Happy Birthday Evan!!

Today is my baby's 8th birthday! Wow - Evan is 8 today. He's sooo excited to be 8. This morning when his alarm went off, he hit snooze, then very sweetly said, "Yeah, I'm 8!" His friend and family birthday parties will be on Saturday. Today he has school, followed by a wheel throwing class and then a birthday dinner at a restaurant of his choice. Gosh - my baby is 8! Hard to believe...

Life goes on...

We're back in the grind again. Things are back to normal after an extended Winter Break with the kiddos. I've been doing a lot of scrapbooking lately. In fact, I rearranged our "toy room" which is now more of a dual purpose room, (thanks for your help Kari) and I have a scraping corner downstairs. It's much more functional than being stuck in a small corner upstairs in the computer room. It's also quieter as the boys tend to play in that room a lot in the afternoon, so I can be downstairs in peace.

The boys are back in school. They are back in scouts too. In fact, it's almost derby car racing time, so they are working hard on their derby cars. Pictures to come once they are finished. Coming up soon is the big science fair. Both boys will be working on science fair projects soon. This usually consumes several complete weekends. Matt gets to do many of these extra projects with the boys as I help and supervise their "normal" homework.

Matt's been diligently working on our new fireplace face. It's coming along great. In fact, when it's finished, I'll post a picture of what it looks like. He's quite happy with how it's turned out.

Michael and Matt just got back from a weekend of camping with the Boy Scouts. Michael's cub scout Webelos Den was checking out a Boy Scout Troop to see if it's the one they want to join. The boys had a great time this weekend. Cold weather camping is a different monster from warm weather camping. The gear you need is very different. And, Boy scouts are always prepared, so Michael now carries an emergency kit while camping as well as wears a whistle while hiking. Scouting will teach him so many important things in life - responsibility, preparedness, cooperation, thinking on your feet, etc. We're excited for him. We decided that Matt would have made an excellent Boy Scout. He gets to relive what he missed thru Michael's experience.

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures that I took over the past couple of weeks. Enjoy :)

Evan's second grade class decorates gingerbread houses. They finally got to do this when classes resumed after the extended winter break. The kids had a great time making their houses.

Evan with his gingerbread house (made of graham crackers). He's not quite finished yet. There is lots of work to be done. In fact, he's actually the last one to finish his house.

Michael is all packed up for his big winter camping trip with the Boy Scouts.

Michael's pack is heavy. He tends to lean forward to offset the weight. He'll get used to it :)

While at camp, the Boy Scouts taught the boys how to start and build a fire. The boys don't quite realize you must pile up the kindling close to the fire to get it to start. It take almost half an hour, but they finally get a fire going. They will learn lots of things as scouts!

New Years Eve

Happy New Year! Wow - it's 2009 already. I had this thought while watching Dick Clark's Rocking New Years on television. You know those glasses that all the people in Times Square wear that have 2009 on them - their eyes look out the "00"s. Well, next year those folks won't be able to wear those glasses anymore since it will already be 2010 - strange.

We spent our New Years Eve at the Milford's annual New Years Eve party. This year they had the party at Out of this World Pizza and Play. We all brought yummy food to share which the kids ended up eating all of. Really - they ate it all. They left a few carrots for us and some dip. Hmmm - they are all getting older and they eat more - lots.

The adults played games and chatted. We played boggle and Scattergories. The kids played on the play structure, drove cars, played games, and ate. We were going to celebrate a Chicago New Years this year - at 10pm. Time got away from us and it ended up being more like 10:20pm before we were all ready. We all wore hats and the kids pulled poppers with tons of confetti and streamers. They played with the streamers and then cleaned up. Our evening ended about 11:15pm. We came home and the boys went to bed shortly after that. We were treated to some great fireworks about midnight. We stayed up until about 1:30am. 2009 is going to be a great year!

Mo took a video while going down the slide in the play area and now he's sharing it with all the kids.

All the kids that came to the New Years Eve Party. The cars were a big hit!

Michael with his New Years Hat.

Evan wears his New Years hat of choice.

Amy, Sigrid, Amy and Linda. Happy New Year!

It's time for the poppers! Lots of streamers and confetti.

Kari and Amy celebrating the New Year.

Evan collects all the confetti and streamers and put them in his hat so he can throw them again.

Michael collects streamers and confetti too - he's going to celebrate the New Year over and over!

Michael and Kobe pulling poppers.

David and Sigrid having a great time.

Michael and Kobe bringing in the New Year.

Evan and Micah bringing in the New Year!