Halloween 2015

The month of October was a blur this year.  Early in the month, we made our annual trek to the pumpkin patch (this year we went to Rock Creek).  We always have a good time wandering through the fields to find the perfect pumpkin.  The tricky part is to leave with just a couple of pumpkins and not 20.  Rock Creek also has a play area with bouncy pumpkins and kiddie hay mazes.  The girls had fun running around and checking out all the activities.

The weekend before Halloween, Mom and Dad ran a 5k race at the local Monster Dash.  After that race, Kara ran a 1/4 mile race with Grandpa.  Kara's first race went pretty well.  She and Dad had been practicing doing windsprints in the backyard, but Kara and Grandpa decided to just jog and enjoy the actual race.

Emily was very indecisive on her costume choice for this year.  She oscillated from Spiderman to Monkey Pirate.  In the end, she went as Princess Anna from Frozen and Kara went as Queen Elsa, which the girls picked out early in the month.  The girls, of course, were adorable.

Kara surprised Mom and Dad one Saturday morning by informing us, very matter-of-factly, that there was no Santa and that the presents she got were from Mom and Dad.  We were kind of hoping that the magic would last for a few more years. Without lying too much, we tried to convince her that Santa was real.  She hasn't mentioned it since that morning, so we think she's just humoring us for now.  Oh well.  Though Kara has quite an imagination, she has had a pretty firm grasp of reality from a young age.

Link to pictures

Kara's Green Belt Test

Kara tested for her green belt mid-October. She did an awesome job learning all the moves, including breaking her board on her first try.  Check out the video!

Fall Professional Pictures 2015

One warm fall afternoon, we met a photographer at a nearby open space.  The girls did a great job, and we got some awesome pictures of everyone.  Enjoy!

Link to pictures

September 2015

Kara quickly adjusted to her morning routine and getting ready for school each day. Surprisingly, Kara wasn't late to school once and didn't give Mom too much of a hard time.. Kara has school every morning, but on Tuesdays and Thursdays she stays for a full day and has Kindergarten Enrichment in the afternoon. So far, Kara is really enjoying school. Kara is doing very well with her reading (she recently tested at a 2nd grade reading level) and with her math.  She's also having a lot of fun learning new science information.  She comes home everyday with some new little tidbit that she learned in school.

For Labor Day, Aunt Amy had a little party at her house.  The girls had a great time chasing Briley and Ruby and playing with all the adults.  The girls had a little extra fun once they got a hold of Aunt Amy's phone.  Check out the pictures.

We decided to plant a couple of trees in our backyard.  We planted an Autumn Blaze Maple and a Honeycrisp Apple.  Maybe we'll be getting some tasty apples in a couple of years!

The last weekend in the month, we headed up to Rocky Mountain National Park outside of Estes Park to check out the elk.  It was fun, but we probably won't attempt it again for a couple of years.  We had planned on having a picnic dinner and then hanging out for a couple of hours and watching the elk.  However, the girls were ready to leave right after we got there (long care ride). Fortunately, there was a bull elk waiting to surprise us in the tall grass!  We got our dinner out, sat down, and there he was!  The girls loved it.  We also saw several other elk and heard a little bugling in the distance before we left.

Kid quotes:
Emily: "This is my only choice" after she sat down on the sidewalk when Dad gave her the choice of either riding her scooter or walking home from the playground (see the picture).

Link to pictures from Labor Day

Link to other pictures from September

Another Summer Comes to an End

We crammed some end-of-summer fun in with Grandma and Grandpa - one morning we met them at the Boulder County Fair and another we met up at the Broomfield Bay water park.

The Fair day was quite hot (you can tell by Emily's picture...), but both girls enjoyed seeing the farm animals, and even saw their first clown show!  Emily was a little apprehensive, but quickly started to enjoy herself.  And Kara was cracking up!  Kara also got to enjoy some carnival rides with Grandma and Grandpa while Emily went home for a nap.

We only got to Broomfield Bay (small local pool/water park) one day this summer (same as last summer) and both girls had a blast!  It was a bit chilly for the adults, but we powered through.  Kara couldn't get enough of the big water slides, and Emily made Dad go down the medium slide over and over and over....

August also brought lots of bounty from our little garden.  We got several rounds of beans, lots and lots....and lots of zucchini, and yummy tomatoes!  Our carrots were very sad and the watermelons were a complete no-show (maybe we should have weeded?!), but we plan to garden again next year.  The girls really enjoyed watching everything grow.

Emily went with Mom and Kara to the hair salon one day and got her first salon experience.  Ms. Rose was very nice and shampooed Emily's hair and gave her a good blow dry.  Emily just thought it was the coolest thing.

Emily is going through an independent phase.  She wants to do everything herself (including getting dressed, getting into the bath, reading books) and gets very irritated if someone tried to do something for her or makes her do something before she's ready. It has been a little tricky to get her to do things sometimes...

Kid quotes:
Emily: "No thank you, I'm playing toys" when we asked her to come to dinner one night.

Link to pictures