Buxton Thanksgiving

We had out make-up Thanksgiving with my family on Sunday.  Of course, Tuna joined us and has a new seat in the Trax.

We had a huge taco bar for lunch with all the fixings.

Esme grabbed a frozen swiss cake roll for her dessert.

Esme had a great time wrestling with Jameson and Jaxxon.

We moved downstairs for the annual pool tournament.

Kelsey and myself were the first ones knocked out.

Esme and Parker enjoyed a dip in the hot tub.

The final match-up came down to Grandpa and Jimmy with Grandpa taking another title.  I think the rest of us are going to have to practice more this coming year.  My mom, Kelsey, and I said we should have some girls nights out to a billiards room.

Holiday Movies and Bonus Advent Week

Jimmy had Home Alone on a few nights ago and Esme really liked watching it for a while.

Then Esme and I caught a movie at the theater on Saturday.  Wish looked like such a cute movie and it brought so much Disney nostalgia.

Sunday brought a bonus Advent present since there are actually 5 Sundays between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I hadn't planned on starting it yet, but Jimmy wanted to.

Parker got a Christmas tree light-up spinner. Esme got a book reading light, and Jimmy got a cupholder expander for the Trax.

I added our newest stocking patches as well.  Both Parker and Esme's were pretty intricate, Daniel Tiger, and Bluey.

Jimmy wanted "truth" so I made the belt of truth from Ephisians 6.

I added a custom t-shirt icon since I've been doing that for a while now.

Return of the Trek for a Tree!

Another great thing about doing Parker's birthday party earlier is being able to decorate for Christmas right after Thanksgiving.  You may remember last year's FAILED Trek for a Tree.  Our local hardware store came through and had trees again.  Parker was very excited about the whole process.  He pulled the cart the whole way there and back.

I found a nice one pretty quickly and we made our way out.  After a couple years of higher prices, I feel like they have dropped a bit again.

Esme brought her new pal, Tuna, for our journey as well.

While we let the real tree warm up, we set up a second fake tree in the basement.  Between our vacation ornaments and the ones the kids get each year, we have quite the collection so I decided to give the kids their own tree.  While I love our real tree, there are also limitations with decorating since the branches flex.

Parker's enthusiasm continued with our Christmas village.

It ended up being a little bigger than I expected and took up the whole space between our couch and the wall.  Esme helped hang ornaments to finish it off.

Looking forward to a great Christmas season.

Beyond 100 Parks #122 - Reserve Park - Plymouth, MN

It was nice enough today to get out to a park.  Esme's new friend, Tuna, joined us.

Key Features

This park had hanging swings all around the perimeter, which was a fun addition.

This spring swing was a new feature for us to see at a park.  There was alos a springy beam which we've seen one other time at Parkers Lake.

This was one of the oldest parks we've been to with rope climbers.

Esme has become a bit of a tire swing expert and enjoys pushing people on it at school.  We don't see many public parks with them.

Here is a video of her pushing Parker.

Tuna had some trouble with the climbing wall, but Esme helped her out.

A solid 8, easily a 9 if there was one more spinning feature for Parker.