Seven

Finn turned 7 in style with a big birthday bash with all of his school friends. He had his party at a local kids gym that offered a bounce pit, trampolines, and zip lining. A lot of Finn's school friends were able to attend along with some of his long time buddies. On Finn's actual birthday we let him pick wherever he wanted to eat. He choose Burger King. That's right- Burger King. My children have very simple tastes. He topped off the night with a milkshake and his big gift of Heelys (shoes with roller skates).

Da 'Niners

Finn had another fun football season, this time on the Forty Niners team. His touchdown count was still zero, but he has made vast improvements since last year's season. He learned how to run and began one of the fastest runners on the team. It's amazing how much faster he can run once he learns to stop running on his heels. He learned the rules of the game and became much more focused. It is safe to say that Finn has become football obsessed. He genuinely looks forward to watching a football game with his dad and knows things about the game. He has even asked to redecorate his room with stickers from every football team's logo. Let me get back to you on that one, Finn. Finn has made the decision to pursue basketball, football, and maybe tennis instead of any other sports. He will start playing a spring season this March. And, in case you were wondering, he is a Vikings fan.

Fairies and legos

We had another fun Halloween this year. Sloane got really into dressing up and decided to get a Tinkerbell costume. She has had an obsession with "bad ladies" or female Disney villains for awhile. She was obsessed with the idea of these "bad ladies" and always wanted to read books and watch movies with them in it. It was funny but also a little worrisome. Sloane's favorite bad lady was Cruella Deville. So, she was all set to be Cruella for Halloween but out of the blue she developed a fear of all things scary. Now, she wants nothing to do with bad ladies or anything remotely spooky. So, Tinkerbell it was. Finn wanted to be a lego ninja figurine. I found a tutorial of how to make your own lego costume using Styrofoam and duct tape. I thought- oh, cheap and easy. No. hobby stories are running a racket on Styrofoam. It is way more expensive than you might think. And it was way more time consuming than we thought. Rick did most of the work. It turned out so cute. There was one small problem... Finn could barely walk in it. It took him like 10 minutes to go from one house to the next while trick or treating We tried pulling him in the wagon, but I think that was too embarrassing. So, the pieces of the costume started coming off piece by piece. Ugh. At least we got some good photo ops.

1K

Finn participated in another kids 1K this winter. He was joined by his buddy Aidan, and ran the whole time. They even participated in the Zumba warm-up together. Finn's school is starting a running program at school that will have them running the length of a marathon (in a few month's time span.) Finn has come a long way from his running on his heels all the time. Now he is considered one of the fastest runners on his sports teams.

It's that time of year

Finn had another season of football this year and has decided it is his favorite sport. We could see a lot of improvement from last year, and they even won two games (two more than last year!) Finn told everyone that he played white receiver (umm..make that wide receiver Finn, although it is technically accurate). Can't wait for another season, which Finn has decided will be this spring. He has decided against soccer and baseball and decided to focus on football and basketball.

Farewell Big Tex

We made our annual trek to the State Fair this year, right around my Dad's birthday. as always, it was quite the experience. The weather was chilly and misty so the fair was a lot less crowded than it usually is. Finn and rick rode a lot of "big kid" rides that Finn had never experienced before. He loved them. Sloane fell victim to a bad face painting job. She wanted her face painted like a panda, specifically a cute and cuddly one. What she got was a scary, Gothic panda face. It was bad. You know it's disturbing when you are the ones being stared at, at the State Fair. Seriously, there is some good people watching there. Erin and I were all about stuffing our faces on the interesting fair food. Some of the hits- deep fried cake balls and deep fried mashed potatoes. A couple of misses- the Picnic on a stick (still makes me gag to think about it) and the chocolate dipped jalapenos. The Fair is always a good time, and I hope it's always a family tradition. Unfortunately, this would be the last time we would see Big Tex in all of his glory. A week or so later Big Tex fell victim to an electrical fire. So sad!

Cake balls and Deep Fried Taters. Oh Yeah.

Erin experiencing chocolate dipped jalapenos. Dirty!

Finn and Pop Pop.

Creepy Panda girl

Finn's Steven Tyler impersonation

Umm... yeah. Others got their faces painted too.

Johnny Be Good

Every year the first graders at our school celebrate Johnny Appleseed Day. They learn about John Chapman's life, make homemade applesauce, and dress like Johnny Appleseed. He presumably wore a pot on his head and suspenders. Hence, Finn's outfit. He definitely did Johnny justice!