Our Crazy Week...

 Sorry these pictures are out of order, the bowling party was supposed to be last, don't know how that happened.

 Every year this is "Crazy Week" at our house. We have 3 birthdays and Halloween and All Saints day all in one week. Not to mention we had 2 dentist appt. and an eye doctor appt. this week as well. It was crazy to be sure. I did my best to get pictures of everything.

Therese and Patrick had a great birthday. Chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast (of course). Then presents then Mass. After mass we went bowling with some friends and had pizza and cake. It was a super low key day birthday which is what is needed the day after parties and trick or treating. 

Hard to believe that my sweet kids are 5 and 3 already. Time really does fly. 

Happy Birthday Elijah...

Seems hard to believe that Elijah is 7 already. I don't know where the time went. Elijah has grown up so much over the last year. He is very smart and does really well in school. He loves to cook and bake and play Legos. This year he went on two backpacking trips with Jude and Dad and did SUPER great, never complaining or giving up. Elijah is a tender hearted, sweet boy and we are so blessed to have him in our lives.

His party was on Sat. but I saved some presents for him to open from us this morning including a new backpack for hiking. He was super excited.

Pumpkin carving...

Thoughts...

Oh my goodness. It has been a long time. I got a new phone and have been only taking pictures with that then never downloading them onto the computer. I did put a link to my instagram account on the sidebar so at least you can see those pictures.

Life here has been so busy. With the boys in school and me at home doing preschool with Therese (and sometimes Patrick) plus keeping up with Baise, there is never a dull moment. Blaise is a bit of a handful. He never wants to nap and is almost walking already ( so into EVERYTHING).

Elijah has his birthday party this weekend and we have a lot of people coming and our whole front porch is all tore up trying to get the mudroom done so we may not even have access to the front door on the day of the party. That could be interesting. :)

Well Blaise is crying, poor guy has a nasty cold. I better go.

Company and rainy day fun....

We had an animal get into our coop and eat all of our chickens the other night. Dan set up a live trap and this is what was waiting for us in the morning. He is so cute but so dead.

We had Dan's sister and her family visit us this weekend. The weather wasn't the greatest but we did manage to grill out one night and eat outside. Corn on the cob, kabobs, and good beer; the perfect summer meal.  (No beer for the children of course!) :)

The next day it rained most of the day but we headed out to Fishtown in hopes that rain would let up. We went out for pizza and them walked around the historic fishing town that has been converted into a shopping area. It was really neat to see but the rain did not let up so we didn't stay long.

Once we got home the rained stopped (of course). We had a bonfire and the kids played outside. Now it's back to the grindstone. We have so much to do before school starts I don't even want to think about it.

Fun in the sun....

This weekend was super hot but thank goodness we had some friends visiting to distract us all weekend. Dan's friend Jeff from his hometown and his wife Heather came up for the weekend. We had such a good time with them and the kids had so much fun they didn't want them to leave. We took them out to Lake Michigan to the beach and just hung out around the house relaxing all weekend.

After they left on Sunday morning we went to Dan's annual work picnic. It was at a new location this year; a beautiful setting out in the country next to a spring fed creek that was super cold and refreshing. There was a blow up slide and games for the kids and really really good food. There were raffle prizes and prizes for the games. Dan and Jude won the water ballon toss and Therse won the popcorn race. It was a super fun day for everyone. We are truly blessed that Dan works for such a good company that treats us so well.

Weekend update....

 

It has been a busy weekend here. First we finished up the little patio area that we made off of the deck. Dan got all the bricks for free from an old building they tore down. I was actually able to help out a lot with this project and it was a lot of fun and I think it turned out great. The patio set I bought off craigslist for a super great deal.  

On Saturday we met up with some friends of ours at the little splash park a few minutes from our house and had a picnic lunch. It was a beautiful day and it was nice to visit and hang out for the afternoon.

 

On Saturday night we went to a little concert at an art park in the woods. It was a great idea but once we got there it was over run with rich people sipping wine and eating a catered spread of cheese and olives. My kids were well behaved but still kids and at the break started running around. Elijah wiped out on the gravel trail and started crying just as the music was getting started. Then it started poring rain and the baby was crying. It was a little crazy so we just left. So much for giving my kids a little culture...