August

Tom's birthday is tomorrow and over the weekend I surprised him with a balloon ride over State College. We had a blast and even touched down in the middle of a great party on private property. As much as I hate to see summer end, I'm excited for the fall. Time to switch up some recipes, preschool (yea!!) and cooler weekends scoping out the fall colors.

Here are two of my favorites from this month. Tom & Ben playing a good game of toss, and our recent trip to the Grange Fair. Will threw the winning ping pong ball for a new fish!

July

I'm not sure what happened but its August already.

Here's a run down of what we've been up in our house:

Someone turned four in case you didn't hear....

after the Will-a-palooza we had some fun with bubbles waiting for daddy to come home....

and have been hamming it up every Tuesday at the farmers market in Boalsburg....

then visited the Dan Koppmann Family in Ohio!

This past weekend we all cooled off at the Park Forest pool. Of course the sun hid behind the clouds and since it was the only day it wasn't 90 degrees/100% humidity we froze. But had 100% fun nonetheless.

Little B has decided he's still too lazy to learn to walk - but enjoys torturing mommy by climbing on furniture instead (and lets not forget constantly aggravating his brother).

June

Things in our house have been flying by at warp speed. Hard to believe this week we flip the calendar to July. Ben celebrated his first birthday and soon Will turns four. Yes, I can believe Ben is one. Will on the other hand has made me question where I've been for the last our years. When did he get so big? Has he always asked so many darn questions?! I see it every day but its still unreal to me.

So without further adieu here are a few highlights...

(just click on the pictures to make them bigger)

Strawberry picking at sunset with the boys at the Way Fruit Farm. A random "hey lets scope it out" turned into one of the best nights.

In Buffalo for a baby shower for Aly. Can't wait to spoil my little niece in person come August!

Dressing the little executives up for a Fathers Day present for Tom.

Ben is One!

Most recent a few favorites with Aunt Joyce & Uncle Art. Hard to condense them down to just a few. We had such a good time and packed a bunch of fun things in. The boys had a blast. I mean really, how can you not?! Thanks so much Aunt Joyce & Uncle Art for making it so much fun and putting up with us including the flea bag!!

We're Back!

Well the trip was a blast. We managed to get the boys on the plane without incident and arrive all in once piece (luggage too!). What the pictures don't show was that during mid-day the temps reached close to 110 degrees and it was 100% humidity. Literally so hot when you opened the room door you lost 5 lbs in sweat (but yes, I made that back up in rum *wink wink*).

Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!

Safe travels Jeff!

5 Things About Will Right Now

He ate half of a large pizza for lunch yesterday. His growth spurts will put us out of business by the time he's 10.

He loves to sing. "Party in the USA" is one of his favorites next to "Shake Your Love".

The Big Wheel is still the favorite mode of transport around here.

Questions are non-stop all day. He's fascinated with the world around him and its great to see his mind trying to figure it all out. Including tornados. Did you know another name for tornado is cyclone or twister?

He loves nothing more than to be with friends or family.

Or strangers. Or really anyone that will smile listen all about tornados.

Weekend in Baltimore

We spent a wonderful weekend at the "Roerink Chalet". A superb visit with Aunt Joyce & Uncle Art (as usual!). And even more special was the opportunity to watch Hannah make her First Communion. Will was completely in his element soaking up all the adult & cousin time he could get (and especially soaking up some fun in the hot tub!). The only way we could get him in the car to head home Sunday was to promise over and over that yes, we would be back in June. Thanks to Aunt Joyce & Uncle Art for making the weekend so much fun and special for everyone including Bella!

Ten Months Old

With Uncle Laurie's passing and Tom out of town last week, things have been a bit somber in our house.

So to brighten things up here's Little B squawking he was done with nap time. He turned ten months old yesterday too. I think he's a keeper!

Easter Recap!

Will had a special basket blessing by Father Matthew at preschool where I was able to attend and take a few pictures. Always neat to see him in his element with his classmates.

We were able to head to Buffalo for Easter and had fun with everyone. A special thanks to Lauren, Pete and little PJ who let us invade their home with our wild savages #1 and #2 ;)

Sunday morning we had brunch at Aly & Steve's house...

Then we packed the boys up to head to 100 Lamarck for Easter dinner....

*Thanks Aunt Joyce for the sweet comments!! I think I've found a new hobby!

Happy Easter

Giddy Up

I've been playing around with the camera again and couldn't resist posting this little gem from today. Ben is such a good sport. Well for 45 seconds that is!!

Hope everyone is enjoying the warmer weather and the fact that the snow is no more!! Flip flops are out and the grill went into use last night.

Spring is officially here!!!

Ta Da!

Almost done....

We get our big red couch this coming Wednesday. Its amazing the transformation! I have managed to actually get sound out of the "surround" sound speakers and a picture on the tv. (WOO HOO!) We've been taking our time decluttering the rest of the contents so anything that goes down must have a good resume. We've been keeping our trash collectors pretty busy.

In other news Ben is 8 months old today.

I have a hard time not kissing his toes or rocking him to sleep at bedtime. He's still the happiest laid back little guy I know. And those sparkly blue eyes get me every time.

Oh and this one is, well, just the usual chatter box and inquisitive mind as always. Especially about tornados this week . This afternoon Tom & Will sat in the "big boy" section of church for mass. A first for Will and according to Tom it went very well.

He's a bigger boy than I give him credit for.

End of Week #5

So close I can taste it. This week will pretty much wraps everything up. Trim, crown molding and carpeting at the end of the week.

Oh yeah you might have heard....we received a little bit of snow Friday into Saturday. (probably not nearly as much as Crownsville or Syksville!). I think all in the count was roughly 14". And we're due for another 5-10" Tuesday night.

Awesome.

End of Week #4

I'm so ready for "operation project basement" to be done its not funny. Nothing really new other than a lot of sanding of the drywall and then priming of said drywall. Ready for "real" paint Monday.....

We had to hit Lowes to pick out the final color scheme. We've been agonizing about this for weeks. Saturday we just pulled the band-aid off and ran with it. The couch pictured is the actual sectional we bought a few weeks back (in that exact red color as well). So we were hoping for a neutral/warm color scheme to make it pop.

Today we took Will to the PSU Ice Rink to test out his skates. It went pretty well. He actually did two laps around the rink. One with the old-bag walker and then the second time around having Tom hold him (all 52lbs of him). When we asked him later what his favorite part of ice skating was - to which he quickly proclaimed "the snacks & gatoraid mommy packed!"

Ben on the other hand was not a fan of anything....still fighting a horrible cough I hope he turns the corner this week.

Sadly not my best photograph work but a cute moment nonetheless!

End of Week #3

Made it through Week #3. Its been a long long week. Will has been fighting something which involved throwing up, a horrible cold and a horrible cough preventing him from sleeping. Mix in dry-wall delivery and lots of hammering.... we're all exhausted and a bit under the weather.

Notice the white wires hanging down....audio hook up complete!

And no injuries either!

Its been a while since I posted some pictures of the boys. Taking an online photography class so I'm torturing them into being my subjects. I even hit Lowes to make a "faux" studio in the living room. Thankfully they're pretty game...

End of Week #2

Man what progress! Hard to believe we're half way through. During the day with the boys it sure feels like an eternity with all the noise but I'm praying the payoff will be huge.

My homework for this weekend is to grab a drill and wire up the ceiling for a handful of audio speakers and run a few cables down and around for the flat screen. I'm deathly afraid of tools and electricity, so fingers crossed I don't end up in the ER.

(click on the picture to make them bigger)

A picture of the front (stairs on the left).

If you remember the cafe we'll be basically retro-fitting everything that was in there. The huge piece where the tv was will go in the middle of the above wall.

The "kitchen island" and the entire back wall of cabinets from the cafe (the million cereal drawers, under counter fridge and sink) are going along the back wall in the pic below:

Then the other side of the basement will be a bit rough (ie no drop ceiling or flooring just drywall around).

This space will just end up being wide open for storage....

Then the "back 9" will be a space for Tom.

We'll have a wash tub put in and some more cabinets.

Kristin & Jon step it up and get a blog, would you? ;) And yes we're paying someone. Trust me with kids running around and zero free time to yourself its money WELL PAID!!!