quick reminder ... YOU ARE 7!!

tonight we took the boys to old spaghetti factory.

we were sitting and eating when drew randomly asks ...

"so are you guys paying for me to go to college?"

sure drew ... that's just about when i'll be done paying for MY college :)

it's that time of year ...

we made a day of the state fair yesterday ...

we put the boys to work on "the farm" ...

put them on a few rides ...

pet a baby piglet ...

watched a skateboard/bmx show ...
(3 times)

ate more cookies than ANY of us needed ...
(and much more)

rode the giant slide ...

AND had a lot of fun ....
(click to enlarge the pictures)



yet when it was all said and done ...

alex's favorite part was still riding the bus.

STRIKE!!

for the first time ever ...

alex got to bowl yesterday!!

and on his first turn ...

HE GOT A STRIKE!

man .. it's really too bad that i can't use the ramp and bumpers when it's my turn.

i may actually have a fighting chance.

feeling blue?

we decided today was a good day to get the boys hair cuts before school.

ben was very specific about what he wanted -

blue spikes :)



and because ben looked so good ...

drew decided he'd do the same - but was later convinced to style it into a mohawk for the day.

looking good, boys ... too bad the blue washes out ;)

paint often?

we are at the point in our house selections that we are starting to think about paint colors.

enjoying pottery barn the way i do ... i decided to go pick up one of their benjamin moore paint sample books. i figured then, we can look through the catalog - see a color we like - and match it.

well ... the paint sample book i picked up today had "FALL COLORS 2008" on the cover.

inside i found a wide variety of really nice fall colors - many of which i would probably choose.

HOWEVER ... i don't plan to paint my house for the fall ... and then repaint it for the winter ... and repeat the process again come april ;)

SO ... my question to pottery barn is ...

is it really necessary to have seasonal paint books??

would it be that hard for you to include just a few light blues in your FALL 2008 sample book?!

just a few more

i couldn't be done posting about our weekend without just a few pictures of our boating adventures ...

of course drew was MORE than excited to tube ...

ben is the one that surprised us by climbing in and tubing by himself ...

typically ben is our reserved and hesitant one when he's not in control

(WOW ... "ben" and "reserved" in the same sentence - that seems odd.)

he did great though!

drew also got plenty of practice "driving" the boat.

now in addition to hearing about how much he NEEDS a cell phone and how he just can't wait until he is older ... we get to hear about how it is only 5 more years until he can take boaters safety.

is it time for school to start, YET?!

one fish two fish

while up north - the ONE thing that drew and ben wanted to do OVER and OVER and OVER again was fishing.

thankfully they kept quite busy - each on their own dock to avoid "catching each other".

but ... there were a few times they convinced their grandpa to actually go fishing in the boat.

drew helped reel in a fish.

ben's line got taken by a fish - and he swears the fish even ate his bobber :)

the funny thing ...

neither wants to touch the worms.

neither wants to touch the fish.
and
neither wants to eat the fish they catch.

YET ... when you ask what their favorite part of the weekend was ...

fishing.

hold em up!

for dinner while up north we ate at little bohemia - a small restaurant/lodge on the chain of lakes we are on.

this place was the hideout for john dillinger - a notorious "bad guy" back in 1920's:)

a movie telling the story is coming out next summer with johnny depp and they just shot there this summer.
earlier in the weekend, we told the boys about the restaurant's history and about the movie.
they were SO anxious to go there!

THEN .. when the time finally came ...
we got there and ben seemed a bit apprehensive.
turns out he was afraid the bad guys were going to be the ones waiting on us ;)
i assured him that they weren't - and thankfully the waitresses didn't prove me wrong!

as we sat down and the boys saw the windows broken out and bullet holes in the walls they were SO excited!

to be in a REAL bad guys hangout .... now that doesn't happen every day!

alex's new love

we are up north at my dad's cabin and today we discovered how much alex LOVES riding on the 4 wheeler.

he gets off and then immediately asks to get on and go again!
they have spent a lot of their time looking for deer. then when they find some (there are 2 baby fawns they have been watching often) he just sits and watches them. he waves and waves and yells "HI BABY DEERS!" i think they're even getting used to him because now instead of darting the other way they just stand there and let the 4 wheeler get closer and closer!

it's fun to watch him get so excited about something. yet sad to know that living in the suburbs ... he probably won't get the chance to go 4 wheeling and deer watching anytime soon!

a GREAT day

we spent a few hours today at the childrens museum!

the boys started out by decorating themselves to prepare for the fun ...

from there we made our way through the many rooms.

we got a look at what may be the next jonas brothers ...

ha ha ha :) ...

we joined alex quite a few times ...

for quite a long time ..

to do his favorite thing at the museum ...

"ride" the bus :)

when we finally convinced him to "get off the bus" we made our way outside.

the boys LOVED the activity of the day -

mopping the deck.

after seeing the amount of water they needed to deem the deck clean ...

i now know why i mop the floor myself :)

and when we get a deck ... i now have a GREAT new time consuming activity!

they ended the day decorating the rocks.

all in all ...

we had a fun time.

AND ...

we wore them out.

3 boys sleeping in the car at once = a VERY successful afternoon!

the tales of 1 and 2

while alex wandered around the house looking for them ...

drew and ben were most certainly having a blast.



they got to see some of their favorite characters ...




learn all about star wars and special effects
(TOTALLY up drew's alley)

and enjoy an empty museum!
i'm thinking we need to go to the museum after dinner more often!!

when 1 and 2 are missing

tonight stacey and the older boys went to catch a peek at the star wars exhibit.

this left me with alex.

can i just say how easy life is with one - when you're used to 3!

for example ... tonight i noticed that ...

1. getting only 1 child in and out of the car is SO much faster. (even if 2 of them usually do it themselves)

2. riding in the car is MUCH quieter!

3. with the 5 yr old missing ... the 2 yr old actually follows me straight down the sidewalk to a store. he doesn't go up and down curbs ... through the rocks ... and across the grass ;) because he is following ben to the same destination.

ON THE OTHER HAND ...

i was also reminded that having 3 boys has it's advantages.

1. with no one to splash with - the interest in bathtime gets cut much shorter - and my floor doesn't get NEARLY as clean!

2. with the older crazies missing ... i instantly am expected to take over the role of a participant in most games - not just the referee.

3. alex is so used to life with 2 crazy brothers that when they are gone he doesn't know what to do with himself.

he spent a lot of his time tonight looking around trying to find where they were!

poor guy.

i'm thinking my days when both drew and ben are at school could get very long!

no time

no time to blog.

i am too busy watching the olympic trampoline finals ...

and imagining how fun it would be to be able to do half of the tricks they can do!

would ya slow down?!

i've mentioned before how conversations in the car with drew can wear me out - quickly.

today was no different.

he started out by asking me the differences between iphones and ipods.
then he moved on to the cost.
then to how he could get enough money for one.
then to how he needs to figure out "something to be" so that he can make a lot of money.
then to how he needs to find the state that has the lowest taxes and move there.
(while considering his options he even asked what the taxes are in wausau - where my family lives -
AS IF I CAN SAY THAT OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD!)

drew ... drew... drew...
i don't even know what the taxes are where we live! HA!
all i know is daddy says they are too high.
AND ...
you're 7.

go play wii.

completion

the framing is 100% complete!



now ... if we could just decide on our final exterior colors!

(i should add. this is the back of the house. i always take pictures from back there .. because in the front there is usually a big construction machine and also piles of stuff :) PLUS ... up until now there hasn't been much to see up front. next time ... i'll take one from the front!)

his needs

i haven't quite figured out why one would need goggles when one doesn't really even put his face in the water.

BUT ...

for whatever reason ...

as of today alex decided he needs goggles to swim :)

(and what's frustrating is he was SO cute wearing them in the water .... and i could have gotten so many other cute pictures!
but those crazy Y people won't let us have cameras out at the pool! so i had to sneak this one when we were over on the side.)

how not to find a wife

drew and ben were talking yesterday ...
they were talking about girlfriends and "wifes".
and the purpose of them...

drew said ...
"i want to have a wife because then i don't have to do all of the housework."

you are on to something drew.
BUT a tip for the future...
it's probably not something i would suggest ever telling a girl you are trying to impress ;)

progress

as of today we have 3 floors with all the walls framed in!!

maybe we'll have a roof tomorrow!!!

WOO HOO!!

random zzzz's

for the longest time alex's schedule has been to go strong in the morning and then sometime around noon he goes down for his afternoon nap.

well ... the past 3 days he has decided that he can't make it until noon.

come 10 am - he has had enough.

he doesn't whine or complain ...

he just goes and finds the perfect spot and then crashes.

first ... it was the middle of the living room floor -
while the boys played wii (loudly) next to him



next it was the barnyard in kidstuff (the babysitting area) at the Y

today it was the rocking chair in the living room.



crazy kid.