Max's Birthday(s)

Max really lucked out this year and scored the birthday trifecta, he ended up getting cake 3 different times because we ended up being all over the place around his birthday so he scored 3 little parties with presents, cake, and ice cream.  The only trouble was getting all of his presents from Florida back to Seattle.  We had to buy 2 new bags to pack stuff in to take back with us, we didn't have enough room in our luggage.

Max kicked off his week of birthday celebration with having a few friends over to the house to watch Star Wars and have some cup cakes and ice cream.  It was nice and simple, we ordered a few pizzas and made "light side/dark side" cupcakes.  They were just chocolate cupcakes with either red or blue frosting in the middle, the kids had to choose wisely to see which side they ended up on.

Soccer Update

Finally getting around to another update here.  This time a little sports news before we can post some info from our vacation and Christmas.  Both Ella and Max played soccer this fall.  Soccer is pretty huge in these parts, there must be a million kids in soccer here.  The professional team, the Sounders, are routinely sold out and the games are supposed to really be something.  Most everyone stands through the whole game, we haven't had a chance to make it to one yet, but we would like to next year.

Ella played on the local youth league.  She got teamed up with a few girls in her school along with a few in nearby charter and private schools.  It was a fun team, all girls which was new as Ella played co-ed in Florida.  I will say the Apopka league in Florida was really good now that we have a comparison.  The program there was really top notch (good uniforms, excellent fields, thoughtful scheduling, etc.).  Here in Seattle it feels not quite as good, but Ella still had a lot of fun playing for the Golden Tigers.  I did not volunteer to coach this year as I wanted to keep some time to myself, I have to say that I missed it a bit, it is incredibly rewarding to coach little kids in something.  Ella's skills increased quite a bit through the year, I think it is starting to click with her.  We will probably sign her up in the spring again, though she is asking to try basketball, so we may give that a go at some point.  I think I also might try to get her into golf this coming summer, she has the long arms and body to develop a good golf swing.

Ella is hustling to play some defense here

Ella needs to learn the finer details of helping out her teammates, never leave a man behind

Max also played at a nearby indoor facility since he is not old enough for the local youth league yet.  They run a nice program just to get kids having fun, they learn some skills and scrimmage every practice.  We signed him up again for the winter session, and will probably try baseball in the summer.  Max has a real knack for hitting the ball, he might be a good golfer one day too.

Halloween at the Wynns

Halloween has come and gone and it was the busiest one yet for the Wynn Family.  We had a full weekend of activities and a surprise house guest.  We had trick-or-treating at Chris' work on Friday, we were having a party at our house on Saturday, and then another party and trick-or-treating at a friend's house on Sunday.  Then of course Monday, the 1st was Sarah's birthday.  And on Friday, Sarah's mom's boss' son came down to stay with us for the weekend.  He lives in Vancouver and was having a car delivered here, so he thought he was going to pop down and pick it up and go back to Vancouver, but the delivery got delayed so he had to stay and help us all weekend.

Pumpkin carving was a fun event.  Ella drew a design on hers for Chris to carve.  Thinking it would be easy to do some silly face, I went over to check it out and she had drawn 2 trees with a big spider web in between.  That was a bit tricky to carve.  Max was literally gagging from the smell of the pumpkins and kept his distance.  I had to do his whole pumpkin, he didn't really have any interest after getting a whiff of the insides.

Ella decided to dress up as Wonder Woman this year, and she was pretty excited by it.  Max had a Captain Rex costume from Star Wars, then on Sunday he decided that he wanted to be Darth Vader without the mask, which we already had a costume for.  We went over to a friends house for a halloween party and to go trick-or-treating with a whole group on Sunday.  They were a pretty crazy group of kids, running from one house to the next in a race to get a ton of candy.  Luckily the weather cooperated and we didn't have to contend with any nasty rain or anything.

Ella & Max in their costumes on our spooky porch

Check out the whole gang of trick-or-treaters

A Day at the Pumpkin Patch

With Halloween quickly approaching, we spent the afternoon at the pumpkin patch this past Saturday.  We had to get some pumpkins after all.  The place was jam packed with people, the kids played around on some hay bales while I went in search of a wheelbarrow to carry the bounty in.  We figured, there was no way we would be able to carry them all throughout the field.  It was quite the contest to secure an unattended wheelbarrow, I finally found one hidden by a tent and scooped it up before anyone saw it.

Ella the Song Writer

Ella has been getting into pop music lately, her musician of choice right now is Selena Gomez, I must have listened to that CD at least 5 times today driving around with her.

With her new interest, she decided to take up song writing maybe in hopes of becoming a pop-star.  She has decided to call herself, Lady Googoo, an obvious spin on Lady Gaga which she finds to be a funny name.

Her first single is titled "Nachos and Cheese", here it is in its entirety.

Nachos and cheese

Olives, sour cream

And meat

Ham, ooh ooh ooh oh

Reach to the sky

Ooh ooh ooh oh

I love you mom

Not bad, I think she might have some talent here.