Fall Fun

Our October has started out fairly busily. In addition to the birthday celebrations last weekend, our church hosted a 5k to support a charity in Rwanda. It was pretty chilly and dreary that morning, but Brooke and Matt did the 2 mile Fun Run - though they ran more than 2 miles due to a wrong turn.

Matt said that Brooke and her friend Emily definitely ran a majority of the way. I pushed these two and walked with Matt's parents, who also joined us.

It was a cold, early morning, but we were happy to come out to support such a great cause.

Matt and Scott were ashamed to be Bears fans.

Brooke has been bringing her "future daughter" Rose with her everywhere.

Playing on the iPad together. Some days this works better than others.

Just today, we went to Sonny Acres with Christy and Kail.

Brooke on her pony, Cactus.

Miles, Paige and I rode the spinning pumpkins.

Paige wasn't quite sure what to think.

It was a beautiful day! We decided to try for a photo op on our way out.

Happy Fall!

Octoberfest

We had a family dinner this past weekend to celebrate all FIVE October birthdays in the Alley family. Each of the birthday guests got to make two menu requests for the evening. Matt requested teriyaki beef and apple pie and Brooke requested ice cream cones (Drumstiks, to be specific) and sushi.

We had a fun evening visiting and eating.

There was also some coloring that took place.

Of course there was also singing and candles (props to Will for blowing his out on the first try - in a pressure filled situation, nonetheless).

And gift opening. Brooke and Bri were good helpers. Paige and Miles, not so much.

We also had a little impromptu celebration when our great friends, the Wellers, had us over for (an amazing) lunch along with a birthday cupcake for Matt.

We finished up the celebration by meeting Matt and his parents for lunch on his birthday. His mom and I thought it was crazy that this was the number we got for our order. Matt wasn't as impressed.

Happy birthday, Matt, Brian, Jane, Will and Brooke (of course there will be more on her birthday when it's actually here)! We love you!

St. Louis!

An institute day in our school district happened to coincide with my mom's birthday last weekend, so we made the trip down to St. Louis. It had been a couple of months and we were all happy to see everyone. On our first night, Uncle Tim treated the kids to a little science experiment. I wasn't paying attention, but it was something involving pennies in a cup of water and it kept them all on the edge of their seats, so I was impressed.

Then we went to see Uncle Joel and Jen's volleyball game. We definitely had the only kids there. The kids didn't seem to mind.

The next day, we went to one of our favorite places in St. Louis - the zoo. Brooke and Lexi took their notebooks and legitimately did writings/drawings of the stuff we were observing. It was pretty cute.

Trouble.

Love.

Of course we had to ride the train. A highlight was the girls and Luke sitting in the back and getting to take turns saying, "All aboard!" into the loudspeaker.

My grandparents took us to a pizza place where my grandpa spent way too much money on tokens for the kids to play arcade games. Want to guess which Claw game was easiest?

This girl. How can you not smile? Seriously THE most easygoing baby ever.

Paige loves her baby cousins. The problem is, the line between her kissing and biting is blurred and she now has a bunch of teeth. Poor Grace. Bri should probably watch her back, too.

Speaking of Paige, she can be pretty photogenic when she'll be bothered with smiling for you.

We took lunch to Uncle Joel.

We also went to the carnival at the church by my parents' house.

The ferris wheel felt much less safe than I'd expected. Probably because I was rocking the car so much with my awkward selfie attempts.

The roller coaster was their favorite ride. Their faces were priceless.

We also wasted money on spent some time at the games.

Brooke actually had a pretty decent shot. She won a couple of stuffed animals and was happy that the guy running the game called her Annie Oakley, even though she had no idea what he meant by it.

We finished the visit with a birthday dinner for my mom, and unfortunately this is the only photo I have of that night.

Happy birthday, Mom! We love you!