Happy Birthday Grayson!!

Oh my just look at this cute little buddy!  It's crazy to think that Grayson is already 2 years old!  We had a good week, and a great birthday weekend.  Grayson was really happy and a lot of fun!  He can be pretty crazy and high energy, but he loves to be silly and really brings a great energy to our home.  He's been such a joy to have around, and always keeps us on our toes!  Birthday cakes included!  If you don't watch the video, he grabbed his candle when we said to blow it out, but fortunately didn't seem to get hurt at all.

On Monday I took the kids to the park in the morning.  Brooke has been working really hard on the monkey bars, and she made it all the way across for the first time!  She went across three times that morning.

In the afternoon I took Grayson on an adventure walk.  Over by the creek there are some dirt trails that wind through the plants, and I thought he'd really love to go walk around through it.  While I was right about that, we saw the creek at one point, and all I heard about after that was how he wanted to go climb in the creek and go swimming.  It was a bit cold, and we were a bit in normal clothing...

So we went to the pool on Tuesday!  All of the kids had a really great time swimming.  Grayson stayed in the shallow end by these water things the whole time, and Winry went down the slide on the playground basically the whole time (about 90 minutes straight).  Brooke was swimming around all over the place, and I don't really know what she did the whole time.

That afternoon Grayson and I went on another adventure walk.  He's really been loving walks lately.  We stopped by the pig that we found the day before.  I told him not to touch it, but he did bend in real close to say "hi."

On Wednesday Niki came out.  We picked her up in the morning, and the kids had had so much fun the day before that we went swimming again!  On Thursday we headed to the zoo.  It was a pretty good animal sighting day, and we had a lot of fun.  We got to ride the carousel. 

And we even found an escaped big foot!  The kids really liked him, and all gave high fives.  It was really cute, and Niki got a video!  Only, we realized later that she actually started the video when she thought she stopped it, so instead we ended up with a 3 minute video of us walking around the zoo...  I won't include it.

Monica has been working on Halloween costumes and finished Brooke's and Winry's this week.  We're Grinch theme, and Brooke is Cindy Lou Who, and Winry is the Christmas tree.  I'll be the Grinch, and Grayson will be Max, his dog.  Monica will round things out as a snow flake.

And.... apparently that was all we recorded outside Grayson's birthday... We let him open presents after breakfast on Friday.  He's suddenly really fallen in love with Bluey, and wanted a Bluey birthday party.  As such, his presents ended up Bluey themed.  He got some toys, books, and shirts for it.

Speaking of books, there's no better place to get them out than the middle of the floor in the living room.  We know how to have a good time.

For Grayson's birthday we went to Monkey Bizness in the morning.  It's essentially an indoor playground.  They had lots of stuff, some playgrounds, some inflatables, kid cars, you name it.  Just all kinds of kids stuff, and everyone had a great time.

Here's Brooke climbing up this... volcano or something.

And the kids really wanted me to come in the bounce house with them, so I went in and sat on the side to try to be out of the way, though I did bounce a little with everyone.

Niki was there with us too!  She came out on Wednesday to help out for a few days..  It's fall break this week, so we got to spend quite a bit of time together.  Here's Niki with the kids just before we left.

When we got home I put Grayson down for a nap, and then when he woke up we headed out for an adventure.  He's really loved going for walks this week, and really loves walking in the flood path and along the dirt paths by our house.  He really wanted to see the pig, but it was gone!

There are a bunch of places with rocks set in cement, and he loves to walk from rock to rock with my help.

For dinner we had Spice Kitchen because he loves their Chicken Tikka Masala.  He ate some, but apparently got a piece of chicken he didn't like or something...

and ended up eating a pouch!  It was also family movie night on Grayson's birthday, so he got to pick what we watched and of course picked Bluey.  He sometimes pays attention, and sometimes looks for alternate activities, like riding a cat.  We also had some balloons out all day.  Mostly the kids just really like balloons, but now of course they have to play keepy uppy.

After a few episodes, we had cake and ice cream, and Grayson quickly realized that silverware was overrated.

But he was having a fantastic time making everyone laugh, including himself!

Grayson and I did a little Bluey dancing before I took him up for bedtime.  He really seemed to enjoy it.

After Grayson went to bed, the girls did some Halloween nails with Niki.  She mailed these out a while ago, and the girls have been really excited to put them on.  When she came out she brought some for herself as well.

The girls both really love their nails.  They were stick on, so we did that and left it to see how long they would last.  I believe we've put a few back on with nail glue at this point in time, so they lasted a day or two.

Saturday was Grayson's birthday party.  We were getting decorations ready and that included a Bluey table cloth.  When he saw it go on the table he just had to climb on, and then laid on the table for at least a half hour until his party started!

The party was a lot of fun.  We had lunch, and then a piñata.  I think Grayson was holding back when he took his swings because he's pretty good friends with the sun piñata.

The kids played in our leaf pile before we opened presents in the back yard.

And came in for cupcakes!  We did a little candle blow out coaching before singing happy birthday this time, and he did a great job blowing out his candle.  No hands involved.

And here's everyone who came in front of a Bluey banner that the Cammacks brought with them!

We had a really great week, and it's crazy that Grayson's two!  I'm also really glad Niki was able to come spend a few days with us.  Grayson and I took Niki back to the airport after his nap, and that's about all that's gone on.  Hope you have a wonderful week.

Grandparents Day

This past Thursday the kids had grandparents day at school, and my dad was able to make it out!  He got to visit their school, have "brunch" with them, and go see their classrooms.  Everyone had a great time, but it was strictly no parents, so I don't have a lot of details.  Thanks for coming dad!  It means a lot to the girls.

This past week was Brooke's last week of soccer.  It was actually already supposed to be over, but there were enough rainy days that they gave them a make up game on Saturday, so her coach had practice on Monday as well.  I caught her doing dribbling drills before I got swept away to the playground for the rest of practice.  I can't wait for "next time" when our kids do sports and I actually get to watch them.

Grayson has been accompanying me to pick up the girls from school as we don't have another adult around that's allowed to get him up if he wakes up from his nap.  It's okay, he's riding in style in his car and eating snacks, so he's always in a great mood!

Winry's preschool had a special fireman/firetruck day.  A firetruck came over between preschool classes for all the kids to see as it was fire safety week.  We also saw Brooke heading in from lunch recess as we got there, so that was cool.  Anyway, a fireman put on all his stuff so the kids could see it and not think it was scary, and then they were going to let the kids see the truck and stuff, and I don't even know what all, because right then they got a call and had to book it out of there.  Fortunately they did drive down the school road a bit before turning on the siren, but it was pretty crazy!

On Thursday, after grandparents day and school, we headed to Tyson and Tina's house.  This was both for Grandpa drop off, and for dinner!  I received the opportunity to get on their roof to get Luke's toy down, and despite hating heights I always seem to jump at the opportunity to climb onto a roof with a shallow slope.

Thursday night Monica's friends all came into town for a girls weekend trip.  Friday morning I took the kids to the library, and Grayson asked everyone to hold his hands while he walked in!  We had a good time at the library and found some great books.  Brooke has already read 2 of the chapter books she got, and they were both parts of new series that she really liked.  That girl is a reading machine!

Later in the day I finished up the leaf pile, and we all headed out for some jumping.  I did take Grayson in the pile once with me, but he really didn't seem to be a fan.  He enjoyed watching his sisters, but spent more time looking at the garden... which is always worrisome.  

It seems everyone loves to play in the basement, and I'm not sure why everything is so much more fun down there.  Anyway, Grayson has really enjoyed this flowers lately, and he loves to stack them all.  He doesn't use the green stem pieces, but does make pretty good flower towers.

Off in Breckenridge it's dinner time!  If Monica wants to talk about her trip when she reads this, I assume she'll put it here: Some of my best friends ever came out and we went on a trip to the mountains! We took it reeeal easy since it still hasn't been that long since my surgery. But it was so great to get together and catch up. It had been 3+ years since we'd all seen each other!

Also, they went on a "hike" and found the Breckenridge troll!

Back at home we were well on our way to the moon.  I saw, and set up the kids play tent.  It's got space pictures all over on it, so of course it was a rocket and they went to the moon.  They had a good time on the moon napping and... talking... and whatever else you do on the moon.  I've never been.

Saturday afternoon was Brooke's final soccer game.  I made the kids watch for a little at the start of the game, and then come back in the second half to watch some more.  Brooke did so great!  I wish my phone was out at the start because she had a great defensive stop where she got the ball and kicked it back down the field to her team mate.  She had a lot of fun, and I'm so glad she did.  She said she'd love to play again, so that's great news too.

After, we headed to the team party at Fuzzy Tacos.  We HAD to go since it was the last game, and it was also a great place to have dinner!  A little early, but I take what I can get.  Brooke sat with her teammates and coach while she ate, and Winry joined her a little later when the bench didn't fill up next to Brooke.  Her coach told me he thinks Brooke was the most improved player on the team through the season.

Grayson just wants to hang on everything lately.  He'll walk into the kitchen pull out some draws, and then hang on them.  He also hung from the edge of the table at Fuzzy's.  He was really enjoying this for quite a while.  Eventually he fell off, which didn't end up being the deterrent you might think until he fell off AGAIN and hit his head on the floor.  Fortunately he didn't hit very hard because he fell on his bottom first.

After dinner we headed to Kilwin's to get some ice cream, again, to celebrate the season.  Then we went to a park until sunset to let the kids burn off all their sugar energy.  Good news, it worked!  They slept SOOO well!

And that's everything I've got for this week.  Monica got back a little before church, and now we're just after church!  So yeah... that's all.  Bye.
 

Play, Play, Play

Whoa! Chick-fil-a!  That's right, Monica gave it a go this past week, and I think she was alright!  I feel like it's been a long time since we all ate at Chick-fil-a, and not just fries!  One of our friends invited us for a "family date" and we all went together for dinner (they were at the table next to us).  It was a good time, and I would do it again!

On Monday morning I took Winry and Grayson to the library.  There was a story time going on when we got there, and Winry wanted to go in, but Grayson didn't.  Fortunately, Winry's been to enough that she knew what was going on.  She got her own cushion to sit on, and as far as I could tell was super great the whole time!  I looked in a checked on her from time to time, and she was always well behaved and following along.  In the meantime, Grayson was playing with the car, and I was looking at books to check out.

After story time Winry made some new friends and they all played together until we had to head home for lunch and Grayson's nap.

But, who could resist climbing inside the shark bike rack on the way out?  But seriously, who could resist that?

Grayson seemed to really like the giant jacks.  We didn't really do anything, just look at them a little, but I think he just likes looking up at tall things.

Monday night Brooke had soccer practice, and it was parents against kids!  It was fun to go out and play with Brooke and her team.  I even got to hold Grayson as I played because he just wasn't happy anywhere else.  In the end the kids got lucky and beat the adults by 1 point after a valiant second half come back!

That evening Grayson got a bit crazy playing in the basement.  Honestly, it was a LOT of fun.  In the video you can hear how hard he's breathing.  I feel like it sounded quite different in person.  Anyway, he was just dashing across the basement and tripping and flipping over my legs!

Winry wanted to do a learning to read lesson this week, and sound blending was going great for her.  In the end she was able to read the first three books!  She was VERY excited and wanted to call everyone in the family to read a book to them.

During Winry's dance class on Wednesday I took Grayson to the park.  For some reason I thought to show him how to climb onto the front of these bouncy things and he loved it.  He doesn't really like sitting and riding them all that much, but he loved this!  This one was the easiest to climb onto the front of, and was the favorite.

Grayson continues to hide in the blanket pile in the living room.

Thursday for play group I took Winry and Grayson to the park.  We ended up being the only ones that came, but it was a new park for us.  It was really big and the kids had a lot of fun.  There was lots of space, so even though there were quite a few other people it never felt crowded like it can at other parks.

Also on Thursday, my Steam Deck came!  I reserved it a little over a month ago, so I didn't have to wait long for it to come.  That said, the day mine came the reservation system ended and you can buy them right away now.  Anyway, it's been pretty fun so far.  Just a nice little portable computer.  I haven't spent very much time on it, but that said, I probably wouldn't have gotten any time to play games over that same time period without it.  It's been a nice way to relax at night.

On Saturday I took all the kids to the park with Jerusha.  This was a local park and got quite crowded... anyway, still lots of fun.  Brooke has been working on the monkey bars at school, and almost made it across!  It was pretty awesome.  I think she said the furthest she's been before was the second, so I bet she'll be able to make it over pretty soon!

The girls also took twisty slide to a whole new level!  Winry came up with this idea and they were having a lot of fun on the slide.  Winry asked me to join, and I gave it a try... turns out when you're bigger you get stuck in the slide and can't spin.  At least my back doesn't easily/quickly spin like that...

Later on Saturday Grayson and I took Jerusha back to the airport, and that's about been the week.  I won't lie, I'm really tired right now, though I was also out playing board games at the Cammack's house last night, so that sure isn't helping.  Anyway, I think that's everything for this week.

Garden Snatch, and Bubble Fun Run

Oh my this this little trouble maker!  He is a super garden eater, and will happily eat anything that he picks out of our garden, be it ripe or not.  Mind you, eating all those vegetables at dinner? Never.  But if he pulled it from the garden, good luck getting it inside the house to rinse off!  Fortunately these strawberries were mostly ripe this time, though he's started to develop a taste for green tomatoes.

Jelly still loves coming out and exploring.  She still doesn't like her harness, and still tries to slip out without it on.  She loves to walk around the edge of the lawn on the rocks and chew on the tall grass growing through them.

I took Grayson and Winry to the park, and while we were there Grayson tried this bigger slide for the first time.  He absolutely loved it, and would hike right up the hill to go down again.  He really likes double sides and having another person on the slide next to him.  They both had a ton of fun at the park.  

Winry rode her bike over, but didn't want to ride it home.  So she pushed Grayson's car back home, and Grayson rode her bike!  He loved it.  It was pretty rough to walk all that way crouched over him pushing the bike along, but we made it home eventually.

Speaking of home, Monica was living her best life letting her back heal.  At this point our understanding was she could only lay on her back, and her arm was getting tired from holding up her phone, so I stepped in to save the day!  Now she can finally relax while watching "No Demo Reno."

When we drop Winry off at preschool, there is another kid in her class whose little sister always comes.  Grayson and River love to play together on the playground for a little after their siblings head into school.  They really like the houses, and used to mostly just sit inside one of the houses together.  Lately Grayson likes to go down the slides, or climb over a little giant half log thing they have.

Grayson saw Brooke's cheetah chair up on her bed and really needed it down.  It's the perfect size for him, and he looks quite cozy in there too!

I got to go to Winry's dance class for the first time in a long time, and better yet, Grayson stayed home with Gram so I could actually stay and watch and enjoy her dancing!  It was a lot of fun to be back.

Winry is always so excited when Brooke comes out of school.  We get to pick up Winry a little before the rest of school gets out, so she'll usually play on the playground a bit while we wait for Brooke, and then go zooming over when she sees her!  I'm really glad I got this when I did too, because now Winry sits on a teeter-tooter and waits for Brooke to come get on the other side.

We went into crazy puzzle mode, and Monica got both the girls a puzzle as something they could all do together.  The girls have really loved doing their new puzzles.

The neighbors put up some inflatable Halloween cat decorations, and Grayson has to go see them every time we leave the house.  Fortunately they've been deflated sometimes, so we see that they're just "sleeping" and can go on our way.  If they're up, there's no telling how long we'll be over there, and the black cat's moving head just keeps the entertainment coming.

On Friday the girls had their school fun run.  This is the first year Pre-K got to do it, so that's awesome for Winry.  Winry's class ran in the gym, and she had a great time.

Winry and Brooke's class overlapped times a little, so after watching the first bit of Winry's I stepped out the gym door and happened to be right where Brooke's class was lining up to get started.  There was a bubble machine out there (it was a bubble run this year) and I couldn't ever quite get Grayson to play in it... just sorta watching it from the fringe of the bubbles.

And then Brooke took off!  For Pre-K they got to run 10 laps around the gym.  For the rest of the school they get 20 minutes to run as many laps around the school as they can.  Brooke ran around 7 times this year!  She seemed like she was having a pretty good time too.

And on her last lap I had her stop (well, asked Monica to, I was with Grayson on that Pre-K playground...) to take a picture with Winry at the fun run sign they put out.

We decided to go for a family walk on Saturday before dinner.  It was threatening rain to some extent all day, so we figured we'd get out quick before the storm hit.  Wrong...  We got opposite of our house on the block, and then the storm hit.  Monica was also walking at a relatively slow pace at this point, so there wasn't much hope but to get soaked.  You can see Jerusha and the kids all just abandoned us and ran home, which was for the best because I believe they made it home before the hail started.  It was pretty decent hail, at least pea size, but I think a little larger.  It hurt quite a bit when one connected, and still, Monica and I strolled along!

During conference I put out butcher paper on a table with some coloring stuff.  The kids did a lot of the coloring pages, etc. as well, but they also drew pictures of Pres. Nelson on the table!

Oh boy, looks like we're ending where we started.  Here's tomato picking Grayson.  I'm sure everything he got on this occasion was ripe though... right?... right?...

And that's all for now.  The good news though? I'm about to write out THIS week's blog too!  I got the pictures squared away last week, but never wrote anything... and suddenly it's been a week.  OOPS!  So hopefully it doesn't take me a week to get back around to writing the next one!