Pizza Making at CPK

We love CPK. My HMWOF Mommy Group set up a tour at CPK for us one morning. They let the kids see all the "behind-the-scenes" stuff and then they let them make their own pizzas!! It was so much fun and they were so nice and great with the kids. It started at 9am and we were done by 10:30- so it was all before regular bisiness hours. We have always enjoyed eating there {try the Tricolore next time} and now we have even more to reason to love them.

Spreading the sauce- making sure to leave a "crust" as instructed.

Mmmmm... cheese.

Enjoying a delicious lunch.

I Wanna Hold Your Hand...

My boys are so silly! We went to walk around the mall a little bit after our CPK tour and Isaac was admiring the manequins. Gavin said" Isaac, is that your girlfriend??" To which Isaac replied, "Yes!" Then Isaac walked up to one and held her hand and just stood there with a goofy look on his face. Then he proceeded down the line of gilrls and held each of their hands.

Halloween House

I love decorating for the Holidays! It something the kids love and I think they will always remember this tradition of decorating for each holiday and season. They are elated when we get out the bins! We made some special Halloween stuff this year and had a lot of fun doing it.

I wanted to make a Halloween advent calendar so I saw an idea similair to this on a craft blog sometime and wanted to make one. eric framed the sheet metal and I painted and embellished craft boxes to each hold a small treat/toy. Each day the kids took turns opening the boxes. I still need to add numbers on the boxes... I was having a hard time finding the right stickers at the store. I need to try retaking the pics as well; they came out pretty poorly.

Messy Palaydate

We had a messy play date at a very brave friends house the other day!

Objective: to bring all kind of interesting "messy" items and let the kids go wild

Ingredients included~to name a few~ oatmeal, flour, noodles, finger paint, corn meal, jello, pudding, whip cream, etc.

It gets pretty gross. Each kid perfectly presented their personality in how they played.

Halle dove right in. She enjoyed smearing things all over and was able to test out much of her constant curiosity.

Gavin enjoyed homself, but doesn't like things in his hair or all over his body and clothes. He walked arounf but never fully let loose and embraces the mess.

And then there's my Isaac. Who wouldn't be caught dead in something so utterly rediculous!

Apple Picking

This was one of our great many adventures! We left in the morning to go to Oak Glenn to do some apple picking with our Meetup friends. We decided to try out Snowline this year becuase I had heard they had apple cider donuts and that just sounded fabulous! (Read: they are and you have to go get some!!)

While waiting in the parking lot a bee stung me in the armpit! It hurt!! We went inside to learn that they don't have a u-pick program there and so there will be no apple picking on this apple picking trip. So we comforted ourselves with fresh cider and cider donuts. Yum! I also discovered an apple type that I love: Honey Crisp.

We thought maybe Riley's Farm was allowing apple picking so we traveled down the road a ways to check it out. We found out that they had pear picking so we decided this would do. We treked up the hill to the pear trees. There were lots of them, but all the lower fruit had been picked and the fallen fruit was swarming with bees... millions of them. The kids were scared because my earlier stinging incident and too scared to get near the trees. Ironically no one was stung where there were thousands of bees.

the little boys trying to knock the fruit down with sticks!

Jenny and I were determined to pick fruit though. We tried hauling a bale of hay to stand on (not very effective and very heavy) and then we found an old farm chair (rickety and the fruit fell and hit Jenny in the face while she was holding the chair for me). Then Jenny spotted the pickers!! And then we were able to fill out bag with fruit! The pears were small but very tasty! We made a pear crisp the next week and it was delicious!!

Thanks for sharing our adventure with us Jenny and Brody!!

Fall BBQ

It wouldn't be a station event without...

a firetruck ....

a ride on said truck...

a man eating dog...

and more fire truck rides!

What a great place to work!!

After the 10k we headed over to a Riverside park for a "Fall" BBQ with Eric's office. It was one of the HOTTEST days of the year! Seriously, it was obscenely hot! So, we welcomed Fall by sweltering at the park right at noon day.

Riverside 10k

Arriving at the race in the ealy morning!

Our results!

We actually did pretty good! It was a hilly course and I was not prepared! I was thinking I had blown trying to beat my last record, but I beat it by about 25 seconds! I was the second female to finish! Eric was the 8th person to finish. It was a fun race... only about a hundred people in the 10k.

Eric getting his medal for being first in his age group.

I got first in my age group...

and a gift certificate for free shoes for being in the top three female finishers!

Enjoying one of our favorite hobbies together!

Modesty Night

My beautiful Young Women

Annalise, Keilah, Bethany, Shanlee & Amellia

New Clothes

When our Gymboree.com order came the boys were so excited! It has always been so amusing to me that the boys are very opinionated about their clothing. They have a say in what they wear and when they wear it. They are thrilled to get new things and usually have to put them on immediatly. On the other hand... my little girl is completely uninterested! In fact, when we get new clothes, I usually stoop to bribing her to try them on just so I can see of they fit properly! So, on this particular day, Gavin and Isaac were incredibly excited about their shirts with motorcycles and their new shoes. They had to wear them (shoes and all) while hanging out on my bed watching cartoons.

Best Buddies

Fishing Part II

My dad and Eric took the kids out for another fishing day. This time they stayed local and went to Diamond Valley Lake. He's a great Grandpa... how blessed my kids are!!

September 15th Disney Day

This was a special Disney trip! We talked Grandma and Grandpa in to coming along and even getting Disney passes! :) They hadn't been in years so it was fun to show them all the new things.