Lego-Mania!

On Saturday afternoon, we headed north to Topeka for a Lego Exhibit at the Mulvane Art Museum on the Washburn University Campus! All I can say is WOW! Gabe and Grady have both been really into Legos the last few months...it's amazing they can sit downstairs and work on a project for hours! Most of the exhibits were about the size of Gabe, most with 10,000 or more pieces! There were around 50 or so projects, definitely worth the 2 hour drive! We also took a walk around the Capital building, some shopping and dinner! A pretty perfect way to spend a Saturday with the fam!

Tied Again!

First off...sorry no pics of Pele this week!! His team had another exciting game though! They ended up in a tie, 3-3! Grady played some keeper and forward this week. He was in a few dribbling plays and had a couple of stops at keeper. 2 goals did get past him, but in his defense, one was way over his head, so he would have never been able to stop one of them! It was another hot day as well, by the 4 quarter all of the kiddos were dragging....I mean for pete's sake, I am up in the stands doing absolutely nothing dripping sweat, I can only imagine what it would be like to be running around the arena! Looking forward to a weekend off....and then the fun really starts.....back to back soccer and football games every Saturday!

Soccer!

Last Saturday, Sir Grady began the 2011 Fall Soccer season! He was a determined little go-getter.....one of the players on the other team was one of the best players from his team last year! He had a few good defensive plays and was in on a couple of offensive dribbles....it was stinkin' hot on Saturday at noon, so I'm impressed he played as well as he did! We all know how Grady is....once he is hot, he is done! The final score was a tie 2-2...not a bad way to start a season, especially to what appeared to be a pretty tough team! He will have 4 more regular season games and then they will play the last 3 in a tournament style...a little different from last year! Hoping for a little cooler soccer game tomorrow morning! GO GRADY!

Back To School!

On Tuesday my little buddies headed back to school! It certainly is quiet around here.....I'm getting a little bit accomplished, but it's going to take me a while to get back in the routine of doing all of the chores alone!

The Last Hurrah!

Last weekend we headed to the Fox Farm for one last summer hurrah before school began! We fished, rode the 4-wheeler and mule, and roughed it! Welllll, not exactly roughed it since we stayed in Charles and Judy's cabin...but it was definitely my kind of roughing it! It was a wonderfully relaxing weekend...no phones, no house duties staring at me, just the 4 of us spending some much needed time away!!! Goodbye summer...Hello crazy, busy start of fall!

40 Fantastic Years!

On August 7, 1971 two pretty special people were married....these two pretty special people were vitally important to my happiness---they are Shawn's parents!! Without them falling in love, my fantastically wonderful husband wouldn't be here!

On August 7, 2011 us children had the pleasure to throw a little shindig for Charles and Judy at their farm! It was a little on the warm side, but that couldn't put a damper on our day. The decorations were great, the food was good, but the company was the best! Charles and Judy are a wonderful example to their kids what a marriage is supposed to be....Thank you so much for the example you have given us!

Double Digits!!!

H.A.P.P.Y.B.I.R.T.H.D.A.Y.G.A.B.E!!!!!!!

10 Years Old! WOW! 10 years ago, Shawn and I were blessed with a bright eyed 7 lb 9 3/4 oz bouncing baby boy! He is such a blessing to our family! He is our family historian, our fact finder, our source of all sorts of information! He has a mind like a steel trap...he sees, hears or reads it once and it's there for life! His interests amaze me....he loves sports, builiding lego structures, learning about history, presidents, he collects baseball cards as well as coins! He is the perfect balance of jock and nerd...all rolled into one! He has friends whom we adore....he surrounds himself with kids you want him learn from! He has the biggest heart....the other day Princess had a huge turtle cornered and Gabe was distraught at the thought the turtle might get hurt, so he put Princess in her cage and then felt bad that he had punished her! He rescued the turtle and then let Princess out spending the next 20 minutes apologizing to a dog who couldn't have cared less about being caged up! He is the best big brother to Grady.....Grady looks up to his big brother...and I can't think of anyone I would rather him look up to!

Gabe and a few of his friends...this picture cracked me up! They were all four sitting there with their lunch on their t.v. trays watching a movie! They reminded me of four little old men!

Happy 10th Birthday Gabe....We love you so much!

SuMmEr FuN!!!!

I can't believe we have less than two before the kiddos are back in school!!! We have been super busy this summer....not once have I heard the boys say, "I'm bored"!! On the rare day we have absolutely nothing planned...I think they actually enjoy being at home! We have been swimming, bike riding, going to camps, hanging with friends, going to bible study, and running from sport to sport! So here is a snid-bit of what we have been up to!

Last week the boys headed off to college! It was actually much easier dropping them off at college than I had expected....I had assumed there would be tears....well, I'm sure it helped that I was able to pick them up an hour and a half later and that it was only 4 days long! Butler County College had this awesome program this summer, Kid's College. The kids had a huge selection of classes they were able to take...Gabe chose LegoManiac and Grady chose Flight! They both had a blast! Gabe was able to build lego machines that actually moved! He learned how to program the machine on the computer and program it to do exactly what he wanted it to do! He Loved IT! Grady learned about different things that fly and what makes them fly...he also learned how to make a pretty awesome paper airplane....to him, the most important thing a boy can learn! He was happy, so I was happy!

And, when your thermometer reaches this number, I can't think of anything better to do than this.......

......that's right, we tried to fry and egg on the driveway!! Well, it didn't work, but it sure was fun trying! We chose not to use a pan, because we were sure the black driveway would be plenty hot....it's hot enough to cook our barefoot, but alas, it was not!

Baseball has finally come to an end! Just in time for us to start football and soccer! We actually had 2 weeks off...a very much enjoyed two weeks off! Both boys played fantastically this year! Gabe played a new position this year.....Catcher! I think he is going to go for pitcher next year, but he enjoyed learning a new position this year! Grady improved by leaps and bounds this year! He will be in the same league next year because of the way his birthday falls....he should be quite the stud next year! The highlight of his season was of course his homerun! I love watching baseball...I can't wait for next summer!

Gabe's end of the season trophy!

Grady's end of the season trophy!

And the cooking lessons have continued! Here they are learning to make caramel! Gabe asked me what blondies were one day...and I said, "Here let me show you!"...well, what better way to find out than to make them yourself! We made caramel walnut blondies...YUMMY!

Here they are right before they went into the oven!

That evening they were also in charge of dinner.....green beans, biscuits and goulash!

I am very proud of these two! Gabe can pretty much do anything with hamburger...that is a pretty good start to keep him from starving when he is actually out on his own! And, I figure with the few desserts they are learning, they should be able to whoo the ladies!!!




Well, that is an update of our summer fun this month! We have a few more things planned for the last two weeks!!! We'll keep you updated!