Cutting the Christmas Tree

This was our third going to the mountains to cut down our tree and we couldn't have had a more gorgeous day.  As usual, Anne & Sean organized it and there was a great group that made a caravan out to the Buffalo Creek cutting area.  It still took us awhile to pick out "our" special tree, but I think we're getting quicker each year!  The after-cutting party was fun with lots of great food.  The only downer this year was that our whole family has been trying to overcome being sick.  We're going on over 4 weeks, but our coughs were still echoing throughout the forest. :(

A little hot cocoa warm up before the hunt:

It was such a gorgeous day!

Looking for the perfect tree:

The light was shining right on it.  We took this as a sign. :)

Group shot.  My poor guys.  It took forever for us to get one without Ryan coughing:

JP starts the cut.  We had to call in Dad for some extra muscle at the end:

We did it!

Joe and his girls:

The 2013 group:

Packing it up for the ride back to Denver:

Fall Sports

This fall both Ryan and JP participated in sports.  Ryan did soccer & JP football.  The girls continue with dance one night a week.

Ryan loved his skills & drills class.  Towards the end they did a little scrimmaging, but it was mostly meant as a class to reinforce the basics.  He did great a was such a go getter.

 

 
JP tried out flag football for the first time and loved it.  He did really well learning the game and memorizing his team's plays.  They were called the Colts.  His team was in 1st place out of four teams going into the playoffs and ended up 2nd overall.  He had 2 great coaches and learned a lot!

Happy Halloween!

It was a busy Halloween around here.  We attended our annual pumpkin carving party where the kids (with Mom & Dad's help) carved their designs they had each punched into their pumpkins.  JP went with a Devilish looking figure, Ryan did a deer, Caitlin carved Hello Kitty & Madison choose a pretty complicated cat.  The impressive thing was she sat for over an hour punching the carving marks into it! 

On Halloween, I was able to attend all 4 of the kids parties at school.  It was up to each teacher to decide if kids could dress up or not.  It worked out OK, because each of the boys teachers allowed it, so it wasn't just one person left out.  All the kid's classes did have parties and everyone came home happy.  I didn't take any pics at JP's party.  You know the kid's are getting older when they mostly eat treats and play head's up 7 up at parties!

Ryan's class:

Madison's class:

Caitlin's class:

Halloween night everyone got dressed up and hit the streets while I stayed home to passed out our 600 pieces of candy.  We had a cowgirl, princess, ghost & ape.  It was pretty cold and windy, so I was impressed the trio stayed out for almost an hour.  This was the first year JP went out with his friend.  He is getting so big!  When he came home he immediately started counting his candy.  He said he hadn't eaten any so he could have an accurate count.  He collected 297 pieces!  He made a chart of his collection- 126 dum-dums alone!

 

The Pumpkin Patch 2013

    For the past several years, Carolyn and Paul have watched the kids for a weekend close to our anniversary.  When the kids were younger, they stayed at our house with them, but for the past two years we have taken them up to Longmont.  We are forever grateful to them for giving us a relaxing weekend each year!  After we collected them this morning we all ate lunch and drove to Rock Creek Farm to pick our pumpkins.  In all our years of going this was by far the craziest and the busiest.

Happily, the kid's still were able to find "the best" pumpkin in the patch for themselves.

He's getting so big!

Carolyn & Willa:

The trio were old enough to cut their own pumpkins this year!

 The cowgirl and her pumpkin.

I wanted to add an email I received Friday night.  Even though he's getting bigger, he'll always be my little boy.

13 happy years and counting!

The Fun Run

 

Bill Roberts held it's second annual Fun Run Sunday and we all had a great time.  JP ran the 5K and the trio did the 1 mile race.  Joe's back has been hurting him, so I ran with JP.  Considering JP had not run since early August, he did pretty well.  I am always proud of him for wanting to challenge himself when he easily could have signed up to do the shorter race.
They encouraged costumes and some classes picked themes to dress up as.  The Kindergarteners were supposed to wear polka dots & stripes.  JP went a Rainbow "Mon".
Joe & I each started off the 1 mile with the trio.  Luckily he was up for running that short distance because it took both of us to keep up with the kids.  Ryan to off in a flash and I had to sprint to keep up.  Then he wore himself out about a 1/3 of the way through and Joe and I swapped kids as the girls still had plenty of run in them. They all did great!

Proud of their polka dots.  Aunt Erin had passed on these cute pj's of Reilly's that worked perfect for the theme!

Ryan doing some warm-ups.

There was plenty of free food to keep the trio entertained during the 5K.

Mom & JP coming in for the big finish.

The Kindergarteners.  Caitlin fell down just before this picture was taken and ripped her pj bottoms.  It was sad to see her red eyes in this picture.  Luckily, she pulled it together just before her run and had a great time.  Caitlin's teacher, Mrs. Hovey, is holding the little girl.  Madison's teacher, Mrs. Stuhr, is right next to Mrs. Hovey in the blue jacket and Ryan's teacher, Mrs. Baumann, is wearing the yellow striped shirt and hat.