Misc. Events

Our family attended a variety of community events and activities over the past month:

New Life 5K

 In mid-September, my sister Kim and I ran in a 5K that supported a local Christian pregnancy center. (Our sister-in-law Chelsea was planning to join us too, but she ended up having volleyball commitments. We look forward to having her join us on future runs!) Here we are pre-race, posing in our official 5K t-shirts. :)

The race day was beautiful and sunny (although still a tad bit too muggy for my liking). Kim and I actually ended up taking 2nd and 3rd place for our age division! Our boys came out to cheer us on towards the end of the race. Cody and Jaden were excellent supporters for their mommy. :)

After the 5K, Ian (along with his daddy) ran in the 1-mile fun run. We loved watching Ian cross the finish line and get a medal. Then, we explored the various vendor booths, ate some free snow cones, and played on this caboose. It was a great morning!

Children's Museum Tea Party

Because Grammy and Papa bought us an annual membership pass to this museum, we've been visiting at least once a month. So far, each time that we've gone, Cody and Jaden have spent the longest amount of time in the grocery store exhibit and in this rubber mulch pit.

On our most recent visit, we went on Daddy's day off so that he could join us. We happened to pick the day that the museum was hosting a Mad Hatter's Tea Party. It ended up being a fun little event! The kids were given a number and then were called back to this back room when the tea party was ready. The boys each got to pour their own tea (apple juice) and drink from these cute mini-mugs.

Then, they got to use frosting and sprinkles to decorate their own sugar cookies.

This can of sprinkles wasn't too kid-friendly. Or, maybe I should say it was actually overly kid-friendly with the amount of sugar it let out for Cody! Oops!

Cody and Jaden thought the cookies were very scrumptious!

All of the museum employees were dressed in Alice in Wonderland costumes. It felt very festive!

Cheers to the wonderful tea party! :)

Creekfest

In early October, Matt and Kim invited us to attend Creekfest, an annual one-day community festival, with them. The free festival is sponsored by the chamber of commerce to "celebrate the arts and the outdoors." We stayed a good portion of the morning and didn't even partake in all of their activities. Soon after arriving, the boys got to jump in the back of an ambulance and take a look around. (Notice the dummy on the gurney in the background.)

Jaden and Cody's favorite activity was jumping in this bounce house, especially earlier in the morning when there were fewer kids.

Cody surprisingly agreed to some face painting. The wise volunteer gave Cody some art on his arm instead.  

Cody was proud to show off his snake to everyone nearby!

This friendly dog gave all of the boys some free candy (and in doing so, instantly won their hearts!).

Then, we created some fall foam-piece crafts-- a teddy bear farmer wishing a "beary happy fall to y'all." The Texas influence is everywhere! :)

Ian and Cody tried out this "ring the bell" carnival game. Ian successfully rung the bell twice!

Cody received some candy for his efforts. :)

Next we stopped by the Home Depot booth and built some helicopters.

Ian, Cody, and Ryan display their finished products.

When we walked by this stage, one of the music performers invited all the kids up to help him with a song by playing the drums. Of course, our guys happily joined in!

We didn't quite get the hang of playing along with the leader's beat, but the experience was great fun! :)

If you're interested in hearing part of the boys' drum debut, the following video captures a taste of the song.

Cousin Time

Recently, we watched Baby Isaiah so that his mommy and daddy could enjoy a romantic birthday dinner. :) Jaden and Cody always ask to hold their baby cousin and on this day, happily read him a story. We love watching Jaden and Cody interact with their cousins and are so happy to have them growing up together!

Zomball in Tomball

Each 2nd Saturday, our community offers a family event at the Depot (same place where the 5K was held). This month's event was Halloween themed. Unfortunately, there were WAY too many people there, so the lines for the games and the trunk or treat were just crazy! We mainly just walked around a bit, picked up a small handful of candy for the boys and left early, so the whole activity was a bit of a dud. Still, it got the boys in the Halloween spirit! The evening was a little too warm for their actual costumes (welcome to a Texas Halloween!), so we put Jaden and Cody in their dress-up doctor outfits instead.

The park was decorated with all kinds of inflatable Halloween creatures. This spider actually moved its legs at random and startled many of the kids (including Cody here!).

We walked through this maze/path-of-inflatables to get a grand total of 3 candy pieces. Thankfully, our boys were too young to expect anything more, so they were thrilled! Halloween is sure to be a grand ole time! :)