Finnbar's 4th Birthday

 Our fantastic Finnbar is 4-years-old!  What an amazing age this is - so full of curiousity and exploration and laughter and fun!  We had a very fun celebration with family and friends.

Finn requested a strawberry cake:

 Josette was a huge fan:

 Finn had a lot of fun opening presents and genuinely loved and appreciated each gift:

 And, it seems that every family gathering these days must include a good game of soccer.  Finn received some goal posts and everyone dug in for some serious competition:

Finn decides to implement some tackling:

Halloween

We did a little pumpkin carving and some neighborhood trick-or-treating on Halloween too:

Happy Birthday, Lily

Our sweet Lily dog turned 7 on October 30th.  She is such a wonderful dog and the kids love her so much.  She is always in the middle of it all and is so amazingly patient.  Sure, she has her naughty, stomach-driven, labrador moments, but what would we do without those stories?  Happy Birthday, sweet Lily!

Here she is in the midst of some heavy reading by the kiddos:

Trunk or Treating

I am sorry for the lull in posting lately.  I have been just about as sick as I have ever been for the past few weeks.  I have lots of posts on the back burner and will try to catch up slowly as I have time and hopefully begin to heal.  

First, is the town's annual trunk-or-treating gathering.  Finn was certain he wanted to be a knight this year.  He also wanted Josette to be a dragon and Sean to be a knight with him.  He told me that I should be a horse.  We found some fabulous do-it-yourself knight instructions and we had the dragon costume kicking around.  Unfortunately, due to the sickness, I just couldn't pull off the horse.  I convinced Finn that I would put on a tiara and be a princess to complete the theme.  So, here is the knightly crew with the captured dragon:

 Uh oh, she has escaped (she really would have run happily all over the place if left to her own devices):

 The family:

 I am hanging in there by a thread:

 Battle!:

 Sean and Finn had fun forging the swords and shield together:

A Blue Egg!

Since I posted about our first egg, we have consistently been getting one egg a day for two days in a row and then one rest day then another two days of eggs and so on.  They have been all the same color and it was obvious that just one hen had started laying.  After laying the first two on the ground, she figured out to use a nesting box and has always used the 4th nesting box.  So, today Finn and I went in to check for our daily egg and were surprised to find these two beauties in the 4th nesting box!  Another hen has joined in the egg laying and this one is blue (or greenish blue - the picture makes it look really green).  It is very exciting.  Finn has been telling everyone who will listen that we got one pink egg and one blue!

Adventure Running

A lot of folks have been asking about our recent race, so I thought I would blog about it.  I forgot to blog about my last mud run held in July.  For those who don't know, a whole bunch of races have cropped up under the adventure running category where not only do you have to run, but you have to navigate obstacles along the course.  I did my first one in July and it was just a blast.  So, we all signed up for another one this past weekend called the Adventure 5k.  It was held on the property of a water park very near our town.  This one was a lot of fun and a bit more challenging than the one I did in July.  It was wicked cold too which made it really challenging.  Nothing like jumping into a lake in mid October and then having to climb up walls and cargo nets in the woods.  Yep, we paid for this fun :)  Seriously, I am addicted to these runs now.  I am hoping to up my training to increase my upper body strength though.

Here is the group at the beginning:

 Going up to the start line:

 Here is Sean right at the end.  This was one of the worst obstacles, right at the end, you had to jump into a dumpster of water and go underneath several boards across the top.  It was extra cold, but as you can see Sean flew right out of there.  In fact, he placed 21st overall and 8th in his age group!  I think I placed around 75th :)

 This obstacle was called "eat dirt" where you had to army crawl under the ropes for awhile:

 Up and over the small wall:

 Monkey bars right at the end.  My hands were ice at this point:

 And a race to the finish:

 A few of us who finished together at the end.  We were soaked and freezing, but happy to be done.

Have I convinced you to join us on the next one?

Shaving Cream Art

Put shaving cream all over a pan and add food coloring, mix with a stick, but make sure there is plenty of variety in the color pattern:

 If mixing with stick is not messy enough, squish through your hands:

 Press white construction paper into the shaving cream/color mixture and/or wipe shaving cream all over your face and head:

 If you need to, fully immerse yourself into the project:

 Let the paper hang dry and then cut into pumpkins, or whatever seasonal shape you wish, and add stems or other decorations:

 String up for a lovely decorative banner:

Note:  for any shaving cream art projects, I found a lemon scented shaving cream that is quite nice.  It beats having your 17 month old daughter reeking of manly musk scent when she insists on putting shaving cream all through her hair.