Weekend

We bought some fake blood in anticipation of Halloween.  And just my luck, I found a vampire that needed to be stabbed in the heart with a wooden stake.  Mission accomplished.

Coop and I went to KC to see Wicked:

Very cool!

And then we went to Ikea.  Way less cool.  Still impressive, but overwhelming.  And heavy.  We picked out a new desk and chair for him, though.  And then I spent hours assembling it all:

And then Coop spent hours getting it all organized:

Success!

Campout

Our church held a weekend campout event in celebration of its 20th anniversary.  Coop and I were able to go for some of festivities.

At the bonfire:

Fishing:

Pedal boating:

Frog!!

Ren Fest and A New Car!!

Coop and I headed out to the KC Renaissance Festival on Saturday.  A fairy gave Coop this origami dragon, which he loved:

And we ate a scotch egg, which I loved!!

(The outer breading coating is sausage based.  Man, it's good!)


In other news, the Hyundai Santa Fe (lovingly named Stanley) died recently.  I went car shopping and Coop send me with this list of "approved colors":

I think I did ok with this RAV4:

Coop's rendition:

(He's lucky I picked the base model and so there were only two extra "features" for him to list!)

Halloween prep

Coop has decided he wants to be Indiana Jones this year for Halloween:

He's quite excited about the bull whip, even though we can't actually make it "crack."

 He even drew Indiana Jones maps that we aged (by burning and soaking in tea):

Unrelated to Halloween or Indiana Jones, Coop had a playdate with his friend Molly and came home with this:

Yeah.... that's sharpie.

Magic

Coop's been working on some magic tricks.  He's getting pretty good:

Misc

Coop and I have been working on a model airplane thing:

Eventually we finished:

Though not without some frustration.  Hence the first item on this "to do list."  But we solved the problem and crossed off that item.  The others are pretty interesting though:

Coop's karate studio had a parents night out event where kids could bring nerf guns.  Coop had a fabulous time, and he actually won this new nerf gun in a drawing that evening:

Big kid

Coop requested tennis shoes for the start of the school year (instead of the cowboy boots he's been wearing all summer).  In addition to the velcro ones we bought, he was interested in tie shoes.  So he's been working:

One afternoon, we went with Carrie and her kids to a small circus that came to Baldwin.  Coop invited Eleanor to go with him to buy peanuts.  Too precious:

In order to convince Coop to go grocery shopping with me, I agreed to divide up the list and give him several items (and his own cart!) to go find.  I secretly stalked him from around the corner, but he did a great job hunting down groceries:

Pets

Coop decided to use his own money to buy a pet fish:

He named it Takiza (the name of a siamese fighting fish in the Shark Wars series of books he reads):

Jenny helping us knock down a castle:

For the first time since we've had her, Jenny shed her skin in one big snake-shaped chunk.  Too cool!

Alan took Coop to a "cold blooded expo" in Overland Park this past weekend.  Coop got to hold all kinds of snakes and turtles and whatnot.  Thankfully, he only came home with a gummy alligator.

Legos!

Coop had fun putting together a small lego set while I used the "time lapse video" feature on my phone:

Back to school!

Cooper's first day of third grade!!

He's been wearing cowboy boots all summer, but decided he wanted tennis shoes so he could run faster at school.  He had to take a few laps around the store (including a jump!) to test them out:

Coop and Alan got settled into their new place.  The door in this picture leads to Coop's bedroom.  Above it is the loft, which apparently will be a library / play room eventually.  For now, it makes the perfect place to hide during a nerf gun war:

I ordered a new bed for Coop at this house.  He and Gus and Eleanor had a fun time playing around it:

Back to KS...

On the way back to Kansas, the boys stopped at Castle Rock:

And then went to Lyons for a few rounds of frisbee golf with mom and dad:

Coop spent a few days in Lyons, including many hours at the pool:

And ice cream at Dairyland:

And legos:

Fun Park!

The boys went to a Fun Park at Breckenridge.  They rode this ski lift up to the top of an alpine slide:

Alan ran into Kevin, a friend from grade school, at the fun park:

Continental Divide (with Danni, Alan's friend from grad school):

Playing life-sized Jenga:

Somewhere along a road in CO.  They were expecting the boys!

Boys' Trip to CO!

Alan and Coop headed off for a week in Colorado at the end of summer.  Coop does Legos in the truck:

First stop: Salina Wild Animal park for a family reunion:

Jenny and Jill:

Eventually, the boys landed in Keystone to stay with some friends.  More Legos:

And sleep....