Blueberry muffin...

Help....I ate a smurf!!

Another first day of school...

My Ella Bella had her first day of preschool at the park district.

She was up and dressed at the crack of dawn.

Had her backpack packed with snacks and juice.

Took some time to model it for us.

Then we headed outside to wait for the boy's bus to come. You can't begin to imagine the disappointment when she realized that she had to ride in my car to school and was not getting on the bus with the boys.

"But I can't go to school in the car!! I have to go on the bus!!"

In the meantime...the boys were excited to share her moment.

They distracted her with worm finding. And picking the nose of the tree man in our front yard.

I am so proud of that kid...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUSTIN!!!
You are 6 years old. Where did the time go? What a big man you are. I love that you are so independent and "grown up". I love that you are reading and that you read every sign and package you see out loud, to me. I love that nothing holds you back, that you always find a way to be included in everything. I love that you are a popular dude at school and in the neighborhood and that you do not abuse the priveledge. I love that when given the choice of a big honkin' birthday party with a magician and everything that you decided to invite a few friends to see a movie and go out for pizza instead (thus saving Mom billions of dollars and tons of work!) I do not love that I forgot to bring the camera to this event therefore missing out on the pictures of you and your friends brandishing imaginary light sabers all through the movie and dinner.
I love that you ask me "Do you know what?" and when I say "What?" you say "Chicken Butt." 1000 times a day. Thanks for that...

Happy birthday my little man in the middle.

I love you!!

A tribute to our missing kitty...

Dear Roxie,

We are so sad that you left home one day and never came back. We looked and looked for you and kept hoping you would return. Who will I drag around by the neck now and try to dress in doll clothes? Is that why you left? Please come back...I promise not to put those babydoll dresses on you ever again..

Love,

Ella

Zoo Frenzy

So today Ella gets up and says "Let's go to the zoo." We pack up our stuff and head over to Cosley Zoo which is a small local zoo.

After a brief stop to look at the duck feeding frenzy...

It was off and running...

And running...

"Hey...what's in there?"

oooo...horses...my favorite...

Hiding from Mom.

Ewww...don't touch the piggies...

And there you have it...our morning visit to the zoo which took exactly 10 minutes because she ran through the entire thing at full speed. But isn't she cute...

First day of school

Here are my boys on their way to the first day of school. Shawn is in second grade and Austin is in Kindergarten. They were so excited!

Beautiful Princess

Every night my daughter says, "Mommy, tell me the story about me when I am the beautiful princess that lives in a castle on the top of the mountain." And I do...

Happy Birthday Shawn!!

What? Your birthday was in April. Are you sure? Oh, that's right, you wanted to have a water party outside with your friends and it was too cold in April so we waited, and waited, and waited until the weather finally got warm enough. Of course, sometimes once you start waiting...it is hard to stop. So...happy birthday in August buddy.

Goofing around with buddies in the hot tub.

Playing on the water slide.Water balloon fights.

Pinata.

Cake.

and Dress Up?!?

Yes...the boys thought it would be funny to dress up in my daughter's dress up clothes and pretend they were "Grandmas". Of course I took pictures because some day, they will be teenagers, and I will need ammo baby...can't wait...

Catching up...

It's that time again...time to catch up on my blogging. Yes...I have been a reluctant blogger. You would think that nothing has been going on around here by my lack of blogging lately but really...it is just the opposite. I cant' believe that summer is gone... I can't believe that it is almost Halloween. Where does the time go really...

But...back to catching up...let's see...where did I leave off? Oh yes...we went on vacation in July (yes, I said July) then we came home and starting tearing up our house. Looking back I can see that this was not the smartest thing to do. We finally get away on vacation and all relaxed and then WHAM...come back and start destroying the house just so we can be stressed out all over again. Remind me not to do that next year...

But, we did tear out our enclosed porch and raise the floor up the level of our house. It was something we have wanted to do for so long now and with Austin needing to be able to get in and out alone, it was definitely time. Of course the project that was supposed to take a few weeks turned into the terminal project and is still going on. So here are some photos of it in progress.

And here is a photo of what my children had to do the whole time we were demolishing things. Poor things.

And here is what the room looked like after the floor was raised but before the flooring and windows were in.

I have yet to take a finished picture of it...oh wait...that is because it is still NOT finished. I wonder if there is a support group for people who always have to have some kind of unfinished project around their house. "Hi, my name is Becci and I have rooms with no trim."

I will take some photos of the room now so you can see where we are with it. It is close...so close...maybe by Christmas...