Thanksgiving!

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a great Turkey Day! We sure did!

It was great having a short week at work but sometimes they end up feeling longer than a regular week. One day this week when I went to pick Kasper up at daycare, I walked in to a room of littles sitting quietly on the rug with scissors and paper. It was so cute.


Rob observed Movember again but switched it up a bit. This year he grew a monkey tail! Hahaha! He refused to keep it for Thanksgiving and shaved it Wednesday. I thought it was hilarious. (You can see our Thanksgiving chalkboard in the background. Never got a pic of it. Oops.)


Rob and I hosted 14 people at our house for Thanksgiving. For some reason I never take the camera out when the guests arrive!



It's hard to make a centerpiece for a table this long so I have to be creative.

Great-Grandma Keller got some nice reading time in with Kasper. He loved it.



Thanksgiving dinner was a success! After dinner a bunch of us went for a walk. The day started out beautiful and by our afternoon walk it was freezing and sleeting! We went up to St. Cloud Thursday evening and by then it was totally snowing and the roads were treacherous.

Kasper dressed up for breakfast Friday.


He also likes to play "leaving" where he gets a backpack, Rob's briefcase, etc, walks to the door and says bye.



Mom, Steph and I went out and did some Black Friday shopping. Rob and Kasper went to Grandma Sandra's to play awhile. He started to say Grandma Sanduuura this weekend. Hilarious. Grandma Sandra gives Kasper cookies.


We spent the weekend shopping, reading, playing. Rob and I went to see a movie Friday night - Lincoln. I slept through the first half but the second half was good and that Daniel Day Lewis is amazing!

A notable anecdote from the weekend, we asked Kasper if he could spell his name. We weren't spelling it before hand or anything and he said "K S P R"!!!!! Forgot the vowels but how amazing is that!? Also, he raises both hands and shouts "Woo hoo!" when excited about something, which is about the cutest.


Check out those grey eyes. And bad hair day.

We got up this morning, went to Grandma Sandra's house for waffles and headed home. While I started the laundry and got things put away, Kasper and Rob got all dressed up to go on an "abenture" out in the snowy yard. Kasper loves to go on adventures.

Hiding.



Today was a stay in your pajamas day and we did just that. It was awesome.

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Only 30 days until Christmas!

Cyclo-cross

Here I am, as promised, with a post about what we did Saturday morning. Rob has been really into bike riding lately and apparently in the winter, some cyclists move to a variation of the sport called cyclo-cross.

From Wikipedia:

"Cyclo-cross (sometimes cyclocross, CX, CCX, cyclo-X or 'cross') is a form of bicycle racing. Races typically take place in the autumn and winter [...], and consists of many laps of a short (2.5–3.5 km or 1.5–2 mile) course featuring pavement, wooded trails, grass, steep hills and obstacles requiring the rider to quickly dismount, carry the bike while navigating the obstruction and remount."

There was a race out in Delano Rob wanted to do so Kasper and I tagged along to see what the fuss was all about.

While Rob was getting his (new, special "cyclo-cross" bike) ready, Kasper and I took a hike. It was a beautiful morning and I had coffee.







Kasper ran down this big hill and had a great time. When it was time to turn around and walk UP the hill he took many breaks to look at the plants and eventually asked to be carried the rest of the way.




Here they are at the start!


The gun went off and the bikers disappeared to somewhere. The course was pretty long and we stayed in one spot so we had some downtime while they were riding. Good thing I brought snacks.



Here they are! Rob is the third one.


They ride around this course taped off with yellow tape. They apparently had to go over sand volleyball courts, up steep hills. This was a little series of switchbacks.




At the end of the switchbacks they had to get off the bikes and jump over some gates.



Bye Papa!


Time for books! I'm glad I was pretty prepared. I didn't know there would be so much waiting inbetween and I didn't want Kasper running on to the course.



Here they are again!



At 30 minutes, a bell rings signalling the last lap. Whoever is in the lead at the end of that lap wins. I think they did about 3-4 laps in this race.

Waiting at the finish.


Good job Papa!


Killing a little time before Rob made his way over. You can see him approaching in the background.


Rob said it was a hard course but he had a great time. Maybe Kasper will be a cyclist someday?




Time to go home and warm up.


And so ends the lesson on the mysterious cyclo-cross racing.

Mas Weekend Por Favor

Can you guys believe it's the weekend before Thanksgiving already?? Why does time go so fast?

We had a fun week! Kasper was in a great mood which makes all the difference. He was even in to trying a lime.


Lately he loves playing with his trains and his letters.



It was these photos that prompted me to take a scissors to that hair. I decided to sit Kasper in front of his favorite videos and cut the hair. It went about as well as going to a place but at least I saved $20. He HATES having his hair cut. He even cries "Oww!" when I'm cutting. I have actually never cut hair before. How did I do?


Haircuts instantly make Kasper look older.

The night I cut his hair he only wanted Mama to be with him. Mama HAD to give his bath, take him out of the bath, brush teeth, etc. Rob was going to take over with the getting dressed but he NEEDED his Mama. Swoon.




Friday was flannel day at daycare. The flannel with the home haircut slays me.


It's been awhile since I documented some Kasper faces!



Kasper has been really in to "musica". He sings along when he can! One of his current favorites is "I Will Wait" by Mumford & Sons. He is becoming quite the dancer as well. He has some interesting moves.


Dancing requires Just Feet.


Trying some of Papa's ranch dressing on his pizza. The final verdict was "yucky".



We also got a couple funny videos. They're weirdly hazy because it turns out SOMEONE got their fingers all over the lens and we didn't realize in time. The first one shows some of the animal sounds Kasper knows.


This second video shows some typical evening behavior around here. There's some dancing, some jumping, what a frog does, etc.


Yesterday morning Rob got up with the guy while I stayed in bed and read a bit. After awhile the guy wandered in, climbed up and hung out with me. I loved it. He even shared his cereal.





Rob did a bike race yesterday and Kasper and I went along to watch. I'll write about later in the week (I promise) because I took entirely too many pictures!

After we got home and had lunch, Kasper went down for his nap while Rob and I scrambled outside to finish up the rest of the yard work in the front yard. The dude woke up before we were done but he was content to sit be Rob's co-pilot while he finished mowing. Haha!


Mama and her babies.

(And some artwork that fell down from the birch wall and impaled itself on the railing support. Fail.)

This morning we got to have our waffles, coffee, newspaper, awesome relaxing time. Then we ran to the grocery store for T-giving supplies. After lunch (but before nap) Kasper was having an awesome time doing gymnastics on his Kasper chair.





Look at those flushed cheeks!

How did I know it was finally time to put him down for a nap? When he became obsessed with rubbing his belly on the dog. The long suffering dog.




I mentioned Kasper was in a super good mood this week and I also think he got a little older! The guy is speaking in full sentences! I want to remember a couple...

- "This is Kasper's coat, okaaaaay Sissy?" (She dared look at his coat.)
- "Papa, I wanna read a book!"
- "Shhhh, amallo bacun is sleeping." (The yellow vacuum is in the closet, er, sleeping)

Sigh. He's becoming a real boy.

Hope everyone else had a great week and weekend! Also hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!