Storyland 2014

Well I am in full Thanksgiving prep and, if I'm being honest, already thinking a lot about Christmas (decorations, gifts, etc.). This morning we woke up to our first snow on the ground. The boys were really excited to play in it. Dylan wanted to as soon as he got home from school. Cade kept saying "snowman, snowman!" It was unfortunate that we had to explain to them that 1) there was not enough snow on the ground to make a snowman and 2) it will have melted by the time you get home from school. However, I also got to tell Dylan about growing up with Texas and having really infrequent snow and how it's not the same here - we will mostly definitely be getting snow again soon so he won't have to wait long to play in it more.

Anyway, that was my long way of saying fall is on it's way out and winter is on it's way in. I love fall so much and it's the perfect season to hike and play outdoors in NH. So, to commemorate the end of the season, I thought I'd recap one of the best weekends we spent in it.

Mid October, we headed up to our place in NH Friday night. Bright and early Saturday morning, we headed even further north to Storyland. We've been there a couple of times with Dylan and once when Cade was about 6 months old. It's an amusement park for younger kids. And we were there for it's last weekend of the season.

Waking up to this view never gets old.

On our last visits, we've started going through the park counter clockwise. We mixed things up this time and started clockwise. It was a fun thing we did too because we started in an area of the park we'd actually never gotten to. The kids were always tuckered out by that point. We started in Storybook village where it's basically like a big playground based on kids stories. The kids loved it and we spent quite a bit of time there.

The Talking Treehouse

Mary Had a Little Lamb Schoolhouse (complete with lambs in a pen outside)

Little Miss Muffet's Tuffet and Spider

Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater's House

Dylan was getting creative with his poses.

Eating Blackbird Pie

One, Two, Buckle My Shoe

Little Sambo

We finally had to encourage them out of the area so we would hit a few rides before lunch. First up, we went on a leisurely pirate cruise (which Dylan claimed was his favorite ride of the day). And so much for rides, it was back to the playground at pirate's cove.

Pirate Ship Selfie

Fire the Cannons!

And then back to more rides. We walked up to the princess castle but the princess wasn't there. So I took a turn on her throne. Then we road back down the hill in the pumpkin (complete with floating horses).

That was all we had time for before our stomachs started growling and we grabbed some lunch.

Lovely View of the Foliage

What's better after a meal than a roller coaster and a spinning ride? Pretty much nothing! Dylan opted out of the roller coaster so Cade and I went on it together. Whether he liked it or not is up for debate. Then we went on the Clockenspeil which is a spinning ride through a cuckoo clock. Pretty cool concept. Only problem, I just don't enjoy spinning like I used to. I think one or both of my pregnancies screwed that up for me. Mike didn't get to spin the boys nearly as much as he would have liked to.

This water ride was closed but Dylan got a big kick out of exploring all the "ancient Egyptian treasures."
He said he was "opening the tomb" here.

We pushed through Cade's nap time and he wasn't happy with us about it some moments. He kept saying he didn't want to ride the rides but I got proof that he actually enjoyed some of them.

Smiles on the Balloon Ferris Wheel

Whale of a Good Time

By far the most fun the boys had during the tired afternoon was in the Loopy Lab and the Submarine. The Loopy Lab is essentially a big foam ball pit dome with all kind of suction and shooting based toys. Cade and I stayed on the ground level for the most part. Cade was enamored with the ball vaccuum. Put a ball in front of it and it sucked it right up. But he would only use blue balls. He would spend a lot of time hunting around and collecting the "right" color to use. I think he could have stayed there for hours...he absolutely loved it. Dylan and Mike headed up to the second level where they found a ball gun and tried shooting at Cade and I. Then we had a good old fashion whole family ball battle where we all tried to pummel each other. Good fun.

Even though it was a cool day, the Submarine play ground was still shooting out water. We were able to avoid the water for the most part. The boys had a great time exploring.

Diver Dylan

Cade could not get enough of the submarine. He ran laps back and forth in that thing and kept yelling "fire the cannon" over and over.

Cade the Diver

As we were wrapping up our play here, I heard someone call my name. I looked up and saw one of my coworkers and his family (small world). We hung out with them for a bit and all rode a ride together. At that point, our kids were exhausted and the park was close to closing. So we headed home for dinner and an early bed time for all. But, on the way home, we did stop to take some pictures of a beautiful place that's close to our hearts - the Mount Washington Hotel. It's where Mike proposed to me almost 9 years ago.

That red roof against Mount Washington is always a stunning sight.

How We Did Halloween

It's been a week since the big night and we still are drowning in candy as I'm sure many households around the nation are. Don't worry, though, the boys are slowly making their way through as they are bribed to eat their healthy dinners first.

Halloween's a big holiday for us. Dylan, of course, loves all things spooky. So as soon as the calendar hit October, the bins of decorations came out. It started out with gel clings on the playroom window. A week later, the inflatable pumpkins and vampire Mickey went up in the dining room (just for our viewing pleasure). Then we went outside with gravestones, eyeball ornaments for the tree, skeletons by the door and blood gel clings for those that entered. The inflatables also went outside. We were all set to go!

Our first of several celebratory events was our 2nd time to a friend's big Halloween party. We all got dressed up for the event and headed over. When we got there, there were all the signs of a big party but no people. We wandered around the back to see if everyone was in the house for the magician that was supposed to be performing around that time. Nope, no one. So, we made a phone call and found out the party had been postponed to the next day due to the off and on rain that day. And the notification of that had somehow gone to my work email address which I of course wasn't checking on Saturday. I was pretty bummed to miss the rare occasion that I get to socialize with my neighborhood friends. The boys were fine though...they got to wear their costumes for the remainder of the day which was all they needed. Since we already had a family commitment on Sunday, we didn't make the rain date party. Hopefully next year! In any case, we were all dressed up so we took advantage of the occasion and did a family Halloween photo:

Emmet, Lucy\Wyld Style (of the Lego movie)
Captain Jack Sparrow and Bumblebee (transformer)

The excitement ramped up the week of Halloween with a parade at school for each of the boys (on different days of course), trick or treating in a nearby town the day before the holiday and, of course, trick or treating in our neighborhood on Friday, October 31st.

The boys also got fun spooky treats from Mimaw and Pipaw in the mail - glow in the dark creepy crawlies. And this is how they modeled them for a photo op:

Funny Boys!

First parade was Cade's. Dylan, Mike and I all went to watch. We also signed up to bring a treat to the post parade party for the kids. I got to take advantage of an adorable\easy pinterest find:

Monster Donuts!

This being Cade's 2nd day of school, he didn't have much practice under his belt for the "show" so he really just looked like he had no idea what was going on. But he was cute, happy to see us there for him and held tight to his parade buddy's hand as instructed. Good job, Cade.....er, I mean Captain Jack.

Captain Jack Sparrow and Spider Buddy

No Clue What's Going On
Aren't all those kids just adorable?!?

The parade consisted of a loop around the school. No walking across streets or down the road for the little guys.

The school director\Dylan's teacher yelled to me as she passed that Dylan is her "rockstar" and is just doing wonderfully at everything. I have seen a tremendous difference in my big boy in the last couple of months and am in awe at the progress he's made drawing, coloring and writing his name. It's truly incredible. For his entire life, he's had zero interest in coloring and all of a sudden, it's all he wants to do!

Back to the pinterest line of thought, I was somewhat relieved (time wise) but also a little disappointed (didn't get to use creative process) that I didn't have to make costumes this year. However, my 1 contribution was Cade's wig. I made it with yarn, rubber bands and a bandanna. The look of it turned out even better than I had thought it would. And with his "test run" at the parade, I made a few extra stitches and it worked perfectly on Halloween night. 

The boys went without me trick or treating in Maynard on Thursday. Mike said it was kind of a crazy event with the sheer amount of turn out it had, but the boys enjoyed hanging with some of their buddies for the fun event.

In the forefront - Flower Caroline and Thomas Engineer Ethan

Then it was Dylan's turn for the parade. Again with his incredible growth, his "performances" at school have pretty much consisted of him standing, not participating and looking a little like a deer in headlights. But underneath that Bumblebee mask, I saw a jaw moving up and down singing along! His first time to actually perform and I couldn't even see it.

The bigger kids paraded down the block to the bank where they went in, sang to them and then marched back to the school. The parents lined the road to ensure safety.

Arrrghhh!
My cute parade watching buddy.

Friends Libby and Molly
They were with the gang trick or treating the day before as well but weren't around when the camera was out.

Dylan's Class
Dylan is behind the cute girl in pink, who is his best pal, Isabella.

On Halloween night, Isabella came over, with her Mom and new baby brother Alex, to trick or treat with us. Dylan asked if he could hold Alex (what a sweet boy):

The kids were so excited and fired up, we had a really hard time to get them to sit still for a second for pictures.

Cade's crazy "cheese" face and the direction he's facing make it look like he's about to go off on Mickey Vampire.

And this little group was SO cute together trick or treating. Their manic energy hardly faded for the hour and a half we were out. Dylan and Isabella did a very nice job taking turns ringing the door bells. And with some gentle reminders from us, they waited to do so until Cade caught up with them. They were just running from door to door and Cade's little legs did the best they could do to stay with the big kids.

It was a really, really fun night for all of us. And as soon as the next morning rolled around, we started taking down the decorations. A month of a house filled with spooky stuff it plenty. Thankfully, I got a good picture of my lovely decorated mantle before Mike put away the decor. Since getting the fireplace redone (still have that post to come), this was the first time I'd gotten it set up nicely.

Cute, right?
Hard to see in the picture, but the spider webs really made it.

And this silly guy made it challenging to get a picture.
He kept jumping in front of the camera. Silly skeleton!

Now it's on to Thanksgiving planning and decorating!