The end of September

 The end of September, what does that mean? Summer is over and Fall is here, I really thought it would never arrive with all the nice weather we have been having. Trees are still green and the grass is still brown. Where is our rain and beautiful fall colors??

Since  we are reflecting on September here are a few miscellaneous happenings from the month.

Dino Pancakes!

Grandma Liz gave Zander this awesome dinosaur pancake shape for his birthday and he LOVES it. Drezden does too!

Then there is Syler, Oh what an amazingly happy baby. Love, Love, Love this boy!!

What is a sliding door without some stickies?? The boys love all the stickies Grandma Liz gave them. Keeps them pretty entertained too!! 

We also Painted the boys room a beautiful medium Blue color. They love it, but Zander keeps asking me why we painted. 

September was a busy month, it went by so fast. Now we jump into Fall! Pumpkins, leaves, mud and chilly mornings. LOVE!!!

Re purposing the Bus Bed

The bus bed, a bunk bed from Pauls childhood, is being turned into an outdoor play structure. We are designing it to look like a firetruck to include a drop ladder on the side to access the top level and a fireman's pole to get from the top to bottom. It is still in the design stage but we started painting the engine compartment so it can be moved over to our playground area to store all the outdoor toys. The boys got in on the fun with Paul painting:

There is still a lot of work to be done on the bus bed to make it a firetruck and we are having loads of fun doing it! If you think you have any awesome ideas on what we should include in the final design of the Firetruck play structure, let us know!

Zander at Zaandercross!!!

Zaandercross??? What is that you ask. Its a cycle cross bike race. These Cycle cross races are not your ordinary bike race but an obstacle filled, usually muddy, only crazy people do it, kind of race. Zander's uncle Seth is an old pro, here are some awesome photographs Maria has captured of Seth in Action:

Pretty crazy huh?? Yep that is what Zander has to look forward to. He has officially participated in his very first cycle cross race, most appropriately named Zaandercross. 

Luckily Zander gets to participate on a special, smaller, shorter track for his version of this race. ( the big track is about 2 miles) It is so awesome that they set up a nice kiddy version of the big race, usually with mud, barriers and all. It was bright and sunny for Zanders first race so no mud was participating. :) 

You may also notice that Zander's bike has no pedals. Yes that is how it is supposed to be, its called a balance bike. It helps eliminate the need for training wheels by the child learning how to balance on a bike before learning how to pedal. So by the time you put pedals under their feet, they take off and ride because they already figured the balancing part out. 

All the children at the cycle cross races who have balance bikes get to race seperately from the big kids with pedal bikes. This is great, no need to worry about him being trampled over by the big kids. 

Onto the proof of his race: 

Auntie Maria pinning on his number! #75!

All ready to do a test run:

Practicing at the barrier, a good thing I got this practice shot because I didnt end up getting one during the race

READY

GO!!!!

Finished!!! 

He had a great time and kept asking to go again. :) He keeps his ribbon and number on his wall by his bed. He is so proud of it!

Zanders Birthday Trip

Zander really LOVES cars, trains and airplanes, so it only seemed appropriate to make his birthday trip a trip to Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. He was so excited when we told him where we were going. Whenever we visit family we always drive by the museum and he always asks to go see the airplanes so I knew this was going to be a special day.
  We spent about 3 hours at the museum, Zander was just in awe at all the airplanes. I thought he would love the Spruce Goose but it is so big you barely know it is an airplane, I pointed it out to him a couple of times but its size made it not look like all the other airplanes. Here are some great pics from the day. Remember you can click on the thumbnail and view larger. :)

They had this great area with all these ride on airplanes. It was a big hit with the kids!!

 We had invited family to come if they wanted to join us, but had plans for ice-cream at my moms house after the museum. Most family skipped the museum but all came to my moms. It was such fun to have the cousins together, especially the older ones on my side that we have not seen in a while.

My mom has some baby chicks right now too that they just loved. 

 All in all I think Zander had a GREAT birthday!! Thank you too all who came and made it sooo special for him!