youth football night

Got to take the boys the the high school football game tonight for a little "parade" with all the youth football teams. Not exactly how I wanted to spend some of my evening since I was tired from working the night before, but we loaded up the van and went. Cale paraded by first with the rest of the flag teams. They are all named after colleges, mostly Big Ten, except for Notre Dame (we do live in Indiana). He's walking next to his coach.

Marcus came by in the next wave with the 2nd and 3rd grade tackle teams. He's on the Steelers and the rest of the teams are all AFC teams. (NFC teams are the 4th/5th grade tackle teams) He's the redhead wearing his football pants. We also brought the rest of his gear, which we did not need. Details on what we needed get a little skechty when I am hearing them 3rd person.

We stayed to watch about 3 minutes of the high school game and then the boys were done, especially Liam, and were ready to go home. Which we did.

Who's 16 months old? Liam is!

Liam was 16 months old yesterday! To celebrate, he got to go to the doctor for a check-up, shots included. He handled it like a champ, crying mostly because he got held down for his shots. A clean bill of health was received along with a current height and weight. He is 34 inches long ( 97%) and 26 pounds 3.5 ounces (75th%). He is always on the move, and I classify him as a "climber". He does not hesitate to climb on whatever is around no matter how tall. He is also a good eater, including veggies. He is definitely a momma's boy and does not like it when I leave (or when Andy leaves). He loves his brothers and wants to be included in everything! We love him so much!




Here are his brothers' stats for that same age. As you can see, they have all been pretty close-except for heavyweight Marcus:

Ewan: 34 inches (95th) 26 lbs 11 oz (80th)

Cale: 33 inches 26 lbs 9 oz

Marcus: 33 1/3 inches 29 lbs 8 oz(!)

first day of school

School started Monday for Marcus and Cale. They were excited to go-not as excited to have their picture taken. And, Cale was not happy that I was driving him to school the first morning-Mommy's choice. Besides, the bus came and went before the boys knew it.

Yes, one more shot at school. They were very patient with me! Both the boys had a good day. Per report, Marcus's favorite part of school was "the meat sauce" (or-lunch). Cale liked recess the best. I hope they have a great year and can find some friends to play with oh, and learn some cool stuff. This morning (Tuesday) I let them ride the bus to school-Cale was so excited. We're lucky the bus stop is in front of our house. And, so begins the school year...

a vision of the future

Ewan, Cale, Marcus, Maddie and Xander...

...admiring Xander's new wheels.

school open house

Friday, before our trip to Illinois (previous post), we went to the open house at primary school. This was a time to meet Marcus and Cale's teachers and drop off their school supplies so they wouldn't be lugging in bags on Monday. It was crazy, there were tons of people there and it was chaotic trying to herd my boys through the crowds. But, mission accomplished! We got to meet who we needed to and see what we needed to see.

Marcus will be in 2nd grade. His teacher's name is Mrs. Greider. She seemed nice. I think there are about 27 kids in his class. I recognized a few of his classmates's names from his kindergarten class.


Cale will be in full day kindergarten. He will have Mrs. Goff for a teacher. There are 18 kids in his class. He really liked seeing his classroom and all the cool stuff in it. (And, I got to correct his teacher on the spelling of his name C-a-l-e not C-o-l-e. It was bound to happen. No worries, Cale did not even notice.)

Bring on Monday! The boys are ready, even if I am not!

sleepover @ Grammy Pammy's/Xander's brthday party

I may have said that we were done travelling, but we had the chance to zip back to Illinois for an overnight trip and to go to cousin Xander's birthday party. We left after Marcus and Cale's open house at the school and got to Grammy Pammy's during what I can only describe as a monsoon. So much rain! Anyway, we let the boys unwind and then set up camp in the living room. Grammy Pammy was nice enough to sleep on the couch and let Liam and me take her bedroom.

The boys were up the next morning about 6am Illinois time (7am for Indiana-so not too early). Grammy took them to the mall play area and the merry-go-round and then it was time to go to Uncle Jim and Aunt Courtney's for Xander's birthday. The boys were excited to see their cousins (and play with Xander's toys. He didn't mind, he was napping when we got there.)

For fun, they had something called the "tumble-bus". It's a stripped down old school bus with some gymnastic stuff in it. I got this pic, and then ran inside to eat, since the kiddos were occupied. Everyone had fun, the bus even had a little zip line-a favorite of the boys.

Got a nice photo of Grammy, Lanny, Maddie and Cale. :-)

Ewan fell in love with Xander's ginormus stuffed dalmation.

Even my Grandma and Aunt Renee got to come to the party. It was nice to see them (and my Aunt Claud and Aunt Eileen).

My sister was nice enough to bring her bounce house for the kids! The boys kind of took over.

What a nice time, and then we had to leave. I hated to go, and was dragging myself away, but I knew that we were going to get back so late (stupid eastern time zone). And now, we are definitely done travelling for awhile. We will enjoy being at home and entertain any of our family and friends who want to stop by for a visit!

start of football

Football is starting this week for Marcus and Cale. We have picked up Marcus's tackle gear and helmet (which Andy said are better than anything he ever played with in JFL) and the boys now both have a pair of cleats (and our sports shoe collection begins...). Tuesday night was Marcus's evaluation night. I guess the coaches run the boys through some drills and then when they go to assign kids to each team on "draft day" the teams are theoretically equal. Anyway, I got confused and thought it was Cale's evals that night. Turns out Cale's are Thursday and Marcus's were Tuesday and we left all of his gear at home. Well, I felt bad, and I'm pretty sure he was the only kid with no gear out there. Marcus took it in stride and was fine with it, while I beat myself up for being disorganized. I would have gone home to get the stuff too, except that I had to go to work and leave the kids in the capable hands of my sitter. But, no harm, apparently and I have since gone over the fooball calender and written it in my planner and on our wall calender. Practices start next week. They are looking forward to it! (Ewan and Liam don't seem to mind either-mostly because there is some playground equipment to climb all over.)

Marcus was really excited about getting his pads and helmet. They had the kids line up and go through the supply shed and get measured for everything. He wore the pads the rest of the evening and even some of the next day. :-)


Cale wanted to try the helmet on too! And, then it got stuck on his head and I couldn't figure out how to get it off (music major here everyone). I told Cale he would just have to wear it until Andy got home-approx 20 mins-but he managed to eventually wiggle out of it.

my little model

While Grammy Linda was here, she wanted to take the boys (Marcus and Cale) shopping for some new school clothes. Marcus didn't want to go and we ended up taking Cale and Ewan. Cale had a blast. I think he really liked the one-on-one time with his grammy. They picked out a bunch of clothes and then Cale got to try them on and pick out his favorites. Some of the ones that made the cut were clearly picked out by a 5 year old-the Super Mario Bros. sweatsuit, the longsleeve polo shirt with bright yellow, orange, green and blue strips-but Cale was super excited. We got him to model for us in a shirt and jeans he ended up getting. He wore the jeans the next day to church because he was so excited about them. Ewan got an oufit too, and we got Marcus a couple shirts, but Cale was just the most fun since he was so involved with the choosing. Here's his model pose... :-)

a mean game of monolpoly

Grammy Linda and Grandpa Jerry came to visit last weekend. The boys had fun seeing them and we had a few exciting games of Monopoly. It was cool to be able to actually play with Marcus and Cale (with a little coaching from the adults).


Cale won! I went out first (with help from my financial advisor-Ewan), followed by Marcus. It was a showdown between Caleand Grammy Linda and Cale's hotels won out in the end! (He loves to win-I'm sure you can tell!)


Sorry, Grammy!

We played Monopoly on Saturday night too-per the boys' request. Andy won that game. He showed no mercy towards his sons :-) Marcus and Cale, especially Cale, want to play Monopoly every day now!

that's a good lookin' fam!

Thank you Grammy Pammy for taking this photo of us!

Indiana State Fair

It's our first trip to the state fair for the family! Even though the boys complain every time I make them walk anywhere, we thought they would have fun seeing things the fair had. And, they did have a good time! We saw farm animals and lots of tractors-things the boys are not around, being town folk and all :-). We ate a little bit of fair food-corn dogs, funnel cake and a lemon shake-up to drink. So good! We did as much as we could with the boys and know that every year we go back, we'll be able to do a little more!

We did a little panning for "gold"

We found a tv in the floor

The FFA building had a cool indoor play area ("indoor"-in an open barn that was not air-conditioned) that had a jungle gym too. There was also mini-golf that the older boys and Andy played.

Time to eat! Yea for fair food!

Free ice cream!

The corndog is delicious!


Cale is always willing to pose for a picture!

The Department of Natural Resources building (cool and air-conditioned!) had the tanks of big fish, of course, and also had a shooting range. The boys got to practice their aim with bb guns.

We looked at 4H exhibits. The older boys really liked the rockets. Liam just liked walking all over the place. And, I found these awesome chairs!

Favorite parts of the fair:

Ewan: tractors

Cale: shooting, little pigs

Marcus: shooting

it's been a rough couple of days folks

We've had a rough go of it recently at the Shaffer house. Monday morning we had the rude awakening of Andy returning to work after a 6 week hiatus. His normal work schedule is not bad, but for the first 2 weeks of August, he is working high school sports 2 a day practices from 6am until 8-ish at night. (Liam didn't see Andy from Sunday night until Tuesday night.) We had some illness running around here starting Tuesday morning with Liam -discovered be my poor babysitter. That culmulated into everyone else, except for Andy (so far) being sick Wednesday and into Thursday. Now, we are all better. And, Grammy Pammy, we are ready for you to come over (at least in body, not in a clean house). The windows are open and a nice breeze is blowing through the windows.
The boys finished up baseball last night. I made the executive decision to take the boys. They had not been sick all day and Cale was showing signs of his old self returning. And, they did fine. Marcus just played 2 of the 3 innings and then needed to sit out. Cale played the whole time with no problem. I'm glad they got to go and participate one last time. We have a couple week break and then football starts. I'm a little worried about the schedule and how busy it seems, but I'm sure it will be fine.
Okay, time to clean! The house has been igonored and needs some attention! Have a great day! See you soon Mom!

the Shaffer cousins visit

The Shaffer cousins came to visit! The boys were so excited to have Chris, Kim and the girls come over for the weekend. They got there late Friday night, so no one got to play together until the next morning. I had grand plans for a garage sale game -what can you get for a dollar?- but it rained and poured most of the morning and the garage sales closed up. What do you do when you're stuck inside with 7 kids and 4 adults? Here's some ideas....

We boxed. Andy set up a "ring"in the living room and hauled out all our boxing gloves (we have 4 pairs).


We worked on experiments. This is a circuit set that Marcus got for his birthday. All the kids and adults liked playing with it.


We played some board games. Connect Four and Monopoly.


We made some new friends. Liam loves his Uncle Chris!

We also introduced Kim and Chris to the "Kelso" pizza (chicken and ranch dressing). The kids got to have dessert at Alexander's (ice cream) and then we rented a movie (The Fabulous Mr. Fox). Not a bad day even though it was super cool and damp after all the rain in the morning.


Sunday was so much nicer out! Fortunetely, the cousins did not have to leave right after church, so we had plenty of time together. Andy and Chris went to the batting cage and then we went to the park.


Liam showcased his talent of pushing his stroller. He loves to get behind it and push the stroller all over! He gets mad when you try to help him out or try to guide the direction he's going.


All good things must come to and end and families must go back to their homes. I warned the kids that I was going to take this photo. They're starting to catch on that I take a group photo of them everytime we're together. I have grand plans to do a little scrapbook of the cousin group photos over the years. We're so glad they came to see us!