Flying!

Aidan loves airplanes. If you ask Aidan what he wants to do when he grows up, he'll tell you that he wants to be in the Air Force because he would get to fly. Somehow, word of Aidan's love of flight made its way to a friend of ours from church who just happens to have his very own plane! Mr. Albert was kind enough to offer up an entire morning to take the family on a flight to satisfy and stir Aidan's fascination with flight.

Albert even took time to walk Aidan and the rest of us through the pre-flight check list. Aidan was able to learn about flaps and ailerons, vertical and horizontal stabilizers, and even radio antennas and the importance of a wing's shape.

This is one of my favorite visuals from the day. Seeing Aidan rocking the headset was pretty awesome. He thought it was pretty awesome to hear the radio traffic running back and forth.

Of course, little brother and sister felt they needed a turn with headsets, too. Ryla ended up having hers taken away because she talked so much that you couldn't hear anything else.

The younger two thought the maps were pretty cool, too. They couldn't wrap their head around how this big map didn't even show all of Texas! It's good to see that their eyes still fill with wonder at the bigness of the world.

As the guest of honor, Aidan was able to ride shotgun. This spot was special because of the view, but also because he had a full set of controls in front of him. Amazingly enough, Albert let Aidan take the controls! Aidan spent around 10 minutes flying slow circles around Lake Travis. The first thing he did was grab the yoke and pull back hard! The plane shot up a few hundred feet in only a few seconds. Once he got that out of his system, he did a really fantastic job flying smooth and steady.

We had a really fantastic time flying over Austin. Thanks again to Albert for giving us such a unique opportunity to make some great memories!

Ryla turns 5!

Ryla's 5?! Can you believe it?! It's hard to believe it is possible for her to be this big, but she will not allow us to forget that she is a full blown "big girl."

Since Ryla's birthday was on a Friday, she managed to drag out her birthday celebration for the entire weekend. The festivities began with a mani/pedi with grandma. The advice we gave Ryla before she left was to stop being so cute....she ignored us.

Ryla chose what we'd have for dinner Friday evening. With no hesitation she requested tater tot casserole. About the only thing she was asked to do over the course of the weekend was put the tater tots on top.

The next event of her birthday was a trip the the gym for some open gym time. Noah was able to go with her and she was also joined by her friend Adalyn.

Then came the birthday celebration proper. Complete with her friend Chloe, presents, and ice cream cake. 

Probably what we appreciate the most about Ryla is that as she grows older, she only grows sweeter. She's a gentle girl with a beautiful personality and a gorgeous smile. Much love to our little girl who makes our family better.

Halloween 2015

So Halloween in our neighborhood is no joke. Just imagine old-time Americana where everybody knows each other and the whole neighborhood is shut down because the streets are jammed with people. Our kids LOVE it! We had some big plans this year with our really great group of neighbors to have an over the top block party to accompany our Halloween events. So Super Why, a gymnast, and Luke Skywalker hit the neighborhood looking for candy.

Remember that block party I mentioned? Well, before trick or treating we all had a huge potluck dinner together. After everyone went and loaded up on candy we all met back up for a late night movie on the lawn. No joke, the chance to live around such great folks is the best part of living here.

October Fest

October begins for us a full on onslaught of celebration and excitement. Halloween is the kickoff to our season, and the kids approach this event with excitement and fervor. Our opening event is the great pumpkin selection. Let's be honest. This really looks mostly like our children running wildly in circle and picking up as many pumpkins as they can while we try to find three moderately sized pumpkins and get out.

The work of picking out pumpkins is rather demanding, so we needed to make sure the munchkins were well fed. Why not fill up on donuts?!

This year we added a new event to our season opening festivities. Each of the munchkins decorated their bedrooms doors as a monster of their liking.

And the final pre-season event of October is the night before Halloween pumpkin carving. Maybe this time next year we'll let Aidan wield his own blade and carve up his own pumpkin.