Dress Up Blythe

I will admit, having 2 boys and then a girl, we are a little behind on the world of "girls". We have a ton of Hot Wheels cars, plenty of Lego's, superhero capes, an arsenal of Nerf guns and multiple buckets of balls. Well, back in October, we had our monthly dinner club over at the Siskow's house. Blythe and Sidney (she's 7) went up to Sidney's room to play dress up. Blythe came down in this dress...and she was beaming! She wore it the whole night and couldn't stop talking about princess dresses.

 Then we had the incident at Halloween, upon seeing 2 other girls at music class dressed as princess's, she took off her elephant hat and wanted to be a princess. Laci, a co-worker in my office heard this story and passed along a Sleeping Beauty dress that her two girls have out grown

 ...and here is B in the Sleeping Beauty dress. She could be found in this dress nearly everyday!

From fall to winter, she even learned how to twirl...because that's what princesses do!

 And of course, she was now asking for a princess dress for Christmas!

 ...but not just any dress...a purple dress. And so, ta-da! Rapunzel (purple dress) can now be seen twirling around our house!

We still have plenty of Nerf guns (Blythe has her own Nerf gun too!) and our Lego collection keeps growing...but it is fun to have some splashes of pink and purple in the toy room!

Dr. Dad

Bear has been in our family almost 3 years now and he has been well loved. He wears a "Happy Birthday" t-shirt and can be found with G most days and for sure every night! Well, last night, it was discovered the Bear had a rotator cuff tear and was loosing some stuffing. Never fear, Dr. Dad opened up his schedule to perform surgery!

 We prepped Bear for surgery and got all the tools I would need. G waited nervously in the waiting room while Bear went in for the minor operation.

 A few stitches later and his arm was already starting to look better.

 After surgery, Bear was back and good as new and needless to say G was happy to have his friend back.

Sewing skills for the win!

Climb Iowa

Trigg has always loved the outdoors and for his birthday this year we took him to Climb Iowa to see what he thought about indoor rock climbing!

Climb Iowa is in Grimes and it is a great facility, the staff is awesome and they have a bunch of auto-belay courses that are fun for all ages!  Check them out: https://www.climbiowa.com/

 We got Trigg rigged up with his harness, had a safety lesson with the staff and we were off and climbing!

 Trigg was a little nervous at first about the auto-belay device and that it would actually catch him if he fell, but after some practice, he got used to it!

 Up we go!

 I hopped on the wall too! If you've never been climbing, be sure to remove rings before you start...your hands tend to swell!

 And we made it to the top!

 37 feet up to the top of the wall!

 Two thumbs up from these guys!

 Trigg had a blast at Climb Iowa and couldn't stop talking about it, which of course made his brother a little jealous. So, we found a Friday in November when Garrett and Trigg didn't have school, I took the day off and the 3 dudes headed to Climb Iowa for another round on the rocks!
Garrett was pretty excited to try it out!

 Trigg quickly remembered how to climb and was anxious to show off for his brother!

 "Trigg, want to take a picture of Dad while I climb?"... Trigg is good at climbing and we are working on his picture taking skills!

 Going up!

 Having fun!

 37 feet...no problem!

 Trigg conquered a couple of different routes to the top!

 All smiles

 G in action!

Trigg tried bouldering (climbing without ropes). Climb Iowa has a big bouldering wall set up in the middle of their gym, surrounded by think 15" foam pads (don't worry Grandma, it's safe!)

He made it to the top but couldn't quite figure out how to get up and over the top ledge.

 G...or maybe Spiderman!

 Both boys on the wall!

 Both boys had a ton of fun climbing...which gave me an idea. We have a fort in the basement that I could turn one side into a climbing wall...So, I grabbed my climbing holds and some long screws...now the boys can practice in the basement!

 It's not 37 feet tall, but it works

 Trigg approves!

 And Blythe gives it a big smile as she climbs the wall too!

Climb On!

Halloween

This year for Halloween we had Captain America, a park ranger and an elephant. At some point, Trigg got the idea that park rangers are very serious and he refused to smile for any pictures when he was wearing the uniform...

 Very serious...until I got him giggling...

 ...which lead to more giggles...

 ...and full on laughter!

 Our crew ready to roll.

 Hyperion did a trick or treat event the weekend before Halloween, so we got the chance to test out our costumes and our jokes!

 Then it was pumpkin carving time! Well, carving and painting.

 Blythe and Garrett went for the painting route...it's less messy

 Garrett working hard on his pumpkin!

 Trigg cut the top off his and dug right in!

 Ooeey and gooey pumpkin guts!

 Blythe went for the elephant theme

 Garrett painted Captain America's shield on his pumpkin

 All set and ready for candy!

 Blythe was pretty excited to be an elephant for Halloween...until she went to music class and saw 2 other little girls dressed up as a princess. She slowly removed her elephant hat and said softly..."I want to be a princess" I told my co-workers this story and Laci, having 2 daughters of her own said, "I think we have an old Sleeping Beauty dress at home that my girls can't fit in anymore" So Laci brought it to work on the day families can trick or treat at the office. Once Blythe found that crown, she wore it home! Having 2 boys, princess dresses were not on our radar...but they are now on Blythe's Christmas list!

Happy Halloween from a future park ranger, Captain America and a princess (formally an elephant)! And Laci has become Blythe's favorite at dad's office!