Lena turned one

Happy birthday 'tutu' you Lena -girl!

Top Shot Birthday

Dylan's 'top shot' birthday was Saturday night. We had 13 boys here and boy did they have fun! Matt was in charge of the games this year and he did an awesome job! He divided the boys into two teams, green and orange.
Orange team :





And green team:







He told them to line up dumbest to smartest, they scrambled around for awhile until they figured out the joke. then onto the first game. The boys had to pop the other teams's colored balloon with darts.





















Game number two was shooting nerf guns at Velcro targets, standing backwards, looking through a mirror.













Game number three involved creating your own marshmallow gun out of pvc pipe and shooting marshmallows at the opposing teams' tin cans.




























Next up was breaking the other teams' plates using slingshots, I know it sounds like fun, doesn't it? A few moms and dads tried it out too :-)
















Onto the unconventional pinata. Matt and our neighbor, remember the ones who got the award for the best neighbor, invented this cool pulley system. The boys had to fill one bucket up with golf balls to create enough weight to slowly tip over another bucket hung high in the tree filled with candy.




























And finally the cake.














Happy birthday Dylan!

11 years old

I am one day late ( sorry Dylan) in posting a happy birthday message to my first son Dylan. He was 11 years old yesterday, how can that be?



Could he be more gorgeous? He is a great boy and we love him so much! He loves shooting, playing video games, playing with his friends, riding his scooter, being with his dad, playing baseball, and eating sweets! My sweet little 5 pound 13 ounce baby is growing up, that's good, right ?

I failed fingerprinting!

I have to get fingerprinted for my new job so Grant and I went downtown to Action for Children. I had my $55, exact change no checks and filled out my paperwork and waited my turn. The people were incredibly nice and even gave Grant a brand new musical book, great. When it was my turn, I went back and had my fingers scanned about 20 times and guess what, my fingers did not cooperate! The fingerprinter offered me cream, I pressed hard and softly, nothing worked. She needed 6 good prints, not today. She asked if I had ever had trouble getting fingerprinted, well, gee, NO! It's not something I do on an everyday basis! Anyway, she suggested I head down to the columbus police department to get them done. If they don't work there, they have to 'ink' me. The good old fashioned ink, yea, bring it on.... except I had Grant and the big boys were due home shortly, forget it. I'm going to our police department tomorrow morning, keep your fingerprints crossed!

The award goes to...

The award for the best neighbors ....Jim and Vicky! After a very busy day, I realized that I didn't have a treat to send to school for Dylan's birthday tomorrow. It was about 7:30, Matt was on a plane, and I had 3 boys showered and in pajamas (almost). I decided on rice krispies, but I only had 4 cups, not six! I called next door to ask for 2 cups of rice krispies. That's the kind of neighbors i have ;) Vicky didn't have any but she called Jim who was on his way home from choir practice and he stopped at the store and bought me some! Oh yes he did! I'm so lucky to have such great, GREAT people living next door! Thank you! It's now 10:30pm and the birthday treats are ready to go :o)

School days, before and after

Before:















After:



:o)

Scooters Dude

The boys LOVE to go to skate parks. The problem is that so do teenagers, who are unsupervised and like to try out their new foul mouths....what to do...Go in the morning whilst the teenagers are still fast asleep. Not all of the teens are foul, a few are helpful and some have even offered advice to Dylan, but if Matt doesn't go with us, it's a morning sport for us. Dylan is sporting his new helmet from his grandma Connie, it has hook up for an iPod. They are all pretty good on their scooters. There is just one high ramp there that they haven't mastered which is ok with me because it's really high :-(

Tomatoes and birthday garland

I know, totally unrelated, but I wanted to post both pics.


It is harvest time! My freezer is bursting with delicious tomatoes. I've been known to just slice one of those babies up and eat the whole thing!


I saw this cute paper garland on the Pleated Poppy Blog and I had to make one for Dylan's green and orange birthday party. So cute and so easy. The boys just handed me these circles and I sewed them all together in a long line-perfect! More on the party next week......

Wooden Barbies

The other day Jack was playing outside with some little toy guys. He made a fort in the grass and built some stuff out of sticks. He played out there for a long time. When he came back in, I told him that when I was little I used to play outside with my barbies in my Grandma's back yard by a creek. My suntan barbies and I spent many an afternoon playing camping down by Grandma's creek, good times. He asked if my barbies looked the same as the barbies today. I told him mine weren't as fancy as the new barbies. Then he asked if they were made out of wood! Wood? No Jack, I didn't have to widdle my barbies out of a piece of firewood. I'm not quite that old :o)



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The good the bad and the ugly

The good news ....I GOT A JOB! I'll be teaching preschool from 9-12:00 Monday through Friday. I'll be at the preschool in the bottom of my church that all the boys went to and Grant will be there (not in my room) two days a week. The other three days Grant will go my friend's house down the street. It's the perfect job for me (fingers crossed). I'll be able to get the big boys off to school, be home in time to have lunch with Grant and get back to something i really love, teaching. I'm really excited.

The bad news....our dryer broke so it looks like the Beverly hillbillies at our house with clothes hanging everywhere!

The ugly....my disgusting toenail which has turned black and died.


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A little girl is turning one...

My niece Lena will be one on the 28th and I've been busy...tutus and t-shirts:
















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She will look so sweet, our little Lena-girl.
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Our day

Today started out good, a bike ride around the neighborhood where the boys ran into some friends and rode with them for while. Grant did start crying about 10 seconds into the bike ride because his brothers are faster than him :-(. I loaded him onto the back of my bike and away we went, tears flying. Home and the fighting ensued in the back yard, sorry neighbors. I did manage to weed the garden in between time outs and tantrums and name calling :-(. We had a good lunch including a watermelon from our garden. Then the dreaded cleaning out of the closets for fall, ahhhhhhh! I bribed them with a bike ride to dairy queen, and it worked. They tried on everything they owned, my how they have grown. Dylan said one of his shirts itched his "man boobs"!! It's still making me laugh. Onto Dairy queen on the bikes and home for rest and reading, thank heavens. While Grant was resting, the big boys got all dressed up in their fatigues and played war outside for awhile then dinner for all but Grant who refused to eat and was sent to his room. Dylan started to mow, then quit, then mowed, then quit, then mowed, (you get the picture) until the back yard was finished. Skate boarding followed (a few wrecks and arguments) and showers (major fighting upstairs) and reading and bed. Today was busy and frustrating and as I was saying this out loud tonight, I decided that today was just fine because we were together and healthy and things could be much worse. Then we got a phone call. Matt is off to Riverside tonight to meet his friend whose mom was life flighted there a few hours ago, that puts things in perspective. Our day was just fine.


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Guess who's going to school?

My baby!
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Better late than never

On our way home from vacation we stopped at the South Carolina state capitol. The grounds were beautiful.


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The original canon holes from the civil war are still in the Capitol building, they are marked by gold stars.


The monuments were impressive.








The last picture with Jack was a monument dedicated to the end of slavery. It was a semi circle with many different scenes. This next one was my favorite, it was dedicated to the women of South Carolina.








These next few pictures of the crepe myrtles were taken at a rest stop. A man was laying on his back taking a nap under these, how peaceful.








Matt and I were amazed at all the trees being planted as we drove through the mountains.





And lastly, a scenic overlook.......


the fog had a good laugh at us, but the jokes' on him because I think the picture turned out pretty neat anyway.
That about does it.
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