Wandering Browns

This year, we took a little vacation for Landon's birthday. Grandma Ev came into town and we escaped to South Padre Island. We stayed at an Airbnb condo and spent as much time as possible at the beach. We celebrated Landon's birthday with some of his favorite things- McDonald's Happy Meal for lunch, pizza for dinner and cupcakes. We took our pictures on the beautiful South Padre Island beach and did our interview in the car on the way home.  Favorite colors: all of them- no- orange! Favorite Letter: "L" because first letter of name Favorite Animal: leopard Favorite Dinosaur: T-rex Favorite school subject: Science Favorite brand: Nike Favorite number: 6 Favorite sea creature: giant squid Favorite food: pizza Favorite dessert: \chocolate chip cookies Favorite toy: superheroes Favorite activity: go to beach Favorite sport to play: soccer Favorite fruit: apple Favorite movie: LEGO Batman movie Favorite place we've been: Korea-...

Fall is just magical in Illinois. Every year, we have made a point to go out to an apple farm to pick apples and pumpkins. This year, Grandma Ev joined us! As always, it was a ton of fun. We will miss the apple farms!

We were thrilled to celebrate our first Halloween in our new neighborhood. Our church ward hosted a fun Trunk or Treat activity at the church, and we decorated our van with cobwebs. Owen was a dinosaur and Landon was a firefighter.  I helped out at Landon's Halloween class party. There was a costume parade and party games and snacks. It was fun!  Finally, we went out trick-or-treating as a family in our neighborhood. Trick-or-treating hours in Rolling Meadows, IL start very early- like 3 or 4 pm, but we went out around 5:30. There were still many people who had not gotten home from work, but even with empty houses along our route, the boys ended up with pails FULL of candy. It took until at least Christmas to finish it all off, even with a lot of help from mom and dad :) It was pretty cold as the sun set, so we only did a few blocks worth of houses. 

I found this post sitting in my drafts of our oft-neglected family blog. Owen's birthday was last November, but here's his sea turtle cake that I made from marshmallow fondant. Owen loved it so much he wanted to ask for one from Santa, until I told him that Santa didn't bring turtle cakes... After years of small toys to fit in suitcases, Owen was so thrilled to have HUGE birthday presents-bigger than him! After Owen's 2-year appointment, we headed over to nearby Busse Woods, one of my favorite places in the Chicago suburbs, to take some pictures of Owen. He ran around the whole time, so it was difficult to get posed shots, but there were plenty of opportunities for candids! This boy loves animals, cars and trucks, and anything his brother is playing with. We sure love our Owie!

Landon's 5th birthday morning started like any typical kid's birthday morning, with a twist. We had hoped to be back in the United States for his birthday, but in reality, we were still in Vietnam for a few days afterward, and then on vacation for awhile before heading back to the U.S. I decided to pack a few books with us to give him for his birthday, because we had no idea how long we were going to be in Vietnam, and fresh reading material in book form vs. Kindle is a big deal for him. I knew we would not be back for awhile, so I wanted to give him his presents on his birthday, and have a party, and be done with it. It was certainly more difficult to do so in Vietnam vs. America, but I think he loved his birthday anyway. To make things more complex, Landon requested that I make a scavenger hunt for him to find his presents. He was so excited he woke up and found all of his presents using the clues right away, and then couldn't wait for Austin to get out of the shower t...