pre-party sleepover

Grace stayed with us Monday-Wednesday nights as Jen and Rich were busy buying their new house in BISMARCK!!! While she was here, Eli thought they all needed to sleep in the playroom. On Tuesday night, Zach and Drew got in on the slumber party. Unfortunately, Noah got kicked out both Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday he realized that we were serious when he was threatened with having to go to his own room, and he made it the whole night with Eli and Grace.

Turning 3

We met at the park today for Noah's birthday. A Wednesday morning birthday party works well when most of your family and friends either work part time, stay at home with kids, or are teachers. Thankfully, it was a beautiful day, and we had lots of fun.
We....
* played for a little bit
*had a picnic

*ate cupcakes

*opened gifts

*played in the pool

*Katelynn organized gray duck and red light, green light.

During the games, Noah said, "I'm going home", and off he went. Joel took him home for a much needed birthday nap!

TONIGHT

Noah: Am I still 3?
Me: yes
Noah: hmm
Me: Why? How old do you want to be?
Noah: 4

North Dakota

We took my parents over to Joel's Dad's this weekend and spent Saturday in Medora. The guys went golfing while Mom and I took the boys through the town. They loved this big wooden playground!
They also enjoyed riding the little train through town.
After golf, Joel and Jim took the boys, and I got to spend the evening at the Medora Musical with my mom and dad. It was a fun little trip, but the boys (especially Noah) had a hard time adjusting to the time change and the car naps. I don't think he's been feeling the best, and he was a big grump most of the weekend. Hopefully he can get rested up for the big 3rd b-day...only three days away.

Grandma and Don

Cathy and Don were here for a short little visit over the weekend. They met us at my parents' on Sat. afternoon. In less than 48 hours we...
*had a pontoon ride & Iowa sweet corn at the lake
* ate ice cream cones in Sabin
*went bike riding and played at the park (Eli & Cathy)
*played board games
*played hide and go seek (Cathy & boys)
*went to Ice Age 3 (Cathy, Don & boys)
*ate Duane's House of Pizza
*replaced outside light bulbs (Don supervised Joel on the Little Giant)
*planted more flowers

Cathy gave each of the boys $10, so we HAD to go spend it as soon as they left. Eli picked out a bionicle. Noah got a Spiderman web shooter that has been attached to his arm for many of the past 27 hours.

Kid's Fishing Derby

This was the second year Eli, Noah, Drew, and Zach participated in the fishing derby on my parents' lake. Katelynn was a new addition, and she was so worried that she would miss it that she didn't sleep past 6:00 this morning. I said she is a mixture of her parents. She doesn't want to miss out on anything which comes from Craig's side of the family, and she gets SUPER excited about little things like her mom. She was so cute!!!
Katelynn was VERY happy with her 5 fish even if they weren't very big and her dad did the catching.
Noah didn't last very long. We took him back to G&G's after an hour.
Zach was the only one who actually fished most of the time.
Drew was content on Grandpa's lap!
Did I say this was a kids' fishing derby?
All of the kids who participate get prizes, and they are unreal! Noah and Eli both got fishing rods, life jackets, and a 12 pack of pop. Noah also got a tackle box and a pack of outdoor balls. Hopefully the kids will get better about actually fishing, and this will become an annual event for all of us!

Hard up for entertainment

We went to visit the Wienermobile yesterday. Noah decided to yell instead of smile.

More Landscape Pics

Landscape Pics

A week of family fun

We spent last week with my mom's side of the family (38 of us). They rented a big house on my parents' lake, so our family along with Krista's and Craig's were able to stay at my mom and dads which worked out quite well!

There was a boat parade on the lake July 3rd. Most of the kids got a little bored on the pontoon, so a few people got dropped off at my parents' during the parade (Eli was still on the boat).
We took the kids to the 4th of July parade in Erhard. They had a lot of fun meeting this nice lady and her dog, getting candy, and jumping. I, however, have decided that I am not a parade person.
The cousins (Brady and Austin had to go to bed) piled on a loveseat and watched a movie while we waited for fireworks. Grandma picked us up on the pontoon so we could watch them from the lake. There must have been close to 20 of us on the boat, and we saw a great show!
It was a fun week, but it is nice to get back to reality. I have had enough late nights, sun, chips, and drinks to last me for a while!! Well.... at least until next weekend!

Weekend at Grandpa Jim's

Potty Party

Tonight we celebrated one week of not changing diapers (and only one accident). Noah got to pick the activity, and he wanted to go to a park.
We picked up some KFC and had a little picnic before the boys played.
Then it was off to the DQ for ice cream treats followed by a much needed bath! We're so proud of you Noah, and Mom is very thankful that you'll be able to go to preschool this fall (I was getting a little worried!)

Pool at the park

We finally got to go the wading pool this afternoon.

Noah could've done this all day! He's crazy!!

Testing out the swingset

The boys and I went over to my parents' with Craig and Jen on Friday night. We had to try out the new swingset. The kids loved it!! They even got to have supper on the picnic table. Then, we played in the lake and had a campfire (which we can no longer have without making s'mores). It was a late night for the kids, but we still got a couple games of CLUE in after they went to bed.
Yesterday was a PERFECT lake day!

The Zarm

We needed a a place to go today where we could be close to a bathroom for the little man who is now on his 3rd day of DRY underwear, so we took Craig and Austin to the Zarm. What is the Zarm??? This is Eli's name for the zoo which he really thinks is more of a farm. He comes up with all kinds of names for things. He wants chonilla cones at the Dairy Queen, chwhite milk (a mixture of white and chocolate milk) at Grandma and Grandpa's, and my favorite was him telling Aunt Jennifer that he left something in his sheans. Sheans???? Those are his shorts with so many pockets they look like jeans.
Noah has come up with his own language too. Unfortunately, his favorite word is a four letter one that starts with an "F". He has different versions of it, and he has NO IDEA that it's a bad word. It usually starts with rhyming words, but eventually he gets to the "F" word. I just keep reminding him that we need to use real words, but so far this isn't working. Any suggestions?

BTW I'm not sure why some of this is underlined, and I can't seem to get it off.

rainy day

We stayed inside today. Eli discovered his sudoku for kids book, and Noah spent the day in underwear without any accidents. We needed the rain outside. We did not however need the rain shower coming from our kitchen sink when I turned it on this morning.

There's never a dull moment

when all of the cousins get together. Since my dad is going on a fishing trip next week, we did an early Father's Day celebration at Krista and Brent's this weekend. We had two beautiful days filled with lots of fun! Eli got to sleep both nights in a camper with Zach and Drew, and woke up this morning not feeling well. He's had this happen more than once after a couple days of not eating, drinking, or sleeping enough. Luckily, he was feeling much better by this afternoon. When Noah realized at breakfast today that the other boys slept in the camper he said (with a very sad face), "I thought I was going to sleep in that campfire tent"...poor Noah.

The "kiddie cruise"