A Pirate Party

Last week for story time at the library, they had a pirate party.  The kids thought this was awesome.  Maybe I will have to try this idea for one of the kids parties.

You must dress the part of a pirate.

Rachel trying to figure out the eye patch.

And Whitney making her best pirate face and pirate growls.

We listened to a couple of stories about pirates.  Notice the two little babies in the background.  Those are the two ladies in the ward who just had their babies, now I have a little baby envy.

Playing "pin" the mouth on the skeleton.  Megan also played but without the blindfold and amazingly got the mouth right in the correct spot.

This was a huge chutes and ladders board.  I remember chutes and ladders taking a long time to play, but Rachel got there in only like 4 turns.  Hooray for hitting all the right ladders.

And going on a treasure hunt.  The kids got 'telescopes' to help them in their search.  I think the telescopes were actually broken, but none of the kids cared.

And to go with the 'p' for pirates, we had pizza and pop for lunch afterwards.  It was a fun party.  And it didn't seem to complicated to plan.  I will have to think about that because we are still trying to decide what theme to do for Rachel's birthday party next month.

Pumpkins Pumpkins Everywhere

It is pumpkin season.  My girls love picking out pumpkins at the patch.  I wouldn't dare ever buy one from a store, that just isn't so fun.

At the first pumpkin patch.  This was on the outskirts of Hermiston.

Will gave Megan a ride as we walked through the patch.  We spent awhile trying to find the perfect two pumpkins.

And then playing on the tall hay piles after finding two big pumpkins.  Our camera was being a little funny, so we didn't get a lot of good pictures from the pumpkin patch.

This was at the Fall Festival at the church we went to last week.  All the kids were allowed to take a pumpkin home for free.  Megan didn't have one; she had a hard time making up her mind about one pumpkin.

Whitney balances a pumpkin on her head.

For FHE yesterday, we decided to carve our pumpkins.  Taking out the seeds and gunk took a long time.  Megan wasn't too sure about getting her hands messy, but the other girls went to town cleaning the pumpkins.

This is Megan's monster pumpkin.  She picked three circle eyes, a triangle nose, and she wanted a sad face.  Megan was very proud of her pumpkin and kept bringing me more pumpkins to carve.

Rachel wanted a Velma pumpkin.  Velma from Scooby Doo.  There weren't any good pumpkin carving examples of Velma, but I printed out a coloring picture.  Will did an awesome job making this pumpkin.

And Whitney wanted a Scooby Doo pumpkin.  This one turned out well also, and was easier because there were templates on the Internet.  

Anyway, those are our pumpkins.  We had fun making them.  And then we had a very late dinner of nachos and chili. Hooray for pumpkin season!

October Festival

It has been a long time since our last blog post, but we haven't gone out to do much.  We still mostly go to the park or I stay busy doing things for my calling.  But yesterday was a fun day.  We went down to the Tri-Cities because I saw something in the newspaper about a free fall festival.

Of course, the big pumpkin shaped jump house was a big hit.  The girls are experts at bounce houses.  Even Megan automatically starts taking off her shoes when she sees one.

Checking to see how tall the girls have grown.  Whitney is like 3 1/2 feet, Rachel is like 3 1/4 feet, and Megan is like 2 3/4 feet.  Hooray for growing bigger.

In the straw maze and trying to decide which way to go.

Poor lost Megan.  She wasn't really lost; we stayed right by her.  It was only Whitney that actually got lost in the straw maze.

They had an apple press and the kids got make some apple juice.  I didn't try turning it but it looked fun.

Petting some of the animals that were at the festival.  The kids got to pet ponies and chickens and bunnies.

All of the girls got to ride a pony.  They love the chance to ride on ponies, but don't get very many opportunities.  So this was a treat.  All three girls were all smiles as they rode.

You cannot really tell but this was on the hayride (notice the pumpkin face paint).

There were a lot of carnival games that the girls could play and earn some candy and prizes.  Fishing was my favorite as a kid.  I think my girls really like it too.

Shooting a ball down a rain gutter.  This only took a lot of adult help.  There were a bunch of other games too.  We really scored on the Halloween candy today.

And finally a family picture.  My mom came to the festival with us, which was fun.  But she opted out of the picture.  Thanks for coming mom.

Anyway, it was a really fun day.  We were all exhausted by the end.  We will have to go back next year because free fun is always good.

Harvest Festival

Last week I was reading the newspaper and I saw an article about the upcoming events in the Tri-Cities; it mentioned a Harvest Festival happening.  We decided spur of the moment to go.

Running up to see a helicopter. Well, everyone else was running.  I don't run if I can help it.  It was neat that a medical helicopter was there.

Whitney and Megan both took turns sitting in the helicopter (Rachel didn't want to).  I almost wish I had sat in it so I could say that I have been in a helicopter.

Going through a little obstacle course.  

There were quite a few carnival like games.  Kids could win tickets and use them to buy small trinkets.

And nothing like a carnival game mixed with advertisement for the grown ups.

The girls show off their arm paintings.  

We bought a couple of cupcakes; they were by donation from a little girl who made them herself.  Look at that cupcake face.  Rachel's face got some chuckles from everyone.

There was a little animal pen that was fun.  Megan is feeding a chicken a piece of popcorn.  All the girls thought that was fun.  And nobody got their fingers bit.

And fishing out the 'mosquitoes'.  A little funny, but oh well.  The girls also got popsicles and Megan got a free helmet.  So it was fun.

We knew the kids wouldn't like the food at the festival, so we stopped at McDonalds for some chicken nuggets and french fries.

The play structure was a little "too awesome".  Kids could remain up there forever and never need to come down to the waiting parents.  We had to cajole Megan down over and over.  Will and I were thinking we might have to go up ourselves to grab her.  It looked like one of the most fun play structures in a a McDonalds I have seen.

Anyway, it was a fun day. 

A Jensen Visit

We had a good weekend with the Jensens.  Except for a crazy four hour power outage, things went well.  I didn't take a lot of pictures, but here are some of the things we did.

We kept the visit pretty casual (mostly because there isn't a lot to do around here).  So we went to a nearby park.  The kids rolled cars down the slide.

And being pushed in the swings by your aunt is way more fun.

Will broke out his new croquet set.  Nobody was hurt in the swinging of the mallets.

After dinner, we went to the ice cream store.  It sells other food too, but we only ever use our free ice cream coupons.  The kids loved their ice cream.

Most of the time was spent doing fun silly things at home.  Here we got out the musical instruments and the kids did a marching band.  That was pretty cute.

Getting a calming down story from Dana.  He was very patient and read the entire Green Eggs and Ham story (I always skip a little).

And some nintendo time before bed.  I think this was Whitney's favorite time.  She loved playing Super Smash Bros. with her cousins.

Playing a game of Hullabaloo.  This provided minutes of fun - minutes.

And finally a picture of all the kids.  They are even mostly looking at the camera.  Megan thought her cousin Magnus was the cat's meow.  He would make a funny face or funny noise and she just burst out laughing.  That was funny.

Anyway, thanks for coming to visit us.  We had a good time.