Children's Museum Visit

During Thanksgiving break, Jason took an extra day off work so that our family could visit the downtown children's museum. We had received free admission passes for our whole family to attend. We hadn't visited this museum in about a year, so it was fun to see what our children enjoyed this time.

For much of our visit, our family split two ways-- one parent with Adley and the other with Jaden and Cody-- since their interests and attention spans are so different. Adley absolutely loved the Kidtropolis exhibit, a place where she could role play and learn about various community jobs. She spent at least two thirds of our entire stay just at this exhibit.

Jaden and Cody tried out the low-ropes challenge course for the first-ever time. We visited on a day that wasn't too busy, so thankfully the lines weren't long at all. The skill level required for this course was just perfect for our boys to give them a bit of a challenge but mostly help them feel very successful. :) They seemed to really enjoy it.

The boys' very favorite part of the day, though, was trying out this dance machine/heart rate tester. Thankfully, we found two machines, so that Jaden and Cody didn't even have to take turns. Guess we may need to invest in some kind of Just Dance game in the future! They played this over and over, only stopping if another child got in line behind them. 

Here are photos of a few more exhibits that they tried...

Our family joined together for a short Elf on the Shelf theater production. Our kids were excited about the little bells they were given to ring during the performance. 

We also tried out a couple games as a family-- this light game where we had to race to see who could hit or stomp on the most colored bubbles...

...and this racing game where a superhero character was attached to a rope pulley system. Whoever cranked the fastest could get his character to win!

It was a great family day at the museum!

Fall Misc

Here are a few miscellaneous pics and events from our family this fall...

Paces 4 Pink

My sister and I ran in this 5K race in October. We both came in 1st in our age divisions, but Kim actually won first female overall!! She was amazing!

Hanging with Grandpa and Grandma

During their visit for Jason's ordination, Grandpa and Grandma treated our family to a Chick-fil-A meal... always a treat. Adley was especially thrilled with the ice cream for dessert.

Community Trick-or-Treat

On Halloween week, I took Adley to our community public works building for an indoor trick-or-treating event. Grammy joined us for the morning as well. It was a chilly morning, so it was very nice that this event was indoors. Adley went from door to door in this office building and collected a bucket FULL of candy. Most of the workers were standing outside their offices and were even dressed in costume. It was such a cute event. Adley liked posing as a fire fighter.

After the trick-or-treating, Grammy came with us to library storytime where we listened to Halloween books and made this Frankenstein.

Rock Climbing

One Saturday in October, Cody and Jaden had a double header soccer game to make up for a missed game earlier in the season. Between the games, we decided to visit a nearby library. A neighboring church just happened to have fall festival activities set up outdoors, so the boys tried out this free rock wall. It was a bit of a challenge to climb in cleats, but they did it!

Family Photo Shoot

In order to get some good photos for our Christmas card, we asked a photographer friend of ours to do a family photo shoot. Her pictures turned out amazing! We were so pleased with her work.

I'm pretty sure these are the faces the kids wanted to make all along!!

K'Nex Building

Over Thanksgiving break, I brought out this K'Nex set that my brother had given Jaden and Cody as a gift a while back. The set was a little too challenging for them when they first received it, but it was perfect for them now. They worked hard on this set and completed it in just a day and a half. They loved how the roller coaster was actually motorized and could run by itself. What a cool set!

Family Thanksgiving

My brother Andrew and his wife Sarah hosted a relaxing and delicious Thanksgiving dinner for our Texas clan. We didn't get any photos of our time together at their home, but Sarah did take this beautiful family photo before church that morning. We are so thankful for our family!

Fall Playdates

Since the start of the school year, Adley and I have continued meeting with our playgroup friends. We try to meet twice a month-- once as an outing (a play place, splash pad, park, etc) and once at someone's home for a themed play date. I hosted a music play date in September. Everyone got warmed up with a "Shake your Sillies Out" song on youtube.

Then, the kids made jingle bell tambourines. We went on a musical parade around the house when the instruments were completed.

At the end, we listened to a sampling of different musical genres so the kids could get a taste of everything from opera to rock n roll. Then, I turned on some classical favorites and gave the kids ribbon rings to dance with. The rings helped to get even the shyest kids moving around. It was an active, musical morning!

In October, my friend Amy hosted a Halloween playdate. My nephew Nathan even joined us for this one. All of the kids looked so adorable dressed in their costumes.

Amy planned some fun activities for the group. First we made flower pictures with candy corn. These turned out so cute!

Then, we let all of the kids practice trick-or-treating. Each child took a turn standing inside to hand out candy to the rest of their friends. The kiddos were all so excited to close the door and knock each time!

We made sure these little ones remembered to say "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" each time. Who knows if it actually paid off come Halloween?! ;)

Our last activity was decorating pumpkin pictures with sticker dots. You wouldn't think these would've turned out as different as they did, but each child had their own creative flair to this. Nathan filled up nearly every inch of his pumpkin with stickers! He definitely had a longer attention span than the younger ones. They all seemed to enjoy this activity though.

What a cute looking crew! We love our play group friends!

In November, we met at my friend Sara's home for a fall-themed play date. Sara served us some delicious pumpkin chocolate chip bread that morning and then led the kids in a cute tree-making craft. The tree was made from the kids' hands and the leaves were their fingerprints. The kids loved painting with their fingers!

We are so thankful for this fun, creative group of mommas and kiddos and look forward to our adventures with them each month!