Thanksgiving Break Part 2

Erik and I had the Friday after Thanksgiving off this year and it's a good thing we did, it was beautiful outside!!  

It was a perfect day to take the gator and 4 wheeler for a drive on the trails Grandpa H has been hard at work creating and maintaining in the old cow pasture.  Jay and Jenna had put together a scavenger hunt for a Thanksgiving day activity but we spent too much time playing football.  The sun went down before we could get the hunt set up.  So instead we did the hunt on Friday morning.  I'm not sure who had more fun...the kids doing the hunting...or the mom's taking a peaceful, quiet drive on the gator (kid free) while we hid the "animals"!

On our way to the farm!

The hunt is on.

The animals we hid out in the trails.

Kade and Violet searching for the big game.

Mason with the duck he shot.

Saturday we left the boys with Grandpa and Grandma C and we watched the Gophers get their butts handed to them by the Badgers.  But hey, at the least the weather was nice!

Bring on the holidays!!!

Thanksgiving Break Part 1

The 5 day Thanksgiving break was jam packed with fun.  As we all know, our Kado Tornado needs a plan everyday so that is what we gave him!  Thankfully Mason is just happy to be along for the ride. After spending the first 3 years of his life being too small to join in, he's excited to finally be big enough to join the big kids!

Wednesday we spent a couple hours bowling, eating pizza and playing laser tag with friends.

Thursday, Thanksgiving, we started off the beautiful day with a 2 mile family walk/ Gobble Wobble fundraiser for the Salvation Army.  

We showed up a little late to the party so we ended up bringing up the rear.  My goal for every "race" is: to not get lost and not get last.  We didn't get dead last so mission accomplished in my book!

Kade decided next year he wants to do the 5K so he can get a number and a finishers medal.  I like the way he thinks!

Afterwards we celebrated with Caribou!  

Mason loves to pretend he's drinking coffee so he was pretty excited for his own coffee cup!

Then off to my cousin's house for the usual Thanksgiving feast!

Lauren teaching the boys the proper way to eat whip cream.

It kind of backfired on her...

These boys LOVE Zach and Lauren!

It's been awhile since I've tried posting videos.  It's not the easiest or fastest thing to do so I try to avoid it.  Hopefully they work.

The boys had an electric 4 wheeler for many years but it kicked the bucket awhile ago.  They loved that thing though so we decided it was time to get a 4 wheeler with real tires (not plastic ones that get holes in them and then fill with up gravel) and a real engine (not one that needs to be charged after an hour of riding).  They were so surprised and excited!  The one we got had only 10 hours on it, I'm fairly sure Kade doubled that in the first day.  Mason still has a little (ok a lot) of work to do before he can drive it but he is improving!

Mason's daycare mom sent me these videos on Friday.  He likes to pretend he's the teacher these days,  he does a great job singing and reading to his kids.  

Maybe we'll have another teacher in the family?!

I've said this a million times and I'll say it a million times more, I cannot believe how lucky I am that I get to be these boys' mom.  They are opposite in so many ways but, man, they were meant to be brothers!  Mason adores Kade and cannot wait for him to get home every day so they can play farm, or hunt, or wrestle.  Kade counts on Mason to be his side kick in everything he does.  

Of course they fight like brothers as well.  But Mason is tough.  He rarely cries so he holds his own with his 3.5 year older brother!  

Kade always says he's going to be the quarterback and Mason is going to be his O lineman.  There's a good possibility that could happen.  The other night they were playing basketball in the basement.  It was Erik and Mason against Kade.  Mason would pass Erik the ball and then run and tackle Kade at full force and yell to Erik to shoot the ball.  Kade's love of sports is really starting to wear off on Mason now too, he just needs a little help figuring out which sport is which!

I'm so blessed to have been--literally--chosen to be their mom. 

Kade is being Santa, 

and Mason is the perfect little present!

Kade in his 3rd deer stand in our yard.

Hunting in is in this kid's blood.

I'm not sure I'm ready for the day when he wants to stop pretending and actually hunt for real

The boys with their cousin Lauren. 

She's such a good sport, they can't get enough of her and she is always willing to play with them.

Halloween 2017

The boys decided to mix it up this year.  Kade wanted to be an army/police/camouflage guy.  Pretty sure I hit the nail on the head with the costume I found for him.  Mason wanted to be a ghost and then a police man and then a pumpkin and back to being a ghost.  When I took him shopping though he decided, for sure, he wanted to be a policeman.

So, Mason did not have to wear hand-me-downs and for the first time in 4? years Kade was not, I repeat--NOT, a football player!!!  I'm not going to lie though, I kind of wished he was.  

1.  just to keep the streak going and 

2. holy buckets Halloween costumes are expensive!  

I can't say I've ever actually purchased a costume in my 7 years of parenting until this year.  I think I'll spend the next 12 months convincing the boys they need to be football players in 2018.  Although, Mason's costume was big enough that he could be a cop for the next 4 years.  We've got options.

The night before Halloween the boys remembered they didn't carve their pumpkins.  Erik took on the task before I got home from work!

Mason's daycare party

My little cop and my big army/police/camo guy

We drove into town to trick-or-treat with friends.

Kade sprinted ahead of us the entire time and Mason wasn't sure he liked saying the whole "trick or treat/thank you" in order to get candy.  Don't worry, Kade got more than enough for all of us!

Wart update:  it fell off on Monday!!  

And Mason fell asleep mid-book tonight!!