Fire Station Tour

At the beginning of October the Daisy troop went and toured our local fire station. October is National Fire Safety Month so this fit in perfect. The girls got to ask the firefighters questions and they showed them around the station.

We then went out to the garage and the firefighters showed the girls all the gear that they wear into a fire situation and they showed them the fire truck. The girls seemed to really enjoy it.

With about 10 minutes left in our tour they received a call that they had to go out on. What a perfect way to end the tour! The girls got to see them get all the gear on and leave on the trucks, sirens and all.

Husker Tour

The boys got an invitation to tour the stadium since they played YMCA football. The kids were all very excited about seeing where the football players practiced and played. They listened intently as the tour guide told us stories of the coaches and players. The boys were in awe every time they saw the atheletes working out or just lounging in the building. They were hoping to see someone "famous".

They got to run around on the field, which they thought was pretty cool!

Abby was amazed at how big the letters look on the field and how little they look on TV.

Emerson did pretty well during the tour. She started to get hungry about halfway through and I contemplated going out to the car to feed her but I thought what the heck and just found a bench on the field and fed her there. Not many babies can say they got to eat on the Husker field. Ha, I guess with my 4th I am more brave where I feed her. I figure as long as we cover up it's not a problem. I asked Robb after we left if that embarrassed him and he didn't even realize I was feeding her. I guess were pretty inconspicuous.

Hanging out in the Husker lounge

Such good big brothers.

Daycare Pumpkin Patch Trip

Emerson went to the pumpkin patch for daycare. I was a little bummed that I didn't get to go along with her but Andrea took some pictures for me. She said that Emmy seemed to really enjoy being outside and watching all the kids play. Andrea had been an amazing daycare provider and we couldn't be happier. I am so glad that we were able to find a daycare provider that we trust!

Exploring the hay

 

Andrea, Emerson and Bo on the jumping pillows

I love this picture of Emmy and Bo. They are quite the pair!

Southwood Serves

Every year for the last 5 years our family has participated in the Southwood Serves service project. We have always really enjoyed doing this and like that it teaches the kids be willing to help out in the community. This year we chose to help out at Camp Sonshine the camp that the boys went to this summer. We helped them pick pumpkins which is a missons fund raiser for them, helped them pull weeds, take down tepee and do a few other winterizing projects.

It was pretty chilly but I bundled Emerson up and put her in the carrier and I think she did okay.

The kids found a mouse nest while taking down the tepees. This kept them occupied for awhile.

Carving Pumpkins

The kids all picked massive pumpkins from Grandma Hansen this year so this meant that we had A LOT of pumpkin guts to clean out.

 

Thankfully the boys were old enough to do theirs pretty independently this year.

Robb helped them all pick a face off of the internet and then helped them to trace it onto the pumpkin. They all did most of the carving themselves and we didn't lose any fingers although it was close.

Emerson even joined in on the fun. Why not sit in the pumpkin?

Can you tell she is our 4th child. I got the camera out and snapped a picture of her eating pumpkin guts before I bothered to take it away from her.

What a cute group!

They did a great job carving. They were pretty proud of themselves.

Bryce had a scary face one.

Caleb's was eating a smaller pumpkin.

Abby's had a surprised face.

Emmy's had one little tooth just like her.

 

Vala's Pumpkin Patch

This year Steph and Draven invited us to go to Vala's Pumpkin Patch. We have until this point successfully avoided this tourist trap but I was excited to spend some time with my sis and nephew. Robb agreed to go purely because taking 4 kids alone isn't really an option. The October weather has been great this year so we went on a weekend that was gorgeous. The beautiful weather made the crazy busy crowd even worse though. We waited about 50 cars deep to just get into the Pumpkin Patch.

The girls

Aunt Steph and Emerson

There were a lot of fun things to do but unfortunately they all had really long lines. We did ride the big go karts, jumped on the jumping pillows, went through the Haunted houses, did the corn maze, watched the pumpkin cannon and played on the playground and fed the goats.

 

Abby had to get her picture with the witch handing out spider rings.

 

This is the best and only picture I got of all the kids.

Bryce and Caleb had the most fun doing the strong man competitions.

Robb and Emerson snuck off to the pie barn to eat pie without us. Emmy was starving and tired of being in the stroller so Robb offered to take her and find a place to sit down. Hmmmm 30 min later we found them in the pie barn!

 

The day was fun but I was tired of fighting the crowds with a stroller and 4 kids all day. Not to mention we spent a small to medium fortune feeding our family and doing activities there. I think we are more of a small pumpkin patch family and although it was fun this once I don't think we plan to go back.

Halloween (October 31)

The kids were incredibly excited for Halloween this year. I felt a little guilty because we only dressed up once and did the trick or treating thing once as opposed to some years where we do multiple Halloween activities. A baby kinda puts a damper on things especially as the weather get chillier. This year the boys decided they were too old to dress as a character and so they opted for scary. I will admit, I felt like this was quite the milestone and not really one I was ready for. I miss the cute character costumes of the past. Robb helped them each pick out a mask and weapons and then we made the remainder of the costume out of things we had a home.

Caleb's scary costume.

 

Brothers with big weapons

 

Bryce and his scary costume.

Luckily Abby hasn't outgrown the cutsie costume stage yet. She wanted to be Anna from the Frozen movie so grandma Susie made her this adorable costume. When I originally asked Abby what she wanted to dress up as she had said she wanted to be Anna and she wanted Emmy to be Elsa the other princess. After thinking about it for a couple minutes she asked if Emmy could be Olaf from the movie (the snowman) her reasoning was because Emmy had a body that looked more like a snowman. Ha so true. I agreed with Abby that Emerson would make an adorable snowman so that is what we decided.

Abby in her beautiful Anna costume

Abby was right, Emerson made an adorable little snowman. Thanks to Grandma Susie and her sewing skills we were able to have a snowman costume for Halloween.

Emerson as a little Olaf

These 2 crack me up. Emerson looks so big here. The weather had been nice all week until the night of trick or treating and then it was freezing and windy. Everyone had on multiple multiple layers for trick or treating. It worked to our advantage that the more layers we added to the snowman the rounder she got. Bryce, Caleb, Robb and 3 of their friends trick or treated the entire neighborhood for more than an hour. Abby, Emerson and I made it for about 3 blocks and then we got too cold. Abby was just as excited about handing out candy as she was about trick or treating so that worked out well. The boys did a haunted house again this year but I didn't get any pictures. They did a good job. They made it in the garage and had strobe lights, skeleton heads sitting out and a spider that dropped on your head.