James turned three!

I took him to the Museum of Transportation for his special day.  It was in the 40s and very chilly but James had the time of his life exploring the trains and looking at the exhibits.  We rode the miniature train four times. (Each ride was 12 minutes long.)  I was absolutely frozen after three plus hours there!  We had James' dinner of choice--hot dogs, french fries, lemonade, cake with blue frosting and cookies and cream ice cream.   The first present he opened was some train tracks and he and Isaac immediately got busy building a train track.  I had bought a huge set on craigslist to go along with a set we already had.  Though I picked it up it was from both grandmas.  So basically James opened present after present full of trains and tracks and buildings.  Andrew and Blake helped them build a huge track in the family room.  Also with some more money from Grandma K he got a plane and bubble gun and I made him a cape with a j on it.  It was a great birthday for him I think.  James is such a fun-loving, smart, kind boy.  He loves puzzles and Thomas and Curious George.  He is my good running buddy and will always go in the stroller with me.  He loves to play trains with his buddy Oliver and does a good job sharing his beloved balance bike with his other friends that we play with after Isaac gets home from school.  He is very obedient unless it is family prayer or family home evening.  :)  I still get comments on how beautiful his red hair is--he is sure a cutie!  We are glad he is in our family.

We had to facetime with grandmas while we opened presents...

We have not yet had the courage to break down the train track and face the wrath of two little boys, so for the past week our family room has been tiptoe room only!

I love this picture--how he is giving hugs but being a little too intense about it...

Halloween 2013

We went to a trunk or treat on Saturday.

James chose to be a train guy.  But no hat.  And then he decided to also carry the train I made for Isaac several years ago.
 

Isaac chose to be Shiny from Dinosaur Train back in July and he went to the store to pick out fabric with me and watched several hours worth of sewing while we put it together.

Camping with friends

One weekend in September we went camping with friends.  It was a little stressful at first trying to get all the campsites but then we had tons of fun.  Isaac and James were so excited to build a fire and roast hot dogs and marshmallows.  Although Isaac doesn't like hot dogs and neither Isaac nor James likes roasted marshmallows.  But a fire was still exciting. 

James was jumping up and down so excited. 

Isaac was pretty happy too.  He got those glasses as a prize at school for bringing in box tops. 

It was so fun setting up tents.  Of course we need lots of help to do so. 

I wanted to take James' picture by the tent but he wanted to eat his smore.  Or really just some chocolate and then some graham crackers. 

Here's a better picture with the tent.  

Here are our friends the Lees.

Here are the Gublers.

I was so disappointed that our friend Julianne got sick so she and her mom and baby brother had to stay home.  But Brinley and her dad came.  

cooking some breakfast

Dads and kids

We went for a little hike with friends.  It went a lot better than our hike later as a family which ended in disaster.  We will leave that to your imagination. 

Oh my goodness, James and Isaac had so much fun.  James was in little boy heaven while camping and asks to go again.

On Sunday we went to Forest park for a little walk.  

Good old Saint Louis in front of the art museum

I made the kids take off their jackets to get photos of them.  We did one minute photo shoots.