Fall 2011 (Part 1)

Seth's birthday has seemed to coincide with the first football game of BYU's season.  We decided to have his party around lunchtime because the game started at 4:00.  That explains the fact that we were all dressed in our blue and white.




This year's birthday theme was Bugs.  When the kids arrived they decorated little bug boxes to catch and store insects in. Here is the big 3 year old christening our pin the oreo on the ladybug. 
It worked great until they got snackish and started eating the oreos off the bug.

One of the games we played was a race balancing bugs in a little plastic bug catcher spoon.   As they finished they got some bubbles as a prize.

  In this picture Logan is in the lead but in a stunning come back it was Emma Ray (the girl in last place) who won.  The boys thought they had finished when they reached the end of the concrete but they had forgotten they had to make the return trip to finish.  Slow and steady wins the race.

 After the little kids raced the bigger kids got a turn to race. 
















 We had the party at the park behind our house and it was a beautiful day.

Here's the cute birthday boys' sister.  She was a big help to decorate and help the younger kids with games and crafts.

This is Seth's surrogate older brother, Matthew holding the Birthday card he made for him.

 The party was insect themed but Seth was major into Spiderman at this point in life. We had Spiderman plates and a lot of his gifts were Spiderman themed.

Seth got some pretty fun stuff.  He is now set on Spiderman gear for the rest of his life.

 Daddy snuck the new bike to the park and Seth turned around and saw it and had to jump on.

Daddy helped with the first test run.  

Matthew helped with the next run and then tested it out for Seth to make sure everything was kosher.

One of the favorite gifts was the cool superhero sword he received from Nana and Grandpa.  That toy still gets lots of play time.

Opening some more presents.

And more presents.

Here is the adult crowd hanging out while the kids party.

Seth's friend Logan and our cute neighbor Meredith.

















 What do you know more Spiderman.









 

I made dirt cupcakes with gummy worms and gummy butterflies for the kids and caramel cake for the grownups.





Blowing out the candle with a little help from cousin Tate.

Tate approved of the dirt cupcakes.

What a fun day and what a cute birthday boy!

 When Rob was little his parents used to surprise all the kids by driving up Millcreek canyon for a early fall picnic.  The last few years we have tried to do it with all the cousins and it has been a fun tradition.

Ella does not mind being photographed at all and is very photogenic.  A trait that she doesn't get from me.

Our honey girl with Daddy.

The whole fam.

Uncle J with Tate and Seth getting some good rough and wild time in.

 Ella trying to create a loving moment with her brother.  It isn't going according to plan.

Uncle Richard is the best grill man around.  He manned the tin foil dinners while we explored with the kids.

The kids juicing it up while waiting for dinner.  I believe there was a toast prior to this drink.

 Our kids go nuts for Halloween and anything related to it.  So on one of the first days of October Grandma took them to a cute pumpkin patch and they found these cute guys. They woke up the next morning and wanted to carve them.  It being so early and warm in the month I convinced them to paint them instead.

Can you guess which ones Ella did and which one Seth did?  The one with the really long stem was specially picked by Ella because it looked like Rapunzel.

 Now that Aunt Rachel is living in North Carolina we only get to see her a few times a year.  We were all so excited when we found out that she was coming in October.  Rachel was accompanied by her boyfriend Mark.  We started their visit with a picnic and walk around temple square.

 Here's the gang minus Mom, who was taking the picture.

We were explaining to Ella and Seth that this little stand in front of the temple is referred to as the cake topper.  The bride and groom stand on it for pictures and look like the mini bride and grooms on top of wedding cakes.  Plus we have a picture of Rob and I on our wedding day in the same spot that they have seen many times. So of course they insisted on doing their own cake topper picture.

 After our Salt Lake excursion we headed to Park City for a few nights of fun.  There was good food, good conversation and lots of games.  We also managed to squeeze in a trip to the Alpine slide.

The kids love this slide but strangely there is always some sort of mishap while riding it. The last time Rob got stung by a bee midway down.  Here we are riding up on the lift with the kids.  I think they enjoy the ride up almost as the ride down.

Coming to the bottom with no major mishaps, hallelujah.

One ride just wasn't enough so Aunt Rachel and Mark agreed to take them with them for their turn.

 Of course they love Aunt Rachel but they really took to Mark, especially Seth.  On the day he left, Seth ran up to him and gave him a big hug and a kiss on the cheek. 

Getting ready for another fun ride up the mountain.

 Rachel and Ella came down pretty fast but there was no sign of Mark and Seth.  We started to get nervous until we finally saw them.











They got to the bottom and Mark explained that a little ways down Seth has started screaming that there was a bug on him.  Mark had stopped the cart and brushed Seth off and then continued down.  As they stood up to get off the cart at the bottom something jumped out of Seth's shirt, it was a grasshopper! Seth and the grasshopper had just had the ride of their lives.

 The last few days Rach and Mark were in town were spent at Mom and Dad's.  It is a bit of a tradition for the Aunt's to put on some music and show the kids some moves.  Seth's favorite move: the shake-a-bum.  Pretty self explanatory.  I think that is the move he was attempting in this picture.