School Picture Day!

Remember when you were a kid how excited you were for school picture day? Well, today is the day for Christian and he was ready and raring to go this morning. He didn't want to eat breakfast or even watch any cartoons. He just wanted to get dressed and get to school.

Last night we got all his clothes ready. I let him choose his own shirt, tie and belt. He was so proud of his handsome self! This kid loves to wear a shirt and tie! Shane kids him and calls him Alex P. Keaton!

I'm sure it won't last forever. Soon he'll be wearing ripped up baggy old jeans and a t-shirt and wanting to let his hair grow -- I'm just going to enjoy this phase while it lasts.

Happy Friday -- have a great weekend! :0)

Busy Weekend!

It's hard to believe my first blog was almost a year ago and it was all about our day at Cox's Farm. We made our annual trek there again this past Saturday and it was a blast as usual. We've been going there with Christian since he was two years old and we always look forward to it. This year they added a new corn maze called the "Kornundrum" and it was Christian's favorite thing this time. We walked through it no less than five times!!! It's a great place to visit so if you get the chance to go I highly recommend it. They have tons to do and see -- we were there for over five hours!!!!! I'll let the pictures and videos do the talking....

Scary Monster!

Farmer Brown

Family Picture

Hatching

King of the hill

The Hayride

Hanging with the corn cob in the Kornundrum

Milking a cow

Riding a horse

Welcome Baby Ella!

Shane's niece Crystal and her husband Todd had their first child a few weeks ago -- a beautiful baby girl named Ella Marie. We finally got to meet her this past Sunday at a small get together at Shane's folk's house. Christian loved her. He wanted to hold her and touch her and watch her while she was sleeping. What is it about little kids being so drawn to babies? Even when we're out and about somewhere -- if he sees a baby he makes a beeline for it and asks, "can I look at your baby?" I know, I know, maybe we should have given him a sibling but alas it is much too late for that now. He'll just have to enjoy his cousins!

Captain Bailey!

We were on vacation the last two weeks of August. We went to Michigan for a week and visited with my family. One of the highlights of the trip was Christian getting to go into the cockpit of our airplane and sit in the Captain's seat and wear his hat. That's a pretty big deal when you're five and he loved it!

We had a great time in Michigan and for the most part had some pretty great weather. We spent several afternoon's at Aunt Mikki's pool and for the first time Christian swam without "swimmies".

We also spent a day on Mackinaw Island. Our weather was perfect. We took the ferry over at about 10:00 a.m. and the first thing we did was visit Fort Mackinaw. It's a really neat place so if you ever get the opportunity to visit you should. We had a picnic lunch in the park afterwards and then just walked around the island a bit before taking the ferry back to our car.

Riding on the ferry boat to the Island

Hanging out the soldiers

Learning about the rifles

The cannon was really loud!

Dressed like a little soldier

Another highlight of the trip was the bonfire at my brother Ted's place. Christian loved the bonfire because he got to play with his cousin Connor, roast marshmallows and eat smores and ride on Uncle Ted's 4-wheeler. I'm really disappointed in myself that I didn't take more pictures, especially since all of my siblings were there and it would have been great to get a picture of all of us together. I guess I was just having too much fun sitting around the fire and gabbing to think about getting the camera out.

Christian and Connor playing with their cowboy pistols

I did get a picture of the old high school gang when they stopped by my mom's to visit before we left. It's hard to believe we were ever in our teens and in high school but not hard to believe we're still friends. There's just something about growing up in a small town.

Julie, me, Mindy and Donna

We all loved visiting our Michigan family and like always, the time went by way too fast. Christian did not want to leave and can't wait to go back. He really wants to go in the winter so he can play in the snow so we may have to plan a Christmas visit soon.

Now, summer is over and school started back yesterday. We're looking forward to fall and all the fun it brings -- Cox's Farm, pumpkin carving, Halloween, raking leaves (not sure how fun that is!) -- hope your summer was as fun as ours.

Visit from the Tooth Fairy!

Christian lost his first tooth yesterday while he was at school! And, it happened to be the very first tooth he got when he was 4 months old! He was so excited about it and actually anxious to go to bed last night so he could put it under his pillow for the Tooth Fairy. She arrived without fail and he found $2 under his pillow this morning.

Arrrrrrgh!

On Sunday we took Christian on a Pirate Adventure and he had a blast. It's located in Annapolis, MD so it's not too far away. It was most definitely worth the trip. The kid's get to dress up in pirate gear and go for a ride on a "pirate ship" on the Chesapeake Bay in search of sunken treasure. Here are some of the pictures.

Summertime and The Living is Easy!

A 10 ft. inflatable pool with filter - $45.99

Chemicals to keep the water clean all summer - $28.79
Miscellanious pool supplies including skimmer and vacuum - $69.99

And grass seed to use in the fall to re-grow the grass in the dead patch where the pool was - $19.95

Watching Christian cannonball and play in it all summer - Priceless!!!!

We bought this pool the second week of June because Christian was going to be off school for a week and I was going to be home with him. The weather report for the week was calling for extremely hot (90 degrees +) and humid conditions. I knew I'd go crazy being cooped up in the house with him all week and I also knew I'd be miserable if we had to be outside in that nasty heat all day long so Shane and I thought it would be worth the investment to get this little pool. We figured that even if we only used it that one week it would be worth it! Well, we used it that week and we've been using it consistently ever since. Shane and I even get in it! It's actually fairly easy to maintain and keep clean and the filter does a pretty good job although it's pretty slow. But, if we know we're going to use it in the evening when we get home we just turn it on in the morning before we leave and it is ready to go when we get home. Christian has even had a few pool playdates and everyone seems to have a blast. Cowabunga Dude!