Brogan is 6!!!

September has been a busy month for Brogan!  Most importantly, he turned 6 years old and I'd have to say that he had a pretty awesome birthday this year (that spanned a little over 2 weeks).  Here's some info on Brogan at age 6:

• Favorite color is yellow
• LOVES soccer
• Obsessed with video games (Skylanders and Mario Kart are his faves)
• Beginning to talk like a Canadian...we've caught him saying "PAST-a" and "a-GAIN-st"
• Wants to play the drums (EEK!!! But I'll take it over the clarinet!)
• Loves school but says his favorite parts are gym and recess...lucky for him he gets to do both every day
• Easily frustrated with reading at home, but will read short books all by himself to his teacher

Brogan was lucky this year...we had to plan a trip to Calgary to visit the US Consulate (yes, the closest one is in Calgary) to get Kian's citizenship paperwork completed and also to renew Brogan's passport.  We decided to plan this trip around Brogan's birthday and have a fun family celebration weekend.  There were several parts that Brogan deemed "boring"...namely the super long drive there and the close to 2 hours we spent at the Consulate.  Everyone recommended going to the Calgary Zoo, but we decided against it because half of it was still closed from the flooding earlier this summer.  Instead, we spent Saturday at the Telus Spark science center.  All of the exhibits were hands-on for the kids and they had a special children's area with a playground, water table, and tons of cool stuff for little ones...even an area for Kian!  That night, we had pizza and cake before hitting the water park at the hotel.  On Sunday, we went to the Heritage Park.  I'm pretty sure you could spend a couple days exploring the park and all of the old buildings.  We mainly hit the "rides"...the antique midway, replica paddle boat, and steam engine train.  The coolest part was that all of the people that worked there were dressed in period clothing and the vehicles used to get around were from the corresponding eras as well.  After freshening up, we went up the Calgary Tower to have dinner at Sky 360, a revolving restaurant just one story below the observation level of the Tower.  We were way under dressed, but the food was amazing and the kids were fairly well behaved.  After dinner, we hit the observation level to check out the glass floor and then it was back to the pool to enjoy the water park one last time...and we had the entire place to ourselves!  Monday was our lovely Consulate visit and our long drive home.  Brogan wasn't so annoyed with the ride home since he had his new Nintendo 3DSXL to play with on the way home.

Neala's engineered creation at Spark

Kian checking out all the fun things dangling from the tree

Neala and Brogan monkeying around

Kian practicing his standing abilities

CHEESE!!!

Happy Birthday to Brogan!

Neala checking out the beautiful flowers outside one of the homes at the Heritage Park

The antique carousel

Brogan's least favorite part of the weekend...white knuckles the entire time!

Enjoying the paddle boat ride

View of downtown Calgary from the paddle boat ride at Heritage Park

The kids loved running through "The Dream" train

The steam engine train...felt like we were going to Hogwarts!

Neala laying on the glass floor at the Calgary Tower...she LOVED it!

The whole family at the Calgary Tower

Brogan also had a kid birthday party at the Fun Factory...he really wanted to play laser tag after watching Barney play it on How I Met Your Mother.  He invited 9 kids and they all had a blast.  There were some incredibly silly pictures that I have to share...

What a weirdo! :)

Angry Birds!

Neala had a great time too and enjoyed her cake

Brogan's face is priceless!!!

Another silly face from Brogan and a great picture of the group of kids all together

Mean faces for laser tag

Kian enjoying the ball pit

September was also the start of Grade 1 for Brogan.  I can't believe that he is a full-time student!!! He has a great teacher and looks forward to going to school every day.  The first couple weeks have proved to be a bit exhausting for him as he is a bit zombie-ish in the evenings.  I really like Brogan's school and love that he has music class 4 days a week, dance class once a week, and gym every day.  The school seems to keep the kids active and well-rounded.

First Day of Grade 1

Brogan also decided to play flag football this fall and the very short season started mid-September.  He definitely is still learning the ropes, but he is really enjoying it.  The coach likes to put him at center and he is enjoying that role, but he is still given the opportunity to play all of the other positions.  I've always said that I don't want Brogan playing football, mostly because I don't want him getting hurt, but I must say that I'm really enjoying it!  I may have a change of heart!

Brogan running the ball

We are trying to keep Neala busy too.  She started gymnastics this September and loves it.  Picture will have to come at a later date.  It's a parented class, so I have to "wear" Kian...my hands are a little too full to take pictures.  She likes to spin around like a ballerina and loves all things pink and sparkly.  How in the world did I end up with this girly girl?!?!?

Kian continues to be a challenge, but he's so darn cute, I think we will keep him!  He seems to finally be digesting solid foods well...no more grunting all day.  He's getting up on his hands and knees and rocking.  He will be crawling in no time.  And his third tooth just cut through.  Now, if we could just get him to consistently sleep through the night...

Kian doing his thing (please ignore the piles of laundry...it was laundry day)