The Van Pelt's Blog Spot

The last few months of the year are always our busiest and most exciting. It starts with Robin's birthday, then Tyler's birthday, Halloween, Michele's birthday, Thanksgiving, Ryan's birthday and finally Christmas.

In September we celebrated Robin's birthday with gifts and ice cream cake.

I also made surprise plans for a day of fun at Astroworld for just the two of us. It was a perfect day to go since the weather was nice and there were no crowds. A week later we found out that Astroworld is closing their doors forever at the end of October so I am so glad we had the chance to go one last time before it shut down. Talk about great timing!

In October, we threw Tyler a "Magic" themed birthday party at our home for his 5th birthday. This was such an imaginative and fun party to plan. For invitations, I sent each invitee a deflated black balloon with an attached message that read: "Inflate to reveal a special message from Tyler". I wrote out the the party details on the balloon in gold ink which was "magically" revealed when the balloon was inflated.

The highlight of the party was the magic show a friend of ours named Joe performed for everyone. Tyler was more than thrilled when he was asked to help out as the assistant. The kids (including the toddlers) LOVED the show and were on the edge of their seats the whole time in excitement.

We gave each birthday guest a black top hat and a magic wand, as well as a mini deck of cards, a coin magic trick, a package of pop rocks candy and a sheet of magic scratch art so they could pretend to be little magicians themselves. With a dash of magic and a pinch of creativity...SHAZAM, the party was a complete
success!

Of course, Tyler and Ryan are very excited about the upcoming Halloween festivities. They have been having fun going through our box of past costumes and accessories and helping me decorate. They will dress as Ninjas this year. Stay tuned for pictures from our night of trick or treating.

The boys love to help Daddy with his projects around the house. Robin is always fixing, building something or cleaning his bike and "Daddy's Little Helpers" are always there willing to lend a helping hand whenever there is work to be done.

Another school year has begun! Tyler and Ryan are attending separate programs at the Sugar Creek Baptist Church this year. Tyler is in preschool 3 days a week and Ryan attends the Moms Day Out program 2 days a week. The teachers are wonderful and the boys are thriving. I'm especially impressed with the preschool program. The weekly activities include computer lab, centers, cooking, arts and crafts, chapel, music and playground time as well as workbook practice including writing, tracing, coloring, cutting and pasting. Every week, I am amazed at all of the worksheets and craft projects Tyler brings home in his folder. He does so much in the 3 short days that he has class and he seems to really be enjoying it all.

We went to Dewberry Farms today. It's a cute little farm for kids located in Brookshire, Texas (just outside of Houston). They offer many fun things to see and do like hay rides, corn maze, pumpkin patch, 4 acre playground, a barnyard and lots more. The boys and I had alot of fun, but boy was it HOT! You'd never know it was Fall. The temp is still in the high 80's or low 90's here in Texas.