Wordless Wednesday: the big bang

Chin meets floor:

Gram camp

Gram dropped off two very tired kids last night after a weekend at mamaws. It sounds like they had a fun weekend full of bonfires, wagon rides, running laps around the house and bird watching. Here are a couple of highlights that we stole from Grams camera:

Jon spent the entire weekend working. I think he worked 37 out of 72hours and is going on 12hours today. It will be nice when things finally calm down over there and we can spend time together as a family again.

1 is the loneliest number?

The house is quiet and has stayed clean for more than 10minutes. That can only mean 1 thing...Gram camp. Gram and Pap picked up Ty, Emma, Ben and Sam and are taking them to Mamaws for the weekend. This is the first time Sam has been included in Gram camp. He is officially a big boy now! You would think that this would be the perfect opportunity for a date night with the hubby. Unfortunately, he has to work all weekend long. 15 hours on Friday and who knows what the weekend has in store for him. I thought about sleeping in, maybe going window shopping around Lakewood or at the mall, maybe see a movie or do something girlie like a manicure. While I'm sure I would enjoy any or all of those things, it just sounded a little lonely. Instead, an early morning run with Corrie is on the schedule as well as my first baby bargain bonanza and watching football with a bunch of southerners. That sounds like a much more exciting way to spend a day "alone."

On a side note, here is Sam, always following in his big brothers footsteps. They went on for way too long like this. I've got a couple future brain surgeons on my hands!!!!

Shouldn't be this hard

Jon and I have been looking at bunk beds for a couple weeks now. We've been to a few stores and found 3 that I like. However, they all have their own issues.
Issue #1: Price. We don't want to get big and beautiful because 2 boys are going to be using them. I don't want to spend a lot of money on something that will be abused. We found great deals on all sets, however, they don't tell you that the price is just for the frame. If you want the stairs or ladder that goes with the beds, its extra. If you want the drawers underneath, extra. Oh, and don't forget about the mattresses, sheets and comforter!
The set in the first picture is my favorite. The problem with this one is we can't find a store that has it in stock, so we can't see the actual product. It looks beautiful (especially for the price), but I'd really like to see it in person and have the boys climb on it. Also, the bottom bed looks high making it hard for Sam to get in to. I know he wont be little for ever, but he will be little for a while.
The set in the second picture is Jons favorite. Its a bit shorter, which is nice. Its the cheapest, which is really nice. However, they warned us that this is pine, which is soft and easily messed up. I have 2 issues with this one: if we decide to separate the top and bottom, I think the top bed will just look weird on its own. Also, I'd like to get a bigger dresser for the boys room and the dressers that go with this set look cheap and ugly!
I didn't see a picture of the third set we like on line, but its a compromise of the two. We saw it set up as a twin over twin bed. I'd really like to get a twin over full. I'm sure it wouldn't be much different than what we saw, but I can't picture things-- I have to see them.
We are at a stand still. Ben is begging us to get a bunk bed for him and we are still trying to wrap our heads around the fact that this will cost twice what we first imagined--isn't that always the case?!?!

Monsters

I love my boys, but they are driving me crazy! Everyone told me it would take about 2 weeks for Ben to adjust to being in school. I didn't really pay attention because he is only in school for 2hours a day and he LOVES school. Ben has proved me wrong and Sam is right there helping him out. We played with nap time last week. I tried putting Sam down for a short nap while Ben was at school or putting him down after Ben got home. Ben doesn't take naps anymore, but has a "rest time." I tried keeping the rest time after school and we completely skipped it for a couple days. They didn't really seem to be happy with anything. They are cranky, fighting more and regardless of what we do for naps, they seem to be sleeping less. I'm hoping that the 2 week rule applies to Ben and things will start to calm down soon. These boys are cute to look at, but they are not my sweet, loving babies and I want them back!!!

Next step

Ben is very quickly outgrowing his toddler bed. Most nights when we go in to check on the boys, Ben will have one or both legs hanging off the edge. He manages to stay on it for the most part, but he's fallen out a few times. Sam is still doing well in the crib, but he will be 2 next month so I can't imagine he'll be in there for too much longer. Part of me thinks bunk beds would be a lot of fun. They could put a couple toys back in there and would have some room to run around. The other part of me pictures the top bunk falling down on Sam and crushing him--I'm working on that one. We went to look at some bunk beds last night to see if Ben would even like to be that high up. That was silly, he loved it! He had a little bit of trouble going down the ladder, but was pretty excited that he needed a ladder to get into bed. Sam was excited to jump on the bottom bed, but didn't really want to lay down. I found one on line that I like. The store is in Akron so I think we'll head down there this weekend to check it out.

Ben being Ben:

Sam and buddy Riley:

The gang:

We'll keep you posted on the bed shopping.

First day

Today was Bens first day of preschool. I think he was excited because he was awake and jumping on our bed at 3am! When it was finally time to get up, he told us he was excited to go to school. He kept asking when we were going to leave and when it was time, we headed out and he didn't say a word about not wanting to be there.

Jon was able to take a long lunch so we could both be there. We walked in and Ben got a name tag. We did a quick craft together, took our picture and read a story about the first day of school. Then they kicked the parents out. Ben was ready to play, but gave us each a hug and and wave bye. It really didn't bother him at all that we were leaving. I got a little teary, but held it together! When I picked him up the first thing he said was he didn't want to go home. He wanted to stay at school. Once I assured him he could go back tomorrow, we headed home and he talked non stop about the toys, his new friends and snack time. I think its going to be a great year for him!

At pick up time:

Soccer star

Ben started his soccer class last night. It teaches the basics of soccer and I heard a rumor that the class ends with a soccer game of parents vs kids. Ben had a blast. They ran between cones aka volcano island. They practiced running forwards, backwards and sideways, they learned where to kick the ball, with what part of the foot, they did throw ins and a bunch of other activities. The class is small so the kids get a lot of attention from coach Joe, who is awesome! I heard he did some parent participation so a friend watched Sam since Jon had to work last night. Its a good thing I didn't take Sam because it was ALL parent participation. One main reason for getting Ben in the class was to get out energy, but I also got out a lot of energy! I'm kind of sad the class is only once a week, but with school starting next week, I guess its good that we don't completely overwhelm his schedule. Jon should be able to go next Friday so I hope to get some pictures of Ben in action.

My cuties

I just happened to have a bunch of random pictures of my adorable kids and I had to post them:

Ben has been taking his Bible to church in his back pack just like daddy:
Just like dad:

Wordless Wednesday:balloon vs fan

I think Ben was the winner! (of course daddy was the hero!)

The deck

Jon built us a big beautiful deck last year. Since it was so late in the summer, we decided we would stain it this year. We procrastinated long enough so when Jon was on vacation last month, we bought some stain and went to work. We found a really nice color, started applying and when it was covered, we realized we stained our deck to match an oompa loompa! It was orange, not just a hint of orange or an orange tint, it was ORANGE! We found some stain remover and prayed. Luckily, it worked. While the wood was a bit darker, it wasn't orange anymore. We got a new stain and Jon stained the whole deck by himself this weekend. It turned out perfect.

Before: the picture does not do the orange justice. I should have interviewed some witnesses so you could get the full effect of just how bad it was!

After: Once again, not the greatest picture, but you can clearly see NO ORANGE!

Great job baby! We love it.

Lake Erie Crushers

Our church got free tickets to the Lake Erie Crushers game tonight. They have a regular seating/stadium area and they have a lawn area. We were on the lawn. You have to walk up a short, but steep hill (that Sam only fell down once), but the area is great for the kids to run around and get messy (and when I say kids, I mean Ben who was the only kid to find the mud puddle!). The weather was beautiful and the company was great. We didn't really watch the game, but we had a lot of fun.

We have Emma on loan until our girl gets here!

Sam learned to say baseball. Then he begged Pete to spin him around. Fortunately for Sam, Pete

can't say no to the kids!

Sam found one of his friends baby doll and was fascinated, until he threw it down on her head.

Sadly, as soon as we got there, Ben ditched us for his friends (its starting already). After he found the mud, he was in no mood for pictures.

School days

After a lot of debating, Jon and I have decided to send Ben to preschool--in 10 days--AHHHHHH! Lakewood has an all day kindergarten program (which Ben will probably be in next fall) and while they might offer half day kindergarten next year, none of the teachers, administrators or school board members that I've talked to can guarantee that will be an option. While homeschooling is not off the table, if Ben does end up in school, I don't think going from nothing to all day kindergarten is a good idea, especially for Ben.

We thought we found a January preschool class. He could get a few months of the "school experience" and be more prepared for the fall. Unfortunately, we had a miscommunication and that class is only for 3 year olds. If we want Ben in preschool, he would have to start in September. We found that out 2 weeks ago!

We ended up looking at another school closer to our house and fell in love with them. Bens class will only have 12 students with 2 teachers. The teachers look like they genuinely love kids. They have a learn through play focus and are heavy on the play side, which I really like. They cover interesting and practical themes lasting from a week to a month, they go on field trips which I can bring Sam on should I choose to drive with them. They have dads night, mothers day activities and holiday parties. The room is set up with a bunch of different play stations and they have a large gym they will go to every day filled with bikes, a parachute and other toys to get plenty of energy out. Somewhere in there they manage to cover a letter and a number a week. Its an afternoon class so Ben will still be able to go to play group and see his friends each morning. We are going to have to work on adjusting Sams nap schedule, but I think that will help us out with our bed time issues.

I don't know how much Ben will get out of this academically (he knows all the "school stuff" they will cover), but I think hes going to have a lot of fun and I think (hope) it will help with his confidence. He will go up to random adults in stores or play grounds and start a conversation, but becomes shy when it comes to making new friends when he is on his own. I really like that Sam and I can drop in any day at any time to observe and play with Ben. Does it sound like I'm talking myself into this? I know Ben is going to love it and it will be a great experience for him, but I wasn't prepared to send him to school yet (are you ever prepared for that?) and its going to be weird not having him around 8hours a week. I don't know if Ben really gets it yet. He saw the school and has already played there. He knows he is going to go there again to play with other kids, but I think he ignores me every time I tell him Sam and I wont be there. So If you hear lots of screaming and whining in the afternoon of the 13th, its just Ben realizing I'm leaving. Or its me realizing I have a big boy!

They're here, they're here

I love fall. I'm usually wishing for fall by mid June. Since this summer has been so hot, I'm counting down the days until we can throw on a sweatshirt and jeans. The Air Show makes fall seem that much closer. With that comes the planes practicing right over our heads. I (we) look forward to the planes every year. We will brave the heat and sit outside searching for the planes, watching them do their stunts and speed away. They have been out for a couple hours now. They are loud, they make the house shake and its AWESOME!!!

Oh, and watching OSU tonight with my hubby will top off a great day!