A Visit from the Parker's

Aunt Anna and Uncle (!) Robert came down to Boise last weekend to get Anna a new car, return wedding gifts and spend their gift cards.  Isla and Drew were so happy to see them and get their undivided attention.

We said good-bye to Anna's old jeep:

  And hello to her new car:

Anna even remembered good ol' Hank and brought him a toy:

He was in seventh heaven!  While Anna and Robert were running their many errands and Ryan was at the BSU football game, I got to spend time with these two crazy kids:

Aren't they the cutest?  Drew was hamming it up all weekend.  If he wasn't spinning in circles to make himself fall over he was running around the house and doing stuff like this:

I guess he was just really excited to see his Aunt Anna and Uncle Robert.

Pile of Leaves

Isla came home last week in a bad mood.  Not sure what the problem was, but all we had to do to get her out of her funk was rake up a big pile of leaves and let her and Drew jump/walk/fall into them:

 I think they could have done this all night!  Another reason to love the fall season in Idaho.

Fall Festivities

We have had an easy going October so far - thank goodness!  My favorite time of year is upon us and we celebrated by taking the kids to the fall festival at the Idaho Botanical Gardens:

This may be my new favorite festival for the kids, mostly due to the fact that they have beer and wine for the adults.

Ryan and I made it to a Bronco football game (another fall favorite of mine!) this past weekend.  It was a beautiful day for football:

 While we were at the game, the kids hung out with Grandma Connie:

Thanks Grandma for watching the kids so we could go to the game!

Swiper the Horse

So my husband likes to think he is younger than he is and play flag football with the 20-year olds.  Well, actually his whole team is like that considering they are the oldest team in the league.  But I've got to hand it to them, they seem to win the league each year - how does that saying go again "Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill every time"?  Anyways, back to my post (I promise flag football has something to do with it).  Last week I took the kids to one of Ryan's flag football games and the field he played at has a horse corral (only in Idaho).  I have been to many games at this field before, but this was the first time I actually saw a horse, make that two, using the corral.

My kids reaction to the horses are so telling - Isla stayed glued to our blanket by the football field while Drew took off running after them.  Thankfully one of the riders was nice and let some of the kids ride on her horse.  Isla watched the whole spectacle from her security blanket while Drew actually let me put him on the horse.  He giggled the entire ride!  I love this little guy and his no-fear attitude:

On another note, Drew kept calling the horse Swiper (the fox from Dora the Explorer).  I have no idea why.  I kept telling him "no, Drew, that's a horse" to which he would reply an enthusiastic "neigh!".  So I think he knew it was a horse? Anyways, I gave in and we called him Swiper.

After the horse left, Isla magically became unglued from her blanket and went back to playing with her brother:

I know her cautious personality will be something I appreciate in the future!

Isla's 4th Birthday Party

Isla got to have all of her friends from school over for a birthday party a couple of weekends ago.  Since we don't have that big of a yard we borrowed a small bounce house from the Kearney's and hoped that would entertain seven four year-olds for two hours!

Isla waiting patiently for her guests to show up:

 The party in full swing:

 Isla opening her gifts with her friends:

 Getting ready for cupcakes:

 Of course Isla shied away when we began singing "Happy Birthday" (but Hank was right there to eat her cupcake should she not be able to):

 Blowing out her candle in front of her friends (Hank was really disappointed that he didn't have to step in):

After some more bouncing the kids entered a sugar coma on the couch:

Although it was chaos for two hours, our kids went to bed with no fuss that night and slept in the next morning.  So worth it!  And of course it was worth it for our Isla Bean!