And the party continues...

After the fun shopping and tasty dinner Will celebrated with a cookie cake with the family. Today I woke early to make a "real" cake for the PARTY! We gathered three of Will's buds from school last year and went to M-town to see Underdog. Thankfully, it was better than I expected and the boys all seemed to enjoy it. There was a lot of fart and underwear talk in the van as we headed home after the movie. We VERY quickly made homemade pizza, sang, whacked the basketball pinata and one kid actually wanted to eat cake. It was very hurried but really that was OK with me. Fred called just as I was getting ready to drive the last kid home. What timing he has!

The celebration is over. Time to switch gears to getting ready for school. Just 9 days left of summer for the boys. I only have until Wednesday when I head back to work.

We got a call today from Jim and Marilyn who are driving across country. They are going to stop over tomorrow night! I am so psyched to have company two weekends in a row! It is a good warm up for my dad's and maybe mom's visit over Labor day. I also chatted with Aunt Joan and Uncle Alan today. It was all good! I am exhausted right now so I am going to put the boys to bed and crash. It is gonna be HOT tomorrow and I have laundry to do so I will spend most of my day in the basement where it is cool. Maybe I'll get pictures of me being domestic tomorrow. Nic proved himself a good photog apprentice today at the party. He even figured out how to take video. I have had that digital a year and just haven't figure that out. Leave it to my techie kid to get it done!

Happy Birthday Baby!

Will woke up with gifts at the bottom of his, no make that MY, bed. How could I forget that he slept with me last night. Good stuff! Nic got him a Pokemon DVD boxed set. Fred and I bought him a hat from the Cubs game last week and a NBA street basketball. Not sure if that will help his 3 point shot in the driveway but we'll keep you posted.

After all available parties showered and dresses we headed to Ames to spend his birthday money. Mama had given him some cash and Granny and Grandpa sent him a Target gift card. We couldn't let that sit in the wallet too long you know. First we went to the bank then to Panera for lunch. Once we were fueled we zipped over to Target and found a PS2 game and a Yu Gi Oh pack that we had to take home. A quick stop at Sam's and we came home to break in the new game.

As I type this the steak is thawing and the oven is preheating for the french fries that will sit beside the yummy steak. Will picked the menu himself. He actually asked for pretzels to go with his steak. I guess that means more fries for me! YEAH!

What am I doing awake at this hour?

So, for the first time in a LONG time I am awake and alert and it is after midnight! I put the boys to bed around 9:30 and realized that I had laundry in the washer from earlier in the day. I decided to putz in my scraproom until it was dry so I could hang things up. Well, putzin turned in the actual scrappin and I have completed pages to prove it! Check this out...

Someday when the boys are playing virtual games behind sunglasses they will look back at gameboys like I look back at Atari. (not that we had one in our house) I thought I should document the "love" they have for these handhelds!

Thes photos are from our trip to Disney in 2005. Not sure why they are not in that album but it has been completed so I guess these were extras. I thought since the boys look so happy to be brothers at these moments that I could remind them and myself that brotherly love is something special. It has been a long summer with not wnough friends to play with and the boys are easy annoyed with each other. We have survived though and we are better people for it, right?

Well I have a few more pages but I am annoyed with blogger a bit so I will save them for a slow news day, I am sure there will be one soon. Like today I guess. Stay tuned!

Company's gone...

We had a very nice weekend despite the downpours yesterday morning. The drive here was reported as uneventful and they made it here in time to enjoy Bailey's pizza for dinner. The boys were terribly excited to have Megan here and were vying for her attention all night. Too bad for her that she was feeling under the weather.

Saturday started out a little damp, too bad we really needed the rain, but we did manage to get to Clemons for the rummage sale in their gymnasium. Carolyn bought some dishes and puzzles, Dave bought a jacket and a sweatshirt, and Megan bought a Coca Cola bottle and a book. We waded back to the car and headed home after a quick stop at the "quaint" grocery store in town. A lunch sandwich buffet seemed to satisfy the masses before we headed to the big city.

In an effort to make many generations happy we hit a mall that included a bowling alley. The boys headed down to bowl and the gals shopped till we dropped. It was tax free day on clothing and shoes for the mall was VERY busy. We managed.

After shopping we headed to Ames for dinner at Hickory Park. YUM! I am not sure how impressed the guests were but we love that place! The evening was quiet and the morning came too soon. In order to get back for evening chores the gang left very early. The boys got up to say goodbye and I took the only photos of the weekend and they didn't turn out :( They headed back east and we headed back to bed. The boys slept at least another hour so that made for a much more reasonable afternoon.

Fred has left for his business trip this week and we are once again on our own. We do it well enough. He'll be back on Thursday in time to grill steak for Will's b-day. Until then we will shop for pinata filler and register for school! YIKES! All doable!

swap pages!

This layout goes into the blank album that will be raffled off at the end of the year.




This is Lisa's






Lori's page!



This in my version of the swap page. I asked each of the gals what her favorite color was and personalized them that way.




This is one of the swap pages I made for this month's scrap club. This one is going to Jennifer! Hope she likes it!

Company's coming!

We are expecting our first guests of 2007 in just a few short hours! The guest room is ready and the boys' sheets are clean so their beds just need to be remade. We have a couple of hours at least so this should be pretty easy to accomplish. We are looking forward to a little fun with Carolyn, Dave, Megan and Mary Sue. They should be getting close to the Iowa state line soon. Then the countdown can begin.

The boys and I went to a couple of garage sales this AM. I picked up a green glass relish dish for 75 cents. I am going to offer it to my mother-in-law but if she isn't excited I'll hold on to it for future use. Will got a baseball bat for 50 cents and a baseball for a quarter. Nic got a bike helmet for a quarter. I also found this small wall shelf with multiple shelves, four I think, that is rather narrow. It will be great for displaying some of my wood mounted rubber stamps. I have a ton thanks to my old neighbor back in MI. I can select 20 of my favorites for display and maybe I';; use them more often if I get them out of the boxes. The shelf needs a little sanding and a fresh coat of paint but that should be simple enough. $2.00 well spent!

Go Cubs! ***edited***

Pete and his new "baby"!

What a great way to spend a summer night! The boys won FREE tickets to the Iowa Cubs game during the summer reading program at the local library. We traded in the free tickets and upgraded to reserved seats for a Mere $12. We settled in, bought some expensive ballpark food, and watched the Cubs for 6 innings. The boys seems to have different perspectives of "fun." I was actually impressed we lasted as long as we did. In the end the Cubs lost 6-1 against the Tuscon Sidewinders. The night was filled with flying t-shirts, hot dogs and entertainment from real four legged fidos. It was bring your dog to the game night. Lots of well trained dogs got to parade onto the field and off again and some even won gift certificates to a k-9 training school. Too bad we didn't bring Pete. Maybe next year. We made it home by 10 so that was reasonable considering we were 50 miles away.

We drove another 40 miles today down to Ankeny to do a little shopping. We had Kohl's cash to spend and I wasn't going to waste it! We each got two shirts at Kohl's then headed next door to the pet store and got a new"baby" for Pete that he seems really taken by. The boys enjoyed some frozen custard at Culver's then we swung into the local scrapbook store and I bought a couple of treats. I had a coupon for cardstock, surely you didn't expect me to let it go to waste?

I will definitely be posting the layouts for the swap. They are sweet if I can say so myself. Stay tuned!