Pumpkin Patch

Our playgroup took a field trip to the Linder Farms pumpkin patch.  Charlotte stayed with me...

 Lily did not.  Is it possible for a four-year-old to have a crush?  She says that she likes Gavin because he is four like her.

Gideon wasn't thrilled about it, but he behaved well.

 After the hayride we were taken to the pumpkin patch where this nice lady explained how pumpkins grow.  Lily was proud of herself for already knowing what three things were needed for the seed to grow.

 For some reason that I don't understand at all my children like to find the smallest pumpkins in the patch.

 Seriously, someone please explain this too me.  Oh well, they love their little pumpkins so I let them have them.

After the pumpkin patch it was play time.  Charlotte got lost in the hay maze and stayed there for quite some time.

 Once the older kids discovered this huge tube slide they were all over it.

 Lily is normally very nervous with new slides.  When we go to a new park it takes quite a while before she works up the courage to go down the untested slides so I expected her to hesitate at the top and perhaps not even go down at all.  I was wrong!  She jumped right in and really enjoyed it.

 We also played in a large box of corn and visited the farm animals.  It was such a fun morning, but rather exhausting for this crew.

Pumpkin Carving

Tonight the kids and I carved our pumpkins.  I pulled up a website full of templates and the girls liked the pirate ones because they went with their costumes.  So while Gideon and Lily napped Charlotte and I cleaned the pumpkins and got started.  Lily and Gideon both woke up just in time to watch and "help" with theirs.

Boo at the Zoo

We like to take the kids to Boo at the Zoo every year, or rather I like to take the kids and Tyson tolerates it well. 

 We go to the zoo all of the time because we have an annual membership, but this time there was a new Patas Monkey exhibit.  There was a whole fiasco a few months back with a drunken moron breaking into the zoo in the middle of the night, stealing a monkey, and then killing it because it didn't come along quietly.  Anyway, because of that the zoo received a lot of donations and was able to get two new monkey and build a great new home for them.

 The best part though was that just a couple of weeks ago two of the monkeys gave birth.  I loved this sweet mommy monkey cuddling her baby.  Another monkey came up and starting harassing the baby a bit and she spat and shrieked at it and pushed it away.  Don't mess with a mommy!

 As an added surprise, just as Tyson was getting ready to leave for work we ran into my sister Ali and her boys so we finished our rounds around the zoo with some fun cousins.

Kids' Race

Last Saturday our running club, Moms Run This Town (which is a national club by the way, check it out) put on our 2nd annual Kids' Race  Our children are used to seeing their moms leave to go running and going to races so we like to let them have one of their own.

We bumped it up from November to October and made it a costumed event, and oh my goodness it was a blast!  Each little runner had a race bib and lined up at the starting line, ready to go.

 Well, almost all of them.  Charlotte here had a scary moment where she couldn't see me at the park and thought she was lost and that was upsetting to her so she had no desire to run the race.

 Lily however set off at a run with her friends, but needed me to stay with her to finish it up.  She had a good sprint to the finish line, excited for her prize.

 You'd be amazed just how much these kids love earning their medals!

  I put together some fun little swag bags for the kiddos and some of the wonderful women in our group brought some refreshments for our little runners.

 We could not have asked for better weather, it is bright and sunny and just plain perfect!

 After a little bit of refueling they were off again to go play at the playground.

I loved this event!  I loved how excited the kids were to run and how encouraging their parents were.  We had some grandparents and other family members out to support their little runners and it just made my heart happy.

Trying out the Swings

The kids and I (I wanted to type "the girls" but I have Gideon now so I have to say kids...it is taking some adjusting) meet up with friends twice a week for playgroup and since it isn't freezing yet, we are still going to parks.  Earlier this week I decided to see if Gideon cared for swinging.

Turns out that he did.  And best of all, his sweet sister Charlotte enjoyed pushing him in the swing.

Five Months

Time is continuing to fly by and our little warrior here is now five months old.  My scale is busted, so I have no idea what he weighs, I just know that he keeps getting bigger and always seems hungry.  For the most part he is a very smiley boy, once he warms up a bit.  

He's on the move.  Not only is he rolling all over the place but now he has learned to turn himself around and scoot towards an object of interest.  In fact he rarely stays in the same place for more than a few seconds so getting pictures is getting harder.

Once he sets his mind on something he goes for it.  The other day his sisters were doing puzzles and he really wanted to participate.

Gideon has been sick fir the first time during this last month.  He caught a cold and his eyes and nose have been goopy for a couple of weeks now.  Thankfully he is on the mend.  

My Birthday 10k

Time continues to press on and I just keep getting older.  For my birthday yesterday I decided to celebrate by starting the day with the Barber to Boise 10k.  This is one of my local favorites.  The course is lovely, running along the Boise River for 6 miles and ending up at the football stadium at Boise State.  I ran it last year as my final 10k before shortening my distance due to my pregnancy.  It was great to have the same race be my first 10k back since Gideon was born.  It wasn't record time for me, but it was a good performance and I loved it.  The best part, I didn't go alone!  Tyson took the day off work and brought the kids along so everyone was there as I crossed the finish line.  Lily was terribly disappointed that I didn't get a medal though.

 I also got to meet up with a few friends from my running club afterwards.

 Another reason this race rocked was because I got to do it with my good friend Dave.  We have been friends since high school and he has been on an amazing journey to fitness.  In April, when I was 8.5 months pregnant, I ran the Beat Coach Pete 5k with him.  He asked a couple of months ago if I planned to do Barber to Boise, I told him that I would be running the 10k and told him to run it with me, AND HE DID!  I'm super proud of this guy!

 After the race Tyson took me shoe shopping.  I can hardly wait to put some miles on these awesome things!