Preschool Fire Station and Little J Birthday!!

One of the things I love about doing preschool for my kidlets is going on field trips with them!! The fire station is one of our favorites that we do and this go around we had a blast! I had called the station to set up a tour somewhat near where we all live and they accommodated us nicely. In fact, the fireman that we had was a man who had been a fire fighter since 1974!! And he was really great with our rambunctious group. We started with a video about fire safety and then we got to get in the trucks and see what it would be like to be a fire fighter!

Little A got to see what it would be like to drive this beast of a vehicle! Look, the wheel is bigger than she is. And the tires too, we checked. :)

Our little miss future fire fighter! The tour guide got in full uniform for the kids so that in the case of a fire they would have seen this somewhere before and hopefully not run and hide!

My little J is getting so big!!! This group is kids from the neighborhood, preschool and church. What a fun group! We made shields, did relay races, had cake and ice cream and had a catapult battle. I found a fun tutorial online and got really giddy when my catapult worked! Big J suggested we use cats or bunnies for ammo when I suggested using something soft but luckily I found small pom poms to use before he could round up some bunnies. Whew!

Little J requested a simple cake this year. A cake with knights on horses with lances. Done. Easy peasy. Turned out great, I thought!! And yummy too, perhaps my best tasting eggless cake yet.

Sir J. Isn't he too cute?!

The catapult battle. These babies were definitely time consuming to make but they had a blast with them and I have a feeling they will be played with a lot over the next few weeks, or until they break. Whichever comes sooner. :)

Mazing and Climbing

I took the kids out to Terhune Orchards for pumpkin picking this year and the kids loved doing the corn maze, as usual. It was muddy, of course, but we remembered to wear boots so didn't fear the mess. We found the exit after only a couple turns so had to go back in to really get lost and then find our way out, haha. They have little tractors and John Deere tricycles that the kids had a blast riding on also. A beautiful day at the farm!!

Funny how they each picked out a pumpkin appropriate to their size all on their own. Mmmm....apples!

Big J took the kids climbing at this lone boulder in the middle of the woods. Leave it to climbers to find a rock big enough to climb even with no indication there would be one this size in the proximate area! We wanted to go as a family but I was not feeling well so the kids had some Daddy time while I napped and cleaned house. Cleaning seems to always put me in a good mood these days.

Look at the size of that thing! All three kidlets made it up this side of the rock, up the largest crack in the middle.
B attempted the other side which is far more difficult with fewer and smaller holds.

Look at the size of that crimper!! She is gaining quite the technique and made it to the top!! And Big J kept his promise not to have to take anyone to the ER.

I thought this was adorable and had to capture the moment. When our bunk bed had had enough we took it apart and put the mattresses next to each other. Little Bug took this to her advantage and got Big Sis to snuggle up with her. So sweet!!