Park day

We took advantage of a beautiful morning yesterday and headed to Lakewood Park for some play time.

The kids ran out a bunch of energy at the playground and Ben played the bells for us.

We grabbed TJ's for lunch.  We haven't had a TJ's sandwich in a year and a half and it was worth the wait!

After lunch the kids went back and forth with a kite, a frisbee and some catch.

We ended the day with some football and a drum lesson for Ben.  It was definitely a good day!

Corrie

Corrie had a birthday last week.  Gram was able to come up to celebrate and make an amazing dinner. The kids and I made brownies for dessert and we ended the night with a dance party.  Sounds like a pretty good birthday to me!

Wordless Wednesday: Elephant

Marblehead

The past two years we've gone to Lakeside and Marblehead for vacation.  The kids love "rock climbing" at the lighthouse and ask to go back all the time.  We're heading to a different vacation destination this year, so we decided to take a day and drive up for some climbing and fun.

We surprised the kids with it.  Ben took a few minutes to warm up to it.  He wanted to be on his kindle with his friends, but he ended up having a pretty good time.

Zach was my ham all afternoon.

We stopped at Cheesehaven for Jon and Tofts for the kids, and maybe me.  It was a great day!

Pool party

Benjamin finally had his birthday party on Friday.  He wanted a pool party so, of course, every pool in the area was closed for cleaning and maintenance for his birthday week.

He had a blast.  He ate pizza and swam hard with 16 friends (including siblings). I forgot to take a picture until all but 2 friends were gone.

We made chocolate mustaches for the party favors.  The kids thought they were hilarious....

....and delicious!

1 more down

Sam has been wiggling a loose tooth for what feels like FOR EVER!  It finally pretty much fell out of his mouth the other day.  #3 gone!

Cherish it??

From the minute Ben was born everyone told me to cherish every second because it goes by so fast. Family, friends and strangers told me this daily and still tell me all the time how I'm going to blink and they'll all be going off to college.  Ben is 9, I've seen how fast it goes.  I'm sure it will only speed up as time goes on.  I want to remember every giggle, every silly thing they say and do, all the hugs, good deeds and accomplishments.  I don't want to wake up one day and realize Zach hasn't crawled in our bed for weeks or Ben doesn't ask to cuddle anymore. At the same time, I just really, really want to get out of the toddler stage.  I've been changing diapers for 9 years. I'm tired of paying for them and I'm tired of changing them.  I want to tell my kids to go up to brush teeth and not worry about where I'm going to find toothpaste (which is usually on the curtains in the hall).  I want to feel confident that when they play in the back yard they aren't leaving the water on for days.  I'd like to be able to send them upstairs to play in their rooms with out wondering where I'll find the cat litter, or poop, or puddles of water.  I'd like to be able to get four kids in the car with out hearing them fight over toys or who got in first or got buckled first.  I'd really love it if Ellie stopped hitting her brothers for no reason.  Ben is actually a really good kid, aside from a total lack of common sense!  I can handle 8/9 year olds. Only 4 more years to get all of them there!  I'm sure in four years, I'll be begging to have my 3 and 4 year old babies back.