Lego Club - Who Knew?

A few weeks ago while Perry watched some movie I wasn't interested in, I surfed the web for anything that would occupy my mind for a little while. Somehow I stumbled upon the library having Lego Club every Thursday afternoon. I planned to take them last week, but since my mom was coming to town, I figured we'd have better timing to go this week. (And praise the Lord it's on Thursday as it happens to coincide with early-out day at school...Seriously that extra hour kills me every week!) 

 We struggled to get out the door today, but eventually we made it. And after Hunter singing Halloween songs on the way to the library, over and over and over again, JP and I were excited to arrive. You should have seen the excitement on their faces when they saw all the Legos! 

 Charlotte even had fun with the Duplo Legos...that it when she wasn't running around pulling books off the shelf. 

 Both Hunter and JP alternated between the two different kinds of Legos to play with, probably because of all the boys crowding the little Legos. 

 Eventually Hunter became bored of Legos and wandered off to find a different activity. JP wandered off to look at books. I found Hunter on the computer when we decided it was time to go, and somehow JP was able to pry him off of it so he could have a turn. (He has such good posture!)

I think we're going to try to go again next week too! Maybe we'll even check out a book this time...

Missoula Maze with Grandma

Because Hunter had been having some issues listening on the bus, his bus driver and I created a rewards system for him. The other week he earned his reward of going to a movie at the theatre. Per his request, we invited Grandma to join us. We planned on going to the movie on a Saturday, but since the maze isn't open on Saturdays, we had Grandma come to town early so she could join us at the corn maze. 

 Each year there is a different theme to the maze. This year it was all about mining. 

 We all took turns leading the group, switching off when we hit a dead end, or if the boys kept taking us in circles. 

 I was fortunate enough this year to not have to tote a baby around on my chest. She was very content hanging with dad. 

 In the middle of the hay bale portion of the maze, someone volunteered to take a group photo of us. We almost had an extra person in our picture because he wasn't paying enough attention to the fact that we were taking a picture...

 At the end of the maze, we snagged a few more pictures before the boys ran off to play. 

 I took Charli to the kid's maze and she had fun wandering around through the bales. 

 Since we were on a time crunch to get Perry, Grandma, Hunter and JP to the movie on time, we had to cut our time there shorter than I would have liked. I made sure we checked out the petting zoo before we left though. 

Although the weather was a bit chillier than we would have liked, I know everyone enjoyed their time there. I hope we can go one more time before it closes for the year!

More Fun at Green Bluffs!

Last year we had so much fun out at Green Bluffs in Washington that we had to go again. This year Perry and Aunt Bobby joined Kile and I and the kids. We went straight to Siemer's this year because we knew that it was kid friendly. We just forgot how outrageously priced the extras are.... They have a really cool corn maze there that winds through the corn and into some hedges where there is a big castle. Obviously Hunter and JP wanted to go *really* bad, but we weren't about to spend $7 for each of them + $9 per adult to go... So we went ahead and picked pumpkins. 

 Hunter can be such a little moocher! As soon as Aunt Kile grabbed the cart and put Casey in it, he jumped in as well...

 Can you believe she only has about 6 weeks to go before we get to meet baby #2? She's tiny! 

 As soon as we got to the pumpkin patch, all three of my kids were off in different directions. Casey hung tight to momma's leg. :) 

Aunt Bobby and JP headed one direction and came back with this white gem...which I promptly said put it back, I'm not paying for a 30 lb pumpkin! 

 Casey did explore a bit, but he didn't get as dirty as Charli did! She was caked in dust! Actually everyone's shoes were. We should have planned to wear different shoes...next time!

 I sure hope Casey had fun with his cousins because they really enjoyed pushing him around in the cart!

I'm anxious to see how they play with him when he's a "real kid".

 After we paid for our pumpkins, and lost JP in the process (he didn't even know he was lost until we found him...), I took the boys for a ride on the "Big Toot", as opposed to the "Little Toot" that they rode on last year. I have a hard time handing off my camera to other people, but I am trying to be better about it. I don't want to end up being the ghost behind the camera years from now.

 The "Big Toot" went for a cruise around the farm and lasted about 7 minutes. When we were coming around the last turn, the train slowed down a bit and started jerking a little. Hunter announced very confidently, "There's something wrong with this train! It must be the engine..." 

 While we were cruising around the farm, Charli hung out with dad and wandered through the corn stalks that were for sale. 

 With a lot of persuading, we eventually made it to Eleven Acres again to do some apple picking. 

 JP picked a lot of small apples and then complained that his basket was too heavy. Go figure. 

 Perry was all about sampling the apples. 

 So were Casey and Charlotte...

 I'm sure even though he probably won't admit it, Perry enjoyed himself. 

 I did too... even though it doesn't look like it. As I said earlier, I have a hard time handing my camera over - mostly because I end up with pictures of myself looking like this... meh.

 But I was able to bribe Hunter to take a picture with his mommy. 

And I bat my eyes enough times for Perry to take one with me too. We hardly have any pictures of us, so I'm also trying to get more of the two of us.

Casey was being a cheeseball the whole time we attempted to get a good picture of the 4 of them together. You can't quite tell, but JP was also attempting to go cross-eyed too.

JP! One normal picture, please! Your eyes are *going* to get stuck like that! It hurts me to look at your cute face when you do that!

Overall we had a wonderful, but short trip to Spokane this past weekend. The kids and I left Saturday and came home late Sunday. Perry took his own vehicle as he had to stay for work. Before we left town on Sunday, I made good of a promise to take them to the Big Red Wagon downtown. I really didn't want to take the 3 of them by myself, but we managed. Barely.

 JP, why so scared?

I wanted to retake this one while we were there but the blocks were being used as a bike rack...

 JP and I attempted to get a picture of Charlotte by the wagon, but she can't stand still. She has Hunter's energy...

This is the best we could do for a shot of all three of them. Leaving the wagon was a disaster. It confirmed to me why I didn't want to go alone. I lost Hunter while gathering up Charlotte and JP. He wandered ran down to the river and got down on his belly to touch the water. When I was glancing around to spot him, he was no where to be seen because the river bank was a little downhill, and with him laying on his belly...I was in full blown panic mode. I was paranoid enough about losing one of them... Hunter pouted and fought with me the whole way back to the car because he didn't want to hold my hand or the stroller. But we made it. And then we swung by Perry's hotel room with some fast food before hitting the road. It was a long two days, but worth it!

UM Homecoming Parade

Last weekend was homecoming for our university. We normally don't partake in any community festivities (because we're usually busy or working) but this year I thought it would be fun for the boys to go to the parade downtown. Initially Perry wanted to sleep in and work on my shelves (he's making me a few floating shelves for my living room!) but due to a power outage in Tennessee, a package ordered for use in the parade for one of his customers didn't make it to town on time so he was out and about early Saturday morning trying to get it to where it needed to go before the parade started. Since he was downtown anyways, I quickly gathered up the kids and raced downtown to find a good parking space and met up with him.

 On the way downtown, Hunter and JP were *ecstatic* about going to a parade. Previously the only parade they've been to was the 4th of July parade in Seeley. They've never seen a marching band up close though so I thought they'd enjoy this one more. Granted we did get there about 45 minutes early, they were not excited to sit and wait...

 Once the parade started, they were both really hesitant to step off of the curb to collect candy. A lady next to us helped Hunter a few times by showing him all he had to do was stand there with his bag open and people would just put candy in it. Even still, he was really leery about it. And then there was JP. He wouldn't even get off the side walk without me right next to him. Opening his bag was a struggle too... JP did however warm up to the parade when he saw his pre-school teacher from last year in the parade handing out candy on the other side of the street. Seriously, his face lit up and he yanked on me in excitement! The rest of the parade he was a lot more open about participating.

 Quite a few times I had to gather them and pull them back to the edge of the road as they kept creeping to the middle. 

 Remember how JP wanted a Daniel Tiger cake but mom wanted to make him a Ninja Turtle cake...and then we compromised with this one? Yeah, so just imagine his excitement when he saw Daniel Tiger on a float....

Charlotte on the other hand was delighted at her view from daddy's shoulders. I'm not so sure he was thrilled at her smacking his head in delight when the marching bands came by though...I won't even tell you his reaction when he was flipping through the channels and realized they weren't airing the Griz game, but rather the Cat game...