And We Have A WINNER!!

The boys enter the various Lego contests that come out in hopes of winning one of the Grand Prizes with their creations. Of course, we always tell them that the odds of winning are low, but that is still good to do their best work and enter.

And then a couple weeks before Christmas the UPS man rings the doorbell and there is this huge box on the doorstep... from Lego... addressed to Brendan... He had entered a Lego Space Police contest at the end of October and was selected as the grand prize winner from his age group.

Getting ready to break into the box...
Aiden hugging one of the sets sent as a prize...
The whole haul: 6 new Space Police sets and one huge Lego Space Police villain trophy.
Some very happy boys! :)
A truly unique trophy.

'Tis the Season

What better way to get in the mood for Christmas than putting up some decorations - and having a major blizzard to keep you indoors... putting up decorations ;)

Yep, looks like Christmas in Minnesota!

Family Photos

Some fun photos downtown St. Paul on a very chilly afternoon in December. We rotated in and out of the St. Paul Public Library to get some shots and warm up. The kids weren't the most cooperative, but we still had some fun and got some cute photos.

Thanksgiving

Not sure where all the time goes, but it sure does go! I've fallen off the blog wagon lately and am going to attempt to get back on track. Until then I'm going to do some fast-forward pictures to get up to speed.

A Thanksgiving visit from Grandma and Grandpa Pomeroy! Making some clove apples.

Brendan teaching them to play his new Star Wars game.
Aiden VERY busy cutting out pictures for his 'wish list' for Santa.
Getting some hugs!
Off to the Mall of America - crazy place on Black Friday.

Amazingly enough, no line to see Santa.
Santa going over the HUGE list of items Aiden was wishing for.

Being silly.

Neighborhood Halloween Party

Last Halloween we hosted a neighborhood party at our house. We invited the families around us and some we've met through daycare, preschool, and elementary school as well. Lots of people helped out with games, goodie bags, etc and it was a huge success. For weeks afterwards, Aiden wanted a Halloween themed birthday party!

This year we decided to do it outside in the cul-de-sac and fortunately the weather mostly cooperated. No rain, sunny skies, but some pretty cool temperatures and a steady wind - it could have been worse. Not only did we have a bunch of games for the kids to play, there was a popcorn machine, a hot dog machine, a cookie decorating table and a small bounce house - a kids paradise!

Brendan in the center as General Grievous and friends. I love coming up with the games for the party - so fun! This was our spiderweb challenge, like my homemade spider web? It was definitely a challenge to make! The kids tried to throw stuffed bugs through the web.
Our neighbor girl and her friend did face painting for the kids, another very popular activity.
Brendan standing in the background watching his friend do the witches hat toss.
Like our Indian corn ring toss? Harder than it appears to be...
My graveyard cookie - very easy and very yummy.
The candy corn pizza... not so yummy. It was too crunchy and just not that good. I will definitely modify the recipe to make it again; I already have a better tasting plan in place.
Okay, Wellyn did an outstanding job on our pumpkin bowling lanes. We had some extra carpet left over from when we had the basement play area done and were planning to just cut it up and toss it. When we decided to do the party outdoors, pumpkin bowling sounded like a fun game, but I was afraid the pumpkins would just get pulverized on the road after a few tosses down the lane. So, why not repurpose the carpet we were getting rid of?!? Wellyn took it a few steps farther and spray painted the 'gutters' and 'Pumpkin Bowl' on them - they looked awesome! We decided to save them for next year... one less thing heading toward the landfill. :)

Next day, the real Halloween. Unfortunately Aiden ended up with the stomach flu early in the day, but was doing good enough at night to go get some candy.

Halloween Happiness

I don't know why, but I love Halloween and fall-themed decorations. Love breaking out the totes of decorations with all the golds, oranges and reds, although I can do without the rain, wind and sudden drops in temperature. I'm not opposed to having extra chocolate in the house (for the trick-or-treaters!) either.

The boys carving the pumpkins from all our previous trips. They both drew their own faces (Aiden with a little help from Daddy) on the pumpkins and then carved them - true originals.

Done!
Making a face to match his pumpkin.
Brendan working hard at marking the lines he drew.
And let the carving begin.
Such cute pumpkins, all four of them.
Spooky!
Making their scary faces - a must when doing pumpkins, or anything related to Halloween.

Our friend Chrissy invited our family to their house for a Halloween party with her daycare families. We met them through preschool when Brendan and her son Mason attended together and became best buds. Now we play soccer together and I give rides to a couple of her daycare kids to preschool as well. Fun kids, fun families.

Wellyn, I mean, Mr. Incredible and Aiden working on a pumpkin decoration craft.
Brendan and best bud Mason - too bad they don't attend the same school.

The finished work of art.
Brendan discovering why caped crusaders don't use bicycles to get around - because their capes get stuck in the wheel! His General Grievous (Star Wars) costume came with an attached cape, so it caused a few issues when he got it caught in the bike at the party. Out came the tools, and mom to photo document the event :)
The piñata... thankfully no one was injured and 10lbs of candy was later scattered all over.
Check out those muscles - the gym has really been paying off ;)
Our adorable hostess, Chrissy, bring out some more sugar for the kiddos.