We are in birthday mode!

This beautiful little girl is turing one this week and we are getting ready to celebrate. We are busy making cakes and cupcakes and planning fun things to do, eating sweet treats (mainly her brothers and mom), planning what color balloons to buy, and just getting excited to have this little girl grow. Yeah for Miss Haley, our little rock star!

An ode to my garden

Oh, how I love to have a garden. I do not have the greenest of thumbs, there are moments that we struggle, but I love having a garden. I will be oh so sad when this season comes to an end and I do not have this beautiful food to go out and pick whenever I want. Why does it have to get cold so fast?!? Nothing tastes better to me than one of these sweet, delicious tomatoes. And those tomatoes are a small percentage of what we still have growing and what I have already eaten. These tomato plants grow like crazy! I love it. The plant in the background is one of my boys' (and now Haley's) favorites, raspberries. You cannot eat home-grown raspberries and even consider store bought ones okay. There is no comparison! So, for now my boys will enjoy picking their dinner from the raspberry bush and I will relish in my tomatoes, zucchini and soon my winter squash.

Oh yeah, baby!

I wish I could take pictures with my eyes only, then I would have the perfect image to remember tonight. But since I am so busy screaming and cheering at soccer to hold the camera, I will have to mentally remember this soccer game. My Caleb boy did terrific! Awesome! Fearless! That is one of the things his coach likes about him is that he is fearless! OH, I love his games. Tonight was the game we have been prepping for. We knew this team was tough! They have two kids on their team that are mammoth! Like 7th grade size! Caleb started out at goalie and made some awesome saves, but also gave up a few (but it is never just the goalie's fault, we needed to charge a little harder). He said that while he was goalie he named one of the mammoth kids Hugo. How funny is that? He said he did not want to be rude but every time this kid got the ball he kept saying in his head, "No, Hugo, do not get the ball." Or, "Get out of here, Hugo." Caleb said by second half he felt bad for calling him Hugo so he just started talking to him as the "kid with orange shoes." Second half he was in at forward and went charging. We had no substitutes so it was a hard game for all of them but they never gave up. The two mammoth kids kicked that ball hard and they had another kid that had some major fancy foot work. So, here comes that mental image I want to keep. At the very end of the game fancy foot work man had the ball and one of our players just would not go near him. Fancy foot-work man was playin' our man, he just had his foot on the ball, waiting to see what our player would do. Then BAM! out of no where comes my man Caleb and totally swiped the ball away from fancy-man and carried it up field. Caleb had this tough guy smile because he knew he was awesome and he stole that ball clean away! So AWESOME! Then two minutes later Caleb and another of his teammates took the ball hard! Caleb got it in the stomach and the other kid got a bloody nose. You could see the mark of the ball on Caleb's stomach afterward. What a great way to spend the night! Our team played their hearts out and held this team to under 8 points. This is the team that generally scores upwards of 15 or 20 in one of their games. Way to go team!

Haley's newest trick

She knows how to stand and she knows she is awesome for doing it! She is getting more balance and control each time, she even started dancing this last time. Yeah! It is going to be so darn cute watching her on Halloween night, a new little walker (crossing my fingers) in her costume. That alone is cute, but Haley will make it even better. Oh, she also went all the way up our stairs today, but that is undocumented because I had to get her before she went back down.

The tale of a missing tooth

I guess the first tooth you loose is always kind of an exciting, memorable story. Peter has entered the lost tooth club, in style. Oh, it makes me chuckle. We noticed the loose tooth a few weeks ago but today after school it was really loose, like hanging there loose. When Caleb came home from school we were eating a snack and Caleb kept telling Peter to just twist it out, but Peter would not do it. Two minutes later he was drinking some water and I looked at his mouth and there was no tooth! You've got it, he swallowed it! Oh my! We have come to the conclusion that the tooth fairy will still honor the lost tooth, even though it is in his stomach. But the poor kid, he thought it was funny at first but as he sat there thinking about it he became sad. He really wanted to see his tooth after it fell out. What do you do? I want him to be excited about this but he just gets sad when you ask him to smile or when he talks about it. Oh well, one day it will be something to laugh about. But for now, he just has to wait for the tooth fairy to come.

The day has finally come

Way, way back in 2009 on Caleb's first day of Kindergarden Peter was ready for school. He just could not understand why he did not get to stay with Caleb at school. He was so bummed out on that long walk home, he really wanted to go to school.

Fast forward 2 years, 2 whole years, and he has his day in the lime-light. His first day of Kindergarden and he was excited and ready to go! YES! He got ready, ate breakfast, shoes on, the whole shabang without one fight. I was not surprised, he is such a cool kid.

This was Peter on the way to school. Such a cute kid. He did not want to go too fast, he was taking it nice and easy. We did not want any bike crashes on the way. He made it to school and back home with zero problems. And he loved it. He said it was great, they did a paper on letters, writing your name, recess was fun (a bunch of kids just running around according to Peter), and his teacher read him a cute story about teachers. Sounds like he had a super day.

This is his cute teacher, Mrs. Hall. He is only going half day so he is not there for long, but I think it will be wonderful for him. Finally, Peter is at school, where he has wanted to be for a long time. Let's hope the coolness of school sticks with Peter.

The boy can ride!

Can I say that I am so proud, happy and excited that Peter knows how and loves to ride his bike. He named it Stars and he jumps at any chance to ride his bike. It is so wonderful to have him ride his bike to school to pick up or drop off Caleb. Now I do not have to push him in the stroller. And he loves being faster than me. So, today we decided to take the training wheels off, he really did not need them. But he needed a little practice without the training wheels. So, Rob took him over to the church parking lot to test it out and crash! he scuffed up his elbow. He came home crying and sobbing, not willing to go back to the church parking lot until his elbow was healed. However, he did get back in the saddle and later on he rode his bike confidently up and down the sidewalk with a GIGANTIC smile on his face the whole time. I think his whole body smiled a couple of times. He would not go to the church, he was firm about that. But he rode up and down the street, even turned the corner a couple times for good practice. What an awesome kid to not be afraid to ride again after taking such a bad crash. He is an excited boy to ride is bike to school Wednesday with no training wheels! So many fun times ahead for him. Oh, and did I mention he also has 2 LOOSE TEETH! This kid is on his way to the big times, and we love him so. Good job, Peter.