Random Cute Photos

September 24 - JD's reading has really taken off in the past couple months. Here he sat down with Annabeth to read her a book. 

September 28 - Now that she is a little bit older, Annabeth has been going over to play at the neighbor's. Today, I drove over to pick her up and found her riding down the street with her friends in a car. All the girls were dressed as princesses.

October 14 - We have been learning about 10 famous paintings this semester. JD seems to really enjoy it. For each of the paintings I have printed a coloring page. JD wanted his coloring page to look just like the real Persistence of Memory.

October 18 - While Dad was watching football on the big TV, Annabeth and Wesley shared a little small screen time on his Kindle.

Mom and Roz Weekend

Last weekend I took my annual trip to go see Roz in Minneapolis. I had a little trouble getting off the ground, engine trouble sent us back to the gate for about an hour. While I was sitting on the plane, Jerry and the kids were having breakfast at Denny's. 

Thankfully, I did get there eventually.

First stop after meeting up with Trevor (and getting a quick tour of his new place) was Giordano's Pizza for dinner. The wait was long, but they let you order your pizza half way through your wait so once you're at your table you don't have to wait all over again for them to cook it. No wonder it takes so long to cook, their Chicago deep dish pizzas are REALLY deep!

I'm not a big drinker, but I did try this beer. It was pretty good!

Roz and I made our usual trip to Junk Bonanza on Saturday. I kept my eye out for chicken items, I especially wanted an egg scale, but didn't have any luck. I only got a few small things. After JB we went out to Culver's for lunch and hit up a favorite thrift store. We hit up the new outlet mall where I splurged and got myself a new purse. Then we ran to JoAnns and Target to buy some crafting supplies before running to Panera for a quick dinner.

Sunday morning we got out the door bright and early to run to the Farmer's Market and meet my cousin Katie for brunch. I bought some fresh cheese curds to bring home to the boys. Yum!

We had brunch at Psycho Suzi's Motor Lounge. Weird name, good food, and AWESOME weather - although I can't give the restaurant credit for that!

After brunch, we ran over to look at the park location for next year's WEDDING OF THE YEAR!

Then we swung by the Happy Gnome (restaurant) for a quick peek at where the reception will be. As you can see, I made a new friend. You can meet him yourself next June if you come to the wedding!

Here is a little sneak peek at our craft project. Roz bought a small, vintage suitcase at Junk Bonanza. We took it home and ripped out the old lining. I re-lined it and Roz made a cute little banner for it. She will put it on a table at the reception for cards. So cute!

Before you know it, Monday morning rolled around and it was time for me to head back home. I'm always depressed for a few days after parting ways with Roz. At least this time I have her and Trevor's upcoming Thanksgiving trip to look forward to!

It was a Circus

Annabeth and I went to a baby shower for a couple of women at our church. The shower had a circus theme. We had a great time and enjoyed spending time with the other women and girls in our church.

There was a little "photo booth" area set up. Everyone took turns. Annabeth thought it was a lot of fun!

 We left the backdrop and props at church so the boys could have a turn on Sunday.

 Then, since it was no longer needed, they let the kids run through it!

Lost at Sea?

The day after we returned from our California vacation, I was sitting at the computer and put my hand up to my face. As soon as I felt my ring against my skin, I knew something was wrong. I looked down and the diamond in my ring was gone. 

I have no idea where or when it fell out. It could be at Legoland, the house we rented, in the ocean, or anywhere in between. I'm kind of hoping it's in the ocean because that's more romantic - kind of like the "heart of the ocean" jewel in Titanic - than having it drop down the bathroom sink drain at the Jack in the Box in Yuma.

I'm glad I didn't notice it until we got home, it would have really ruined my vacation. If would have really bothered me to know where I lost it when there was little chance of me ever finding it. 

Our 20th anniversary is next year so I guess I will get a new ring set! In the meantime, I just couldn't have an empty finger so I ordered this ring set from Amazon. It was only $12! I told Jerry he couldn't just say that was good enough, although I am sure he was tempted.

So, if you happen to be in the Carlsbad, CA area or the Pacific ocean and find a diamond, please let me know!

Summer Birthdays

We celebrated JD's birthday a little late this year and had a combined party for him and Annabeth in August. We also ended up having a few friends as guests (which we don't normally do) and it was a lot of fun! The kids had a great time playing with their friends, swimming, and eating.

Annabeth has been asking for a playhouse for a long time. I couldn't find one used anywhere. When I saw this one on an Amazon Lightning deal I jumped on it. She didn't quite understand what it was when it was still in the box, but she loved it after Jerry and Justus put it together for her the next day!

 JD got a bike for his big birthday gift from us, but in all the craziness I didn't even snap one photo!

Library Freebies!

Wesley got a nice surprise when we went to the library a couple weeks ago. In addition to his free book and a coupon for free food, he won not one but TWO of the random prize drawings. He won a Captain America t-shirt and a $15 iTunes gift card. We didn't see the notifications on the library website so were totally weren't expecting it!

Everyone except Jerry participated in the summer reading program this year. Wesley was the only one who won extra prizes. Too bad because some of the prizes were really nice - iPads, GoPro, etc. We all got a free book and coupons for free lunch at Chipotle.

We used our Chipotle coupons for a free lunch on Saturday. We just had to pay for Jerry's lunch and three drinks. It took the poor cashier forever to ring us up. Thankfully, we beat the rush by a few minutes and I don't think it upset too many people.

None of the kids had ever had Chipotle before. Some liked it better than others. We had a good time and you can't beat the price!

A Lost Classic

I've been purging and organizing in preparation for the new school year. This morning, I came across this "book" I wrote several years ago. I'm guessing it was made in 2008. 

In years past, I made things like this all the time. I can tell by the quality I made it on a whim. We probably all sat down to color together and this is what I made. As kids get older we do less and less things like this. It reminds me of a different phase when we had lots of little kids and only one big. Now we have lots of big kids and only one little. 

All the kids loved seeing it! Wesley suggested I make a new version. I just might do that!

Note: Eli called shorts "up jeans" at one time. He insisted on wearing them every day. 

Two Left Feet?

We were walking along in Costco yesterday when I glanced at JD's feet.  "You have your shoes on the wrong feet," I said. This is not an uncommon thing with Pickle. Jerry looked down and said, "His shoes aren't on the wrong feet, he has on two left shoes!"

What?! How could this have happened? Does a neighbor kid have the same shoes and they got swapped? No. Jerry admitted he had seen someone with the same shoes at McDonalds when we were there TWO WEEKS AGO! He almost said something, but decided against it.

We sat JD down on a 50 bag of flour in the baking aisle and took of the shoes. Two left shoes, two different sizes. One a size 13 and one a size 1. Just one size off.

So, apparently, JD has been wearing 2 left shoes for the last two weeks and no one noticed. He didn't say anything and I guess his parents aren't very observant either! And somewhere in town another kid his age is walking around with two right shoes. I wonder if his parents have noticed?

We finished shopping and sat down in the food court to eat a piece of pizza. What do you know? JD also had mismatched socks on. Also, not uncommon, but one was his and one was one of Jerry's dress socks!

Oh, Pickle! What are we going to do with you!?

I posted this on Facebook and everyone got a good chuckle. Grandma Linda summed it up best when she said:

"JD you are such an awesome little guy. You just go with whatever. Will probably never have any health issues cause by stress."

So true!

The Real Elsa

Annabeth was invited to her friend Brooklyn's house this Saturday for a birthday party. This family knows how to throw a great party! Annabeth had an awesome time!

The party had a Frozen theme so the girls all wore their princess clothes.

There was a little Frozen karaoke. Annabeth sang "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?"

We made several crafts - a necklace, a sun catcher, a crown, and a princess wand. There was lots of great food. Annabeth's favorite were the powdered donut "snowballs".

The highlight of the party was a visit from Elsa, or as Annabeth likes to say "the REAL Elsa". Elsa did a great job. She stayed in character the whole time talking about Anna and the land of Arendelle. She also did a pretty darn good job singing "Let It Go".

Annabeth was a little nervous about meeting Elsa. She kept her distance at first. I love the photo below where she is peeking at Elsa from behind another girl.

Elsa painted each girl's nails. Annabeth asked if I would stay next to her while she got her nails painted.

She couldn't stop looking at her sparkly nails afterwards! 

The only thing she didn't like about the party was the bounce house and water slide. She has never been a fan of bounce houses or trampolines. She did get in, which was progress, but fell over after one bounce and came right back out. Then she refused to go back in.

She watched everyone else go down the waterslide though.

She went home to tell Daddy and her brothers all about it. And she was still talking about it this morning!