wilkinsonquints: 2013

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Halloween!

This year we went for a Phineas and Ferb theme (it is from a Disney TV show). Rustin was Phineas, Ryder was Ferb, Kassidy, Kaydence and Kyndall were Fireside Girls, Kaiya was Candace (the older sister), Riley was Dr. Doofenshmirtz, I was Perry the Platypus and Jayson was Major Monogram.

Here are some pics of the cartoon characters, if you aren’t familiar with them!

We’ve been planning the costumes for months, but I wasn’t sure how we were going to pull it off until Grandma and Grandpa Wilkinson came to visit. Yay for fantastic Mother-in-law’s that know how to SEW! She totally designed and made the head/hats for Phineas and Ferb, which I think turned out amazing! She also made the fireside girls berets, skirts and sashes (not to mention my platypus tail!) GG made Ryder’s Ferb pants, which also turned out adorable!

“Mom! Phineas and Ferb are going trick-or-treating”

The Phineas and Ferb “hats” turned out so fantastic that I felt like they needed a close up….this picture still doesn’t do them justice. I was totally in awe of my mother-in-law’s ability to just whip these out.

Cutie-Patootie Fireside Girls! Kyndall, Kassidy and Kaydence

Our friend Nolan came Trick-or-Treating with us.

Our neighbors had a super-spooky creature rigged on a pulley to come flying at you when you went up the driveway. I think it creeped me out more than the kids!

Trick-or-Treating in action!

Riley went trick-or-treating with his friends….he didn’t think he was recognizable as Dr. Doofenshmirtz when he was by himself, so I made him and his friends into iPhone App Icons. Riley is the YouTube App, his friend Jared is the Facebook App and a third friend (not pictured) was the GMail App. The three of them won first prize for their group costume at a School Halloween Party!

Glue drying on the App costumes….nothing like making costumes on the DAY OF Halloween!

It cracked me up that as soon as Riley got home from trick-or-treating, he immediately started sorting his candy by type so he could look at the candy distribution. I think I have a statistician in the making.

One last picture of the whole crew at our church Trunk-or-Treat!

Monday, October 21, 2013

Summer Vacation—Part 1

In August, we took our summer vacation to Denver to visit with Jayson’s parents. As we were making plans for our trip, my mother-in-law mentioned that it was “only” a 6 hour drive to Mt. Rushmore from Denver…I had no idea it was that close! (When you live in the middle of Texas and it is practically a day’s drive to get OUT of Texas, 6 hours seems like nothing!) We drove the 15 hours to Denver on a Saturday, got up and went to church the next morning and then headed up to South Dakota.

Wilkinson Family at Mt. Rushmore

Mt Rushmore was every bit as cool as I had imagined. What an amazing feat to carve those faces into the mountain! We arrived just in time to see the night show and the lighting of the faces.

Grandma and Grandpa with Riley, Kaiya, Kaydence, Kassidy, Rustin, Kyndall and Ryder

Kaydence

Rustin

The Crew: Waiting for the Light Show/Night Program

All lit up!

The next day we went back to check things out in the daylight.

The whole gang

My favorite picture! Riley, Kaydence, Kyndall, Rustin, Kaiya, Kassidy and Ryder

The quints favorite part: running up and down the stairs

George Washington Profile

Presidential Profiles

Native American Display at Mt Rushmore

After Mt. Rushmore, we headed over to Crazy Horse, an uncompleted carving of the famous Indian Chief. We couldn’t get very close to the actual mountain, but the museum, movie and displays were interesting.

Crazy Horse

Model of what the completed Crazy Horse will look like

More Teepee's

Not sure what Crazy Horse is pointing at, but we thought we needed to point there too.

Right off the side of the road, we found a small herd of buffalo!

After Crazy Horse, we started back to Grandma’s house. We traveled via Nebraska so we could stop and see Carhenge, a replica of Stonehenge, created from vintage American-made automobiles. It was awesome…….certainly worthy of it’s label of “2nd Wackiest Attraction in America”.