Last soccer game!

So Noah made it through a whole soccer season!  He missed two games cause he was sick for a whole week (Sat to Sat), but he didn't quit!  And that's a big deal for us.  You know how we don't like to make commitments with our time!  :)  Here he is playing goalie during the last game.  He loves to be goalie, but it makes me so horribly nervous.  I make Josh go stand over close enough to him to yell at him what to do in case the ball comes.  I mean, seriously, I never knew you could pick up the ball in soccer.  Shows how much I  know!!

I love these two pictures cause he is just so darn excited.  You would think they scored or something, but they didn't.  I don't even remember what happened but can you see how excited he is?  The boy truly loves playing the game!

 He was also super excited cause Oma came to see him play for the first time ever.   And of course the rest of the gang was there too....

And to end the season they had a party at Double Dave's and were awarded trophies.  Noah was so adorable cause he asked me that morning, "Do you think I played good enough to get a trophy?"  So horribly sweet!  I let him stay in suspense until the coach passed them out at the party.  Can you see how happy he is?  He brought it home and put it right next to his little trophy from doing gymnastics two years ago.

Of course Wyatt was pretty crushed he doesn't have any trophies.  He has proclaimed that he will play soccer next season, but I'm not really sure that will happen!  Later that night I heard Noah telling him that when you're a kid you only get little trophies, but sometimes grown ups get trophies that are as tall as a person and full of money.  Where does he come up with this stuff??!  He is really going to miss his coach and team.  He was just talking about them yesterday how he misses them.  His coach only coaches one season each year, so we have to wait till the fall to be on his team again.  Noah has proclaimed he only wants Coach Wes, so I'm not sure what we will do in the spring.  What are the chances he will get another coach he loves and good kids too? 

Renaissance Festival!

I know people seem to really, really love the Renaissance Festival, but I am one of those few people who just don't.  I find it expensive, relatively boring, dirty, and generally offensive.  BUT, my children love it!  How does that happen?  We went two years ago during school days and the kids had fun and have asked about it constantly for two straight years.  So I knew we had to go again this year.  Our co-op went as a group but it was on a Tuesday, so we waited until Wednesday so Josh could go with us.  THAT was the only fun part - getting to do it all with Josh since he had never been since the kids were born.

Everyone's favorite part was listening to the birds of prey presentation.  I was so very glad we didn't sit in the front row cause the birds were crazy scary!  The speaker guy told everybody that it was very important they we stay seated for our safety.  So I had Annie in my lap but she wanted to get down and stand in front of me.  So of course I let her and Noah FREAKED out.  He was so super worried that one of the birds would grab her and fly away with her.  He said, "Didn't you listen to that man???!!"  :)

This year they also got to play quite a few games since Daddy was along to help out.  We started out with the petting zoo, and Noah became quite attached to a little rabbit, which is strange cause he's not normally the one in love with animals.  Noah got to shoot paintball guns with Josh....

And then ride on a big huge swing....

And Wyatt decided to go in a castle maze...

And then see how strong he was!  He was strong and his prize was a card that entitled him to a free kiss!

To finish the day off they really enjoyed shooting arrows!

Even though I really dislike the event and location I had so much fun spending the day with my favorite people just goofing off.  I'm fairly certain we won't be going again next year, though.  I need at least one year off!  ;)

Little mummies!

First thing the very next morning after our visit to the King Tut exhibit the kids begged to open their new mummy kits they got.  Of course there is a little shop at the end of the exhibit selling all kinds of Pharaoh/Tut/Egypt stuff.  All we had funds for were these cheap little dig your own mummy kits, but of course my parents shelled out the big bucks for some Tutty Bears.  What's a Tutty Bear you might ask?  As any one could imagine it is a little stuffed teddy bear wearing a Pharaoh costume.  Makes sense, right?  Even Annie got one and she sleeps with it every night!  :) 

Noah got a dig your own dinosaur kit last year for Christmas and it was a HUGE hit, so I knew this would go over well too.  Happily they didn't take long to do either.  And the boys found the TINIEST little mummies in the whole wide world.  For real, I thought they would be way bigger.  But they were super cute!

When Mom is away.....

Evidently this is what the kids do to Annie when I am not around!  We have our normal morning routine where I make my cup of coffee and then sit down to check my email/facebook and I demand that I am alone!  So this is what I was doing when I heard the boys screaming, "Mom, come see Annie!"  That can't be good, right?  She was enjoying the Great Pit of Carkoon a bit too much if you ask me!  I really don't know what I will do with this bunch when she starts walking!  And of course, all of this was on the floor of what WAS a super clean room only minutes before.  I couldn't get mad, though, when they were having this much fun!  I love these kiddos!

Halloween!

Ohhh, I used to hate Halloween but have actually grown a bit fond of it!  I just love the excitement of getting to dress up and pretend you are somebody else for a while.  And boy did our kiddos pretend!  For almost a year now Noah has been saying he wanted to be  Civil War soldier.  SOOOO bizarre, but so true.  We had read about it during some school lessons and Noah just clung to it.  I was so pleased to find this Robert E. Lee costume.  And once Wyatt saw this Pharaoh costume he was certain this was the one for him.

Rosie girl had no say in the matter, but I wanted to pick a costume that would work no matter if it was hot or cold.   It was just perfect and she even loved her kitty ears - didn't pull them off at all!

Wyatt was just too adorable.  He was not the easiest thing to put eyeliner on, though!  When I first got it out he started to freak cause he "didn't want to look like a girl!"  So I showed him the picture of King Tut from the bag from the art exhibit and then he was good to go.  He was great about the upper lids but was pretty antsy about the lower ones.  I did the best I could!  And just ask the boy to let your people go and he gave a resounding "NOOOOO!"

Like I said, Noah really didn't know much about the civil war, but he was happy anyways.  Especially about the sword.  At the last minute he saw a Green Lantern costume and wanted to be that.  So we got online to order it and at the last possible second stuck with his original plan.  I'm so glad he did!  Too cute!

They tricked and treated until they couldn't go any more!  They started out with Maddie and Emma but lost track of each other and finished it alone.  Both of their buckets were full to the top or else I think they would have kept going.  They were super excited to put on their new skeleton jammies and get started opening up candy.  My parents come over and I was so thankful cause they helped me watch Annie while I passed out candy.  And of course they got their Halloween treat boxes from them as well.  They made out like bandits cause they got cool Halloween treats earlier in the week from Granny too. 

They each got to pick their own pumpkin designs.  Can you guess which is which?

King Tut!

Noah had been waiting for this day for MONTHS!  As soon as they announced the King Tut exhibit would come to the art museum we knew we had to go.  Luckily my parents are members so they ordered cheaper tickets for all of us in advance. Noah has been obsessed with Egypt and Pharaoh for as long as I can remember, so he had been asking me for weeks, "Is today the museum day?"    It was a busy day - Friday School always wears us out, but we rushed home, took a nap, and then got ready.  Our tickets were for the evening so Josh could wake up in time to go with us.

This was our first visit to the Museum of Fine Arts.  I knew the kids would be so excited about the light tunnel, and they were!  Josh was able to snap a pic before the security people told him he had to put his camera away.  They had all kinds of cool stuff along the super long walkway we had to take from the parking garage.

The kids thought it was so super cool to stand on this guys face!  We were super early for our time slot for the exhibit so we got to look around quite a bit.  It was nice the kids had a chance to walk about and have fun before we had to go in.  Annie was especially happy to be out of her stroller. 

Of course they won't let you take pics in the exhibit, but Josh caught this cutie one of Annie as the preview movie was playing.  She was surprisingly good - only got a little fussy at the end, and we were there for a long time.

We all LOVED the exhibit.  The boys really surprised me with how interested they were with all of it.  We only got two of the little audio guide devices and the boys really loved this part.  They were so cute typing in the numbers and insisted on staying at each piece until the man finished talking.  I had expected them to fly through everything but they really loved it.  About halfway through Wyatt whispered to me, "I all done looking at this now."  I knew it was pushing it a bit for him but he was a trooper and finished it on a high note.  Of course they were so happy we stayed out until it was dark and they requested we go eat at their favorite restaurant and we were happy to oblige.  So we had a late night stop at The Corner Bakery.

 Such a fun night!  I love spending time with the people I adore the most!