Happy 10th!

Happy 10th anniversary to Dan and I!


crazy how fast 10 years goes by.




Ten years have brought a house, a dog, a cat, three kids, a minivan, another dog, and a turtle. Ten years have brought crazy schedules, never-ending laundry, and an ever-growing "To Do" list. Ten years have brought more joy and more laughs (and sometimes more tears) than I ever could have imagined, and I wouldn't change a thing.

Whoever said money doesn't grow on trees?

My SIL's birthday was over the weekend, and when asked for some birthday ideas, she mentioned there was a jacket she was saving up to buy. I wanted a fun way to gift her with some cash, so Emily and I created a money tree. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out!

Well, Looky There...

The child who liked the minibike the least finally gave it a fair shot and what do you know? Turns out she likes it quite a lot!

Splish Splash

One of my major complaints about the house we live in is that the driveway doesn't drain properly when it rains (there's a low spot that collects water), but it was hard to find complaint with the puddle yesterday when Connor was having so much fun!





The look on his face CRACKS ME UP!


Calling it a puddle is a bit of an understatement; it's more like a small POND... We jokingly refer to it as Lake ___________ (our last name). LOL!

Blackberry Pie

A few weeks ago, I attempted to bake my first blackberry pie ever, using the easiest recipe I could find online. I didn't end up with quite enough blackberries (the kids had been out picking with my IL's and they visually guaged whether they had enough), and partway into making the crust, I realized I didn't have enough all-purpose flour and had to substitute part of it with self-rising flour.

My neighbor claimed it was the best blackberry pie he'd ever had.

A week later, Dan requested that I make another blackberry pie, because the first one had been so good. This time, I used the correct amount of blackberries, and had enough flour to correctly make the crust, and I worried that it was just a fluke that the first one got such rave reviews. Dan and my neighbor both claimed the 2nd pie was even better than the first! (my neighbor might lie to be nice, but Dan wouldn't!)



I stink at making pie edges look pretty, but it was edible and got multiple thumbs up. Yay me! My neighbor even called and wanted my recipe because he liked it so much. Dan wanted me to mess with the recipe (anyone remember seeing that episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where Raymond's mom puts a fake label over a spice so when Ray's wife tries to follow the recipe, it doesn't turn out right?? LOL), so when he typed it out in an email for them (since I was one-handed due to the brace), he put in C degree temps in the directions instead of F degree temps just to mess with them. LOL

I labeled this post under recipes so it would be filed with my other food-related posts, but if my pie is truly that good, I'm going to be tight-lipped with "my" recipe and you'll all just have to come over sometime and give it a taste-test! *grin*

Super Powers

Connor has super human strength, I've decided. How many four year old kids can lift their own body weight without breaking a sweat? And how many kids can then hold themselves in that position for a decent length of time?

At a local playground, Connor wasn't tall enough to see through the telescope, so he reached up, grabbed onto it, and pulled himself up so he could see through it; then he held himself there for quite some time. It wasn't a prolonged struggle to get all the way up either, he whipped himself right up without even attempting to use his legs for help. It was amazing!

Putty Fun

The kids recently got some putty from the prize box at their dentist's office. After they got home, Emily and Jared charged right into playing with it!

Connor's 1st day of preschool

Connor had his 1st day of preschool yesterday. He was "so uh-cited"!!


There are so many A, B, and C names in his class that in alphabetical order, he's further down the row of cubbies than Emily and Jared ever were! Crazy! You can see there is an S name that uses the cubby in a different class...




He had a great day and actually even sang songs and did the hand gestures at circle time!! AND he volunteered to sing the ABC's to his teacher infront of the rest of his class (he didn't sing it very well but he was willing to attempt it, which is major progress)!!! This is huge!!!!

Mutton Busting

Jared did some mutton busting (sheep riding) at our local fair last week! He was REALLY nervous and tearful at the last second, but he finally decided to go ahead and go through with it. His ride lasted for 2.37 seconds! He had decided to back out initially, then after they held the awards ceremony for the kids that participated, he changed his mind, so they went ahead and let him go. His time would have gotten him a 3rd place medal, but since they'd already held the ceremony, he was out of luck. The photographer had also already left the arena by the time he took his turn, so I wasn't able to purchase any photos of his ride. I DO have some video from my own video camera, but I don't currently have a way to get it off my video camera and onto the computer to share. AND, the guy that opened the gate ended up being in the way for a lot of it, too, because I expected him to move left after opening the gate, but he stayed right. At least I have SOMETHING. Jared was very stone-faced/traumatized looking immediately afterwards, but he spent the rest of the night vocally wishing he was younger so he could do it again next year (age 6 is the cut off and he'll be 7 the next time the fair rolls around).

Connor was paid for and all geared up, but he screamed and took off running when they called him for his turn. He wants to try again next year, but I'm not sure I'm willing to pay the $10 again. They don't return your money if your kid refuses to go!

I hear a piano!

Emily Grace started piano lessons this week. She had a blast!!! Her new piano teacher only lives a few minutes from our house, which makes it handy, and she's really nice!

I took a picture of Emily at their piano at the start of the lesson:


And I took another one a few minutes later while the piano teacher was showing Emily where to position herself in front of the piano and how to have proper posture and whatnot.


And then I hightailed it off to the car because I had other kids waiting for me, and because I figured Emily would do better without me hovering. I honestly don't know where we're going to fit it piano practice every day, but we're aiming for sometime in the morning between getting ready for school and heading to the bus!

I look forward to seeing where she goes with this. I've always enjoyed hearing piano music and have wished for years that I knew how to play. Em seems super eager to learn, and her teacher said she gave her a bigger size amount of work than she normally would for a new student because Em was picking up the pages so quickly during this first lesson.

I'll be sure to post a video of her once she starts playing some actual pieces of music!

Quote of the Week

While riding in the car Monday, Connor said to me, totally out of the blue (and I quote), "Mom, I just don't want to be TOO awesome."

I chuckled a little, then replied, "How come?"

"Just because I don't." he said.

"How do you know when you're TOO awesome?"

He took that "tone" with me and said, "BECAUSE I just feel it in my head, and it makes me mad! I want to just be reg-lee-er awesome." (that's how he says regular).

I chuckled a little more, and couldn't just leave well enough alone, so asked, "What sort of things do you do that make you feel TOO awesome?"

"Just EVERYTHING, like playing soccer, and riding my bike, and using my tools, you know, all that awesome stuff."

(LOL!!!!)

"So, Connor, how do you stop being TOO awesome when it starts to happen?"

"I just tell myself to stop it, and I stop."

At least I know he won't be egotistical, because he's got it all worked out that he doesn't want to be TOO awesome!!

SOCCER!!

The boys both had their first-ever soccer games over the weekend. They were SO EXCITED!

Connor is in a little preschool league where they have practice and games in the same 90 minute block of time each weekend, and teams only have 5-6 kids each. Typically the coaches are parents of the preschoolers, but they couldn't get enough parents to sign up, so they hit up the high school for volunteers. Connor has to two high school soccer players for coaches, which he thought was pretty neat!

They started the kids off with some stretching:


Then they moved into some soccer warm-ups, such as toe taps on the ball:


After some running warm-ups, the game began!

Connor was totally FEARLESS in going after the ball, taking it away from other people, and didn't hesitate charging into the group to help his team:








The problem is that while he totally has the personality for the sport, he had zero idea what the whole point of the game was, so after he'd gain possession of the ball, you were likely to see him doing things like this: (putting his foot on the ball so no one else could kick it away, and giving them all the stink eye! LOL!)


And sometimes if he couldn't make it go quite where he wanted it to, he'd reach out and pick it up and set it down where he wanted it. LOL! I thoroughly enjoyed seeing him and all the other little kids running around on the field with no rhyme or reason. Talk about FUNNY, and totally ADORABLE!

Jared's team has been practicing once a week since August, but this was their first game. For the first game day of the season, there was actually a Jamboree, where each team got to play three short games instead of one regular one.

Jared has a much more timid and hesitant personality compared to Connor and he spent a large chunk of his time doing things like this:


and this:


and this:


and this:


AND this:


And even this: (and we BEGGED him not to have his shirt tucked in, but he went totally OCD over it and it bugged him so much we finally gave him and let him wear it however he wanted... LOL!)


Towards the end of the 2nd game of the Jamboree, he started feeling a bit more confident and did some running with the group of kids (he hung towards the back, but at least he was moving!)


Then he got a tad more into the thick of things, but you can see on his face that he's still unsure of it all:


Same with this one, though I'm not sure how well you can see in the reduced size. Jared's looking off to our right, and ever other kid is looking off to our left. He's running along, but only because the other kids are; he's not making any real effort to get into the game.


His team-mate scored a goal!


GO JARED! He's getting the hang of it:


For the 3rd game, the other team didn't have enough players, so they asked for kids from J's team to volunteer to be on the red team instead. One of his good buddies was on the red team, so J volunteered. The red shirt turned him into a whole new kid; look at him go!


It was a LONG day, but it was great seeing the boys out on the field, having a good time. I look forward to seeing what the rest of the season brings for them both.

I'm also investing in a golf umbrella, because I can't expect the gorgeous sunny day we had over the weekend to last throughout much more of the season!!!

The proof is in the picture

Connor had a powdered donut for breakfast

S'mores, anyone?

My FIL called up and invited us over for s'mores over Labor Day weekend. Danny was busy, but the kids and I enjoyed a nice evening of s'mores, spooky stories, singing songs, and hanging out by the fire.



The marshmallows were HUGE!


Connor chatting on the phone with his daddy


Grandpa's hungry!


mmm mmm good!






Emily offered to puppy sit Auntie Vicky and Uncle Corey's dogs for a bit


The boys got really into the spooky story telling






It was a great evening!

Pampered princess!

My friend Nikki has a spa that she runs out of her home. As a treat for the end of the summer, I set Em up with an appointment for a kid facial. Because Nikki loves my girl, she gave her the regular facial for the kid facial price (and because we love Nikki, I met her somewhere in the middle... LOL).

Em LOVED the facial!

getting her face washed


and exfoliated


a mask, some steam, and some fake cucumbers


mask #2


My pampered princess would have stayed all day!