Cereal toys

Do you remember when you were a kid and you would go to the grocery store and beg your parents to buy you a certain box of cereal because of the toy inside?

My kids often ask for cereal because of the toy on the box, but I've told them you have to mail away for toys because they don't put them in the box for free anymore.

Casey, as you may know, loves SpongeBob. One day a few months ago, he saw a SpongeBob reading timer on a box of Smore's cereal. I think it times you while you read a book. Casey begged me to let him buy the cereal and mail away for the timer. I did and it finally arrived today in the mail.

Casey and his reading timer

When he opened it, he was sooo excited. Here's the discussion that followed...

Brett: Is this the best day of your life?

Casey: Well...almost.


There is an episode of SpongeBob where he and his friend, Patrick, mail away for a toy and wait months and months for it to arrive. When it finally arrives, they play with it for about five minutes and it breaks. Let's hope that doesn't happen to us!

A new blogger

I would like to welcome my friend Amy to the wonderful world of blogging. As you can see on the right side of this page, I have added a link to her blog, "The Family Wire." She'll be blogging about her pregnancy.

A baby shower

Today I went to a baby shower for my friend Amy, who is expecting her first baby, Natalie Ann.

The shower had a pumpkin theme as the baby is due in October. It was a cute departure from the usual blue or pink.

There was even a pumpkin cake

I took this as an opportunity to help introduce Jeff, Amy and the baby
to Dora the Explorer, who is the idol of every girl under the age of five.

Amy and Dora

Amy and her mom, Suzie

For those of you who don't know Amy, she is very organized, as you can see from the following:

The baby's room has been finished since early summer and the baby
already has more outfits than some women I know


She and her husband have already packed for the hospital

She'll be a great mom and we all can't wait to see Natalie.

A food lover's paradise

We all piled in the car this morning and headed over to the new Dillon's Marketplace at Central and Rock Road to try to find specialty cold cuts for a recipe my dad is making.

All I can say is "Oh. My. God."

For those of you who may not go out to eat with me a lot, I have a terrible time deciding what I want to eat. The new marketplace has so many food choices it's overwhelming.

We each got something to bring home for lunch:

Brett chose a turkey hoagie


Casey and I shared fried chicken, green beans and mac n' cheese.
The green beans were so fresh Casey even ate them,
and he hates green beans.


Dan got sushi

Poker party

Tonight we had Dan's co-workers over for a poker/dinner party. Papa Louie made his famous spaghetti and tiramisu.

Papa Louie manning the stove


The group chowing down

Teresa got a chance to catch up with my mom and dad. She loves talking to Papa Louie and getting my parents to tell funny stories about my childhood.

Teresa and Papa Louie catching up

There were lots of happy eaters, especially among the kids.

Lexi


Cal


Brett


Yeah! Papa Louie!

Wedding bash

We went to the Anchor, a local bar, to celebrate my friend Melissa's marriage. She and her husband, Joe, were married in Las Vegas on 7-7-07 and decided to hold a reception here in town for their friends and family who weren't able to attend the wedding.

Melissa carried the 7-7-7 theme throughout the party. She also did a really great scrapbook that chronicled her and Joe's relationship from the beginning.

The cake


The decorations



The happy couple, Joe and Melissa

Another of our favorite couples, Jeff and Kathryn

Early Halloween?

It seems like we're being overrun with spiders around here! Every day we knock down one huge spider web, in two days it's back again.

Here's one we found this morning. I like to call it "The Web From Nowhere," because it was hanging five feet above the grass in the middle of the yard. Apparently it was built to span from our deck to a tree five feet away.

There was another one on one of the kids' swings:



Even my bushes in the front yard look as if I've forgotten to take down the Halloween decorations from last year!

Birthdays at school

In our house, birthdays are always a little hard to celebrate at school because the boys' birthdays usually fall during the first week of school in August.

Today, I took birthday treats to Brett and Casey's schools so they could celebrate (even though it was a little late).

In Brett's class, his teacher has a cute ritual where the birthday child gets pretend birthday spankings (the class claps once for each year the child is celebrating).

First you get to choose between a ruler and a yardstick. (Brett chose the yardstick).

I want the big stick!

Then he leaned over his teacher's lap while the class clapped eight times. Trust me, the stick never touched Brett.

Let's count. One, two, three...

In Casey's class, after the class sang "Happy Birthday," the kids enjoyed SpongeBob cupcakes.

Casey, the birthday boy


Casey with Carson and Olivia, his classmates

Nana's pancakes

My mom and dad are visiting from New Jersey, and first thing Sunday morning, Nana Doris had the boys helping her make pancakes.

This is a ritual, and one the boys look forward to whenever she visits.

Brett tasting the batter


Casey mixing his batter


Brett and Papa Louie


Nana Doris, the Pancake Lady

Tiki Birthday Party

Saturday night we had a tiki birthday party at Mike and Beckie's house to celebrate Josh and Suzanne's 5th birthday.

We had pizza, cake, "beverages," and lots of fun.

Mmmm! Pizza!



The birthday girl



The birthday boy

The musical instrument set, one of the more popular gifts
(Thank God my kids didn't get a drum for their birthday!)

Brett and Casey discovered Josh and Suzanne's guitars and had a blast with them. They stood on the hearth and sang the theme song to "Drake & Josh." Brett played with the guitar so much he had a blister on his finger at the end of the night! I think I know what to get them for Christmas.

The Loving boys, live on stage

Happy Birthday Brett!

Today is Brett's 8th birthday. He could hardly wait to open his presents--I think he was actually vibrating!

The birthday boy


A new Ben 10 T-shirt


Playing with his new Mario Strikers Charged soccer game for Wii

First day of school

Today, we sent Brett and Casey off to school. We walked to the bus stop and met up with our neighbors, the Averys and the Donaldsons.

Brett, Casey, Tanner and Carson


All aboard!

After we got the boys on the bus, Dan went to meet Brett at his school.

Brett takes a seat.

Dan and I met Casey at his school next. Casey did pretty well on the first day of Kindergarten, but he got a little teary as we left.

Casey and his teacher

My favorite photo of the day

At the end of the day, the boys were happy to report they had a great day at their new schools.

Happy Birthday Casey!

This morning we celebrated Casey's 6th birthday. It's hard to believe he's our youngest--he's almost as tall as Brett and weighs almost as much!

Casey loved his presents (whew!) and is still talking about them.

A SpongeBob backpack for school

A SpongeBob lunchbox


A Ben 10 T-shirt

The end of summer

Monday was a big day. The boys said goodbye to Alex, the babysitter we've had coming to our house to care for the boys all summer. She's heading off to K-State to begin her freshman year.

Brett, Alex and Casey

That night, they got to take their school supplies to school and meet their teachers. It's hard to believe school starts Thursday. Especially since it's still 100 degrees outside!

Casey will be in Kindergarten and Brett will be in second grade. We've heard good things about both of their teachers so it should be a great year.

Casey sat right down at his spot at the table and began to read


Brett checking out the lunch menu