Happy Birthday!!

Yesterday was Chris's 38th birthday!  Peter and I spent the morning at Daddy's office (I went to a meeting while Pete ate snacks and drew on Chris's white board for 2 hours)… We tried to surprise Chris with balloons and coffee at work, but neither worked.  We stopped at two different Starbucks to bring Daddy his favorite coffee-- the first was closed due to a power outage and the second had a line 30 deep so we turned away.  Boo!  And the balloon store was closed at 8am on our way to the office. Double BOO!  But, I did remember to put Peter in his special Daddy shirt!

After the meeting, we all went out for a nice lunch at Newk's, a new spot in town.  Unfortunately Chris had to work late, but we decorated for his return!

We celebrated with his favorite hamburgers (it's a secret recipe maybe I'll share with you… they're delicious!) and cake and ice cream.  And a little singing, of course.

We love you, babe.  You are everything to all of us.

As Peter put it so kindly driving into work yesterday, "I love you 10 pennies, Mom.  No... five.  And I love Daddy 1,000,042 pennies."  

James scores!!!

Yesterday was the Panther's last football game of the season.  The boys were anxious to get a win since, up until yesterday, they'd lost every game.  They played hard all season, but unfortunately played against even tougher competition (most players are 10 years old and have been playing together for awhile, unlike our team).

I am thrilled to report that James scored the only touchdown yesterday and helped his team win their first game, 7-6!!!

James played every second of every single game all season.  He played offense, defense, and went out every time for special teams.

His poor body is covered in bruises (literally) but he loves the sport!  Watching James play really is enjoyable (and nerve-wracking when he gets tackled!).

This is the team's final tunnel run-through yesterday.  My heart hurts when I see Peter looking up at the players and even more when I see Chris find James in the crowd...

As Aunt Megan said, James can stop looking like he's 15 any time now.  ;)  He seems to be growing and changing into a young man by leaps and bounds.  The way he runs out on the field, looking so tall and handsome in his uniform… it's impossible not to see who he'll look like at 15.

(Also eye-opening, and evidence that the times they are a changing, is that a mom friend of mine texted me last week to say her daughter, Jessica, wanted to apologize to James for something she said at recess.  Um… what?!  Are we really starting this now too!?  Apparently so although James absolutely ignores and denies it.)

We are so very proud of you, James.  You are smart, dedicated, respectful, and kind.  You continue to be everything we'd hoped for.

Berenstain Bear time...

Last night when I was making dinner, I cut into a perfectly perfect looking red pepper...

 only to discover THIS in the inside…ick!

And then it occurred to me that this could be a teaching moment for the boys about how you can't judge a book by it's cover because this seemingly "ugly" banana...

was totally perfect on the inside…

It's funny how interested they were in this little talk and made me show them the fruit over and over again.  (Each boy also wanted to then eat an "ugly" banana which is always good too!)  We talked about how sometimes people can be the same way… that just because they don't look like everyone else or may not have fancy clothes or be disabled or disfigured, it doesn't mean that their heart isn't good on the inside.  And vice versa, it doesn't mean we should trust everything/ everyone that looks perfect on the outside.  We still have to be prudent and smart about the decisions we make, even if everything "looks good."

Really I should thank Stan and Jan Berenstain because all good and true and honest lessons start with them!  I'm so grateful my mom saved all of our old books because we read them every night.

For reference, this is the one that
speaks about not judging a book by its cover.

Only in Fayetteville...

At least I hope.  For your sake.  Not mine… because I live here.  And I bear witness to these gems daily.

That's… very detailed spray painting.

That's…the eye of the tiger.

That's…. confusing to me.  What does that mean?

That's…. on a local mom van.  At least she's honest.

That's…. a man in a wheelchair, tethered by a
jump rope to a man on a bicycle, going up a very large hill.
(For the record, I did get out and offer to help.  Push, I guess?)

That's…. for when nature calls.

That's…. why the neighbors love us.

Happy Tuesday, folks!  It's gonna be a great one!

Fall(ish)...

Around here, fall weather comes around for a day or two and then summer temps sneak back in for a few days.  We're currently in a warmer period again (high yesterday was 85 I believe) but over the weekend it was a bit cooler which made it ideal to…

Roast marshmallows and play in the tent…

James's new "trick" is to act goofy
every time I point the camera his direction.
It's lots of fun, I tell you.

Watch Henry's soccer game.  He played a great game and, lucky for me, my shadow helper youngest son, Peter decided to go to James's football game instead (naturally occurring at the same time on Saturday)...

 "Shhh!  Let's get Mellow Mango and not tell the others!" I may or may not have said after his game...

 The cooler weather made it perfect to play snuggly board games like CLUE…

I know the suspense is killing you…
it was Mr. Mustard, in the Living Room, with the wrench.

James didn't want to play at first
but got into the game quickly-- and won! 

 On Sunday we took the boys to Gross Farms, about an hour away, to play and pick pumpkins…

 We went with two other families…

John, James, Grace, Julie & Anna

and...

Summer, Addy, Ava, Ben, & Gabe

The kids all had a great time!  Silly, silly boys...

Check out these ridiculous attempts at getting our three special children to put their heads in the pumpkin holes...

 … and then we actually made our way to the pumpkin patch to pick pumpkins.

It was a great weekend.  Fingers crossed we can finally turn our air conditioning off for the season soon!

Again?

I can't believe an entire week has gone by again and I haven't updated the blog.  I suppose it's just that the days tend to run together and the boys' activities and friends keep me very busy.  Chris was gone this weekend.  Again.  This time up to West Point for his 15-year reunion with friends.  Which left me at home with our boys and their bagillion friends.  Surely I sound like a broken record even to you… Chris is gone and somehow I have the entire neighborhood over at our house.  There were a few slight differences… on Friday, Sherry Shaw and her two kids came into town and spent the night with us.  We had a great time together but I forgot to take any pictures.  :(  James's regular 1.5 hour football game was more like a 3-hour football game on Saturday (you can imagine how much fun that was keeping Pete occupied for that long).  The big boys also a slumber party on Saturday with their friends, William and Quentin, which was a lot of fun.  For them.  And somewhat for me since it was at their house.  On Sunday, we had James's new friend, Mark, over.  Mark and James are in the same class and I've been trying to get them together on the weekend to build their friendship.  We also celebrated James's best friend Waylon's 10th birthday on Sunday.  We were busy!

Shew.  Re-reading this post is precisely why I need the children to return to school on Monday.  For a break.  Turns out weekends aren't relaxing at all for me.

And for no other reason than I like it…

Happy Monday!