Redwoods trip day 1

This Wednesday we departed around 4:00 pm (an hour behind schedule) to start our journey to the Redwoods for our UEA break.

It is about 7 hours to our overnight stop just outside of Reno. However....

there was a toxic road spill on I-80 that shut the whole freeway down. So in the town of Wells we got to take a nice detour down to Ely then back up and over to Elko before continuing on to our hotel outside of Reno. So instead of arriving around 10:30-11 pm, we pulled in at 2:30 am! Oi vay!

6 Years Old!

Josh started off his birthday helping out at the school PTA. It was jog-a-thon prize day. He got to choose out a prize. He was deciding between a smores kit, a Star Wars blanket, or a Star Wars pen. The smores kit was taken by someone else, so he chose the blanket.

Next, he had his class Halloween party since today was our last day on track. He also got to celebrate his birthday in class by bringing a treat to share. He chose to bring Gushers. 

He chose to wear his Harry Potter costume from last year to class instead of the firefighter costume we bought this year..

After school he played with his birthday toys. This year he got a couple of R/C cars, ninja turtles figures, Minecraft account, gum, and pixie stix, and he got his Power Wheels truck fixed. Grandma and Grandpa Van Leeuwen stopped by to say happy birthday and deliver his birthday gift. Then he was off to a classmates birthday party! He got to have a pinata at her party, which he loved.

We took Josh out to his birthday dinner at Red Robin's per his request.

Later that night he blew out his trick candles (his request again) on his birthday Costco cake.

Birthday interview:

What's your favorite color?  the rainbow
What's your favorite food?  milk
What's your least favorite food?  oranges
What is your favorite breakfast food? strawberries
What is your favorite animal?  zebra
What's your favorite thing to do?  play with my friends, I mean my family
What's your favorite thing to play?  hide and seek
What's your favorite toy?  remote control cars
What's your favorite book?  Biscuit
What's your favorite movie?  I really want to watch Emojis, so I'm going to say Emojis
What's your favorite subject in school?  playing on the playground
What do you want to be when you grow up?  nothing
Where is your favorite place to go?  California
Where do you want to go on vacation?  California
What makes you happy?  Biscuit
What was the funnest thing about being 5? Staying with my mom
What will be the best thing about being 6? Going to school, off track
What do you really like about yourself right now? I am kind

Halloween class party

Since we are going off track, Josh had his class Halloween party today. After the Harry Potter stand we did this week, he decided to dress up as Harry Potter today. It's also his birthday so he took Gushers as a birthday treat today. Then after school a classmate was having her own birthday party. So Josh got to party on his birthday with very little inconvenience to me :)

First fied trip

Josh had his first field trip of elementary school. They went to the zoo. I was able to go with them and had 4 boys in my group. 3 of them were good listeners, and only 1 (not Josh) needed a little more reminding to not run off. And no one was lost. Success!

Harry Potter stand

The kids school fundraiser is this week. I don't let my kids go around to neighbors and beg for money. So they are usually only getting money from parents and grandparents. This year my boys wanted to earn more money so they talked me into a lemonade stand. Instead of lemonade though, we did chocolate frogs and butter beer. I made around 64 frogs and only had 2 left at the end of the 2 hours. They were a hit! All the money went to the school fundraiser. We might even do it again next year.

Alpine Loop

At the last minute we decided to take a fall drive through Alpine Loop. Josh really wanted me to take his picture, so I put everyone in coordinating outfits to get some fall pictures together.  However, once we arrived in the mountains and got out of the car, Josh insisted he hates the mountains AND pictures! Needless to say, the ideal fall family pictures idea had to go out the window. We got ONE semi decent one we COULD use for Christmas cards this year. Argh!

Pumpkin patch

We went with the Korth family to Mabey's pumpkin patch this year. Hayden and Josh decided to wear their costumes for the occasion. Hayden is Link from Legend of Zelda. Josh is a fireman.