School's Back with a Vengeance

One thing I love about school is all the fun activities my kids get to participate in. Each grade is responsible for putting on a program for the parents "to see how much they have learned". Isaac's kindergarten program was pretty early in the year, but it was still cute.


They sang a song and recited a poem for the parents. They were so proud of themselves.

This year was the first annual 3K fundraiser for the school. Caleb and I decided to job/walk it and had a ton of fun. It was cute to see how many people pulled out chairs and sat in their lawn cheering the kids on as they ran.


After the race, they had a safety fair with a fire truck, ambulance, and police motorcycle to look at.

Every grade has a Moms and Muffins/Dads and Doughnuts morning. Parents come and read with their child while eating a treat. Isaac had his Moms and Muffins last month and Caleb's is this month.

Finally Caleb had his grade program. It was a halloween theme with songs, poems and a reader's theater (play).


Isaac's favorite part was the "O My Darlin Frankenstein" sing a long. They did such a good job.

All these activities may be a lot of work and keep us all busy, but the kids sure love them!

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.