Rocky Mountain Toy Train Show 2014

It's an annual tradition, more anticipated than Thanksgiving, to go the Rocky Mountain Train Show every year. I think this was our fifth year, and the boys have been talking about it for days.

I can never tell who is more excited for it, Sam or the children...

Ryan and Jack had a hard time in the trade show area as there were many expensive train cars that they couldn't touch (and some VERY SERIOUS adult train enthusiasts who seemed to think children had no place at the show...) but they enjoyed checking out all the elaborate train layouts. 

Sam found an engine and three train cars that he couldn't live without and I bought a Tonka cement mixer for the boys for $10 (but the guy selling it was adamant that it should go on a shelf and not be played with - yeah, right). 

They (and I) were particularly intrigued by the Lego train layout - this building was "on fire" with real smoke pouring from the roof. 

The kids loved watching the big garden railway, but eventually it was time to bid farewell to the train show for another year.

How We Spent Black Friday

I do love living in Colorado, particularly when the weather looks like this the day after Thanksgiving:

There's really only one thing to do in that case, and that's hit the trails! We met the Zwyers at Mt. Falcon, a lovely easy hike near Red Rocks Ampitheatre. 

I had downloaded the geocaches in the area but my app showed the first one was 0.4 miles up the trail - so I was really confused when David headed off on a spur trail 400 feet from the parking lot, saying "This looks like a good spot for a geocache!"  I was even more confused when he reached into an evergreen tree and pulled out a geocache container. Obviously my app was not properly calibrated...

 We signed the log and the boys grabbed some treasures and then it was time to start hiking.

We had to stop and rest a few times, but it helps that David and Andrew have boundless energy and Ryan and Jack wanted to keep up with them as the leaders.

We spotted some deer near the trail - there is a large buck right in the middle of this picture (in the gap between the trees).

There he is!

We eventually made it to the next geocache where we stopped for a snack and the boys did their best mountain goat impressions.

Finally Andrew and Jack began to slow down so we decided to turn around while we still had energy to get back to the parking lot. Jack got a ride from Sam most of the way down.

We headed to Red Rocks Grill in Morrison for green chili cheese fries, burgers, Mexican platters and beer, which tasted so good after our adventure. Poor Jack was so tired, he was nodding off into his quesadilla, but I think everyone had a great time. 

Gettin' Our Advent On

Alright, Christmas, BRING IT ON. I'm resolved to let the season just wash over me and to not fight it so hard this year. If the Salvation Army bell-ringers are already outside the grocery stores, I can start working on some Christmas decor.

It helps that this year has been EVERYTHING LEGO at our house, which I was pleased to discover includes advent calendars. Of course, I'm too cheap to drop $30 on the current set - plus the cardboard box display just seems so uninspired. So when I spotted this wreath at Target, an idea was born.

"$24.99?!" I scoffed. "I can make something like that for so much less!"

I headed home and immediately set to googling. "DIY Advent Calendar" produces a boatload of Pinterest boards, but "DIY Lego Advent Calendar" reduces the search results immensely. This one from Makoodle caught my eye as being unique and something I could actually do in a reasonable amount of time without spending a fortune. 

Of course, I had to fill the tins with something, so I searched eBay for Lego advent calendars and scored a 2011 set for $14.99 (oh, and $10.55 shipping). Save This Christmas! is a popular book around here, so I was thrilled to find that the advent calendar reflected the story (though I'm not quite sure how cops and robbers really fits the holiday theme, but oh well).

I kept Jack home on Friday because he was not feeling well, but I had a haircut appointment I absolutely could not miss so I bundled him up and we headed out. After the appointment we drove to Michael's in search of the wedding favor tins featured in this calendar.

With a mobile coupon I only paid $10 for 30 tins (always good to have a few extras!). I also bought a pack of Christmas-themed scrapbook paper - I intended to use the printables on Makoodle but our printer refuses to print in color and I forgot to print them before I left work on Thursday... I also picked up 24 magnets to stick the tins to the fridge. Total: ~$20.00.

I don't have any fancy circle punches (and didn't think this was the time to buy any) so I traced the lids onto the paper and started cutting. My circles are not perfect, but the lip of the lid will hide any crooked edges. Jack helped fit them into the lids then lined the tins up in patterns.

And then he practiced counting them (he didn't want me to take his picture so I had to fudge the truth a bit... hey, I WASN'T taking his picture; you can also hear the world's loudest dishwasher kicking it into overdrive in the background).

The favor tins came with little round stickers I was going to print numbers on to, but I couldn't get the template to work, so I decided to just go old school and write the numbers with colored Sharpies. 

The instructions from Makoodle also required using Mod Podge to stick the circles to the lids, and while I like a good Mod Podging like the next suburban housewife, I thought it might be nice to swap out the circles next year. With my imperfect circles, it was easy to wedge them snugly into the lids. 

Ryan and Jack decided to help me stick the magnets to the tins - I had a lightbulb moment when I remembered some adhesive squares I had tucked away, and the boys did a great job helping.

Unfortunately, once I had finished numbering all the circles and stuck the tins to the fridge, the adhesive made the magnet stick too far off the back of the tin, which affected how the tins lined up - and then I accidentally bumped them, causing about 10 to fall off. The magnets popped off and I had to find another means to attach the magnets.

Well, what's more Pinterest-worthy than Mod Podge? A hot glue gun, of course!

It certainly isn't pretty, but they stuck. I even tested them with a handful of Legos and the magnets held, so I think it will work out pretty well! 

The Lego set arrived yesterday so I'm ready to load up the tins - though I'll have to seal them with a little Christmas sticker to discourage peeking... 

Oh, and remember the six extra tins? Ryan politely asked if he could use them, and the next thing I know he's got a Lego countdown of his own going on. Foam stickers for the win!

PS - Total cost for this adventure was about $40, so definitely not cheaper than buying the wreath or the Lego set, but I'll be able to reuse the tins next year - so it's an investment, yeah, that's it.