Our two little football fans: Peyton Manning and Aaron Rodgers

We have had a gorgeous fall week here. Sunny and mild every day and this weekend was perfect. I bought Anna a Peyton Manning jersey for her birthday and Jude wanted something different. He was watching the Packers one day and he said he liked them and he wanted one of their jerseys. So, he now has an Aaron Rodgers jersey. I love the Packers, they are my second favorite team, so I think it worked out well.

Jude has been asking to play football a lot lately. We have been playing in the backyard a lot but I have been wanting to get him out on a big field. So, while Anna was napping yesterday I took him up to the local school where we had an entire soccer field to ourselves. Jude had a blast and we played for a solid hour, although only half that with a football. He wanted to play tag as well. By the end of the hour, I was worn out and I a little sore today.

This week was Anna’s school trip to the pumpkin patch. It was a little chilly in the morning, so everyone was bundled up. Anna brought back a couple of pumpkins and a few other fall vegetables. Within a day Anna and Marcy carved a jack-o-lantern and she has the pumpkin in her bedroom now with a candle in it that we light every day.

Anna scores a pumpkin

I got free tickets to the Bronco game today, so I spent the afternoon there. It was such a gorgeous day that I rode my bike. But it meant that I missed the Halloween Journey night at the kids school. The 7th graders put on a show for everyone. Jude and Anna got dressed up in their outfits and went along.

Anna in her witches outfit ready to go, with broom in tow.

Our knight in shining armor.

Anna does the first snow shoveling of the season

We had our first snowfall of the season this week and it happened on a day when the kids were off school. Anna woke up so excited to see the blanket of white stuff on the ground. She immediately asked for her ski clothes and snow shovel and out she went to play. (Jude was still asleep at this point). It was only a couple of inches and the sun was out by lunch time so by the end of the day the snow had melted away.

One of the many things I love about Colorado is the weather. After that snowstorm we had a beautiful day on Saturday with 60 degrees and perfect sunshine. And both kids wanted to play football so I was happy to oblige. We have been watching a bit of football together and both kids have been enjoying it.

Playing tackle football in the backyard

We started off playing tackle football between the kids but that proved a little rough. And after some tears were shed we switched to touch football although I still had to tackle them both when they had the ball. Jude was really into playing. Last weekend we played for 3+ hours after the Broncos game and this weekend we had long games both days.

Jude is proving to be quite a good runner. He is quick and changes direction well and seeing that I have to tackle him without hurting him he can be quite elusive. And he is learning some of the fundamentals of football in these games. I do make sure he scores the occasional touchdown to keep him interested. Often he and Anna will play one on one and he likes that because he scores pretty much every time. Anna can also hold her own and has outrun Jude occasionally to score.

Jude showing his speed in backyard football

After football it was time to play in the leaves. Marcy and Anna created quite the pile in the front yard. Both kids played in this pile of leaves for ages, with Anna even taking a rest lying down on her bed of leaves.

Isn’t playing in the leaves fun!

It has become a tradition in our family to celebrate a birthday by going out for breakfast. It is so much better than a dinner date for the kids and it gets the day off to a great start. On Monday this past week Anna turned five. So we all went to Snooze to celebrate.

Anna loved her birthday celebration. But after breakfast it was off to school for the day. When she arrived home the real festivities began. As soon as she walked in the door I stopped work and we opened presents and had cake. Marcy had baked a beautiful gluten free rainbow cake for Anna which she just loved.

Then it was on to the park for what we expected to be her birthday dinner. But after getting the picnic setup we decided it was a little chilly and the mosquitos were bad so we packed up everything and went home and had a picnic on the floor in the kids playroom. Anna loved her special day and Jude handled it as best he could. It was a little hard seeing his little sister getting all the attention so I kept reminding him throughout the day that it was only 47 days until his birthday.

Today I took the kids to Elitch’s and then we came home and watched the Bronco game. For her birthday I gave Anna a Peyton Manning Broncos jersey and she loves it. She wore it all day today and when we got home from Elitch’s both Anna and Jude watched the first half of the game with me. Then after the game we went and played football in our backyard. Jude said afterwards that he wanted to play football with other kids. We will see if he keeps this interest up but I think a team sport of some kind would be good for him.

Jude is taking a liking to more sports these days. We played baseball in the backyard the other day and he really enjoyed it. He is a natural switch hitter and you can see in the photo above that he is giving it a whack left handed. His progress in the last few months with hitting a baseball has been quite impressive. But it has also been fun to see more interest in this area.

Today we watched the Bronco game and Jude was genuinely interested in learning more about it. He told me that he was going to play football and be on TV when he grows up. We will see.

Last weekend we went to a corn maze with some friends and the kids had a great time. We had to keep a close eye on them because they would just go off running in any direction.

The maze was at the Denver Botanic Gardens facility in southwest Denver and they had all kinds of fun things there for kids including this big tree that Jude just had to climb.