cohen & finley's birthday party

On Saturday, November 7th (Cohen's actual birthday), we threw a party to celebrate Cohen & Finn's birthdays at Rainbow Park & Playground. It was a great place for an indoor, fall party & was super fun for all the kids & grownups!

Cedar & Mummi

Amy & Ethan at the top of one of the structures

Kenton helped Finn enjoy the bounce castle since he was a little scared.

Birthday boy Cohen!

The grownups were allowed to use the bounce castle too!

Sadie, Ronan & Griffin on the tire swing

Macey swinging!

Cedar enjoying his snack.

My first time in a bounce castle...I think??

Great action shot of Sadie

Rainbow is a place that sells play structures. They also offer open play times & party spaces!

Our party room!

The birthday boys

New swords!

Finn scooted his chair closer to Cohen so they could see what each other got!

A Transformer!
(As Finn calls it "Fansmormer!")

Ice cream cake by Becca

Blowing out their candles...

& licking them, of course!

The party planners & their birthday boys
Becca, Cohen (4), Katrina, Finley (3)

We love Finley so much! It has been such an amazing experience to have him in our lives. He blesses us everyday with his wit, curiousity, kindness & energy! We thank God for our wonderful son.

after dad got home...

Finn got to open one more gift, before sitting down to dinner. We let him unwrap his gift from Nanalee & Papa Lew - all the way from Utah! He was super excited to see a Bionicle (or as Finn says it "Binonicle!") & 2 Lego sets!

Dad helped Finn build the Bionicle right away!

Finn chose corn dogs & canned pears for his birthday dinner...not sure where he got the pear idea, but it was his birthday so he got to choose. :)

Time for gifts from Mama & Dad...
He looks like such a big kid to us, despite the messy, wet spot on his shirt from dinner. :P

Sweet Cedar, studying his Dada.

Time to pay attention to that fast moving brother!

Some police officer & fire fighter dress-up gear.

Fun wrapping paper from Ronan's school fundraiser.

Gears! Gears! Gears!
We tried to buy some toys for Finn that he'd never seen, to try to expand his interests a bit. It worked out pretty well & he seems to really enjoy his new toys. So fun to have an excuse to get some new things to play with. It's been a long time since we bought anything real special or fun, so even Mama & Dad were excited to play with Finn's toys. :)

happy birthday finn!

Finn woke up on the morning of his birthday to streamers & balloons throughout the house! So fun for a kid that likes to kick & hit...things. ;)

Cedar was interested too. :)

He got to open one present from us before going to Mummi & Pappa's house for the morning...

A dinosaur book that plays noises in surround sound! A big hit for our 3 year dinosaur fan!

Cedar was interested too! :P

halloween

We met up with my sisters & their kids at the Valley River Mall to make the rounds at all the stores.

We got there 30 minutes after trick-or-treating had started & about half the stores were out of candy already! We were pretty shocked at how many people were at the mall. Here Finn is getting a sticker, since this store was out of candy. :P

Finn also had stubbed his toe earlier in the day so he didn't want to walk.

After the mall we trick-or-treated at Memaw & Papa's house!

Sisters + Mom

The guys!

Memaw & Papa gave glow-necklaces to all the kids. Fun!

The grandkids
Baby Dragon (Cedar - sleeping), Boo! (Tyler), Ninja (Ronan), Kitty (Memaw), Belle (Sadie), Skeleton (Papa), Pterodactyl (Finn), Black Widow (Griffin), Batman (Cohen)


After visiting my parents, we trick-or-treated at Mummi & Pappa's house! They surprised us by being dressed up too - they were all wearing old costumes that Kenton had worn as a kid/teenager. Outi was there too, wearing a joker costume, but didn't want to go public with her costume. :)

Close-up of Cedar, since he spent much of the evening snoozing in his car seat. I love that his dragon costume looks like a sleepy dragon. :)

more solids

Cedar quickly figured out how to use the mesh feeder! We stuffed it with chunks of acorn squash & he went to town!

Finn was curious. :)

Sweet boys.

What a lovely invention. Cedar was content & independent for 20 minutes! He certainly didn't want to be done & was happy when I helped him get every last bit. I hope his love for healthy veggies lasts... :P

pumpkin carving

Wow - have we been busy?! The last few weeks have been filled with activity & I can't believe we are already well into November! On the Tuesday before Halloween, we carved pumpkins at the Green's house. It was fun to let Ethan, Macey & Finn help scoop out the guts & design the jack-o-lanterns!

The Mamas & Stephanie did the cutting. The Dads & Colin watched the littlest ones. :)

Finn & the jack-o-lanterns - ours is the one that looks scared!

Finn & Me - we also carved a spider on the back side of our pumpkin - by Finley's request, of course.