The End of a Soccer Season

Our week ended with Kyler's last soccer game. He had a great team this year. Because of the move, we registered late in the season. As a result, we didn't get to pick our team. Of course, that's really no big deal when you don't know anyone, but it meant that Kyler was on a team with kids from a completely different school than his. But, in the end, it turned out perfect. The kids and their parents were so much fun. They played a great season...they didn't win much, but they had fun. Here's a few fun shots of Kyler:


After the final game, we hosted an ice cream party and awards ceremony at our house. It was so nice having all Kyler's friends over. I'm glad he got to meet so many great friends. Here's a picture of the coach talking to the boys before the trophies were handed out. I would have gotten a picture of Kyler getting his trophy, but just as that was about to happen, a few of the younger siblings in the background thought it would be fun to wrap the climbing rope around them as they went down the slide. A Mom squealed just as the coach's son went down the slide with the rope around his neck. SCARY!! The good news is we got there in time, he was fine, and the rope came down right away. The bad news is I missed the trophy ceremony.


Soccer was fun, but now we're moving into a new season with new interests for Kyler. He's decided soccer is fun, but not what he loves. He starts basketball in a couple of weeks with Enoch as his coach. Tomorrow, though, he starts Chess Club, which he is so excited about. His best friend, Hayden, signed up, too. They're both looking forward to the District Tournament in December. I can't help but think of the movie, "Searching for Bobby Fisher". Enoch and I keep joking that we're going to be the nervous, uptight parents in the back room hoping our kid will win! I can't wait.

Pre-Halloween Halloween

Saturday, we did a little early Halloweening. I have to admit I've never been so grateful for a trunk full of costumes as I am this year. I just don't feel like I have the time or energy to be creative and make costumes. But, thanks to Mom and Dad and all the costumes they've given my kids over the years, I have a plethora of choices for the kids. It's a good thing, too. Saturday was just the first of 4 different Halloween celebrations the kids are a part of. Anyway, Ryden went as a very cute Peter Pan, Aspen as a beautiful fairy, and Kyler was Micky Mouse. We also took Kyler's friend Hayden with us.


A local Physician's Plaza was doing an early Halloween Celebration, complete with haunted offices and trick-or-treating. This secretary didn't spook Ryden one bit, though.


After trick-or-treating, we went outside where the city had ambulances, fire trucks and police cars for the kids to climb in. We also got a picture with Rocky, the Denver Nuggets' mascot!!

Day of the Dinosaurs

On Wednesday we headed to the museum of Nature and Science for their dinosaur exhibit. It was so amazing! The kids were a little spooked, though, we they turned the corner and were stopped by this:

We saw all sorts of cool dinosaurs. Here's Stegosaurus:


Long Neck:


and T-Rex.



The kids also each got to make some silly putty.


And, they got to be real scientists and help liquid water turn to gas right on their hands!

Slumber Mania

We just started what I think is a great idea!! For years now, Enoch and I have consistently gone out on a date together each Friday night. Well, a few months back we looked at our budget and realized that babysitting was one of our biggest expenses. We kept trying to keep our dates relatively cheap, but babysitting always cost us $20-30 each week. So, when we moved here, we started a date night coop. Once a month we have all the kids over for movie night while their parents go out. The rest of the month is ours for free. We love this group of kids. Here they are on their first date night movie night. (For those of you interested, the 2 girls by Ryden, the girl by Aspen and the boy on the chair are all Ryan Hunt's kids)

A Zanny Zoo Day

Last Saturday was free zoo day here in Denver. We went as an entire family, meeting up with Brent's family while we were there. Let me tell you, it was a zoo (pun intended). They estimated that at least 20,000 people were coming to the zoo that day. Even so, it was a blast. I love the zoo here. We had been once before, but on a limited time schedule, so we had missed a lot of the exhibits. The kids loved the giraffes and elephants, of course.

But, they were especially mesmerized by the tropical paradise exhibit, complete with Komodo Dragons, turtles, snakes, and crocodiles. Our picture didn't turn out, but I was amazed at the HUGE anaconda they had. I'd hate to come up on that in the wild!!

You can hardly see it, but there's a huge crocodile right between their heads!
Jordan loved watching the turtles!
The Komodo dragon

The kids were shocked to see they didn't quite measure up to a polar bear!

It was neat to see how much the kids have soaked up from the movie Planet Earth. Throughout the day, one of them would squeal, "Mom, remember this animal from Planet Earth? He's the one that_____" and they'd fill me in on all the unique things the animal did on the movie.

And to top it all off, it was 80 degrees that day. What a perfect day for the zoo in late October! Did I mention I love it here?

3D Creativity

Lately all of the kids are really interested in developing their artistic talents (which are quite strong, by the way). They'll spend hours every day drawing, copying, tracing, and creating amazing pictures. They definitely have their fathers' talent. Aspen spends most of her time copying pictures from books. She'll just look at the page and then try to reproduce it on a separate piece of paper. Enoch says that's a key talent for later art skills. Kyler, on the other hand, has been spending a lot of time creating 3D art. I don't know when it started or what inspired it, but the other day we came in the room to find Kyler creating a 3D city:

Here's the amazing thing. He would draw a crane for example on a piece of paper. Then, moving continuously to the right, he would draw the back of the crane and then he would draw the opposite side of the crane in perfect mirror image of the first crane he drew. Finally, he drew the front of the crane. Then, he'd cut it all out, fold the four corners and have a perfect 3D vehicle. It was amazing. He did this entire city in an hour or 2. In case you can't tell, there's a fire station with a fire truck (hidden behind the building under contruction), a police station with a police car, and a new building being built by a dump truck, a bulldozer, a crane and a pick up truck. We were amazed!

The next night he surprised us with a "mouse house" he had built complete with separate rooms, halls, and a patio with columns. Check it out:

Their talent never ceases to amaze me. He built this in the 15 minutes it took me to put the other kids to bed. I love having artists as kids. I'm also grateful to their school for sending so many fliers home with the kids each day so I have plenty of scratch paper for them to use up!

The Highland Hustle

Note: The following posts are in reverse order. Sorry if I confuse you!

On Friday, the kids ran in the Highland Hustle. Every year they do a huge street race at their school. Each grade races through their neighborhood with members of their family. Aspen ran 2/3 of a mile with me. Admittedly, it was quite a workout. Aspen ran a very fast pace, only to be interrupted periodically with sprints. How does she get that energy?

Check out this video of Aspen's start. She's in the middle in light pink. It looks to me like she almost fell. Unfortunately a group of 4 did fall, causing a domino effect among the other students. Aspen got a clean start, though!

Aspen pulling it in at the end
Resting after the race with her friend, Grace.

Kyler was up next with a full mile to run with Enoch. Enoch said Kyler's strategy was to sprint, then walk, then sprint. Unlike me, Enoch got some breaks in between and didn't seem too out of breath at the end!

Pulling it in for the final sprint.

The most fun came that afternoon. I happened to be helping in Aspen's classroom when they announced the winners. We knew there had been several kids in front of us, so you can imagine Aspen's surprise when they called her name!!! They awarded first, second, and third place to both the boys and the girls of each grade. Aspen had come in 6th...the 3rd girl!! You should have seen her. Her class had been instructed to be quiet during the overhead announcement, but Aspen jumped up and down and cheered with her arms without making a sound when she heard her name. It was so priceless to see. She came home that day with a medal!


Kyler did not place in the race, but during all of his gym practice races he had come in 2nd or 3rd. I'm just shocked he finished the race!! He had been sick all week with a cough and cold. Way to Go Kyler!

Campfire in the Backyard

On Thursday, we had a campfire in the backyard. Just recently, I decided what I wanted to spend the last of my birthday money from my parents on...a fire pit for the backyard. I just love sitting around the fire at night. I love roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. It all reminds me of the days when we used to do that in our music room that had an old fireplace in it. A few weeks ago, Enoch and I bought one, but it seemed like our schedule and the weather were always in conflict. Finally, on Thursday, after seeing a dismal and cold forecast for the weeknd, I decided we had to have a hot dog roast before the season ended. We invited the neighbors for a royal feast of hot dog roasting and s'mores. Fortunately for us, their dad was out of town and their mom LOVES hot dogs!! We had so much fun.

Aspen, and her best friend, Grace.

While Enoch was building the fire, the kids played 4-square. Man, did that bring back memories. Remember when that was such a hit in elementary school and Jr. High? I remember I used to be good at it. Enoch and I had a go at it and I think I need some refreshers on how to play :)

Decorating for Halloween

On Wednesday, the kids insisted we get the house decked-out for Halloween. This year they had me get really creative with a hanging ghost along with the spiders of yesteryear...

PS-Ryden's on his way to swimming...

Beautiful Fall Colors

What an incredible week we've had. It started Monday night when we decided to take a hike into the mountains for Family Night to see the beautiful fall leaves. We were given a heads-up about a great place with a nice, easy, family hike. It was perfect and beautiful. The trees were the most amazing color of gold. Unfortunately, many of the red and orange leaves had already fallen, but the gold was worth seeing.

One of the highlights of the hike was discovering the talents of the beaver. Shortly after starting along our path, we came across a swift river. It was beautiful among the trees. As we rounded a bend in the path, though, we found the path was completely under water. It was then that we discovered a tree gnawed clear to the center by a beaver. He had successfully diverted the water from the raging river and created quite a dam. The kids had a blast walking across some stepping stones and some fallen wood to the bridge. Ryden, of course, didn't see the sense in using the stones. He just walked right through the water to the log. Oh well.

The dam the beaver built.

America Has Talent!

America Has Talent and it lives at my house! Check out this new and upcoming talent!

Furry Critters

We're experiencing all sorts of little critters around here. Some I love, some not so much. I love watching the squirrels run back and forth across the fence, gathering walnuts from our yard and running to store them for the winter. Bunnies multiply in Colorado. They're everywhere. We love watching them in the yard. Last month, we even had fun rescuing one from our window well. But, this month, Ryden caught a snake. That, I don't love as much. But, the kids were ecstatic when they got off the bus and Ryden showed them his snake.

Of course, we had to let it go in someone else's yard! :)

But, that does remind me of something so funny. Today Kyler brought home his "star student" book. All the kids write him a kind note and then his teacher compiles it for him. We laughed so hard when we read this entry by a sweet little girl (keep in mind 2nd grade spelling):

"My favorite animal is a snack...I want a pet snack but my mom won't let me and my Dad and sister are afraid of snacks. I wish they weren't". Only when she wrote that her favorite snack was a Python did we understand. Of course, the next friend signed hers, "Peas out", meaning of course "Peace Out". We couldn't stop laughing. I can't believe that 2nd graders are saying "Peace Out" to each other, but "Peas out" is even more amazing.

On that note, Peas Out everone!

Jordan turned 1

I can't believe Jordan is 1. It seems like just yesterday I was begging him to hurry and come into this world. He's so cute and so fun right now. He just makes me laugh every day. His birthday was fun, with Brent and Sunny and their family coming over to celebrate. They gave him his favorite gifts (only gifts actually...I guess I'm cheap when the receiver doesn't know the difference :))

In recognition of the long-held Hicken family tradition, we tried to have Jordan "chase the cake". As you'll see, he was far more interested in the balls strewn throughout the yard!

Of course, that may be because he filled up on scraps of cake while I decorated his!

Tye-Dye Frenzie!

Last month, I was assigned to be the volleyball coach for the girls in the youth group at church. I love this assignment. I love playing the game again and teaching the girls to love the game. It's so much fun. With teens, though, comes the fun of tye-dyeing! They chose to tye-dye their uniforms (with Enoch's expert tips, of course). The next day, the kids got to try their hand at it.



Of course, I failed to take a final picture, but here's the best I could come up with for now. Stay tuned for all 4 in tye-dye!