The Little Hickmans: October 2011

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

State Fair Time!

We hit the fair last Friday afternoon/ evening. It was awesome. Blake had taken Asher last year on the first Friday night of the fair and he said it was a great time to go. It really was! We got a babysitter for Judah and Maddox (thank you Kelsey!) and took the three big boys! It was SO nice not having a stroller!

This was at the end of the night at Village of Yesteryear with their new buddies

Pigging out... pretty much right when we got there... pizza for the boys and Blake and I both had a steak sandwich... after the roasted ear of corn for me :) We of course got a funnel cake later and Blake had to have his annual fried twinkie (gross!)

Blake trying to win an angry bird at the slingshot game

He was 0 for 3....

Caleb getting a pep talk before taking his turn at it...

He loved it... but didn't hit anything either....

The prize (that was not to be) Funny that Asher was the only one I didn't get a picture of playing this game and he actually HIT one.... of course you had to hit all three times to win an angry bird, but Ash was just as happy with his little dog that he won.

Okay these next few balloon pictures are somewhat of a progression... in this first one you can see how happy and excited all three boys were

Going around and up.....

And as the balloon went up.... Caleb went down.... he's a bit skittish on rides.... Blake and I were dying! Everytime they came around you would see Nate sitting up tall with a huge grin on his face, Asher with a look that said "What is he doing", and all you could see of Caleb was his little head barely peeking over the edge! When he got off the ride, he said, "Whew, I thought that only went around and around, I didn't know that it went up!" Hilarious!

I went on the teacups with A and C

Asher on the jump thingy

Trying so hard to flip (didn't happen...)

Nate getting ready to throw some darts at the balloon pop game

The Smurf that was won (well... paid for!)

The roller coaster that Nate and Caleb went on... in typical fashion as soon as it started moving, Nate's hands went up and Caleb ducked down :)

Art Masterpiece Catch Up

I'm a bit behind on posts from September :( Asher has been studying about the Renaissance and had his Renaissance Fair where the second graders showed off their own inventions, sculptures (made of play doh!) and paintings (there was a technical word for this, but I forgot what it was.)

Ash with his "invention"

It was a gun.... nice.

painting... forgot the specific kind

Sculpture masterpiece.... a snow fort with lots of snow people... LOVE the one with the hat and BIG ole eyes :)

And these sweet little creations were the work of Nate's 3 year old Sunday School teacher... Mr. Tom (Simmons). His wife and Nate's other teacher Mrs. Cynthia gave them to me at one of our leadership training nights and said that one Sunday when Blake had picked Nate up, he had forgotten to get them and that she couldn't bear for Nate not to get to take them home with him. She said he and Mr. Tom had just sat together for a long time while Mr. Tom would draw the animals and Nate would color them all in! Soooooo precious! Wish I could have got a picture of that! We miss Mr. Tom and Mrs. Cynthia!!

Weekend with Elliott

Nate's preschool class has a pet elephant named Elliott that they each get to take turns bringing home with them. He has his own notebook that the kids get to tell about their adventures with him and what they did while he was visiting at their house. Each child gets their own page(s) to decorate with pictures, drawings, etc. Last weekend was Nate's turn so we had Elliott visit us for the weekend. Caleb also got to bring Elliott home last year when he was in the same preschool class!

Nate hanging with Elliott

Caleb was home from school this particular day recovering from strep throat so Nate enjoyed some extra playtime with his buddy

LegoFest at our house!

Sweet Nate

Lego Fest 2011

With having five boys and our lives being pretty chaotic most of the time, Blake and I both try to do special things one on one with our boys from time to time. This time it was Caleb's turn to go somewhere special with one of us. We heard about the LegoFest coming to the convention center and knew that Bubbs would LOVE it (Asher has never really been into Legos too much) So we decided Blake would take C to the Saturday morning session and that way he could still be home in time for his college football watching in the afternoon!

That morning Caleb woke up not feeling great.... of course he already knew that it was the day to go to the LegoFest so he kept insisting that he was fine.... a quick feel of his forehead and we knew he was running a bit of a fever. But since he was acting okay and we really didn't want him to have to miss it, they ended up heading out around 8:30 that morning.

They had a blast even with C not feeling 100%... when he got home he was wiped, and pretty much died on the couch for the rest of the afternoon. His fever got pretty high that afternoon (he's always been our "fever" child) and he ended up going to the dr. the next morning and coming home diagnosed with strep throat. It was a looooong weekend with Blake and I not feeling well either.

His favorite part was building and playing with the new ninja 'Ninjago' guys... and he even got to bring one home!

Battling Ninjagos with daddy

Of course C won!

Making and racing Lego cars

What a special morning for C! And even a stop at Krispy Kreme on the way home.... a Hickman stop anytime we're downtown for anything!

Friday, October 7, 2011

Hillridge Farms with the Second Graders

Field trip #2 of this week was today with Asher's class to Hillridge Farms. It was AWESOME! I have always heard that place is really fun and have wanted to go every year around this time, but have just never taken the jaunt out there. It is WELL worth the trip! The kids had a blast. They are studying rocks/ minerals in Science so they came out to pan for gemstones. They loved it. They also enjoyed a hayride, tube slide, maze, corn pit, and lots more. They had several other really fun things that cost extra and they weren't able to do (big trampoline, pony rides, duck races, train.... I'm sure I'm forgetting some!) Everyone had a blast. It was also their first time to ride the new GRACE busses that the school got at the end of last year. It was fun to caravan up with some of my mom friends and not have a car full of crazy kiddos!! Of course we moms made our traditional Panera stop first thing in the morning before meeting everyone up at school to get ready to go!