Cole's Birthday Party

We had Cole's birthday party on our normal Wacky Wednesday.  He wanted a train party again this year!Lots of friends came and Nana and Boston came too.  Cole was cute and took good care of Boston.  

I made trains out of egg cartons and the kids were able to fill up their trains with "cargo".  

 I showed them how to puff their trains along the track and load the cargo.

 Funny...we had a lot of hotdogs left at the end of the party, but the MnMs were gone.

 After they filled their trains, all of the kids went outside to eat.

Well, every kid except Cole.  He stayed in and ate with the adults.  

 He also asked that we didn't sing Happy Birthday to him.  He really doesn't enjoy all the traditional birthday nonsense.  Luckily this group of friends understand Cole and just go along with it.  So we counted to 4 and he blew out his candle.  Brewer was really excited and yelled, "Cole, you're 4!"  Cole got irritated and yelled back, "No Brewer, I'm still 3!"  I said, "Well Cole, we're celebrating your 4th birthday today."  Cole looked at Brewer and said, "See Brewer, I told you."  Brewer just looked confused and couldn't figure out why Cole was yelling at him.

Cole later blamed me and said I should have got him a number 3 candle for the cake so Brewer would know he's not 4 yet.

 After the cake we played some games and read a story.

We were really lucky to have such a beautiful day this late in November.  

 Cole got lots of awesome presents.  He loved all of them.

 It was such a great day.  I am very thankful for the amazing women I have met and grown close to here in Owasso.  I love it that Cole has some buddies his age here too.

 When Zoe got home from school she asked Cole all about his day.  She immediately asked what she could do to help me clean up.  She even folded some laundry that I didn't have time to do.  Then she played every new thing Cole got with him.  She stayed in his room for hours, just going through all of his stuff and helping him with it.  I love her heart.  Plus, I was exhausted so I was thankful for her help!

Zoe's Meal

 Zoe made dinner last week.   I talked her through it, but she made it all by herself.  Pig in the blankets, homemade macaroni and cheese, and green beans.

Of course she added her own organizational skills to the meal.

It was really delicious.  

She's growing up.  I'm really proud of the young lady she is becoming!

Thanksgiving With Friends

We decided last minute to have a Thanksgiving party on Wednesday.  On Tuesday, Cole said, "We need to make the turkey for our friends."  Sounded like we were having a real feast.

  

 This is the turkey he made. Zoe helped a lot!

Hadley loosened up a lot and played.  She mostly loved the babies.  

   We told a shortened version of the story of the first Thanksgiving.   Some of our friends were Pilgrims and some were Indians.

The boys who were in preschool knew quite a bit about it.

When I asked who helped the Pilgrims, Connor answered, "God!"  I grinned and said, "Yes, who else helped them?"Grayson yelled, "And Jesus!"

We thanked God for our food and ate together.

We also sang and strutted like a turkey.

Lindsay brought a craft.

Cole just wanted to play so he said, "Mom, you do mine."   

It was a fun day with friends.  I am very thankful for this group!

Halloween

Wednesday morning we dressed up in our costumes and went to visit our older friends at the Sterling House.Michelle didn't think Hadley's Zombie costume was appropriate so I went through Zoe's old recital outfits and found this bumblebee costume.  I loved dressing her up and she looked too stinkin' cute!  Even Brewer looked at her and said, "My mom will think Hadley is E-dorable!"

All of the kids (except Grayson) are a little standoffish when we first get there.  

Some of the residents were wearing costumes.

I'm not sure the kids knew what to think about that.

We had a great turn out of kids there and we went around trick-or-treating to the residents' rooms.

The kids had a blast and the residents seemed to love it too!

Brewer didn't ask any questions about the smells this time.  He was distracted by the candy.

Of course everyone loved Hadley.

It was so much fun and the kids left with lots of great treats!

So as if all the candy they got at the nursing home wasn't enough...Lindsay and I took these three to Cherry Berry!

I took Hads home for her nap and Bud changed Brewer because he thought he would spill ice cream all down the front of himself.  Bud was right.  Brew left with ice cream down the front of him.

Later that afternoon, the Zombies came out!  

 Scary huh?
 The Hodges went trick or treating in neighborhood.  
 We got dressed and went to a party at Zoe's friend, Riley's house.  That's not her actual house in the background!  

Cole was really impressed with their home.  It was very beautiful!  Cole partied pretty hard.  This is what his costume looked like half way through the night.

We went trick or treating around Riley's neighborhood.  Cole fell asleep on Brad while we were walking from house to house and Zoe ditched us for her friends, but it was still a great night of fun!