Halloween 2010

We've had quite the Halloweek week. School pumpkin day, parties, kindergarten parade, Ward Church party and trunk or treat etc.

Rori and I attended the kindergarten parade at Kai's school. We got there a few minutes early and got to snap some shots as they were finishing up a project before the parade.





Kai loved having us there. They wandered the kids through the school in the parade and Kai seemed to enjoy it all. His teacher is wearing the 70's outfit.





Here is a shot of Rori with Kai's friends little brother and sister watching the parade. I thought it was neat that they all wanted to dress up too.



I thought the turn out at our Church party was pretty impressive. Kai's school carnival and this party were our first experiences of trunk or treating and I think I'm a big fan. The kids got lots of goodies, it was way faster, and it felt way safer. In addition to trick or treating they had dinner and all sorts of games for the kids. Kai loved having his 3 buddies from kindergarten class to run around with that all go to our Church. As an added bonus they invited their other friend from kindergarten class who doesn't go to our Church and he and his family came. So Kai was loving life with his good buddies playing games and trunk or treating. Rori was super cute as she did her best to keep up with Kai and the boys most of the night. Kai is very sweet and patient with her in return. I am very grateful for their close bond.














*Note how Rori is directing the other kids at the cake walk. :)

By the time Halloween actually rolled around we were pretty over it. We decided to conclude things by handing out candy tonight and call it another successful Halloween minus the traditional trick or treating. The earlier events in the week had supplied us with full buckets of candy so we weren't hurting for more.

Kai was actually really excited about handing out candy so I've been really hopeful that we might actually get a knock or two. I was nervous though due to several factors like this is a long holiday weekend with no school, Halloween is on a Sunday, and we now live in a gated neighborhood and there don't seem to be a ton of kids around. Plus people here seem to be gravitating more to the trick or treating at malls thing. Thankfully after a slow start we've had a few knocks to make everyone happy.

Here are a few favorite shots when the kids were first trying on their costumes. Rori just kept saying "pretty" as she admired her outift in the mirror.





And one final photo of Rori that makes us laugh in all her 2 year old glory.

Pumpkin Carving 2010

Last night we worked on carving pumpkins as a family. It was fun to see Rori old enough to really get more in to it this year. Lance carved one pumpkin under the direction of Kai. The other pumpkin we attempted to carve Mickey Mouse with the use of a stensil. We think they turned out pretty fun.

What A Weekend

We had quite the past weekend. It went something like this:

Friday:
4-6pm Primary Program Practice & Pizza Party
6:30pm Kai's School Fall Festival

Saturday:
12:30pm Soccer Game
1:00pm Birthday Party at the Adventuredome at Circus Circus
5:00pm Birthday Party at Chuck E. Cheese
5:45pm Dinner with Friends

Sunday:
11am Primary Program
Visiting Teaching, Home Teaching
5:00pm Dinner with Friends
*Add in studying and paper writing by Lance, a few naps for Rori, meals, showers etc.

Really I think Kai thought this was one of the best weekends ever. He enjoyed all the super fun things. It was cute to see him at the parties with these boys from school. We're glad he has had a good adjustment here and been able to make good friends.

I didn't get any great Fall Festival pictures due to the fact that it was pretty dark. The kids wore costumes and got to Trunk or Treat at about 20+ cars. They also had a book fair, a cake walk, little game booths, and different food options. I was a little surprised by some of the more scary decorations, grown-up music, and grown-up outfits- welcome to Vegas I guess. It seemed like a sucessful school fundraiser to me though.

Soccer went well and we were excited to have the temperature drop enough for it to be quite comfortable.

The first birthday party at the Adventuredome was pretty cool. It was for a little boy in Kai's school class so it was fun to get to meet him and his parents. This place has all sorts of crazy rollercoasters and rides- think over stimulation to the max. Fortunatley they had a set of rides all grouped together that were age appropriate for the boys. Michelle and I took Kai and Cooper straight from soccer which meant we got there a little late. The boys jumped right in to the pizza and ice cream with the other kids when we got there before they all hit the rides. When they arrived they were greeted with big hugs from the other boys which was pretty cute.







We went straight from there to Chuck E. Cheese for the next party. The party was for a little boy that is in Kai's class and goes to our Church. This was Kai's first trip to Chuck E. Cheese and he thought it was great. In UT Fat Cats served a similar purpose. It seemed cleaner, brighter, and nicer than the place I remember as a kid. But it was also nice and loud just like the Adventuredome. My ears were ringing the rest of the night. Michelle was a trooper and ended up staying with the boys for the whole thing and bringing Kai home so I could run to dinner with Lance, Rori and friends.



Kai did a great job at the Primary Program. I love that the kids are learning from a young age to be comfortable getting up in front of everyone and speak in to the microphone. That is overwhelming for the average adult. I thought the program was pretty ambitious. There were severeal solo singers, a group sign language number, and just a lot of kids involved to coordinate. Rori was highly miffed when Kai got to go up on the stand with all the other big kids and she didn't. She had to be removed from the room until she calmed down enough to go back in and watch and listen. A snack and coloring bribe may have assisted with this.

Anyway, it was a busy but good weekend. The pictures aren't great because I just had my little point and shoot but they give you a flavor for it all. I was worried that we might experience some meltdowns due to exhaustion and over stimulation but things went well. Now we just all need a long nap.

Wild West Fest

Weekend before last we tried out the Henderson Wild West Fest. We were impressed by how big it was. Especially since it was located right in the heart of where we live. There were lots of big rides, food, a mini pumpkin patch, booths, big country artist concerts, and more. I thought it was a little pricey for what you got ($7 a person to just get in without going to one of the concerts and about $5a person a ride, + any food you might want) but it was fun and the kids had a blast. Kai was super excited to get to ride on the huge ferris wheel and the big slide. It would be fun to go to one of the concerts sometime and it also might be worth having your kid save up all year to buy a $28 ride as much as you want wrist band. We only had Lance's phone but here is a shot at the pumpkin area:

Craft Night

Our Church Relief Society had a craft night last Friday with some pretty cute options of things to make. Generally speaking I find crafting to be a bit overwhelming due to my lack of artistic talent and vision. But these crafts were fun and relatively easy- even for someone like me. Plus I thought this might be a good activity to help me get to know some more people from here.

They had several projects you could pick from but I decided on two items.

The first was these letter blocks which involved doing some sanding, painting, and super easy vinyl lettering. The time challenge with this project was the sanding and the multiple coats of paint needed. We made 10 blocks that have 4 different letters on each block. I'm excited for these because you can spell out all sorts of words with them for the various seasons and holidays (like Autumn, Snow, Mother etc.). I think they turned out pretty good- if you don't study them to closely or compare them to others. Some people would sand the edges a little again now to give them a more rustic look, but I'm thinking I don't want to push my luck and perhaps mine are rustic enough already due to my (lack of) painting/ sanding skills.



The second took me about 1 minute total to do which is my sort of project. We just used the easy vinyl letter things again to decorate a piece of plexi-glass. Now I'll just get a cute piece of ribbon to lace through the holes at the top to hang it and we'll have a fun Valentine's day decoration.

Hoover Dam

Last Saturday we felt like going on a little adventure after Kai's soccer game and before Lance had to get back to studying. The Hoover Dam is only about 15 minutes away so we thought we should go check it out. It was a good quick trip and we all enjoyed seeing Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. It was also neat to get to see the new bridge that they are just about to open. The bridge will span the Black Canyon (about 1,500 feet south of the Hoover Dam), connecting the Arizona and Nevada highways nearly 900-feet above the Colorado River. Next time we go back it will be open and we'll have to make the drive across it.

The Dragons

The Dragons had their first soccer game last Saturday. Kai had a blast and is really improving with his soccer skills. He was super excited that he scored a goal. The temp was just under 100 and there wasn't a speck of shade anywhere in sight. We pulled out rain umbrellas in an attempt to not melt. Rori and Pace (Cooper's little brother) had fun playing with the umbrellas and snacking. It was SO HOT as you can tell by the photos. This week has been a lot cooler here which has been wonderful so here is hoping that the game this Saturday will be much more comfortable for all of us.