Fire pit

Friday night we got together with our neighbors to roast hotdogs and have smores!  What a fun evening we had hanging out and visiting.  

Enjoying the fire!

Telling scary stories

Looking through the telescope at the full moon.

We put the kids to bed and the adults stay out around the fire until it died down.  We are looking forward to having another cook out in this nice cool fall weather!

Randomness

This picture was taken about 12:30am.  Not an ideal time to be up having some pretzels in my opinion, but Will has been waking up lately crying in his sleep.  It's hard to get him awake enough to stop crying and he has no idea why he is crying.  Fun.  But after some cuddles from Miles and some pretzels he was able to sleep again.

Things to notice in this picture.  A laundry basket full of clean clothes(that had been sitting there for a few days), my pink knee, and a foam potty seat.  Don't  you all keep little pink potty seats on the floor of your rooms?

We have started our Sunday picnics again now that football season has started again.  The kids love this and it is a really fun way to change up meal times.  Eric is getting better at sitting still and not pulling the table cloth.

Coming soon...a tour of our house!  I keep putting it off in hopes that I can get it cleaned/straightened up a bit before I take pictures but I just don't think that will happen!

Another birthday!

Justin's birthday was yesterday.  It was such a blessing to have him home to celebrate him this year!!

Getting ready to open presents.  Had to hold Will back while Eric was helping.

Practicing for his upcoming birthday!

Trying on daddy's new hat.

WHile I was cooking dinner, Will helped keep Eric occupied with what looks like angry birds.

Birthday dinner of homemade fried chicken, mac and cheese, and peas.  So yummy!

Helping blow out candles!

The cake was a homemade oreo ice cream cake.  I added oreos to the cake batter and then added oreos to rice dreams brand dairy free ice cream and topped it with homemade icing!  OH SO YUMMY!

Happy birthday Justin!  We love you

Another kid

This week I'm watching Ramon. He is 3 1/2 years old and is the son of one of Justin's classmates.
I will also be watching him all day next week too! He is a mostly sweet boy but we have our moments!
Eric is having trouble adjusting to sharing his toys and mom.

Clinton Lake

A few Saturdays ago we rented a boat through the Army MWR (morale, welfare, and recreation) program and went out to enjoy the afternoon!  It was a little chilly but otherwise beautiful day.  We had a picnic lunch and Will and I spent some time in the water.  I had to do ( I was requested to do!) a front flip off the boat into the water.  The water was cold and Caroline got right back out and Eric lasted even less in the water.  Justin didn't get in.  

trying to warm up after swimming

My big girl!

Spent some time fishing, but didn't catch anything.

Caroline had to hold his leg up every time he he wanted a bridge!  What a sweet big sister.

Catching up!

I have a lot of things to share with you guys and just haven't gotten to them lately.  So I'm going to try catch up a little with several posts/pictures.

Marie's sourdough cinnamon rolls!  So yummy!

Homemade donut holes.  Would have been yummy, but they cooked too fast and didn't get done in the middle.

No uniform this year= crazy outfits!  Strawberry leggings fleece skirt and a sparkly shirt all tired together with the color red!

Will started playing flag football and is really having a great time!  Here he is at wide reciever.

And here he is at quarter back.  They rotate after every play so he played every position.

Hugs with my boys!

Trying a new braid, the snake braid.  Super easy, just do a regular braid and when you get to the bottom hold the middle piece and squish up the braid, then loosen it up and voila!

Will's 6th Birthday!

Will's birthday week was a very busy week!  I was so tired by Friday and then actually got sick in the wee hours of Saturday morning. It was more of the throwing up allergy stuff I had back in the spring.  It wasn't much fun but I was feeling much better by evening time.  I was also sending in snacks for Will's class every day last week!

Will opened presents after he got home from school.  After every gift Eric would say "my turn!"

Red velvet cupcakes I made for snack on his birthday.

Homemade icing and shark toppers made them supper cool for Will.

 Will requested a "shark cake with chocolate cake and strawberry cake" for his birthday.  I had never made a cake that I had to carve so this required some research!  The pictures that I found online I didn't like so I used a stuffed shark that Will already had as a template.

I "pinned" the paper to my 9x13 cake with toothpicks and started cutting!  The cake is a little longer than 9x13 but I just used the extras to make the tail.

 I doubled an icing recipe I had for butter cream and divided it into 3 colors, gray, red, and white.

I put a crumb coat on then stuck it in the freezer for a little while.

Finished!  With sliced almonds as teeth! I was so glad it came out so well!  And the cakes tasted great too! Will was one happy boy!

Eating leftover cake the next day!!

Eric trying to sing happy birthday to Will.  Will wasn't actually even here when he was doing this!  It just cracks me up,

Happy Birthday sweet Will!  You are such a wonderful gift to our family.  We love you!

Sneak peek

Here's a sneak peek of Wills birthday cake. I will get around to blogging about his birthday tomorrow. I'm flat out tired!

Construction

Yesterday about late morning we had a nice sized machine digging in our front yard. Eric was one happy little boy! Just the day before a book that I had ordered came in the mail. The book is titled goodnight goodnight construction site. And I've only read it about 50 times since then! He loves that book!
We had a picnic lunch on our front porch so we could watch them dig. They are putting in access pipes so they can reach the plumbing pipes better.