Halloween Weekend.

We had a very fun weekend filled with lots of partys and dressing up.  On Thursday Alex had his preschool halloween party and enjoyed getting to wear his costume to school. 

Then on Friday Sarah's School had their Halloween parade and So we all went and enjoyed looking at all of the cute costumes. There were some very creative costumes.  Sarah's best friend was a librarian named "Mrs. Shush" and one of the teachers was also dressed as the Cat-in-the-hat. 

On Friday night we went to the Hansen's house and enjoyed a little Halloween party.  It was a so fun and the kids loved running around with their friends.  I loved being able to relax and visit with adults after having Dave gone all week.  It was a nice break.  Sarah had to dress as a soccer player because she had her first indoor soccer league game (More on that later).   Dave took Sarah and then they came back for the last of the party. (We didn't take any pictures at the party, but when we get copies I will post them.  There should be some good ones that you won't want to miss)

Then on Saturday Sarah had another party at her friend Kegans house and then finally a trunk-or-treat at the Church. 

Tonight we built a Haunted house and passed out candy to the trick-or-treaters.  It was a fun candy filled weekend.  We are all tired and the kids went quickly to bed.

Long Busy Week.

Dave has been gone this week  to San Jose, CA and I have been manning the ship on my own.  I never realized just how hard it is.  Dave does a lot to help with the kids.

The kids have been very helpful considering and we have been trying to do fun things each day.  I can honestly say that I have gotten lots of things done to keep busy while Dave has been gone.

I took these cute pictures of my Lily today and had to share them.  I just love her to bits.  She refused to take a nap today and played in her bed instead.  But she snuggled on my bed with me to make up for it afterward.  I sure love my kids.

Mankato Weekend.

We spent the weekend in Mankato, Mn.  It is just a couple hours west of us.  Dave ran the first ever Mankato Marathon.  He did really well, but didn't make his goal time of under 3 hours.  He did however beat his personal best by 2 minutes.  We think he did awesome.  He said it was a hard race and the hills were tough at the end.  When he compared his split times he could see that he had slowed down a lot at the end.  He "hit the wall" so to speak, but his slowest mile was still an 8 minute mile pace (his average pace was 7:01).  He got 15th overall out of 577 that ran the marathon and 5th in his age group of 30-39.

We had a really fun weekend.  It was just nice to be together and enjoy doing something as a family.

Here are some pictures and video of our weekend.

Alex's Many Creations

Alex loves it when I put pictures of his projects on our family blog.  He has been making creations just for this purpose.  Here are some of his cute creations and pictures. 

Painting.

Lily and Alex wanted to paint this morning.  It was Lily's first time actually painting and not just making a mess.  She did really good.  Alex is also starting to paint really good.  He is painting pictures and not just scribbles.  Lily was really happy when I took her picture.  I thought they were cute. Enjoy.

Alex's Paintings:

Family of Trees.

Bubble Hearts  (I painted two of the hearts)

Super Mario's Head Planet (From Super Mario Galaxy 2 on the Wii as shown)

IBM 5k

IBM has an annual 5k for Charity around the IBM campus.  We missed his last race in the cities, so we made sure to be there for this one.

Here are some pictures of Dave running in it.  We all could have run in it, and might next year, but Sarah had Soccer right after.  Next year we will plan better and all participate.  It was a beautiful afternoon.
 We are trying to enjoy every minute of the nice fall weather.

They made the race so that you ran against your own predicted time.  Dave beat his predicted time by 2 minutes (which isn't good because you want to be the closest to your predicted time). He did finish before all of the other racers by about 1 minute though.  :) 

We think he is pretty awesome.

 Before the race.

 Last time we saw him with all of the other runners.

 Solitary Man.

Finishing it up.

Conference Weekend News

We had a fun weekend.  Our biggest news is that Sarah and Alex finished their star charts they have been working on for 2 months.  They both earned a new toy.  Alex was working towards a big boy bike and Sarah was working towards Super Mario Galaxy 2 for the Wii.  Both have worked very hard and got to go get their rewards on Saturday.

Sarah with her new game.

Alex was in need of a new bike. Here he is on his final voyage on the trike.  Lily is now the proud owner of the trike (A.K.A. Bikey Bikey).

And here is a video of his maiden voyage. (Sarah is the one closest to the camera. Alex is the spot in the background)

Here is Alex on his new bike.  (*Notice Lily running around in a construction hat)

*

Dave also took this picture of his bread he made.  He has been working on creating the perfect loaf.... I think he has mastered it.