Gentlemen (and Ladies), Start Your Engines!!!

My little boy, who is not so little anymore, turned 7 on October 14th. We had a party for him at Delco park on the 18th. So...the big question that comes up a lot at our house...what theme to decide upon for a birthday?? Jake had his narrowed down to either Hot Wheels or Star Wars (which makes me laugh because he's never even seen any of them). He wanted to do both, but I told him he had to pick one. A while back, I thought it would be cool if the kids could race cars (like at the Awana Sparks Derby, only a much smaller scale track). Dan thought he could put one together, however, he has been in the process of building the girls some bunk beds so I thought this was too much extra work. However, being the clever man that he is, Dan purchased some corragated roofing at Lowes and came up with this track (seen in the pictures below). I must say it was a HUGE hit and all the kids had so much fun and probably would have raced cars all day if they could have. Here are some moments captured on such a fun day. Happy Birthday, Jakers!!!

The line up for our racers!

A full length view of the track

Getting ready...On your mark, get set...
GO!!!

Down the second hill!

Who's gonna win, who's gonna win?!!

A different vantage point, I s'pose?

I wonder if Daddy will let me race two at once since I'm the birthday boy?
Everyone was quite patient with the lil' ones. They even caused a few wrecks, as Claire did in the next few moments after this photo was taken.

But boy, did they sure have fun! Here is Travis testing out the track.

Titus' turn! (I think he's racing the dump truck).

Some pretty ladies.

Cake time! I made a cake with a track and put some of Jake's cars on it, but unfortunately, I didn't grab a picture before it got messed with...ahh well. You can see the idea.

Presents! And whadda ya know, Jake got 2 Star Wars figures!!!

Pinata! Birthday kiddo goes first!

Watch out, Grandma!

We all got such a kick out of Julia's turn. She had some major passion while swinging. She has 3 older brothers, so my guess is that she can hold her own (although I think Andy, her oldest brother managed to rip open the pinata).

After the party, we headed over to the BMX bike area and watched some of our friends who had brought their bikes. It was such a great day! Happy Birthday, to my fun-loving, giggly boy. You have grown up so quickly and we love you so much!

The Time The Power Went Off

Last month, we had a pretty big wind storm hit our area (from Hurrican Ike). While it wasn't fun losing a bunch of food, we were thankful that our losses were small and even more thankful that we were only without power for 70 some hours. Some, like my sis, were out for a week or more. However, when you are used to the modern day conviences, life was a bit interesting. I wanted to post a picture of Claire's candlelight bath, but decided against it. The storm came on a Sunday. Monday, we went over to a friend's house in New Carlisle who still had power. I had just bought a bunch of meat on sale at Meijer (of course), so she let me cook my roast at her house. Thanks Becky! The kids had fun playing together as well, as both of our school districts were closed. Tuesday, we were able to grill some hamburgers outside so we saved that too. Here are some pictures captured that week.

This was the fencing that surrounds our church construction zone right now (hard to see in the picture, but part of it was down).

These were the lights at Stroop and Marshall...notice the one pointing the wrong direction.And just down the road from there, at Marshall and David, these traffic lights didn't even stand a chance.

Vasoline, anyone?

This is what you may find if you suddenly realize the house is quiet and you cannot locate your toddler.

Ouch!

So, Monday afternoon, I get a call from Jake's school nurse. The first sentence out of her mouth was something to this affect..."Jake was involved in an accident at school, but he is ok." What a smart lady to tag that 'ok' part right away. He collided with another student in gym class...they either hit heads or the Jake got elbowed, from what I was told. Mrs. Codispoti, Jake's teacher, walked him down to the nurse and Jake told me she was asking him silly questions. Guess I am thankful he thought they were silly at the time. He wanted to go home, but this was 10 minutes before school was out, so the nurse talked him out of calling home. A friend from church who lives right near us was keeping Lydia (her son and Lydia are in class together) and had offered to get Jake off the bus and let him come to play as well. I figured he would be excited for that, especially since a friend from his class lives on the same street. When I went to pick the kids up, I saw that the nurses prediction for a black eye was sure to be true. I gave Jake Tylenol Monday night as he said it was hurting, but that has been all he has needed. The first two pictures are Monday night (notice the tongue). The last picture was taken Tuesday (and I must say, I think he looks like my dad in that picture). The swelling is gone now, but the bruising has moved farther down his cheek. But bruising means it's healing, right? Jake just could not bear to look at it anymore after his first look Monday night. And to top it all off...guess what Tuesday was at school? PICTURE DAY! Yep, that's right...Jake got his picture taken with a shiner. We have the opportunity to do retakes, but part of me wants to keep the ones from Tuesday as a memory. Dan thinks I'm nuts. I just figured I'd see how they turn out since retakes are free of charge. So there you have it...and Jake is still friends with Zack, even though it sounds like Jake took the brunt of the injuries.

Tongue-tied

So, I couldn't come up with a creative title for this post. I got yet another tongue shot this week, which I will share in another post and it reminded me that I was going to do this. I really do not try and capture these; Jake just sticks his tongue out almost every time he is concentrating. The latest times have been when he is practicing writing his spelling words. Anyhow, this is just some sillyness to share. These are not in order and span from 2005 to 2008, although he's been at it since before then.

What a day!

Right now I sitting typing this while watching SNL make fun of our presidential candidates. I must say, it is pretty funny. Those imitators are so funny and can really peg the subtle (and not so subtle) charachteristics of both parties and the mediators. Not really big into politics, but have listened to the debates. Enough on that...

Back to my day....Whew. I was going full speed from 7am-8:30pm. I am most likely taking on another position at my work. I work in the board of education building and we have an Even Start program in our building. Today, I went to see how things worked in the child care room. The plan is to take Claire with me, as I did today, from 8:45-11. Today, I was with the younger babies, but the plan is for me to be in with the older kids (2's & 3's) and add some structure to the time they are there. So, after that, I rushed home to get Lydia off the bus. Then I had about 1/2 an hour to get some lunch and take a little break. Dan came home and I left for work at the preschool around 11:45. Stayed there until 4:40ish and went home. Briefly got to see the kids as Dan was about to walk out the door with them to go to one of the teen's soccer games. Again, I had about a 20 min. break and then it was off to Indian Riffle (the kid's school). I had volunteered to work the book fair. Good news is I got a few free books out of that! I left the school around 7:15 and then came home and helped get the kids ready for bed. I am so beyond pooped, but hey, I'll get a much bigger paycheck then I'm used to...especially since I subbed on Monday, get payed for 6 hrs. of inservice training, payed for a staff meeting last week, and the 4 extra hours I will have worked in the childcare room. All I can say is I'm glad it's bedtime. And with that...good night!

First Day Of School

I know these are late in coming, but still wanted to share them. Due to our vacation to NC, Jake missed his first 4 days of first grade and Lydia missed her 1st day of kindergarten. Jake did not miss a single day last year, so this was quite a different start to the year. However, it was a much needed vacation after an "out of the ordinary" spring and summer with my surgey and treatment. They both did fine and did not have to play catch up since it was the very beginning. Here are some shots of them, this year and last. It's amazing what a difference one year makes.

September 2008September 2007
September 2008September 2007