Monday, January 2, 2017

Happy Belated Birthday Kale!


At the beginning of August,
we roadtripped it to Idaho
for a Patterson family reunion.
I saw this thing on Pinterest
where someone turned a baking sheet
into an activity tray for
kids in the car.
So I tried it.
It was great for the first few hours.





Then the kids just got bored
of it and wanted me to 
pull out something else new and exciting.
Sorry to disappoint kiddos.

It was so wonderful to see
all the cousins and aunts and uncles!
I always do a TERRIBLE job of taking pictures when
we get together.
I guess I'm just too busy having fun.
 But, I did get a picture
of Ellory and Allie playing together.
They were adorable the whole trip!

 

All of the cousins were pumped to see
Kale and Ellory.
They followed them around
and played with them
and adored them
and only confirmed their own self-important thoughts.
It was great :)
We all stayed in the same hotel
so we all played in the pool
both nights, which was a blast.
We love them all
and miss them all the time!

The reunion was really nice.
And HOT.
I actually recognized quite a few people
but didn't remember their names.
It made me miss my father-in-law, Doug,
a lot.
But it was nice to be with his family.
I'm grateful we were able to go.

Well, Kale started preschool.
Ya.
Where is time going??
He is going to a Co-Op preschool,
which means I'm involved a lot
and it costs a lot less.
So far we are liking it.
Here he is on his first day:



He's very social and loves going
so he can play with his friends.
Which is exactly what we thought would happen.

We have a tiny library here in this tiny
town we live in.
And I take the kids there often.
They do a lot of fun things for the kids.
At Halloween they did a 
Build a Scarecrow
workshop, where they provided everything
we needed to make one.
Here is what the kids came up with:


The following Saturday there was
going to be a Harvest Festival in town
and the Library was having a scarecrow contest.
So we entered the kids' scarecrows.


Kale's won "Most Unusual"
and Ellory's won "Most Traditional."
I think there were 6 or 7 awards that could be won
and probably 6 or 7 scarecrows entered.
But Kale was THRILLED that he won.
He even took the certificate he won
to show-and-tell.
It was so cute.

We had a good spell of rainy days
combined with Tyler traveling with the football team,
so the kids and I built a blanket fort.
And then the kids watched a show
inside of it.




We got those fun window stickers
and the kids decorated their
bedroom window:



And Kale had a birthday!!
He invited a few friends over
and they played Angry Birds games
and then watched the Angry Birds movie.



His birthday was on Sunday this year,
so his birthday party was Saturday.
Sunday morning, we celebrated,
with presents!


He got lots of presents from
lots of people who love him.


He decided he was going to be 
Captain America for Halloween again
this year, but his mask had broken.
So he got a new one for his birthday.


Look at that haul!


We got him walkie-talkies.
He thought they were pretty cool.


Nana and Grandpa sent him
these awesome magnets that you 
build with.
Perfect!


He asked for Oreo Ice Cream Cake.
And we had him help us make it.



Time to blow out candles!




He had a great birthday!
I can't believe he's 5.

This day of church 
the kids were looking particulary
adorable.
So I convinced them to let me take
their picture:


Kale has really gotten into doing crafts.
Every day he asks me what craft
we are going to make.
Many times he was disappointed to hear
that I had no craft planned for the day.
But one day I had planned one,
and this is what we made:


He thought it was so scary.
And he thought that we didn't know 
it was him when he put it on.
Sometimes we pretended to be scared.
But sometimes we wouldn't.
And he was so frustrated and couldn't understand
how we possibly knew it was him.
Oh, Kale.

One day I made him a grilled cheese 
sandwich and then cut it
with Halloween cookie cutters.
He thought that was pretty cool.
"Quick! Take a picture before I eat them, Mom!"


His preschool went on a fieldtrip
to a pumpkin patch and he
got to pick out a pumpkin.
So, that's the only one we got this year.
He decided he wanted to carve
it to look like a vampire:




I think it turned out pretty good!

On Halloween we went to do the
trick-or-treat downtown thing
that both Independence and Monmouth do.
We went to Independence first,
trick-or-treating at participating
businesses on main street.
Then the same thing in Monmouth.
Ellory liked it for the first 15 minutes,
but then she was done....


We went home for dinner and
then Kale and I went to a neighborhood
to trick-or-treat while
Ellory and Tyler stayed home.
Kale and I had a lot of fun!
I think he would have gone until people turned
their lights off if I'd let him.
At home we put them into their
Halloween pajamas Nana sent them.
Ellory was still not amused:


And then we sent them off to bed.
It was a good Halloween.

Here is Kale building with his magnets:


Those things are so cool!
Tyler found an Oregon State hat
for Kale when he was in Eugene,
so naturally it was super cheap (haha!).
Kale looks way to cool to be hanging
out with us when he wears it:




Phew! Well, that was October.
It usually is a pretty good month :)






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