Adam and Ian

That's who the kids learned about in school today. Robbie couldn't figure out what they were talking about so he started digging around in their back packs and found this... "Ummmmm....do you mean Adam and Eve?" Abby decided that yes, that sounded more like it but Ben still swears it's Adam and Ian. The best part is that because of Adam's long hair he thinks they are both girls. Sooooo, I guess it goes without saying that school is going quite well!

It's my lucky day!

If there's one thing I've learned in the past 3 years, it's that shopping early for Halloween costumes is the way to go. Number one, all of the good costumes go quickly and number two, the kids need some time to adjust to wearing the silly things. I would love to be the mom that makes cute costumes for my kids (my mom did). I am sure it would be fun and it would most certainly be less expensive but let's not kid ourselves. I'm lucky to make dinner for my kids on any given night and homemade costumes are just not happening.

Today was our big outing and we have been trying to have the kids think about what they want to be for a couple of weeks now. Last year, Ben was a puppy (a really really cute puppy named Dawson) and Abby was a baby (an odd costume for a 2 year old, I know but it had a lot to do with the fact that if she was a baby she would need a paci and hers had been swept away by the Paci Fairy months earlier). Those costumes were easy and cute so I was hoping for a similar outcome this year. As we were leaving the house, despite my suggestion that they dress as Dora and Diego, they had their minds made up on other things. Ben wanted to be Iron Man (he has no idea who Iron Man is but his new school shoes are Iron Man so obviously he needs a costume to match) and Abby wanted to be B.B. What? you ask. Let me fill you in. This....
is B.B. Abby's most favorite lovey. He (she?) is a bear dressed in a bunny costume (get it B.B. for bunny bear?) that Nana gave her for her first Easter. Over time she has grown to love B.B. so much that she adopted the rest of the family:

They ALL (along with a variety of other pillows, blankets, stuffed animals and baby dolls) sleep in her little toddler bed with her. The mama and the daddy, "Pink the B.B" and "Blue the B.B". (She has two of each because I had an irrational fear when she was younger that we would lose one which would result in me losing sleep, so I rotated them for equal loving, always keeping one hiding in a drawer. Now that she knows there are two and can reach the drawer they are all present at all times.)

So with our ideas in mind, we finished our spaghetti and headed for Target. I was pretty sure that I could find an Iron Man costume (as much as I didn't want to...I have a strong dislike for characters of all kinds) but had no idea what I was going to do about my little girl who had her mind set on being the thing she loves the most. Until.... I walked into Target and saw THIS:

What are the chances, right? She wore it in the store and it is all ready for her to wear as much as she wants tomorrow and for the rest of the month!

In other exciting cute costume news: All of the Iron Man costumes were "too small" (I know, I'm terrible but he is way too cute to be in that ugly thing!) so Ben is all set to save lives and fight fires.

How cute is this?!? It has suspenders and everything! And he just got some new fireman rain boots when he went shopping with Grammy. Perfect, just what he wanted. A costume to match his shoes!

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck?

Well, if Robbie and I are any indication....a whole lot!! We have had these huge mountains of wood sitting in our front yard (classy, I know) for a long time. Most of it was wood from our property, a little of it was wood a friend gave us when she cut down some trees (thanks Michelle!) and all of it needed to be chopped and stacked. We had been whittling down the pile slowly but there was no end in sight. Our biggest problem was that there were between 15 and 20 trees that had not been cut up yet and as hard as Robbie worked, he just didn't have the time or equipment to get them all cut. Soooooo we finally hired someone (best decision ever) who was able to accomplish in less than an hour what we had not in 9 months. The problem was that once the logs were sliced, we were left with this..

A LOT of wood (the pallets are what we used to stack it on). So, the wood chucking commenced. We worked our tails off for two weekends and finally...

STACKED!!! It may be hard to tell from the picture but that is a TON of wood. Enough to get us through a couple of winters for sure! We try to heat the house with just the wood stove so we go through it pretty quick. A huge shout out to Robbie who came home from work at least 3 mornings and instead of going to bed after working all night, Rock Starred up and chopped wood for a couple hours. It is nice to have the wood ready to go since it feels like November outside and it is just great to have a small project from the yard out of the way. Oh, and one more thing. Next time you see Robbie be sure to comment on this project. He really wanted me to make sure people saw these pictures!

I Barely Even Cried Today!

A huge accomplishment considering the colossal meltdown I had last night as I was preparing for my babies to begin their first day of pre school. Just ask my mother-in-law. She happened to stop by mid-tragedy to find me crying into my husband's t shirt (as he continued to watch "American Pickers" or some other History/Discovery Channel favorite of his). And while they both tried to comfort me (even though I think they were laughing at me too) I have come to the conclusion that the first day of school is just so much harder on the Mama.

Now, I know that the kids are going to love school. And I know that they are going to be well cared for. And learn lots. And make friends. And all of the things that everyone tells me. I know all that. I AM A KINDERGARTEN TEACHER!! If there is one thing that I could tell you after 9 first days of school it is that most of the time the kids are fine, it's the mamas that struggle. And now I know why. It's not that we're worried about them being taken care of or making friends. It's that just yesterday they were our babies and so panic sets in that tomorrow they will be heading off to their first day of high school.

A couple weeks ago, the kids got a postcard in the mail from their teacher, welcoming them to preschool. As I started to read it to the kids I began to tear up (I cry A LOT, so no big surprise) and before I got through the first sentence I was choking on sobs as I tried to get the words out. It wasn't that I was so upset about preschool, it was just that for some reason all I could imagine was that I was reading their college acceptance letters! Ridiculous, I know but I just can't believe three and a half years have flown by so fast and I feel like if I blink I may miss something important.

Despite my tears I am excited for them to start school. I can't wait to see all of the new things they learn and hear about what they are like when I'm not around. And I am very excited for them to make some new friends. That will be fun. And necessary. (I spent most of the summer trying to explaining to them that I didn't think they would be able to marry each other. A confusing conversation that went something like this. ABBY: "I'm going to marry Ben when I'm big." ME: "No, you can't marry someone you are related to." ABBY: "But you married Daddy." ME: "Good point but we weren't related until we got married. I didn't even know Daddy until I was 14. You probably don't know the person you are going to marry yet." ABBY: "Oh. Maybe I'll meet my husband in pre school.") I also am proud of how hard they work and how much they know and I am excited for them to be able to put that to work at school.

So, this morning, after last night's disaster, I was armed with tons of Kleenex as I helped them hang up their backpacks this morning. And surprisingly, I didn't even need them! The morning started out great as they came downstairs to find the cake we had made for them. "Thank you Mommy and Daddy!!" And then they got to eat some for breakfast. After that (they did eat waffles too) they got dressed in their new school clothes, got some nectarines for their teachers (we had no apples and they insisted they needed to take some fruit) and even kind of cooperated with my photo shoot!

****This may be one of my favorite pictures EVER taken of the two of them. I love it!

Once we were at school, they walked right in and got right to work.

The minute they sat down, they were ready for us to leave. As he hugged be goodbye Ben said, "Be brave Mama." And I was!

What a difference a year makes!

At first, I was thinking that the kids still looked just like they did last summer. Then I found these pictures...

Wow! They were babies! I miss my two-year-olds! They were so little and so sweet and so innocent and I am pretty sure they never said, "NO! I'll do whatever I want to doooooooooo!" Don't get me wrong, they are still sweet (most of the time) and very cute and I can hardly believe they are getting ready to start school in less than three weeks! How did that happen?!? I have loved being home this summer and although I am somewhat excited about not being interrogated all day long I am a little sad to be heading back to work.

In other "Look How Far We've Come" news, can you believe that at this time last year we were living with Robbie's parents and our house looked like this?

We have been settled into the finished product for 8 months now (hardly seems like it) but I often find myself looking back at the pictures of the house as it was being built. I loved coming by to check on the house almost daily, to see what had been done. I loved the smell of the wood, brand new and warmed by the sun. I loved how the house seemed to change shape and size with every nail. I loved the anticipation of the home that it would become.

When I think about it, life last summer was a little bit CRAZY! Robbie was working insane hours, we were living in my mother in laws basement with our 2 two-year-olds, and constantly having to make decisions about the house. The weather was 100 degrees (I miss that) and the kids spent most of their days sliding down the slide into the kiddie pool. What a difference a year makes! This summer the cool weather is not the only change. The kids are now 3 and enjoying all of the space that came with the new house and yard. Robbie has a job with a lot more free time (but a lot less vacation) and the only decision we have had to make about the house is whether or not to open the doors to let the evening breeze in.

After spending two weeks at the lake, we returned home last Friday to a hot (but clean-thanks Babe!) house and when I walked in the door I was greeted with the same new wood smells that I hope I never forget. I stood in the kitchen and thought about just how much has changed in 12 months. Some things, like finishing the house, we knew (at least hoped) would happen but there are other things that we couldn't have imagined. Kind of makes me wonder, where will we be next August?

Success!

Our mission this week at the lake has been to get the kids to jump off the dock. They are great swimmers (they swam across the lake for the first time last summer...they were 2) and have been jumping into water since before they could walk. When they were not yet a year and a half old, people at the YMCA would gather around to watch Abby fly off the edge of the pool, bob up saying, "Again" and climb back up for another jump. Some of Ben's first steps were on the floaty mat at swimming lessons into the water. These kids have been jumping into water for most of their lives but for whatever reason this summer they decided that they were not jumping off the dock. Hence our mission. Here's how it went:

We tried stranding them on the dock with no other option...

that didn't work so well.

We tried jumping in with them. They liked it, but still refused to jump on their own.

There were a lot of tears

but eventually, they were ready....

to jump!

Even off the big dock!

***I do know that all the jumping pictures are of Ben and the only picture of Abby is one of her screaming. You should know that Abby jumps too, she just likes to jump to me (aren't I lucky?) so I haven't been able to get any pictures.

I love this place!

I mean how could you not? Just look at it!

This just may be my favorite place on earth. I could sit on the dock for hours on end (I have...I used to. The new me gets a couple hours at nap time, if I'm lucky). I love that the sun (when it decides to come out) shines on the dock from about 10 in the morning until it goes down in the evening. Perfect. No need for sun before 10. Who gets up that early? (That was the old me again...I get up that early, just not going outside.) I love how the whole family is there at the same time and we cook together and eat together and play together. I love that the cabin was built by Robbie's grandpa and although it isn't glamorous, it is cozy. I love the there is a tradition of swimming across the lake each summer. All of us. Even the kids. I love that there is an open door policy. If we're here, stop by. I love that I have been coming here every summer since I was 15...half my life. First with Carrie, then with Robbie, now as a family. I am so thankful to have a place like this. No need to take fancy vacations every year (although I'm starting to think we're due for one) when you can pack up and head to the lake for a couple weeks (this time we are staying for almost two weeks! Never done that before...I'll let you know how it goes), a couple days or even a couple hours. When we're here there's no time, no schedule, no worries. I bring a lot of magazines (and a couple of books so people think I read something other than the latest celebrity gossip) whatever happens, happens.



In addition to reading, the lake is perfect for swimming...

boating...


wake boarding...

tubing...

and fishing.

And it just plain makes us happy!

Oh, and we're here, so stop by!