Happy Birthday Cole!

It’s hard to imagine that it’s already been 4 whole years! And even harder to imagine a world without our Bear! Happy birthday, Coley!

We shoot for an every other year friend birthday party, so this year we just celebrated with family. My side of the fam has 4 birthdays in October, so we celebrated those at my mom’s Halloween party. For Dave’s family, he was able to have his Lego Movie-themed party.

The parents were a little lazy and opted out of making a fancy homemade cake this year. Instead we dolled up a Costco cake with Lego candies and figures and called it good. I think Cole was quite happy with it!

 

 

His real birthday was Friday morning. Dad and Sissy had to head to work and school so we opened presents early that morning. Cole and Kate had about 10 minutes to try out Cole’s new Batman walkie talkies which was a fun way to kick off the day.

Next, I gave him a list of places and activities we could conquer for his special day. You know what he opted to do? Visit the free pumpkin patch! Sweet. So here we are at Jaker’s Jack-O-Lanterns! Having never been before, it was a fun adventure. We started in the corn pit, and played for probably 45 minutes; though he could have spent all day there I’m sure.

Here, he climbs the mountain of hay. It was much taller than it looks in the pic. I never thought in a million years he’d be able to reach the top on his own. But he did it in probably 2 minutes!

Victory!!!

We enjoyed seeing the animals (the cutest was a kangaroo), walking through the haunted cave, sliding, riding the wagon, and doing the mazes!

But Cole’s VERY favorite part? Picking out a pumpkin of his very own!!

We stopped by Daddy’s work in Springville since it was just up the road from the patch. Dad let him pick a prize and we spent a few minutes drawing on the chalkboard in the waiting room.

Later that night, Brother chose Benihana for his birthday dinner. Since Cole doesn’t ACTUALLY like food, he chose it based upon what restaurant Kate likes best, and also due to the fact that they serve Ramune’ drinks, which have the glass marble inside.  Oh, and he seems to enjoy the cooking show too so it was probably the best choice he could make.

We spent a little time at City Creek afterwards, where Cole got be spotlighted at the Disney Store there. There was short birthday celebration for him where he got to dance and get a birthday badge.

And last, but not least, the cake (AGAIN). Cole is a firm believer in having cake and candles on your ACTUAL birthday. So we topped off the night with making one more wish where he had his cake and ate it too!

Basement Finish

Long past due, but the “finished” basement is FINALLY just that: FINISHED! Obviously, this was our first time finishing and we learned a thing or two:

1. Expect your promise of an “8 weeks or less finish” job to be at least twice that long.
2. When (multiple) subcontractors are coming to you for payment after you’ve already paid the contractor…be afraid.
3. Never hire a contractor named Doug. It sounds like a nice enough name, but it’s not. I looked it up. Seriously. It means “dwells by the dark stream.” That’s so very accurate for the Doug we had to work with.
4. Never hire Basement Pro. Never.

You do those things, and surely, you’ll have a better experience than we did. The workmanship was just fine and dandy; but EVERYTHING ELSE was an absolute mess! We are just so HAPPY and RELIEVED that we actually got our basement as promised. Ugh!

But on a brighter note, we have since enjoyed every minute of playing with friends and family in our extra space.  What a WONDERFUL thing to have!

General Conference

I tried something new with General Conference. Not an Ashley original idea; just one from Pinterest. I made activity bags with speakers’ faces on them. When it was each speaker’s turn, the kids got to open that bag.

There were activities like a temple lacing card, paint by number, Don’t Eat Pete, Make-it Bake-it’s, Bingo, etc…and most I printed right off of Pinterest. The kids had a BALL! They were bummed when each session got over and couldn’t wait for the next one to start. Kate even commented that she wished we’d do this every General Conference.

 

Truth be told, I heard VERY LITTLE of Conference. Like VERY LITTLE. But I had to assume this was a better way to do it. Dave and I always relisten and reread the talks most mornings so I’ll get to hear the talks again. I just figured if I can make it more enjoyable and memborable for this kids, than it is all worth it. We’ll likely do this again.

Chalk the Block

 

We went to Chalk the Block. While impressed, I was mostly just disgusted. I mean…how many hours must those artists must put into their pieces?! Why they would spend an entire weekend doing that is beyond me. Ugh! Looks like ZERO fun! But bless them anyway. It’s nice to have activities in Utah.

Our kids were thrilled to receive their own complimentary box of sidewalk chalk. We gave them a few minutes to express themselves. You can see Kate wrote her name quite creatively with some sparkles (she actually had to keep moving and starting over because Cole kept taking over her working space). And Cole…he drew lasers! Darling little people!!!

Wicked

Dave and I have seen Wicked a couple of times, but last year when it came to SLC, we were so sad we didn’t take my mom. She’s been dying to see it forever now! When we found out Wicked was returning, we bought tickets a year early so we could bring Grandma and Kate (who also has been dying to see it).

For a whole year, Sister fell asleep to the Wicked soundtrack, memorizing all the songs. As a side note…so weird to me! I would have considered it the world’s biggest torture to listen to musicals every night! Anyway…ALAS, August 23rd (which is Grandma’s birthday) finally came! Time to see the show!

We ate crepes at a café across the street right before the show, and munched on gummy bears, M&M’s, and Mentos throughout the show. It was a great little afternoon and so fun to watch it with my mom, Kel, and my favorite little Broadway girl.

Ball Hunts

Living on a golf course has at least one perk. When Kate’s off to school, Cole and I are hard up for entertainment. What do we do with our time? Go on golf ball hunts. It’s like an Easter egg hunt that I didn’t even have to hide the eggs for! Not only does it fill Cole’s need for fun and games, but it also gives us a nice excuse to go for a walk. We now have nearly two gallon-sized Ziploc bags full. Cole doesn’t know it, but the balls are going to be returned to the Club House in due time (as finding them outside is much for fun than finding them scattered all over the house).

Katezart

Big Sissy started piano lessons with Grandma. The age limit used to be 8, but Grandma kindly lowered it for our little person. Kate is a natural so far (nothing like her mother). Each Wednesday night, she has her lesson, passes off her songs, and chooses a prize for a job well done. Coincidentally, Cole also chooses a prize; not for a job well done, but for being a good (spoiled) grandson. 

Wanna know what prize they choose (assuming it’s in stock)? Silly String.

I actually like this prize because it’s like the fun never ends. They have themselves a good battle (just had their 3rd battle), which usually only last a couple minutes. But then comes the cleanup…which is more like an hour or longer. Needless to say, it’s a nice time-filling activity for everyone