Fun with the Watts Family!

We always love it when the Watts family comes to play with us! It's especially fun now because as the kids get older they get along better and the adults can just relax rather than chasing the little ones or playing referee for the older ones!

And of course Nancy and I enjoy our favorite pastime:

We didn't have any exciting plans this time, we mostly just hung out at our house and went swimming. The boys loved riding the 4 wheeler.

And thanks to Nana, we were able to enjoy and adult evening out. We went out for dinner at the Center Street Grill and then went to a couple of bars (Hey, does that qualify as bar hopping?? Maybe we're not so old after all!).

Taste of Buffalo

Does it get any better than a girls night out with good friends, every food imaginable, and wine slushies?? I think not! A couple weeks ago Nancy, Amber, Katie and I had a kid-free, hubby-free, day out at the Taste of Buffalo. It's a really cool food festival (the 2nd largest in the US) where there are tons of vendors, each with 3 or more food options to choose from. They were each required this year to have one "healthy choice" but we stayed away from those! LOL It's really neat because you can try foods that you wouldn't normally try. The only bad part that it was unbelievably crowded. Apparently most of Buffalo had the same idea. Oh well, with a few wine slushies you can handle anything. If you haven't tried a wine slushie, I highly recommend them.

I'm not sure how many wine slushies Katie had but as you can see, she got very close with a large gekko. I hope her hubby doesn't stumble across my blog...

Everyone loves Marineland!!

Evan petting the beluga whale!

The boys watching the killer whales.

The commercial says "Everyone loves Marineland!" and I'd have to agree! We try to go every year and the boys absolutely love it. I must admit I rather enjoy it myself. Keith has been really busy since he's transitioning from one job to the other, so the boys and I went with our friends Amber, Rachel and Erica to Marineland the week after school got out. It was a good week to go as the kids in Canada were still in school so the park wasn't that busy. Good thing for us since we were traveling with four kids who haven't yet mastered that whole patience thing!

We had a great day and the kids even all behaved! :) They loved going on all of the rides, Connor especially enjoyed the one where it takes you up in the air and drops you. No, not that huge one you see in the commercials, the Sky Screamer, it was a smaller version. No way Mom would let her baby on that thing! Maybe someday, but *I* am just not ready for him to go on that one! Evan isn't what you would call a daredevil when it comes to rides, he prefers the ones that go slower and....well, the boring ones! But he had a good time on them anyway.

The deer park is always one of the boys favorite areas. And Mom loves it cause I always get the coolest pics of them in there. They love petting the deer and feeding them those ridiculous deer pellets in an ice cream cone that cost $2 a piece! That is my only real peeve with Marineland--you've already paid almost $40 per person to get in and then every darn animal you see (deer, bears, fish) you have to pay another $2 each to feed them. Ok, so you don't *have* to pay it but just try telling my kids that they can't. I guarantee it won't be pretty. And since I' ve already paid $120 to get the three of us in there I'm not gonna risk a giant meltdown that will ruin the rest of our day. I think the people who run Marineland prey on this fact!

They love the whale, sea lion and dolphin shows. And of course we paid the extra $8 each so they could pet and feed one of the beluga whales. You can't go to Marineland without petting the whales, right??

Now, if you ask the boys what their favorite thing was they would both say the same thing--"When the killer whale pooped!"

Admission to Marineland: $120

Petting and feeding animals: $30

Hotdogs, fries and drinks for lunch: $25

Overpriced crap in the gift shop: $50

Seeing a whale poop: PRICELESS!!

Feeding the deer.

Connor after being splashed by the killer whale!

So it's been a few months since I updated again.... When you go this long it's really hard to remember what has happened since then! I will make an attempt though...

The boys completed another successful year of school. Connor had a great year and did really well in 2nd grade. He learned so much and he had a really fun teacher. He's reading above level for his age and does really well with math too. He's made many friends and enjoys school, though he would never admit it! Once again I volunteered in his classroom every week and I enjoyed spending time with the kids.

Evan finished another year of preschool and will be going to kindergarten in the fall. I think I'm more nervous about it than he is. I know he has to go but I am not convinced that he's ready. He's very smart, so I'm not concerned about his academic abilities, but he's immature and still very attached to me. Hopefully my worries will be unwarranted but I'm freaking out a bit!

The boys are both playing soccer this year. Connor is on the Raiders and Evan is on the Risers. They both enjoy it but Evan had a bit of a rough start! He's getting into the whole routine now and seems to like it more. That's Evan's team in the group pic, he's the one in the center with the ball.

The biggest news we have is that Keith is starting a new job later this month. After 18 years with the company he was at, he decided to take a job at another company. It seems to be a job perfectly tailored to him and he's excited about it so hopefully it'll be a good move for us. For the first six weeks he'll be working in Portland, Oregon but after that he'll be working from home. He's off for two weeks now in between jobs and is going to be starting construction on a home office. His new position will be as Wireless Technology Leader for Welch Allyn. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that it all goes well! This is a big change for us.

The company that I am a rep for changed it's name from Country Bunny Bath & Body to Jordan Essentials. I love the new name and am hoping it gets me motivated to get my business growing! You should check out my website, www.jordanrep.com/8661, we've got some really great new products! And yes, that was a shameless plug... :)

I was elected president of the boys' school PTO (parent teacher organization) recently. I'm a little stressed out about the amount of work involved but I am looking forward to it too. I'm already at the school so much, why not take the final leap? I am also considering applying for a sub position with the school district, hopefully eventually working into a teacher's aide position. I would like to do something now that Evan will be in school full time but I still want to be home after school and during vacations. I probably won't do anything about that *real* soon, maybe next spring.

Our big summer project this year is landscaping. After 4 years of living in a house in an empty field, we thought it was time to do something about it. Keith has been busy working out front and it's looking really great! Once it's done I'll be sure to show pictures of all of his hard work. He's hoping to get the front yard completed tomorrow so he can move on to his home office project. I hope he wasn't planning on relaxing during those two weeks between jobs!

Yeah, yeah...

Ok, you can all stop emailing me now! I know that I haven't updated since January. What can I say?? I've been busy!!

Seriously though, I promise a new entry in the next week filled with lots of juicy details! Certainly you can hold on for a bit longer, right?? :)

Is that snow I see??

The boys (all three of them!) are excited that winter has seemingly finally arrived. Keith finally was able to get the snowmobile out of storage even if his riding so far has consisted of pulling the boys around the yard on their sleds. He just *can't* be one of those dads who just plays out in the yard with their kids, building snow forts, having snowball fights. All father-son activities MUST involve a motor of some sort! It drives me crazy but the boys couldn't be happier about it.

Connor and Evan have been making up for lost time by playing outside whenever they can. They absolutely love the snow, especially eating it. Yeah, they're weird kids. They take after their father. :)

Connor and Keith are going to Winter Fun Days at Letchworth State Park this Saturday with the Cub Scouts. Connor is really looking forward to it. Hopefully the temperature will rise a bit or else they are talking about cancelling it. They have lots of fun activities for the boys and sounds like it will be a fun time. Hopefully they won't come home with frostbite!

Happy New Year!!

We usually spend our New Year's Eve's with our friends Nancy, Geoff, Jack and Claire but due to a death in their family (Hugs to the Watts Family...we missed you! Sniff, sniff) we had to make some other plans this year. Fortunately for us we have other friends who are fun to hang with so all was not lost!






Our friends Amber and Adam and their three girls (Rachel, Erica and Carrie), as well as some other friends, John and Julie and their kiddies (Jerica and Jorryn) came over to ring in the new year with us. It was a little chaotic with seven kids in the house but we still managed to have a good time. All of the kids, except for the two babies, were still rockin' at midnight and were up to watch the ball drop.

2006 was a good year for us. We're looking forward to 2007! Happy New Year to all!

Santa Was Here!!

Another Christmas has come and gone. It went by in such a blur that I barely had time to enjoy it. It was great spending time with friends and family but I have to admit I'm glad the season is over. I am so glad to have some normalcy back, even if the pace isn't much slower.

The boys had an awesome Christmas! Christmas Eve we spent with Keith's family at his parents house. Grandma & Grandpa got the boys GameCube which is definitely their favorite Christmas gift! I can't even begin to tell you how much they love that thing!! I know this will shock you but they, as usual, got spoiled rotten! Other family members were more than generous and I suspect Santa's sleigh was pretty weighed down as he landed in our yard. Luckily for the reindeer, the boys had sprinkled reindeer food in yard so they could snack while Santa did his work inside.

The boys woke up at 8:30 Christmas morning and had torn through all of their presents by 10:00. Yep, I'm lucky not to have those kids who are up at the crack of dawn begging their parents to wake up so that they can open presents. Apparently Santa didn't think they'd been *too* bad this year as he brought them each the toy that they *really* wanted.

Later that day, Keith's parents, my Mom, and my bro, his fiancee and her son came over for dinner. It was nice to have everyone there. My brother and his family stayed overnight and we had a second Christmas morning with them the next day. Keith got me the absolute coolest Christmas gift! It's a gift certificate to go on a hot air balloon ride over Letchworth State Park. The website for the company that does it is www.balloonsoverletchworth.com if anyone wants to check it out. I had mentioned once before that it was something I wanted to do someday but I was totally shocked that he remembered!! I can't wait to do this! We are thinking about trying to schedule it the weekend before our anniversary in July. I'm so excited!!!

I guess that makes the docking station I got him for his Ipod look pretty lame, huh? Even if it was the one with the subwoofer... :(

All in all, an excellent Christmas! Hope it was for all of you too!

Merry Christmas!!

It's 12:03 am so that officially makes this Christmas Eve day!! The next couple of days are going to be crazy so I wanted to take a minute to wish all of our family and friends a Merry Christmas! The last couple of days here have been hectic with Christmas preparation but I *think* am finally ready to relax a bit and enjoy! The tree is decorated, the presents are (mostly) wrapped, the cookies are baked, and everything is bought for Christmas dinner. Tonight the boys are spending the night with Nana so Keith and I actually were able to get out for dinner and a quick trip to Walmart for a couple last minute things. Gotta love grandparents! :) Thanks Mom!

Well I must return to elf mode for a bit before going to bed but I hope that you all have a wonderful Christmas and that Santa is good to you! We are truly lucky to have all of you for our family and friends. :)

December already??

Why is it that time passes so quickly this time of year? I thought I was so on top of all of the pre-Christmas stuff but now I'm so stressed out anyway!

We had a nice Thanksgiving. We had dinner at our house with with my mom, Keith's parents, and Keith's brother, Kerry. Evan wasn't really into the whole thing and instead opted for a dinner of bologna and corn! Not my idea of Thanksgiving dinner but he seemed to like it.

We've already begun the cold and flu season...well the stomach flu anyway (yes, I know there really is no such thing as a stomach "flu"!). Connor started it with a week or so of tummy troubles but fortunately didn't miss any school. Evan, however, has been sick for a week now and out of school. He'll be okay for a day and then right back to sick again. Yesterday he had blood tests and a stomach Xray to rule out appenticitis and other stuff and everything came back fine. So I guess we've just gotta ride it out a bit longer. :(

The boys have already been to visit Santa at the mall. Connor's request was a Razor Scooter and Evan asked him for Mack, the truck from the Cars movie. They both lied to Santa and told him how good they've been all year so time will tell if the big guy bought it! They are both so excited about Christmas. Evan remains obsessed with outdoor Christmas lights and our exciting Friday nights consist of driving around looking to see who else has put up their Christmas lights! Fortunately the most amazing display of lights in the area is right at the end of our road so we don't have to go far to make Evan happy! The weather was in the 60's a week or so ago so we took advantage of that to put up our own outdoor lights. I'll try to post a pic of that in my next post.


Once a year I torture myself (and some unsuspecting and underpaid Sears portrait studio employee!) and attempt to get a decent pic of the boys together. They both always get a good school pic but it is SOOOO difficult to get one of them together. I'm pretty happy with the result, even if it did take bribery and an awful lot of convincing! I happen to think they're darn cute subjects when they hold still for long enough to take a pic!

Off to work on my Christmas cards! I *still* can't believe it's December!!!

My handsome boys!!

Evan got his school pictures back yesterday and Connor brought his home today so I wanted to share them with all of you! I can't believe what handsome little men they are becoming! When did they start looking so grown up??

Am I the luckiest mommy in the whole world or what??? :)

Happy Halloween!!

The boys had a great Halloween!! Connor dressed up as a Power Ranger and Evan decided to be Tow Mater from the movie "Cars". On the Saturday before Halloween we had a party at our house for a bunch of their friends. There were 27 kids here!! We played games, painted pumpkins, did crafts and other fun stuff. Here is a pic of the whole group that we had here.

On Halloween night we took the boys trick-or-treating in my dad's neighborhood and then went to visit Nana and then Grandma and Grandpa. They loved going up to the doors and getting the candy. I can't believe how much candy we have in this house now!!

Holy sh*t!!

I seriously can't believe it's been a year since I updated this blog! What is my problem? I always have the best of intentions but all of the craziness of life just seems to take over. I'd love to promise you yet again that I will do better but who the hell knows?? :)

So, this might be a long entry! Grab yourself a cup of coffee (or tea, Nanc!) and prepare yourself to dive into the exciting details of the last year in the life of the Boyle's! Try to stay awake, k?

Let's see....where to begin...

In April Keith and I took our first vacation since the kids were born by ourselves. Keith had accumulated a bunch of frequent flyer miles from all of his business travel and they were going to expire so we decided to go for it! Keith had been bugging me for years to go to Las Vegas (he's always there for work but I had never gone) plus one of my "Things I have to do before I die" list included seeing the Grand Canyon so we decided to make Vegas our destination. My mom and Keith's parents divided up the time we were gone and watched the kids while we were away so we knew they were in good hands. The whole vacation was great! We stayed at the Luxor Hotel right on the strip and it was so much fun. We didn't do a whole lot of gambling but I am proud to say I left up $4.32!! We did a lot of fun things: walking through all of the hotels and casinos, Sigfried and Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin habitat, saw "Hairspray", ate at a lot of awesome restaurants, saw the fountains at the Bellagio, did the gondola ride at the Venetian hotel, went to the Old Vegas Strip, met Elvis (I *knew* he was still alive!), and a TON of other stuff! But the absolute high point of the trip was seeing the Grand Canyon. Since we were only in Vegas for 5 days and didn't want to spend 2 days driving while we were there, we decided to do the helicopter tour of the canyon. We flew right out of Vegas and were able to see a lot of the area between Vegas and the canyon. We flew right over the Hoover Dam, Lake Mead, and lots of mountains. I was surprised by the size of the Hoover Dam and definitely got a good view of it from the air. I had never been in a helicopter before but I was so excited about seeing everything that I never had time to be nervous at all! It was us and 4 other people, including the pilot. When we finally came over that last ridge and were over the canyon it was breathtaking. I had seen pics of it many times but seeing it for real was nothing short of amazing. It really makes you realize just how small you really are in the grand scheme of things. If you haven't been there and you have the opportunity, GO! I took a million pictures but none of them can even begin to do it justice. With our tour we had the opportunity to land down in the bottom of the canyon, beside the Colorado River, and explore the canyon a bit. Our pilot brought along a picnic lunch and a bottle of champagne too! It was really awesome! I am so glad that I had a chance to go and I hope to go back one day and show it to the boys.

The high point of our summer was definitely the addition of our pool and deck. The boys LOVE to swim and it was a ton of fun! We love having our friends and family over so it's really nice to now have the deck and pool for when we're entertaining. We had originally planned to take a vacation to Cape Cod this summer but decided that this would be a better use of the money. At the beginning of the summer both boys were a bit unsure of the water but within no time they were swimming like little fish! Evan still uses his floaties but Connor just jumps right in and swims away. Keith and I enjoyed it a lot too!

The high point of *Connor's* summer was finally ("I've been waiting my *whole* life!) getting a 4 wheeler. We got him a Yamaha Raptor 80 and to say he was thrilled is the understatement of the year!! He would never get off that thing if it was his decision! He thinks he's sooo cool!! It makes me a little nervous but he's got all of the safety equipment and Keith has it set so it won't go above a certain speed so I guess I'm okay with it. So far Evan is still satisfied with the Fisher Price Power Wheels 4 wheeler but I'm sure it's only a matter of time...

In March I started as a representative for Country Bunny Bath & Body. For a while I had been feeling like I needed to do something that was just mine and that would allow me to get out a little bit and make a little bit of extra money. A friend (Thanks Katie!) tried to recruit me for Mary Kay and got me thinking about it. I decided that Mary Kay wasn't for me but it got me doing some research on different direct sales companies and I finally found one that is the right fit for me. I love the products and I have fun doing it so it's great! I've been doing pretty well with it and I hope to have some time soon to focus on building my business some more. I have one recruit under me now and would like to try and find some new people for my team. I do home parties and book parties and have been pretty successful with it in the few months I've been at it. Check out my website at www.CBunnySpa.com if you have a chance!

Keith is still working like crazy. Things at Peak are always so up in the air and we never know how much job security he really has. Starting in November he will be working from home all the time so soon he'll begin working on constructing a home office in our basement. With a little bit of luck we won't even kill each other with all of the togetherness!

Connor is now 7 and in 2nd grade!! I have trouble wrapping my brain around that one! He did great last year in 1st and we are so proud of him. He loves his teacher this year and seems to enjoy school. He's doing really well. Over the summer he took swimming lessons at the college and played soccer. Soccer seems to be more his thing than t-ball was last year. I think t-ball bored him somewhat since there wasn't always much going on. His team was the "Mighty Molars" and they did really well. He's still taking taekwondo and is about to get his green belt (he has a green stripe belt right now). He just did a tournament this past weekend and got 4th place for his pattern and 2nd place for sparring. We hope he sticks with it. He just started back in Cub Scouts again too and is a Wolf this year. He really enjoys Scouts.

Speaking of Scouts, I was a den mother for Cub Scout camp this summer. I loved it! I had 9 boys in my den and they were a great group of kids. They ranged from 6-8 years old. We did so many fun activities--sports, woodworking, nature classes, games, archery (the boys favorite!) and crafts. The theme for camp was "the Serengeti" and on the last day of camp we had to do a skit for all of the other dens and the parents. They did great! I hope I have the opportunity to do that again next summer!

Evan will be 5 next week! We're having a party for him a week from Sunday and he picked the Disney "Cars" theme. He's a tad bit obsessed with that movie!! He recently got some bubble eye goldfish (he would NOT settle for regular goldfish!) and their names are Wingo and Mater McQueen, after the cars in the movie. If you've seen that movie I do realize that Mater and McQueen are two different characters but Evan *had* to use both names! He's kind of a strong-willed little man and has definite ideas of his own. Sometimes that is good and sometimes it is very, VERY bad!! Anyway, he loves the Cars movie so much that for his birthday we are redoing his room all in Cars (I'll try and post a pic after I'm done with it). We managed to get a slightly illegal copy of the movie from China since it's not released here yet and I swear we've seen it 500 times! He sings the songs from the movie as he's doing other things. It's slightly obsessive but very cute! He's also going to be the tow truck, Mater, for Halloween!

Evan is in preschool again this year. He could have gone to kindergarten but with his late birthday we decided that another year of preschool would be the best way to go. He's still at St. Paul's and has Mrs. Porter as his teacher again. One of his best buddies, Jake, is in his class so he loves that. Together those two are double trouble!! It's a small class this year--only 9 kids--so they are able to get more individual attention. I'm sure he'll be more than ready to go to kindergarten next fall. He also started taekwondo in April and seems to like it. He's having some trouble settling down enough to focus but he does pretty well. He did his first tournament last week and got a trophy almost as big as he is! He looks so darn cute in his little uniform!!

The boys also have a new "Aunt" that they adore! Last November we finally convinced my dad to adopt a dog from the animal shelter. I thought that a dog would be a good thing for my dad since he's living alone and the boys love dogs and can't have one since Keith is allergic. I found a dog on the animal shelter's website that I was sure would be the dog for my dad and sure enough, she was! We went out to the shelter to visit all of the dogs and before we left he had agreed to adopt "Chloe", a lab mix who was almost a year old. The boys just love her to pieces! She's a crazy dog and VERY active (ok, hyper! LOL) and my dad might have returned her to the shelter if it weren't for the boys. As wild as Chloe is she is SOOO good with the boys, despite the torture that they put her through every time they see her! And my dad does enjoy having her, despite all of his grumblings! She's starting to calm down a little but still has a lot of puppy in her. I like knowing that he's got someone there with him, even if it is a dog.

The addition to our immediate family this year was a hamster, Eddy Bob. And no, I didn't name him! Someone we know had gotten a hamster and ended up not being able to keep him because of allergies so we took him in. His name was already Eddy and the boy who had him wanted his name to stay the same so my boys just added the "Bob" onto it. He's black, fuzzy and adorable and he fills the boys need for a pet that they can actually touch! Somehow all these fish just weren't cutting it!

Trick or Treat!!

Halloween has come and gone once again! Last year I swore I wasn't crazy enough to ever have another kids Halloween party but apparently I am! Last Saturday we had 20 kids over to our house for our 2nd annual (Oh no, that sounds like something I plan to continue doing!) Halloween party. We had pizza, decorated cookies, played a bunch of games and had a costume contest. The kids all seemed to have a good time. They played "hot pumpkin", wrap the mummy (each team had 1 roll of toilet paper and had to finish wrapping their "mummy" first to win!), donuts on a string (eating a donut dangling on a string without using their hands), pin the nose on the pumpkin, and a couple of other games. It was a bit chaotic here (major understatement!) but I'll probably just be crazy enough to do it again next year. I just love seeing the kids having fun.

The boys also went to a Halloween party at Connor's taekwondo academy. They loved that! They each got tickets and could go around to play a bunch of games and win candy. They had cider and donuts and a costume contest. I got to be one of the judges for the contest so that was fun! :)

We also did the trick or treating thing on Halloween night. We visited all of the grandparents plus let the kids go house to house in my Dad's neighborhood. They got lots of candy and had a good time. Connor's costume this year was Dale Earnhardt Jr and Evan was Scooby Doo. They both looked so cute!

We also had Evan's birthday party on October 23rd. His birthday was actually the 13th but it was so hard to find a day when most people could make it. We had a celebration on his actual birthday too and had the grandparents over for dinner and gave him the presents from us. His big party was a Scooby Doo theme, of course! He got lots of cool presents from all of his family and friends. I can't believe that he's 4 now...

Connor and Daddy successfully completed their first Pinewood Derby car for Cub Scouts. They had a lot of fun working on it together and Connor loved seeing his car come down the track the day of the derby. This derby was for all new scouts in the area so it was more of a practice one for the big race in March. I think that Keith and Connor are planning to build another car for the next one and whichever one runs faster at home they will take to the derby. Connor loved being able to sand and paint the car and it turned out really well.

Fall has arrived!

I can't believe how quickly the summer has come and gone. I'm already dreading the winter and it's barely October!!



We celebrated Connor's 6th birthday in September. Why does six sound so old to me?? He had a birthday party the weekend before his birthday with lots of friends and family. Instead of buying him a bunch of toys that he doesn't need (and I don't need to clean up!), we redid his room as his gift from us. He loves Dale Earnhardt Jr so we did his room with that theme. My brother, David, helped me with the painting and wallpaper border and I bought him all new bedding, posters and a few other Dale Jr things. He loves it!


The boys are both off to school now! Connor started 1st grade and is doing well. He seems to like it a lot more than last year. Fortunately one of his best buddies from last year is in his class. They have their desks right next to each other and I can't believe his teacher hasn't separated them yet. His teacher's name is Mrs. Koukides and he really likes her. I am volunteering in his classroom two days a week--Monday afternoons and Wednesday mornings. I just went on a field trip with his class to Brown's Berry Patch and it was so much fun. We went on a hay ride, picked pumpkins, had lunch in a barn, saw some animals and the kids played in a play area and had a lot of fun!

Evan started preschool on September 12th. He loves it!! He is such a social little critter! I love seeing him all ready for school with his Scooby Doo backpack! He's sooo cute!! He has Mrs. Porter for a teacher, the same one Connor had a couple years ago. I've been in to help in his class a couple times already and it's a really nice group of kids. There is even one set of triplets! I can't even imagine!! The class has 20 kids in it and 15 of them are boys!! Poor Mrs. Porter!!



Connor just passed his test to be promoted in Taekwondo. He went from a yellow striped belt to a solid yellow belt. Black belt here he comes!! He still really likes it and we're encouraging him to stick with it. The official promotion ceremony is next Saturday night.

He also just started going to Cub Scouts. I'm hoping that this can be a father/son activity since I already feel like I spend my entire life running around to the boys various activities. He got his kit to build a pinewood derby car and he's really looking forward to that!

My last entry rambled about how we've had so much sickness. Well, it continues... Both of the boys have recently recovered from the stomach flu (they both missed a few days of school) and now Evan has a nasty cough. Where are all of these germs coming from? I guess I've gotta get more faithful with the vitamins!

Evan's birthday is next week (October 13). My baby is turning 4!! We're in the process of planning his party and will probably have it on the 23rd. October is such a busy month around here that it's hard to find a date that works for everyone. Evan loves Scooby Doo so that will be the theme of his party. He's really excited! Next Friday I will go into his class to celebrate his birthday too.

Keith and Connor have returned with Chinese food (Connor's favorite!) so I'm off for now...

The Summer of Sickness!!

Our house has become a giant petrie dish full of germs! The summer of 2005 may always be remembered by us as "the Summer of Sickness!" LOL For the last month I have either been taking care of sick kids or in bed myself with a fever of 102. Connor started us off and was sick for a week, then Evan got it the following week, and now I've been sick for over a week, plus Evan's gone back for round two and gotten an ear infection! There were a couple of smalls breaks in there, just long enough for us to go out into the world in an attempt to share our germs! We've had fevers, coughs, puking, pink eye, sore throats, headaches.....you name it, we've had it! I am cautiously optimistic that we're on the road to recovery now and hopefully can enjoy the remaining 3 weeks of summer vacation without incident. ((crossing fingers))

Connor has a couple of friends over today for a playdate. This is complete craziness!! I was feeling guilty that the boys have been so cooped up in the house lately so when his friends' mom called I said "Sure, bring 'em over" without even thinking! LOL Now I am sitting here thinking "what have I done!" As long as they all have fun though....right??

I feel like we haven't done anything this summer, between Keith traveling a lot and all of the sickness. So I'm gonna try and fit some fun stuff into the next few weeks before Connor (and Evan!) goes back to school. My mom is going to take a few days off so we can take the boys on some little day trips to the zoo, beach or wherever. Hopefully we can fit a camping trip or two in there too.

Well, the boys are getting wild so I'm off to preserve the structural integrity of my house...