photos of the boys' room

The boys' room is at a point of completion.  This year, it got a new paint job, new curtains and another set of bunk beds.  I found some neat wall art at Meijer in the form of classic comic book covers. And, after some trial and error, managed to hang up the boys' freshly repainted names. 

You can see the black black-out curtains.  They definitely helped make the room cooler this summer.  But, even though they block the morning sun, the boys still get up early.

Hung up a corkboard so they can hang their little trinkets up on it, if they want.

A view of the bunkbeds.  Marcus and Liam share the one on the left and Cale and Ewan have the one on the right.  Marcus and Cale scored the top bunks.  I think Ewan likes having a cave-like area for his bed.  Liam, I think he just likes being with the "big boys".

handsome boys!

Finally had a chance to upload the boys' school photos.  And, I finally got them ordered to send out to the family.  They look so big in these photos!

Cale-2nd grade-This has to be his favorite shirt.  He wears it almost every week to church, even though he has 3 or 4 others to pick from.

Ewan-kindergarten-this smile is cracking me up!

Marcus-4th grade-He did not want to even bring a nicer shirt to school to put on over his play clothes.  Like it was going to kill him, or something.  Guess who won that battle?

first snow!

Our first snow was Monday morning.  It was one of those wet, heavy snows with big, fat flakes.  I didn't think any would survived hitting the ground, but, it did.  By mid-day, the sun had come out and the weather had dried up and all the snow was gone.  But, it made for good sleeping weather that morning for a tired nurse that worked the night before!

(sorry about the flash globe, my bad)

Halloween 2012

Hey everybody!  Here's how the family looked before we headed out the door to do some trick-or-treating.  We have the blue ninja, Ewan, the red ninja, Cale, Spider-Man, Liam, scary-looking-person, Marcus and Kella in some doctor jammies that I found at a consignment store.  There was some strife over the ninja costumes.  Liam was extremely jealous and couldn't wait for Cale to take his costume off that evening so he could wear it.  In fact, Liam wore the red ninja costume again the next day.  All day.  We made it to a trunk-or-treat that was actually held indoors because it was pretty chilly outside.  Then we drove back to our house and walked around the block.  Andy met up with us at that point and I took Kella home to pass out candy-we had people coming up to our door as I was trying to get in!  Liam and Marcus came home next while Ewan and Cale started down another street.  Must have been too much for Ewan, because he came back soon, too.  Cale, the candy lover, walked almost the entire neighborhood and was rewarded for his efforts with a bucket full of candy.  We even had some candy left over, I tend to overbuy because I'm afraid we'll run out.  More for us, I guess.

No jack-o-lanterns this year.  I made up for it by putting the little battery candles in these two little dudes. 

Scenes from the park

Took Liam and Kella to the park today after I voted. It's funny how 43 degrees feels warm when the sun is shining. They swung on the swings, climbed and played with leaves. All that fresh air definitely helped them take some nice naps today!

Miss Spider's Tea Party

On Halloween, Liam's preschool had their annual Miss Spider's Tea Party.  It's their way of letting the kids dress up for Halloween without actually calling it a "Halloween party".  The kids are encouraged to dress up as an insect, and every year I overthink what whichever kid is in preschool should wear.  We've done grasshoppers and bumblebees.  Marcus was even The Tick (from a cartoon show).  Ewan borrowed a dragonfly costume one year, too.  For Liam, I did not feel like trying to make and outfit and we forgot to see if there was a spare costume at the preschool to borrow.  Besides, he is so strong-headed, I don't know if he would have worn one.  Lucky for us, we have a whole bag of costume that included a nice Spider-Man one.  And, that's what Liam wore.  He was the only Spider-Man, although I think there was some other kind of mutant bug on stage, too.  Kella and I made it to the little parade and songs that the preschoolers do.

There's Liam, walking in.

And, he promptly came over to me, crouched down and sucked his thumb.  It must have been traumatic, being Spider-Man all morning.  He didn't want to go up to the stage to sing the songs.  No biggie, I didn't care.

Two songs in, he decided he could go up to the stage.  And, of course, he did great.  He knew all the words and the motions they did to each song.  What a stinker.

Let's you see the variety of bugs at this year's party.

Everything is fixed!

Insurance update...

We have heat

Our fridge works

We have replaced almost everything that was damaged by lightening

Everything was covered by insurance plus our deductible

The kids are playing on the new wii and arguing over a Mario game

Back to normal