So many reasons to be grateful.

I try to live a life that is full of gratitude.  Some days I am better at it than others but I especially love November because everyone around me is being grateful too!  It seems silly but facebook is full of gratitude, the news, people are a little nicer in general, it seems anyway.   Only if we could be grateful all the months of the year, it would be awesome for everyone's quality of life! :)  Okay, sorry for the tangent but it is so true!  I will just do my best to be grateful and hope it spreads to someone else! We had so much fun this Thanksgiving and the week leading up to it.  Hope you enjoy our adventures!

Crème Cupcake is a little dessert place on Ingersoll in Des Moines.  I met the owner last month at a Des Moines Moms Blog event and she told me about her cupcake decorating date.  It was a blast!  You get a super yummy cupcake, all the things you need to decorate your cupcake and a juice box for $5.  You go and make a mess at her shop and then leave!  You might even leave with a cupcake, unless your name is Finnean and Hutchinson and you eat it right there on the spot!  Chelsie and her boys met us there, it was fun to visit with them and just a really fun event!  The boys LOVED it.  We will definitely be back when she does it again! PS-Crème turns into a dessert lounge in the evenings, you can grab a sweet treat and a drink.  Perfect for date night or a girls night out!

Oh I love, love, love this picture!  It just captured the fun they were having! 

First of all, Finnean's teacher is awesome.  I just had to say it again.  She is so nice and friendly and amazing with the kids.  We just love Ms. Margaret!  Finnean had a Thankful Feast at school before he went on break.  I luckily got to help with it!  YES! I seriously LOVE volunteering in his class.  It is so fun to see him interact with his little friends and to see how things go down when you are not around!  It is kind of like peeking into his other life :)  All of the kids brought a food.  We are talking snacks galore, a few fruits and one little girl brought mac and cheese!  Hutchinson and I were in charge of setting up the buffet.  I told Ms. Margaret that our fee was some snacks for Hutchinson :) He loved "helping" set up! They had their little feast and then got ready for the First Annual Preschool Parade.  The teachers said that the kids got really excited when they were talkinga bout the Macy's parade and so they decided to throw together a parade.  It might be the cutest thing I have ever seen.  The had a police car (which Finnean painted the letters on-check it out!!), a marching band...which Finnean was a VERY proud member of, cheerleaders and they even had balloon "floats!"  It was so cute to see them all working together and I know they put a lot of work into all the details.  IT was so fun and such a great day!  I am so thankful that I get to be a part of this little man's life!

{Wagler Thanksgiving}
We offered to host Thanksgiving this year and it was so fun!  We kept it simple and dished out the responsibilities and it was pretty successful!  We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and a little bit of football.  We ate and played Heads Up to get moving after lunch.  It was so fun and the house was full of laughter!  We even squeezed in a couple hands of dominoes while the big boys played Wii!  I made my first ever pumpkin pie and I made them mini!  A little too mini is what the feedback was, I will do a whole pie next year, Richard!!  We snapped some pictures and just overall had a really great day! 

 

 

The group photo was much more successful than the Ankeny Wagler's attempt at a family picture.  :) 
I love this picture and the people in it.  I am thankful that I get to be a part of this family!



This is one of my new favorite pictures!  Adam always captures the best moments and I just love the real smiles in it and the angle! And the little boy! What's not to love!  PS-this was during the failed family photo attempt :)

I knew it before but I LOVE hosting! It was so fun to make the house festive and put some time into little details.  I am so thankful I learned to make pie this year and was able to make a French silk pie for the dinner.  I also got in some snuggles with the little guy, you can't pass that up!  There are just so many reasons to be grateful!  Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!



Random adventures!

In October we headed down to the Blanchard's to celebrate F and H's old buddies Grady and Jace's 5th and 3rd birthdays!  They had a lot of fun!! Hutchinson especially loved the cupcakes;)



The World Food Festival was sometime at the beginning of September (maybe?) but we adventured down to the Farmer's Market and then went to check out some new foods.  I love this picture on top of the boys.  They look so tiny in comparison to the big city!  Finnean loved trying new foods, which is totally out of character for him, but he loved the spicy pork that we tried.  So much so that he made us get more!  It was fun day of exploring our little mini city!

Favorite day...

I am so behind on all the fun we had in October but I had to share this family picture.  I LOVE everything about it.  Finnean was so excited because he got to pick apples and obviously, Hutchinson is super pumped about his apples.  We had so much fun and  I will share more about this adventure soon!

PELLA!

We had an awesome weekend filled with family and friends. The weather here is absolutely perfection right now and we didn't have a lot planned...that always makes for some fun adventuring.  I will get that post up and going soon.  Here is a look back from a couple weekends ago when headed to Pella.

 

We try to meet up with Grandma and Poppa every once in a while in Pella.  We love George's Pizza and it is about half way in between.  We always seem to get there around Michael's birthday, this year we were a couple weeks late.  We had a great dinner and then went for our normal walk around the square.  Finnean chased squirrels and Hutchinson giggled.  We threw pennies and thanks to Grandma, we had some to throw.  The boys even pose for a picture, of course, Grandma and Poppa had Pella cookies for them...so that helped with getting them to stand still!  Finnean had a football and Hutchinson had a lion.  If you don't know what cookies I am talking about...drive to Pella and get yourself some! They are TASTY!

This picture cracks me up.  Finnean and Hutchinson have some interesting faces and Michael's shirt is covered in stickers BUT it was real life! :)

Bloomfield Fun!

Here is the run down on our Bloomfield Adventure in late August! 

Hutchinson was much more excited than his face suggests.  He LOVES going to Granma and Poppas but I can't get over that face.  He has been perfecting his grumpy face lately!  Soooo...I got a ladder out of a dumpster!  We went to Finnean's story time for preschool a few weeks ago and I noticed it in the trash on the way in.  Long story short, I texted Kelcee, she told me to DO IT and yada, yada, yada...we have a ladder in our living room.  It is freaking awesome and the perfect green.  Someone told me last night that they regularly see ladders like it for $100 at antique stores!  YES!  It is like I MADE money on digging in the dumpster.  Funny thing is, the first day of school Finnean tells Michael, "Hey Dad!  That is where Mommy got our ladder!"  We are going to be "that" family at school, hope he doesn't tell his friends!   After our awesome find, we headed to Bloomfield.  Michael was out of town for an extended period of time, so we packed up and headed for some Southern Iowa fun!  The boys spent most of their time reading books, playing Legos and of course, making laps around the living room with the dump trucks!  We also got to see Grandpa Stevie and the most awesome moon rise ever and we lunched with Grandpa Delbert, Aunt Mary and Sheridan.  It was so nice to get to visit with so many family members on our trip!



Friday morning we headed out for a little Amish Country adventure.  We hit the bakery and scored some yummy cinnamon rolls and stopped at the discount store to get some bulk goods.  I am attempting to make "healthy" granola bars for the boys! Then we headed to the Amish Auction.  Man, I wish I knew how they worked a little more.  They were sell sweet corn for 50 cents a DOZEN!!!  It is so neat to watch the process and this fall I am going to get me some mums there!  You in, Lisa?! The boys loved seeing the ponies and Finnean found some treasure (a super old ruler).  We ate fresh donuts and took inventory of all the yummy produce they had.  It is a neat environment and I can't wait to go back this fall!

 

All of that exploring made us hungry so we headed to "Grandma's restaurant" AKA Oasis in Bloomfield for lunch.  Finnean thinks that it is Grandma's, maybe because we only go their with Grandma?!  They boys actually ate their lunch so they got some ice cream! Crazy kids.



That evening we headed up to the square for Meet the Mustangs.  I did this when I was in high school, so it was fun to take the boys.  It is basically a  huge community pep rally for the fall sports.  We picnicked on the courthouse lawn and sang the fight song.  They got to play carnival games...thanks, Grandma!  Finnean loved seeing the football players and Hutchinson LOVED the band.  They preformed with the color guard and he was amazed by the flags!  They even had free sno cones, perfect for a warm, summer night!  And you just can't beat the sun setting on that beautiful courthouse.  We headed back to Ankeny late that night, as you can see the boys were PUMPED to go for a ride...

Thankfully they did go to sleep just outside of Ottumwa!  It made for a nice quiet ride home! They were so wound up because they just had a huge case of the giggles with Poppa.  I came out of the bathroom and the three of them were almost rolling on the floor because they were laughing so hard.  It was priceless!



Iowa State Fair!!

 

 We just had just returned from Dubuque and we were plum pooped but Grandma and Poppa were heading to the fair the next day and we couldn't pass up a day at the Iowa State Fair with them!  I am so glad that we made it work and the boys had SO much fun!  I think Grandma and Poppa did too!  I took the boys to the Capitol and we rode the bus from there.  It only cost a $1 for us to ride.  Thankfully, a nice man that worked for DART helped me get the stroller on the bus and we were on our way!!

 

Finnean was most fascinated by the HUGE red tractor that was one of the very first things he laid eyes on when we arrived.  He admired it while we waited for Grandma and Poppa to meet up.  He actually didn't want to leave, we had to convince him that there was so much more to see!  We finally got on our way and checked out the "I Milked a Cow" schedule-that was really the only thing on our list of "things to do!"  We grabbed some yummy lunch and then we headed over to Little Hands on the Farm and didn't have to wait in line.  In past years, there was always a long line, so the boys have never been through it before.  I am so glad that they went this year!  They had so much fun and really enjoyed helping them along on the "farm."  If you don't know what I am talking about, let me share a bit.  It is a farm experience from start to finish.  You have to plant and pick your veggies.  Feed the cows and sheep.  Drive the tractor to feed the cows, milk a cow and then take your goods to the farmers market to sell.  After you "sell" your goods, you get a "dollar" and get to buy something in the grocery store!  They had all kinds of goodies.  The boys both picked fruit snacks to buy.  It is such a neat experience!  Next, we had to stop in and see all of the baby animals in the big animal building.  It is so cute to see the little chicks that have just hatched and the tiny baby pigs were a hit!   After we had our animal fix we headed to milk a cow!  Finnean was so excited!  There was a bit of a line, so we had JR Donuts and a lemonade to help pass the time!

Finnean was so brave!! He marched right up there and milked that cow!  He told me that it felt kind of bumpy and a little shaky when the cow moved.  Finnean also said that it was his favorite part of the day!  By this time, it started to warm up a little (the weather was amazingly beautiful), so we hit the splashers and Finnean got soaked!  Hutchinson was more interested in just running around the water and not getting wet!  We posed for a few more pictures (Finnean did NOT want to be in the picture with Grandma, Poppa and Hutchy) and then headed back on the bus.  There was not anyone to help get the stroller on, so I was feeling like quite the super hero that I made it back on the bus with two boys that missed a nap without any trouble at all!  I am so thankful that we had the chance to do the Iowa State Fair with Grandma and Poppa!  What a great day for making memories!

 

This is what Hutchy looked like after a long day at the fair...I had to wake him up a little after 5 so he would sleep that night!

Round Two of the Iowa State Fair!

Our goal was get to the fair bright and early and get out before the boys got crabby.  We did!  We found a parking spot down on the East Side and headed in.  We were enjoying the beautiful morning and waiting in line (yes, Little Hands on the Farm was so cool-we waited in line) for the farm and our morning got a little exciting.  I heard Hutchinson say, "Momma" and I looked at him just in time to see him throw up.  For real, son.  We JUST got here and you throw up.  Poor little fellow.  We are pretty sure that he got car sick.  Michael was bobbing and weaving to get us a good parking spot and it must have been too much for little H.  Within minutes he was fine and begging to go into the farm with Daddy...so we cleaned him up and started our day.  It is never dull with boys!!

 



It was fun for the boys to explore the farm again and show Michael around.  They LOVE showing him around.  Finnean decided on a Bomb Pop at the store and had that for snack at 9:30 in the morning!  Only at the State Fair, right!? 

We headed up to the top of hill via the tractor shuttle that Finnean wanted to ride.  We stumbled upon the Wine Experience and decided that we should stomp grapes.  Finnean was curious and excited.  He said he would do it with me!  So we signed up and then waited for our stomping debut!  We found out that you need a "mucker" or someone to help get the juice out of the barrel.  Michael volunteered his mucking services and we were set...until Finnean backed out about 30 seconds in.  The grapes were FREEZING.  So cold that it hurt your feet to smoosh them.  So I got to squish juice out of 18 lbs. of green and purple (Finnean picked them out) for 3 minutes.  After the three minutes were up, we had to use our hands to get as much juice out as possible.  I was not aware of this step when I signed up.  I really dislike getting my hands icky, but I powered through and our team squeezed 14.6 cm of juice out!  We did take third out of three in our heat but we had fun!  We got a ribbon, which Finnean was super pumped about and tells everyone about!  I do have to say that we only ha 2 cm less than the other teams and only one grape stomper, they all had two!  Michael thinks that next year we can take home the blue ribbon!!  Win or lose, we had a lot of laughs and it was fun! 

After we got cleaned up from the stomping, we headed down for some lunch.  Finnean declared that he wanted a corn dog and we had some fruit cups under the shade tree that we always sit under.  We checked out the miniature train museum and the boys LOVED it.  Finnean is still talking about it.  Hutchinson found a tractor that he thought was pretty darn neat.  We decided that we have not seen him smile like this before.  He was a happy camper!

We stopped for one last snack before we headed home...a Fair Square!  We tried one of each and decided that the plain was the best!  A facebook friend pointed out how we are all smiling and Hutchinson is just eyeing down the treat!!  It was such a fun day at the fair and I am so glad that this is a family tradition for us.  Finnean just asked me if we could go back next year.  Absolutely, buddy, absolutely!

{One of the best things about this trip to the fair...we did it on a budget!  We scored free tickets from a friend and parking was free (we paid the price in throw up, I guess).  We didn't over eat!  We had corn dogs and fruit for lunch and Fair Squares ($6 for 3) for our treat.  Of course we packed snacks and pb and j for the littles and lots of water!  I think eliminating drink costs is the easiest way to save money.  Our final total was $20.50.  I can tell you that we aren't always this budget friendly at the fair but we did prove to ourselves that it doesn't have to be super expensive to go.  We also knew that we were going back to the fair without the kids later that night...we were saving our money for that!}

Go Cubbies!

A few weeks ago we headed to the I Cubs game with two families from our neighborhood.  It was SO fun!  I have always dreamed of having fun neighbors.  Between the three families, we have 5 little boys 6 or under.  It was a hoot!  The weather was perfect, you know where it gets just a little chilling and you need something on your arms at night?  Yes, that kind of perfect!  We attempted to stay for fireworks but our boys just got too tired.  We hadn't had any meltdowns or issues, so we decided to leave while we were ahead!  We found out later that the I Cubs did end up winning!  We bought a Groupon earlier in the year-so we had cheap tickets and our friends snagged some awesome seats for us.  We packed tons of snacks and (illegally) brought them into the game.  You would have thought that the boys hadn't had anything to eat in days.  We all shared snacks and tons of laughs.  All of the boys did great and it was such a fun night.  Here are a few pictures from our adventure! 

Hutchinson knows that you always need more cowbell!  A rare Finnean and Mom picture-sometimes he is just too cool for the camera!  Hutchinson was happy and loved the game!  Michael snapped this neat picture of the city and Finnean when they went to stretch their legs!

We have had an excess of family adventures this August.  Our schedule has been packed-just trying to sneak in as much fun as possible before we head back to school and back to a bedtime routine.  These kids have been up late more in the past few months than ever before but it has been SO FUN!  We have made so many memories and we are excited to catch another I Cubs game on Wednesday night!