Ryker's friend Ari's birthday is a few days before his and he had his party at Lang's Pony Farm.
Pony painting
Too much fun!
Opening gifts from grandma and grandpa early because they were going to be gone on their birthdays. Guess what they asked for? Yep, Legos!
This area in our house is now a permanent Lego City. There's not much to it at this point but after their birthdays, it was jam packed with new Legos.
The birthday books they chose for school. Kya had a different one she was going to take and Ryker came home from school one day and said he had read the funniest book at school and it needed to be her birthday book. Sure enough, The Book with No Pictures, had them in stitches. He was right. Ryker's "Three Ninja Pigs" was a big hit too and the teacher was thankful for the book donation.
Ryker didn't want a big birthday party this year. He just wanted to take a few friends to the drive in movie. It worked out perfectly. The boys loved the arcade and had a great time watching the movie together.
Ryker and Ari
Roman
Larkin
Dance Kya, dance!
Dinner time
We couldn't drag Jake away from Skee-ball. He loved it!
Big winner!
After the arcade they had a little time to play before the movie started.
Figuring out who's it for tag.
Present time.
Ready for the show
Crazy boys!
The less goofy vehicle.
In lieu of a cake, Ryker wanted Montana Moose Moss ice cream. I called around to grocery stores, looked online and even called the creamery in Livingston. No luck, it's only available in Montana, parts of Wyoming, and parts of ND. I found something similar that he was happy with, but it wasn't quite as good. Damn you Wilcoxin's, expand your territory before next October!
Ready for gymnastics! Already in her "star jump" position.
We went to Red Robin to get their free birth month burgers and finally let Ryker order those onion rings he's always wanted. He only asks for them at Red Robin and I think it's because they come in a tower.
School picture day. He came down with his accessories and as much as I wanted him to take off the leather cuffs and Navaho necklace, I held my tongue. I'm saving my battles for when he's older and wants to get tattoos or earrings that stretch your lobes. For now, he can express himself any way he wants as long as it isn't permanent....that will need to wait until he's not under my roof.
Easy girl to please. She loved her My Little Pony carousel cake.
After Ryker went to Ari's party at Lang's Pony Farm, she wanted to do hers there. I was a little nervous since October is a crap shoot for weather. Sure enough the wind came up a little and Lang's cancelled about 2 hours before the party. We had to go to plan B and meet at Jungle Playland. She was disappointed at first, but once all her friends showed up and were really excited it was at Jungle Playland, she was happy about it. Birthday saved!
Sweaty from playing in the playset, but ready for cake!
A little help from Mara
Colton, Kya, Mara, Olive, Abby, Amelia, and Ryker
Pumpkin patch time
Ready for the Seattle Knights show at the Rhodes River Ranch.
Ryker didn't want to look the people in the eyes for quite some time. They all had creepy fake scars and gross contacts.
He also didn't like him sneaking up behind him with his big sword.
Kya cam
Right back at you cowgirl.
And, me again....
It wasn't as good as we thought it would be but we had fun and now we know.
Monkey see, monkey do. Wilson followed Memphis right up onto our neighbors stump.
Kya loves her new birthday pillow from Colton.
Ryker and Grandma Vi in front of the stained glass that had to come down. We took it home hoping to make something out of it, but the wood was too rotten so Seth took the glass out and we'll figure something out one of these days.
Kya got a cake at Asa's birthday party because it was on her actual birthday.
Stretching out
We carved a lot of pumpkins this year. We purchased some really big ones, but they also each got 2 from field trips so we ended up having more than we really needed.
Ryker did a great job on his and did it by himself.
Kya drew hers on and Seth helped her cut it.
Edison kids across from the school getting their free pumpkins from the man that grows one for every kid in the school.
Kya did a cheerleading camp at the school one night and then got to cheer at a BEHS game. I don't have many good pictures because it was so funny that I had to video it to send to my family. They had the kids lined up by age and she accidentally got out of order so she was mixed in with some older girls. If she had been with her age, none of them knew the cheers. The older girls knew all the moves though and she was always zigging while they were zagging so to speak. She bumped into the girl next to her a few times and the girl gave her a dirty look like "what are you doing?" Haha, she's as tall as them too so they were probably annoyed with her thinking she was there age. She had a blast though, cheered her heart out, and will be none the wiser until she's older and reads this! It was partially my fault though because a lot of the moms I was standing with were cheerleaders in high school so they knew the cheers and practiced with their girls. Some other overachieving cheer lovers told me at the game they had videoed the high school cheer leaders at the camp (while I was laughing at my kid) so their kids could practice the chants and moves in the week leading up to the big game. Kya actually wanted to practice, but I was zero help. Sorry girl, I'll try harder next year. Meanwhile, if you need help with your jump shot, let me know.
The thumbs up must mean it's going well. Hopefully she hasn't noticed me laughing so hard, I'm crying.
He end of cheer freelance moves were amazing! I'm not sure what this is, but if it doesn't have a name, it should. It was some kind of crazy jump followed by a squat sort of move. The end looks a lot like her splits that she would attempt that only went about this far down too.
They wore their Tai Kwon Do uniforms to the Blanchard Halloween party since they were easier to run around in than their real costumes.
Ryker was outside playing hoops most of the party.
Pretty proud of their Jack O Lanterns.
Here's the sweet car we owned for about 4 days. I wanted to drive this thing so bad, but Seth sold it to a guy that wanted it more than him before we even got to see it.
Kilburn's house a week before Halloween.
This was the biggest one, 1180 pounds!
We had flowers and small pumpkins from the farm so the kids made pumpkin flower vases for teachers and Grandma's.
Schuh farm field trip story time.
Feeding Schuh's chickens
I put these in Kya and Ryker's lunch. They thought it was hysterical.
Ryker's school had "Back to a Future Without Bullying" week at school. On the actual day Marty McFly went back to the future it was dress up day. Of course Ryker wanted to be dropped off in the DeLorean.
Some 8th graders saw him and couldn't believe it. They tracked him down and found out who had the DeLorean, then Seth's friend who is a teacher their called to see if we could bring it back down because everyone wanted to see it and they wanted to get pictures with it. Ryker felt like a celebrity and told me that all the attention felt really good. Needless to say, he had an amazing day at school and is hoping that he makes the yearbook. Haha!
Ryker's "cool cats" posse....Dustin, Jake, and Garrison
He took this picture to school just in case his classmates hadn't seen back to the future and didn't know who he was.
One of the Edison group pics.
Edison school parade.
Kya wanted to be a peacock......or a fairy.....wait, how about a peacock fairy? Yes, that's it, I want to be a peacock fairy Mom!
Uh, okay, I'll work on that but I might need a little clarification as to what exactly that is.
Ryker knew right away this year that he wanted to be a Lego man. He just had to decide which one. He settled on the green Ninja.
Mr. and Mrs. Wyman as they call each other. (Skylar has the same last name, but they aren't related) What little goofballs! They asked me to take a picture of them and snuggled right in like best buds. "She's just better than most girls, never annoying" he always tells me.
Halloween night, ready to hit the mean streets of Anacortes for some trick or treating.
Grandma Vi trying out the Lego head
The Kilburn yard Halloween night. So much work goes into this each year, but it is definitely a sight to see.
Dinner at the Salzer's after Trick or Treating. Kya thought the Mummy bread was pretty funny.
She is loving her gymnastics classes.
Over the top blue and gold day at school.
Preparing the brussel sprouts.
