Why I constantly fear having a cup

Ethan, while he, Lola, and I were doing a Lite Brite project:

"Mommy, someone stinks!"

Me, bending even closer to the children, thinking it *must* be Lola and a diaper situation: "Oh...is it Lola? Is her diaper stinky?"

Ethan, recoiling away: "No....ugh...I fink it's your stinky coffee breaf."


{Anyone have a mint? Sigh.  Nothing like your child to knock you down a few notches keep you constantly humble.}

Kindergarten Thanksgiving Feast

A few days after we returned home from our anniversary weekend, Cameron's class put on one of my favorite activities: the Kindergarten Thanksgiving feast!

Both Kindergarten classes get together and host this activity. Ethan, Lola and I loaded up and headed to Cameron's class a bit early to help, and we had so much fun.

The children get to choose whether they want to be pilgrims....or Indians!

Cameron's Indian name was Strong Buffalo. It definitely fits!

After a brief time of getting into 'costume' the children line up

and all go down to the gym for their presentation.

They did several readings and songs and it was sooooo good! 

My favorite song came from the old Veggie Tales show Madame Blueberry:

I thank God for this day,

for the sun in the sky,
for my mom and my dad,

For my piece of apple pie!

For my home on the ground,
for His love that's all around,

That's why I say thanks every day! 

Because a thankful heart is a happy heart,
I'm glad for what I have--

That's an easy way to start!

For the love that He shares,
'Cause He listens to my prayers,

That's why I say thanks every day!

Ethan is always so excited to be with Cameron whenever we visit the school.

Cameron took us all around the gym, and showed us the teepee....

(Of course, looking with the eyes wasn't good enough--this teepee needed to be experienced!)

....and his pilgrim that he made! He insisted I take a picture of--his words--"the two of them together".

(This happy little pilgrim is now residing in Cameron's Kindergarten memory book!)

Cameron and his friend Christian

Then it was off to the actual feast!

It was so funny to see Lola sitting like such a BIG girl on the lunch room stools!

The food was very yummy. The Kindergartners (and their parents) and the teachers did a great job!

I'm always so thankful for my children's school....days like this are NO exception!!

Eleven on Eleven Eleven Eleven

Shane and I shared a very special anniversary this year. Not the number of years necessarily, but the way it fell.

Eleven years ago, we married--on November 11, 2000.

That meant that we celebrated our eleventh anniversary....on 11/11/11.

We thought that was pretty cool! Okay--I thought that was very cool. I shouted it from the proverbial rooftops for every person who would listen to me!

My mother gave Shane and I the absolute BEST present of all--a whole 24 hours to ourselves! We decided to get away over night in Indianapolis.

We are fortunate to live pretty close to Indy. It is a wonderful city, full of great things to do but not too crowded with scary people with traffic with overpriced everything and it's easy to go there on a whim.  So we Pricelined a hotel and headed off!

Quick picture before we got on the road. Photography lesson to be learned here? 

Improper lighting causes terrible shadows! *giggle* I love the picture anyway.

We arrived at our hotel, which was nicer than we imagined it would be!

Score big points for Priceline!

The view that night was incredible! Love the city lights.

And the bathroom reminded us of an upscale spa retreat!

I told Shane it was not sleepy time yet. We were going out for a night on the town!

 We decided to eat dinner at the famous St. Elmo's Steakhouse. It was wonderful. Right up my alley! Fancy everything (Shane joked with me that the busboys were dressed nicer than him, which was true--they were in tuxedos!)  with gourmet food to boot.  I was as happy as could be!

Shane was really excited when they brought us out some bread...until he took a peek in the basket.
*sigh*

I believe his words were, "What the what?" but he was brave and tried each one anyway!

His words after eating "the black one" (which, incidentally, 

the rest of the world would have referred to as "rye") was.....

"The salt on the outside is delicious."

Got to love that man!

The next day, we awoke to a gorgeous sky and warm fall temperatures.

The hotel breakfast was amazing...even better because it was free!
Compliments of the front desk, in honor of our special anniversary!

We headed out for some adventures. We did some Christmas shopping....

....and of course, another meal before heading back!

We had never eaten at Maggiano's before, but it will definitely not be our last time!
The food was wonderful and so was the atmosphere and service.
I would highly recommend it to anyone!

I love you so much babe! I had such a wonderful anniversary trip--and thank you again, Grandma Jane, for being such a wonderful care taker for the boys and Lola! We could not have had such a wonderful time without you.

Here's to another 11! And another....and another....

Back again, back again, jiggity jig

{Alright...so I've heard the call from my blog, and I'm back! The type A in me is going to have to catch up chronologically, but for today, I just had to post this. Glad to be back!}

Officially titled,

"Little Miss Yogurt Head"

A letter to Devin

Dear Devin,

I thought we were friends!

Where have you been? You used to share so much of your life with me. I miss the pictures of your children, the funny things they say, and your telling me about all of the events going on in your family!

I know for a fact you haven't told me about your 11th wedding anniversary, Cameron's Kindergarten feast at school, or how much fun you had over Thanksgiving with your family in Chicago. I know you must have adorable pictures of Lola....at least one or two hilarious things that the boys have said....and I can imagine that there is probably so much more.

Won't you come back?

I miss you.

Signed,
Your very neglected friend,
BLOG

Colin's 8th birthday . . . continued

The day after Colin's birthday, most of us in the house started passing around a case of the yuckies. Some had this, and some had that....and it was over a week before we were all feeling back to normal! As soon as we were, though, it was time for the rest of Colin's birthday celebration!

Ethan and Cameron each wrapped their present to Colin, purchased with their very own money. My family and I are the janitors of our church, so for several months now, the boys have each been earning a couple of dollars a week helping us clean. It has been a wonderful learning process, showing them how far (and how not-so-far!) a dollar goes.

 You can believe that shelling out $3.50 for these CARS cars was both joyful and difficult. 

They realize now just how long it takes to earn that money!

Ethan clearly gets his wrapping prowess from his mother. 

{Just crumple it all up, buddy. It's still just as fun to open!}

Colin chose Pizza Hut (shudder) so that's where we went for the birthday feast.

Lo was apparently getting really hungry waiting on that pizza....

Colin snuck Grandma Jane's glasses! *giggle*

{I think they make him look like me....}

Ethan, as shy as usual

And, of course....Mr. Cutler.

Colin was so excited to open and find two new CARS cars!

The boys had so much fun giving them to him, too!

The big surprise came a few moments later. Colin has been saving and saving his cleaning money for an mp3 player. It has been all he has talked about for weeks now.  At the last minute, Shane found a really inexpensive used one, and were able to get it for Colin. He was overjoyed!!

After supper, Shane took the boys over to the steal-your-money crane machine....

....helped them figure out how to do the controls....

...and lo and behold, a few minutes later, we were taking home a new Illini football player and a weird skull-ghost-biker man.

The story behind this picture warms my heart, too....Colin tried once, then again, then again, and was not able to get anything from the crane. Cameron, on his first try, pulled two out. This caused a few tears, of course--but Colin's tears didn't last long, because his brother promptly handed over one of the prizes. 

Love my little tender-hearted Cameron.

We had a great time celebrating Colin! 

We all love him so much, and are enjoying each day, watching the man that he is becoming.

We love you Col! Happy 8th birthday!

Lola the vampire

I came down the hall looking for Lola today, and found her snooping in her brothers' room....when she turned around, she looked like this:

I've said it before, and I'll say it again--you just can't make this stuff up! Love this girl!

Celebrating Colin's eighth birthday

Colin's birthday is always such a busy, exciting day.

My entire pregnancy with Colin, I prayed and asked God for one thing: "Please, please, please....don't let this baby come on Halloween. Any other day but that one."

God knew best. :)  I went into labor the day before, but Colin took a whopping 25 hours to get here--so a Halloween birthday it was!

Before he left for school, he paused a minute to show me how old he is!

Every time I take a picture of Col these days, I marvel at how big he is getting. 

Something about those giant grown up teeth make him look so big!

After we got Col and Cam off to school, Ethan helped me bake and decorate some cupcakes. Between Cameron's birthday, the Fall party at school, and Colin's birthday, he's becoming quite proficient at it!

It being Halloween and all, we figured it'd be okay to wear costumes for our errands.

Lola was so excited when we got in the car and I told her we were going to see Colin!

We stopped by Daddy's job and had lunch with him....

....and one of Daddy's co workers thought E's costume was so good that he deserved some early candy!

Then, it was off to school. As soon as Colin saw us, he was all about showing Lola and E off to his class!

She stood in the front of the room with him while the class sang, "Happy Birthday"....

....and Ethan sat next to him and shared a few giggles during cupcake time.

Scratch that. LOTS of giggles.

These two could barely eat their cupcakes, they were laughing so hard!

Lola made her self right at home in Colin's chair.

When it was time to leave, I grabbed my camera and snapped a couple 

shots of Lo out in front of the school.

Running from Mommy...she did not want to get back in the car! *giggle*

Miss Sassy--love her expression here, and how her hair almost glows in the sun!

*cutest leopard ever*

When the boys got home, it was time to get changed and head out for Trick-or-Treating! 

Lola ended up with two costumes this year--so we did one during the day and one at night!

We were so fortunate to have our very good friends come with us this year for the candy grab. We had quite the crew--a Ninja (please don't miss the blood dripping down his sword--Shane was proud of that one), Wolverine, a little lady bug, Buzz Lightyear, Cinderella, and Iron Man!

Lola could not wait to go! I love the blurry picture....you can really see how fast she was moving!

She was always a few steps behind...but didn't seem to mind.

Every single one in the party fell at one time or another. 

It's rough trying to move around in those costumes.

Love this one of me and my little love bug.

All in all, it was a wonderful day. We still have the big birthday "bash" (tomorrow night) so there is more celebrating to come! A great Halloween, great friends, a great birthday....can't ask for more!