For the Love of Popsicles

Lewis began a love affair will popsicles this summer thanks to a big brother who happens to have a chain-popsicle eating habit. As you can see, he is not happy when I say no to the popsicle request.

Perler Mania!

The above picture represents about 1/3 of the perler bead creations we have in our house! Carter got 2 new sets of beads for his birthday. One set came with a pattern book and one had glow in the dark beads!! Notice we have even started 3D perler beading - a cube and a treasure chest. Next up, an airplane, with Dad's help, of course.
No, that is not a gold-plated tooth. That is perler bling. Try as we may to keep those darn beads off the floor, he always seems to find them. And when he's not busy tossing them down the heat vents, he is busy getting them stuck on his teeth!

FROG BLOG

We got Carter a frog habitat for his birthday, and he has been trying for the past several days to find a frog or toad to put in it. Last night he caught one! Yey! He was pretty exited to put the little guy in his new (temporary) home. He has eaten one of the crickets that the boys found for him, and is just hanging out in his little aquarium.

Lost: One Front Tooth

As if starting kindergarten wasn't excitement enough, Owen lost his first tooth this week too! It happened at school, so he got to go down to the nurse's office and get a cool treasure chest to put it in. He was pretty excited. Carter lost his first tooth last year during his first week of kindergarten too.

Happy Birthday Carter!!

We decided to take three of our neighbor boys to Chuck E. Cheese for Carter's 7th birthday. The boys were so excited to play they didn't even want cake! We ended up eating it in the van on the way home.

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Carter got some super cool gifts.

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Logan must have been driving a little too crazy for Owen as he was ready to hop out mid-ride.

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The boys were going a mile a minute until our 125 tokens ran out!

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We came away with blue plastic frogs (hanging out of their mouths) and pirate rings from the prize station.

1st Day of School

It doesn't seem possible that both my big boys are in school. It's a strange new world I'm entering as a mother of school-age kids. Both boys are enjoying school so far. Owen said he likes Mrs. Campbell, but he only got to draw one picture today and he didn't get to bring it home. Carter is proud to look after his little brother at school and is pretty happy that his good buddy Ethan is in his class.

The NUMBERS of Summer

450 popsickles (no joke - when you have a half a dozen boys in and out of your house on a regular basis those boxes of 100 popsickles disappear in a hurry).
10,000 perler beads (these are all the rage in our neighborhood - after an afternoon of catching bugs and amphibians in the creek it is not uncommon to have 5 or 6 boys sitting around the table making designs out of these funky beads) They are not only a fun craft, they are the perfect toddler "bling". (They fit right over Lewis' teeth, so he sometimes has some pink, blue or other bright color in his smile!)
10 toads
20 crickets
5 grasshoppers
1 dragonfly
1 frog
14 trips to the swimming pool
3 nights by Lake Superior
2 trips to Grandma and Grandpa's in Britt
1 trip to Grandma and Grandpa's in Fremont
1 emergency trip to the doctor
1 trip to the Science Center
4 pairs of crocs
30+ craft projects

We had an incredible summer that was much too short! I am not a mom who cheers when my boys go to school. I know I will have more time to myself, but I already miss the noise, the dirt and the slamming doors. After the boys went to school yesterday, I couldn't bring myself to put away the perler beads that have been sitting out on our table for the past few weeks. I like a clean house, but I like my boys a lot more!

Our Family at Lake Superior

Lake Superior Trip

My four favorite boys on the bay near our campground. It was gorgeous!

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The boys out on the breakwall with a big iron-ore ship behind them.

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Wrestling in the camper.

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Campfire! We really needed it to keep us warm outside in the evenings. It got down to the mid 50s.

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The Lake Superior Maritime Museum in Duluth - our rainy day excursion. Lewis made several friends while there. He sat right down with a mom and her kids and watched a video about shipping with them.

Hiking and Playing @ Gooseberry Falls

Corey and the boys above the middle falls.

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We found a spot by the river bed to stop for lunch.

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The boys spent a long time climbing on the rocks and playing in the water around the falls.

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All the hiking tuckered Lewis out!

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What a Difference a Year Makes!

We all had a great time camping up by Lake Superior, but Lewis kept us on our toes!! A one-year-old is significantly more difficult to keep up with than a two-month-old! He just wanted to go-go-go! And he was up at the crack of dawn, so we took some early morning walks down by the lake so he wouldn't wake up the whole campground with his incessant babbling!
Summer 07 - Lewis' first camping trip

Not Enough Buckets

What's worse than puking and feeling miserable? Having to clean up after others in your household who are puking and feeling miserable right along with you. ALL 5 of us were sick on Thursday, and I didn't have enough buckets to go around - obviously Lewis has no concept of what it means to hit the bucket, but who knew we would ever need 4 separate puke buckets!!

It is a day I would not wish on anyone, but I did manage pass it on to my good friend Marti's family (SORRY SKOWS!). We played at her house the day before and her family came down with it the day after we did. It was a fast and furious battle with some awful bug, but we managed to get packed and make it up to my folks for the Hobo Day Parade. We are all healthy, though a little tired, and heading to up to Lake Superior tomorrow.

Let's Make a Deal

I'll take the prize behind door number one.

Guitar Baby

Lewis found a comfy spot to sit and listen to Corey play the guitar.

Dumpster Diving Scores

I worked my 2 paid days of the year last week painting apartments for Corey's boss. It was a "fun-filled" couple days with two of my friends and my mother-in-law, as we rolled and trimmed and even cleaned bugars off of walls (no joke - poor Cinnamon got that job!)

But the most exciting part is what we found in the dumpsters. July 31st is a great time for dumpster diving in Ames! College students throw away very good stuff. Corey scored a guitar stand. I got an oak shelf for my wall, a nice curtain rod and a stack of baseball cards and a nice pair of soccer shoes to try to sell on ebay - if they don't make me any money, I'll just put them back in the trash. My mother-in-law got what looked like a new broom and dust pan, and my friend got a pool cue. What fun!!