Happy Thanksgiving

We went up to Pasco for Thanksgiving.  Will had three days off and so did the girls from school.  So it was a really wonderful vacation.

Thanksgiving Day had the most beautiful weather.  So we decided that it was time to take a walk before the big meal.

We enjoyed hearing the birds singing and smelling barbecue smoke.  It felt more like late Spring time.  So nice.

I took Adam on the trampoline after getting home.  I don't let him on without an adult or with the other jumping girls.  He had fun playing on there for awhile.

Then it was time for our relish tray and snacks.  Everyone liked dipping - we had to prevent some double dipping or triple dipping action.

Yummy Thanksgiving food.  There were a couple of new items on the menu.  Chas made some deviled eggs that were tasty and my mom made a baked macaroni to practice for the upcoming wedding.  Both were nice additions. 

Later after playing some games and relaxing for awhile, it was time for pie.

More pie. 

I am glad that we got to spend the day all together.  I have a wonderful family and I am really thankful for them.  There is so much to be thankful for on this holiday.  I hope everyone else remembers their blessings on this special day.

Happy Halloween

So it is a little late posting Halloween pictures.  But the kids looked so cute in their costumes that I wanted to put up some pictures. 

We went to the pumpkin patch with Megan's preschool group.  There are five kids (one was sick) and the grown ups all take turns having the preschool group at their home.  We decided it would be fun to go on a field trip.

Adam was more interested in playing in the sand than in looking for a perfect pumpkin.  But Megan found one.

After you get a pumpkin you have to degunk and carve them.  The girls did pretty well with this.  Megan eventually got bored and I got to finish.  We ended up with yummy roasted seeds.

Whitney carved her own pumpkin into a vampire, Rachel's was an angel, and Megan picked a queen's crown.  They were all very excited about their pumpkins.

Another part of pre-Halloween activities is to decorate sugar cookies.  They were suppose to be pumpkins.  I had made them for a mutual activity and there were some extras.  The kids put on lots of decorations.

This is us at the ward Halloween party.  There was a good turnout.  We had some yummy soups and rolls.

Adam enjoying his spoils from the cupcake walk.  The young women were in charge of the cupcake walk so I got to bring cupcakes to the event.  The young women did a good job bringing cupcakes also.  Our kids were the first ones to be part of the cake walk.  It took awhile for some of our kids to win and there may have eventually been a little help for each child to win.

There were lots of decorations at the party. 

This is us on Halloween night.  The kids were super excited to get going right after Will got home from work.  Do you notice the similarities between the costumes and the pumpkins?

We were trick-or-treating for about two hours.  Then it got a bit too dark and cold and everyone was hungry.  It was a good evening.  And everyone got lots of candy.

I hope everyone else had a Happy Halloween also!

Harvest Festival

Two years ago we heard about a harvest festival up in the Tri-Cities that was being done by a church.  We went to it and had a great time.  Last year it was rainy but this time weather was perfect.  It was basically the same as two years ago, but I don't think the kids realized that.  It was still fun.

There was a spot that was meant for family pictures.  It was decorated all Halloween-y.  Did I mention that it was a sunny day?

All the kids got to go on a little pony ride.  Adam seemed a little ambivalent about the ride, but the girls all liked their turns.

There was a big pumpkin bounce house.  We had to wait in a long line for a turn but it was still fun.

Adam is afraid of bounce houses.  So he and I waited in the "baby section".  There were little farm animal toys.  And a nice lady giving out candy.

A spot to see how tall you are.  It always amazes me that Rachel is almost as tall as Whitney.

We went through this straw maze.  Whitney was our leader.  With her as a guide we didn't make any wrong turns.  And more candy at the end.

The baby goats were adorable and super friendly.  They loved sniffing hands.

The girls all got their faces painted.  This probably took the most amount of time.  Megan wanted a heart.  Whitney is a shark and Rachel is an angel.  They all turned out very cute.

Then we played some carnival games.

This was Adam's favorite game.  You were suppose to find little jewels in the container of beans.  Adam didn't care about the jewels.  He just wanted to scoop out the beans, over and over and over.

Then on our way out we stopped at the little pumpkin patch so each kid could get a little pumpkin.  These pumpkins are cute and tiny.  I think we will paint them instead of trying to carve them.  It was a fun afternoon.

So now we are ready for Halloween.  My kids are really excited about their costumes and getting lots of candy.

Gymnastics Day

We have a friend in our ward whose daughter is part of gymnastics.  They travel to the Tri-Cities every week for her practices.  They told us about free gymnastics day and invited us to come.

There were a couple of little performances for people to watch.  I thought these were cool and some of the older kids who did flips and twists were really good.  I have to admit the gymnastics is my favorite part of the Olympics to watch. 

There also were times where the kids could play on the different gymnastics equipment.  Adam liked going down this little slide.

Up high was a spot for slightly older kids that Whitney and Rachel spent most of their time at.  Whitney is waiting in line to jump into the pit.

And in the pit.  Both girls spent at least an hour jumping into this foam block pit.

Each jump led to big smiles so it must have been quite fun.

Megan liked this car track and spent a lot of time sliding on it.  Even Adam did this a couple of times.

Megan climbing onto the double bars.  No crazy flips were done but she showed off her balancing skills.

This was Adam's favorite spot.  It was a long thin trampoline.  Unfortunately, only one kid was allowed on it at a time so you had to wait for your turn a lot.  But Adam still loved it.

Maybe one day we could get our kids involved in gymnastics because they all had a lot of fun here.  But I don't know if they would actually like being told what to do versus having free reign with the toys and equipment.  Still a fun day.

Beautiful Balloons

So Will has wanted to see a hot air balloon show for awhile now.  We tried to see it in Walla Walla, but that one was canceled.  Then I heard about a show in Prosser.  We looked at the weather report and it looked nice so we decided to risk it.

For some reason the balloons have to lift up right after sunrise.  So we got to leave at 5:30 in the morning to make it there.  The kids weren't thrilled with this, but they survived.  And look at how happy they are to be waiting at the Prosser airport.

This is the balloon that we were closest to.  It ended up being huge but we got to see them start filling it up with air.  The flames were cool to see but I couldn't get a good picture of that.

This was the first balloon that made it all the way up and into the air.  It was one of my favorites because of its beautiful colors.

The patriotic American flag balloon goes up into the air.  There was a commentator who told us what each balloon was called and who was flying it.

I loved seeing lots of balloons in the sky at the same time - so amazing.  It would be pretty awesome to fly in one someday.

Prosser was having a little festival after the show.  Whitney admires somebody's handiwork.

We just had to stop and get little balloon animals from this guy.  The kids loved their balloons.

These cookies were called something like straight from heaven.  I don't know about that but they were pretty good, very sugary and pricey.  But the kids all loved them.  It is nice to get treats now and then.

Then we stopped to play at the Prosser park.  This was a big and pretty cool park.  Adam found this slide and went on it over and over and over and over.

There were lots of balancing kinds of toys that would swing a little as the kids walked across them.  Rachel was probably the best at this.

Adam found this mural by the park.  He has recently learned 'wheel' and he likes to find wheels everywhere.  This was extra special because there were two little toy cars just sitting there so Adam played with them for awhile while his sisters kept playing in the park.

So it was really fun.  I am glad the balloons went up this time; I guess they did not go up on Friday morning.  So we got lucky.  It was beautiful.