BooZoo 2015

Last Sunday we attended BooZoo at the Como Zoo. This is our third year attending (2014, 2013) and it's a fun way to spend another night in our costumes. You know me, I love going all out so when Isaac said he wanted to be a lion for Halloween I had to figure out how I could tie that into a family theme. My mom and I (mainly my mom) made a tornado costume back in 2006 when I was doing my internship in Kansas City. The hospital floor I was working at did a Wizard of Oz theme and with most of the costumes being spoken for I decided to be the tornado. So with that in mind I knew we could make this family theme work! When we were home in September I got the tornado costume from my mom and shopped/ordered the rest of the costumes online. I actually found Mary's scarecrow costume on craigslist, same with Isaac's. It's hard to find a small boy's size costume in the animals. That size starts to be all monsters, ninjas, and bad guys. I ordered Emma's tinman costume online and of course it was too big, luckily I was able to exchange it and it arrived just in time before the weekend. I finally was able to find a non-sexy Dorothy costume at a local Halloween store, but ended up returning it after trying it on at home and could barely fit my head through the neck hole. Was able to find same costume a little bigger at a different store for $10 cheaper! So after a few weeks of costume shuffle we finally had our ensemble! Oh I did alter Isaac's costume a bit, it was simba from the lion king but we wanted it to have a mane so I got some dark brown fabric and added that to the headpiece making it what you see here.

And since we were Wizard of Oz we had to fill Isaac in on the whole story. Instead of having him watch the movie, which could be a little scary I found a great book online and ordered it. It's a condensed version of the story with pictures from the movie. It was perfect and a few nights I was able to pull up video clips on YouTube and we'd watch the clips along with reading the story, so he could hear the songs. I think he'd be ready to watch the movie now that he knows what to expect. He actually likes the part with the wicked witch. His favorite part is the guy at the door of the emerald city.


And for an added finishing touch Isaac and I painted some cardboard to turn our wagon into a yellow brick road. We were the talk of the night at BooZoo and had our picture taken by strangers a number of times :-P

We arrived just about when the gates opened at 4:30 and changed into our costumes by the van. I was hoping to get a photo of all three kids but that is pretty much impossible these days so single photos have to do.


 

No idea what Isaac is doing here...




We had to wait in the long line again. Luckily unlike last year when we went on a Saturday night, the line wasn't quite as long. But the girls were not digging sitting in the wagon in the line.




Once we got moving and they got to munch on goodies from their basket they were good.




Attempt at all three again... you see how this ends up




Isaac checking out the fire truck and a glimpse at the man in the yellow hat. When we pulled up Kyle remarked "I don't see any other adults in costume" I pointed out one and he said "I think that's a volunteer" lol. Adult participation was a little lacking, but Isaac enjoyed the man in the yellow hat and his son in his arms as Curious George.


Munchin carrots




Appropriate:




Moving onto the apple:


Emma kept handing it to me saying "UH!" (because that it their thing now, grunts and screeches to communicate) I kept telling her to take a bite then she hand it back with a screech saying "CUT IT UP FOR ME!" finally I took a bite and told her "See just eat it" that made sense to her and the rest is history. She ended up eating the ENTIRE thing minus two seeds I was able to pluck off her chin.




Stopping for a quick treat break








Follow the Yellow Brick Road

First Night of Soccer

We signed up Isaac for fall Soccer but wanted to wait til after our travels so we wouldn't miss any nights. That meant a start date of October 15th... it's a six week long program so not sure how warm the last few weeks are going to be. Luckily the weather has been BEAUTIFUL lately so hopefully it will stay nice. It was a little chilly for his first night but that didn't slow him down.




This program is through the city of Minneapolis and does require some parent participation. So Kyle worked with him while I chased the girls around.








Luckily there is a park nearby so we spend the second half over there.




Kyle and I know nothing about soccer, so hopefully can learn some through this. Isaac jumped right in like he knew was he was doing dribbling the ball down the small field. They ended with a quick game of scrimmage, but only had six kiddos so a small game. I think there are more kids that weren't there. One ended up leaving crying, so hopefully he is back this week and happier.

Wild River State Park

Sunday afternoon we took advantage of the 80 degree day and drove a little outside of the cities for a state park hike. We had planned to pick up lunch and eat at the park, but I waited to long and there was really nothing around the park except two biker bars, so we stopped at the one that had more windows and had a quick lunch of chicken sandwiches and burgers. It was good and a fun experience for the kids. They had an appetizer of cherries, pickles, and saltines. Once we were no longer starving we made it over to the state park. The ladybugs were INSANE! Turns out they were actually asian lady beetles because they were biting... luckily they weren't bad on our hike, but back at the picnic area they were horrible. So in the end it worked out we didn't bring along food to eat at the park.

We made it down the big hill, just in time for Mary to take a big poop. Emma wanted nothing to do with walking so Kyle wore her the whole time. He was a gentle man and hoofed back up the hill to grab some diapers from the van while we stayed below and Isaac and Mary explored.


It was a gorgeous day with amazing colors!

We got Mary all cleaned up and went back down the second half of the hill while Kyle ran BACK up to throw the dirty diaper away. We made the quick .2 jaunt to the look out, but not before hearing about Isaac dying of thirst. Unfortunately we didn't bring the water and we weren't turning back for it so he just had to wait.


Ironically the benediction at church mentioned having a week filled with an abundance of God's grace, and for us it was starting early. The hiking club password happened to be at that lookout spot making us very lucky not having to take the longer hiking club trail to find it.  So instead of turning down where we thought we'd have to go to locate the password we were able to turn north and take a shorter route back to the parking lot. This was also encouraging to Isaac as he was SOOO parched and his legs were starting to hurt. Oh and at this point Kyle and I were both carrying the girls, Mary enjoyed walking but we actually wanted to walk so I wore her on my back.




Emma was so close to sleeping the entire time, but never quite got there.


Once we made it back to the van we grabbed everyone's water bottles and a snack and sat on the picnic tables for a snack as the lady beetles snacked on us.


I wanted to get a photo of all three of them, but Emma had no part in that


This is Mary's fake cry face:


All in all it was a great day and felt so good to be outdoors and hiking again. Kyle and I miss camping and all the time we used to spend outdoors. It's a little different now and we have to have little commentary to go along with it, but we plan to get back into camping next year when the girls will be a little easier to manage.

Minnetonka Orchards 2015 Visit

This is becoming an annual visit, making this year our third trip with ECFE friends. It's so fun to see these little boys grow up together. Here are the last two year posts: 2014 and 2013.



The girls enjoyed climbing and exploring.



Mary doing some PiYo, haha.








Emma knows how to ham it up for the camera


Annual boy photo


Had to get the littles this time






The girls liked sitting on the pumpkins








and we had to get them on the same bench as last year



attempt at everyone: