoon character. We decided to go the old fashion route and allow the boys to draw or tell us what they wanted. I think it made them even more proud of their pumpkins.

Spencer had his last football game (Easton missed out on his. He learned the hard way that bad behavior during the day means no sports in the evening). This picture is of Spencer scoring a touch down but it's under review if it counts because as his foot went down a kid grabbed his flag right before he crossed the goal line!

If you know Ryan you know he can't start his day without Caribou. We had a new location open this week and they had a promotion going on that the first 100 customers in line by 5:30 am would win 1 free coffee a week for a year.

Ryan decided to try for it. So he waited in this line….

In freezing cold temps…. for an hour and 20 minutes!

But how lucky was he? He was number 100 in line and got the last wrist band to win free coffee! 

Sometimes I wonder why I bother. This was one of those days. I decided to take the boys with me for a quick Target run. After I had my cart 1/2 full Easton told me had to go to the bathroom. He took off for the men's room knowing I couldn't go in there with him. I hate that they have figured this out. I could hear him singing and talking at the top of his lungs through the door. There was nothing I could do. After about 5 minutes he came out with his pants at his knees telling me he needed help wiping. Our fun trip continued as these two fought/got stuck underneath the cart. People smiled and laughed as we past by and I did all that I could to just keep my cool.

Girls have baby dolls but Nolan has Teddy that he loves. He takes very good care of his Teddy. This day he asked me to hold his Teddy cause he was sad and wanted me to cover him up cause he also thought he was cold.

Easton asked me to take his picture...

Our Halloween festivities started out with a party at the boy's preschool. They were allowed to wear their costumes to school in the morning.

Easton went as Peter Pan!

Nolan was Captain Hook

My hope was to have someone dress as the alligator but Spencer had a different plan. Oh well these two sure are cute together!

Nolan was the special helper that day at school.

I enjoyed helping out with Nolan's classroom party.

 There are only 3 boys in Nolan's class. 

I was also able to sneak down to Easton's classroom.

Easton's class and teacher. 

Nolan's class and teacher.

The boys woke up to their pumpkin bags full of treats.

Eating a sucker at 8:30 am is only ok on Halloween.

I was also able to attend Spencer's classroom party. 

Heres a flashback to the boys past Halloween costumes...

Here they are this year. Captain Hook, Peter Pan and a Ninja. Sadly this is the only real picture I got of them all night.

We didn't have a Halloween party this year but instead invited our friends/neighbors over to eat before trick or treating. We also had some fun games set up for the kids.

Spencer broke it open!

This is the only picture I got of them trick or treating. We were making the older boys wait for the little boys to catch up.

Amanda and I took off with the older boys and waited for them at the end of each cul de sac.

One would think the temps are warm up here by the way our kids dress but they're not! It's been chilly. The boys got to play with their silly string.

They had Halloween cookies for a treat.

Saturday we went to an adult Halloween party. Amanda and I went as social butterflies. Thanks to my mom for making our costumes.

Ryan and Chris went as hashtag and twitter. 

There were lots of great costumes. 

On Sunday the boys got to sing in church for their preschool. You can't really see them in this picture.

This is what you get when you live on a street of all boys! 

Well my boys have already moved on from Halloween and are already thinking about Christmas. Easton had me snap a picture every time he sees something he wants to add to his list. He took this picture.