The many styles of Sean

While we were visiting, Kaitlyn (with a little assistance from Aidyn) styled Sean's hair into several lovely coifs. Now you get to pick your favorite.

#1 The Nerd

#2 The Punk Seducer

#3 Seantonio Banderas

#4 Spike

#5 The Low Down

So, let's hear it, what's your favorite??

More Fun

During our visit, I took Kaitlyn & Sean bowling. Truth be told, we are all terrible bowlers. However, Kaitlyn & Sean are excellent at doing the wave while I tried to bowl. Here is an action shot of their shenanigans. One night, the kids all snuggled up in front of the TV and watched a movie together.
Kaitlyn did Nolan's hair for him. She is so talented.

We also went to check out the church where Jeff & I got married. When we got married 10 years ago, Kaitlyn & Sean were our flower girl & ring bearer. They were the same age that my kids are right now, so it was fun to see my kids at that church.

Aidyn took this last picture. She did a pretty darn good job!

Family Fun

We've been gone for the last week and have had lots of fun visiting family. The first weekend we were gone we spent time with my brother Troy and his family. They took us to Scheels to ride the ferris wheel, but first I had a proud parent/alumni moment when Aidyn and Nolan wanted their picture taken by the mighty Bison.
Aidyn & Kaitlyn on the ferris wheel.
Troy, who doesn't like ferris wheels, got to ride with wiggly Nolan.
Now, this is not the best picture of Sean & I together, but I had to include it simply because of the ferris wheel operator off to the bottom right. He just cracked me up in this picture!

Story for the day

This week we are spending time visiting my parents. Yesterday, my mom was making garlic bread for lunch.
Aidyn said "I love garlic bread, I could eat that whole thing!"
Mom told her "You wouldn't want to do that. That would make you fat."
Very seriously and very innocently Aidyn asked "Was that what Grandpa was eating when he got fat?"

Mom and I about split a gut laughing! And of course we had to tell dad about it (several times!) He just laughed too.

She's Here!!!

Isn't she a beauty?!?!?!

T-Ball

Another season of t-ball is in the books. Monday night was the last game. Here is our star with her new medal.

Aidyn's team had a few of her friends on it. Here she is with Lydia, Daisy & Julia.
The little brothers sat by 'patiently' and watched their sisters play. Next summer it will be their turn. Brooks, Mason & Nolan

Bye-bye bush

Notice: My before & after picture taking skills are a bit lacking so you'll have to use you imagination a little...

See that lilac bush in front of our house? (the bush to the right of the door) I've been contemplating taking it out for 3 years. Every year it grows around 2-3 feet and every fall I cut it back 2-3 feet. Last fall I cut A LOT off and then this spring, yep, you guessed it, it grew back like crazy!
This spring it was pushed up against the wall to the right, hanging WAY over the sidewalk to the left, hanging onto the porch in the back and up to the gutters above it. It completely blocked the view of our front door, you could only see the far left of the door. Well, I'd had it with that bush. So I grabbed the clippers and the ax and cut it down. Here is what remained.
(Now this doesn't do it justice because if you look back to that first picture, you will see that it was filled in with rocks underneath. Jeff and I worked for 2 nights digging and hauling all those darn rocks out.)
So after we got all the rocks out, we had to dig the stump out. Saturday morning we dug & chopped & cut & pulled and VIOLA! Out came the stump!
Here it is before (minus the gigantic spring growth).
Here it is after!
It's almost like it never existed. I'm going to plant some perennials in that spot this fall and add some color to the front of our house. And now you can see our front door!

Twins Game

We took the kids to the Twins game yesterday afternoon and watched them sweep the Indians. Both kids were really good and actually sat and watched the game!

After the game, we got to go down on the field and the kids ran the bases. I don't have any great action shots of it because they ran too fast! They said they enjoyed the base running and the cotton candy the most, imagine that!

I can do it myself!

Nolan has become very independent when it comes to dressing himself. He doesn't let me pick out his outfits anymore and in no way, shape or form can I help him get his clothes on. So this morning he came down all dressed and I didn't think much of it. He looks good, right? And then he turned around and I saw the back of his shirt. Yep, he's got his head in between the buttons with his collar across his back. He hasn't noticed that anything is different, but the rest of us have gotten a good chuckle out of it. Aidyn just said "Nolan, you're weird."

Fireworks

Last night we finished off the few fireworks we got this year. Mostly sparklers, snakes & a few bigger explosives. Doesn't he look like he's full of mischief here?
And doesn't she look about 16 years old here? AURGHHH!!!

The kids were in bed before our city's big fireworks display so Jeff & I set our lawn chairs out in the street and watched the show. It was a really nice display and since we both love fireworks, we oooh'd and ahhh's a lot!

Happy 4th of July!!!!

We took in our city's 3rd & 4th celebration over the past 2 days. Last night was the carnival/kiddie rides and the kiddie parade. Nothing like a blueberry muffin in a train in the summer heat!

For the kiddie parade, Aidyn and Nolan decorated the wagon and Aidyn pulled it through the parade route.

There were hundreds of kids in the parade, but I think ours may have been the cutest. (No prejudice here!)

After the parade, we enjoyed some delicious fair food...pizza, gyro, corn dogs...yum! Then the kids headed for the pony rides. This is a favorite part of the festivities every year and last night was no different.
This afternoon we took in the city's parade. The kids gathered gobs of candy and waved a politicians galore. They both said they enjoyed it and the candy was their favorite part, imagine that!!

We hope you all have a wonderful Independence Day!!!!

Flag Cake

Aidyn and I made a delicious flag cake to celebrate the 4th. We got the recipe off the Jello website. It was really easy and fun to make and tastes yummy! Here is our pretty outcome.

1930's Wife

32 As a 1930s wife, I am Poor Take the test!

Yikes!! I think I sort of knew this already...oh well. I'm good at a lot of other things that don't involve repairing socks, ironing my husbands clothes or keeping my opinions to myself!

Whatcha been up to?

The kids have been busy (so that implies that I have been busy too). But mostly it's been them and I just try and keep up. They have opened a 'store' on the landing of our stairs. I'll keep you posted on this one since there is talk of expanding it outside so our neighbors can buy stuff. Today they mentioned they'd like to open a peanut butter and jelly restaurant next to their store so people driving by can get dinner on their way home too. Anyway, at their store they are selling things they made. Coloring books, fuzzy posters, spotting scopes and dried Play-Doh creations. They are quite the entrepreneurs. Apparently, Aidyn is the store owner and she employees Nolan to help people find what they need. I'm guessing there will more on this one later... Here is Aidyn reading to Nolan. They were having DEAR time (Drop Everything And Read). This is one of my favorite times for 2 reasons...I love it when they read and they are relatively quiet while they are doing it. Win-win!!
This is just a few minutes ago in the backyard. It's almost 90 degrees here today so the pool is the perfect place to be!

Now take a look towards the top of the picture just under the fence. There is a dark circle on the ground. That is where my manly man chopped down a tree. Getting rid of that really opened up more space in our backyard. Now it's my job to get some grass to grow!