Weekend Fun

Besides it being Chase's birthday this past weekend, it was also a 3 day weekend.  It was a busy one.  After Cheer on Saturday we headed down to Genoa to go to the candy dance.  This is a HUGE arts and crafts fair.  The tradition started in 1919 when women of the town sold candy and held a town dance to raise money to pay for street lights.  It has continued and grown with each year. I have never been (maybe the only person in NV).  It always lands on Chase's birthday weekend. This year I really wanted to go check it out. This is looking onto the crowd from a distance...

It was a mob of people!  We saw some cool crafts...mostly I said "wow that's cool, I bet my sister could make that".  We did venture out and try some new things including this sausage sandwich.

Surprisingly it was really hard to find any candy...kinda the draw of the name for the kids.  Matt had told them the candy dance was where they had candy that danced in your mouth.  We did find some sugar to satisfy them.

When we had our feel of crafts and crowds we headed over for a visit with Great Grandpa and Grandma. We got to meet their new dog Gallant who is them sweetest dog. Grandpa always likes to spoil us by taking us out to dinner.

He is also not shy about letting the kids get anything they want.  Oh you just had a huge chocolate chip pancake for dinner...do you want dessert?  This girl was in chocolate overload.

The kids also had Monday off for teacher work day.  They spent most of the morning playing with Chase's new toys, then I took them to Daddy's work for a little bowling competition.  See the one eating nachos?  Yeah she won...both games.

Then we headed off to the movie theater to see The Boxtrolls.  If you haven't seen it...DON'T.  Unless you need a nap while your kids are entertained SAVE YOUR MONEY.  The kids said they liked it...I give it two thumbs down. 

After a long busy weekend, I think we are ready to get back to school....not really but I guess we have too.

NINE

Sunday was Chase's 9th birthday....NINE.  How I wish I could stop time.  As much as I love watching our kids grow, it also makes me sad.  This was an especially different birthday for me.  He had one thing on his list....and was adamant about it.  We started the morning with breakfast in bed, not sure how this tradition got moved into MY bed.

And then time to open presents...er no.  What did that boy want?  Money.  He didn't want me to buy gifts he wanted to go shopping and buy his own presents.  He got this idea from Kelsey's last birthday when we gave her money.  He thought that was awesome and has been talking about it ever since.  He was thrilled to have a little jingle in his pocket.

We were off for a day of shopping. This boy loves to shop with his own money.  He begs us to take him when he has $2 to his name so with some real cash to spend, he was busy deciding what to buy...and spend every dollar he could.

After a full morning of shopping he chose to go to In-N-Out burger for lunch. 

Then it was back home to bust open all the "gifts" he bought:  Pokemon cards, collectibles, and Star Wars Legos.

It was a full day of building and then it was time to battle.  At one point these droid were attacking Sadi's Lego farm...it was intense.

This year no cake...say what?  Nope.  He requested cinnamon rolls.  I'm telling ya this birthday really threw me for a loop.  No theme, no presents, no cake.  It was a hard for me.

I know he had a great day,and told me that many times.  It's hard for me to watch the candle blow out each year and hope this boys wishes come true (unless he wished for a pet).

Awoooo! (Call of the wolf)

Last week was a busy week for Chase.  One of the big nights for him was pack meeting where he was awarded his wolf badge.  It was a lot of work for both of us, but it has been really fun getting here. 

The theme this month was under the big top, and so they had set up a whole bunch of carnival type games including this one the boys were really excited for.  Doughnut eating contest.

 I wasn't really surprised when this guy came up first....he's kinda competitive.

Time to get started on the next track...time to get our bear on.

Flashback Fridays

A few weeks back we started a new tradition with the kids we call Flashback Friday.  Every Friday night we pick a movie from the 80's and watch it with the kids.  It's been fun to reminisce with Matt about the first time we saw these growing up, and some of them it's been so long since we've seen it's like watching it for the first time.  A few that we have watched are Ghostbusters, Karate Kid, The Great Outdoors (they loved this one), Uncle Buck, and Indiana Jones.

To keep with the theme, we also try to pair up the movie with a treat that we also remember from growing up.  We try to pick things that our kids maybe haven't heard of or tried.  The first week we did soda in glass bottles and hostess fruit pies....classics.  Our kids loved the sodas clinking those bottles over and over.  The pies...DISLIKE.  They didn't even eat them...what happened hostess?  Maybe not the best comeback ever.

 We tried chick-o-sticks.  These were a hit.

 Zotz.  Remember these?  Tastes like a delicious hard candy...

until it has an explosion in your mouth!  This was pretty fun to watch.  Our kids had no idea that was going to happen.

Whatchamacallit.  Matt might have had a bit too much fun teasing the kids about this one.  If you remember the commercial for this one you get the idea..."it's a whatchamacallit...oh you forgot the name?"

 This has been a fun way to end the week.  This is what my Friday nights look like....

We've Got Spirit...

Saturday was our first football game of the season...our little pee-wee football game that is.   Sadi started cheer this year, and loves it! 

She and her team have been working hard for this day.  Ready to Show spirit, Yell loud, Jump high, Cheer proud!

Our first game was in North Reno at high noon...and it was a hot one.  The girls were headed to the guest side of the field and just started holding hands, it was pretty cute.

They started out the game cheering our team onto the field.

We cheered loud for those boys, and we already have some favorite cheers.

There was also quite a bit of standing at attention, but there was also a lot of kneeling for hurt players.  Our poor team got beat up..literally.

Those girls cheered their hearts out.  Go Devils!

Matt had to work and so it was just Chase and I.  He was doing some seriously complaining about being there until about half time when some of the girls his age showed up for their game.  This is what was happening on the sidelines.....

 I'm pretty sure he is going to be just fine at all these games!

The Fishin' Hole

After a long break from summer our scouts finally started up again.  In an attempt to get the kids excited about coming back the parents planned a "casting" party at the pond near our house.  The boys all brought their poles and practiced casting into targets out on the pond.  It was a fun night and we only had a handful of "tree" incidents...a.k.a. the trees gettin' in the way.

It was just the activity we needed to get excited about diving back in.