Halloween...Mario style

For Halloween this year, we went with a Super Mario theme. The boys love playing Mario kart and were so excited to dress up like the characters.


Caleb was Mario, Isaac was Luigi, Noah was Wario, Seth was a goomba, Mike was Waluigi, and I was Princess Daisy. It was so fun and easy to make the costumes.


Isaac had his Kindergarten costume parade at school Friday morning.


Caleb had his parade after lunch with the entire school. It was a little crazy, but fun to see all the different costumes. Isaac was happy to join in the parade, since we were helping at Caleb's class party.


Mike took the boys trick or treating on Saturday night. Eventhough it was a little rainy, they brought home a ton of candy. Now it is time for detox! :)

Caleb's birthday

It is a little late, but life was crazy there for a while. Caleb, my little boy, is growing up so fast. He turned 7 this year! We had a Pokemon birthday party. It was pretty fun, and easy. There were tons of ideas out there for me to choose from.


We made our own pokeballs.


We played bingo: "Pokingo"


We wrapped each other up in cocoons like one of the pokemons like to do. That activity was a blast.


We had a pinata. Everyone loves a pinata.


Ending up with a pokeball cake. Love the pokeball. So easy! So everyone had fun and no one got hurt, so I consider that a big success!

First Day of School

My oldest two boys are finally both off to school. Caleb started a week before Isaac did so now they are both at school. They were so ready, as was I. Isaac was so excited to finally follow Caleb to school instead of dropping him off and going back home. So far they both love school.


Caleb on his first day


Isaac on his first day


Here they both go off to school. Now I only have two little ones at home. I can get much more done now and when Seth naps, boy is it quiet. I could get used to this.

My baby is 1!

Man, how fast time goes by. I can't believe little baby Seth has turned one. Technically it was a couple weeks ago, but I have been busy. So here is a post with some of my favorite pictures of him.


Welcome Seth. Born August 14, 2009!


2 Months old.


4 Months old.


Tummy time at 5 months.


Trying baby food at 6 months.


10 months old. Such a happy baby and loves to stick his tongue out.


Seth loved his birthday cake, or at least the icing.


Seth is such a big boy. He has started to take his first steps, goes up and down the stairs on his own, and says "uh oh" when he drops things. We love him dearly.

Summer Means (Part 2)...

For me, summer means...

Gardening.
We finally tried to take care of weed control and created a square foot garden. We planted: tomatoes (cherry, romas, and regular), bell peppers, jalapeno peppers, red and brown potatoes, cucumbers, watermelon and cantaloupe (with existing strawberries and raspberries).


We had a late snow fall that had me a little worried, but this has been my best garden yet and I look forward to canning salsa and chopped tomatoes.

Making Jam.
Each summer, Mike's sister Nicole, and I make jam. We went a little crazy this year. The kids played well together so we just started working. Ten boxes of pectin, over 25 lbs of sugar and who knows how many pounds of fruit later we have this...


Yeah. 10 batches of jam...that is 54 jars of jam (27 jars for each of us). We are well set for the year, though wiped out at the end of the day.

Making fruit leather.
I tried something new this year. I was given some apricots and wanted to make fruit leather. I didn't want to turn my oven on (even though would have been on the lowest setting), so I tried making it in my car.



It wasn't quite flat, but still worked out fine...and it was super easy! The boys loved it too.

I love summer time. I can't believe it is over. Between my projects and getting the boys to all their activities, we have been very busy. But in a good way. Now we are ready for school.

Summer Means....

For the boys, summer means....

Sports and Water Fun!!!!

Caleb and Isaac are allowed to choose one summer sports camp. They both chose Little Hoopsters, a week-long basketball camp. They had a lot of fun.


Here is Caleb at Little Hoopsters.


And here is Isaac.
Caleb also is signed up for soccer in the fall and spring. They had a summer camp during June. He learned a ton there. Hopefully, they will continue that program each summer.


We are looking forward to starting games in the fall.
They also had swim lessons, which made it easier to take them all to water parks.

They love playing in water.


Fun times with cousins.
The summer has been a fun one, though busy. We can't believe it is almost over.

Isaac's Birthday

Better late than never...Isaac celebrated his 5th birthday with a pirate party. Arr...we had a parrrty. :) It was a pretty basic party, but the kids had a blast.


Here they are playing Sharks and Minnows (yup...it's just tag).


They also played "Musical Islands" of course to the song "Row Row Row Your Boat".


They did a "Walk the Plank" relay race. They had to steal the gold coins and put them in their team's bag.



Of course they had to do a treasure hunt. They followed clues to find parts of the map and put it together to show them where the chest was hidden. I didn't get a picture of the chest, but it was a spray painted diaper wipes tub. It was pretty cute.


Here is Isaac with his cake. By far my easiest cake to decorate. I went the easy route, with still keeping in theme. All in all, it was a fun afternoon. The kids had fun and Isaac really enjoyed his birthday. He is getting so big. I can't believe all that he can do. We just love him so!