Happy Birthday Meredith

(We needed a little "deco" so I stayed up way too late last night making this cute banner)

Today Meredith turned 9 years old. She's getting old and so are we. It also happened to be the last day of school today. We celebrated with friends, presents, and way too much Ice cream. Mer started off the morning with a french toast "cake" topped with a little fruit and a candle. She also opened presents from Max (a webkin) and Jack ( a purse). Then it was off to the last day of school.Jack and I did a little last minute shopping and then met Mer and Max for lunch where they handed out birthday treats to their classmates...ice cream sandwiches. This was the view from my car as I picked them up from school. Goodbye, 1st and 3rd grades, 2nd and 4th here we come. They are standing with Max's teacher.
After school, to celebrate the last day of school, we met some friends at Ben & Jerry's for our second Ice cream treat of the day. We even indulged in chocolated dipped cones with sprinkles.
We had a nice family dinner of hotdogs and watermelon,

And then got down to the business of opening presents.


They played Heavy Heavy Hangover and even Luke caught on.Thank you Grandmas for the cute clothes, Mer loved them.
Then she blew out the candles on the third ice cream treat of the day, mint ice cream pie (she helped make it yesterday, mint oreos and andes mints in vanilla ice cream)
Yes Luke ate Ice cream 3 times today as well, and loved every bite. As he put the last chocolate chunk in his mouth he said "mmmm"
All in all it was a great celebration. We are so glad to have our little mommy, Mer, in our family. She's so helpful and good and tries real hard to get along with all these brothers. She's growing up too fast. We love you Meredith.

Happy Birthday!!

Tasty Tomatoes and Frosties

I have a ton to say but here are just a few things. It's been raining and raining all week long. I'm currently waiting for some stripper to work on my cabinets in the bathroom so I can stain them tomorrow. We plan on finally tiling it this weekend. But anyway, here are some pictures from today and yesterday. Today Jack picked his first cherry tomato from his tomato plant. He has been taking good care of it, watering it and checking on it and he finally got one ripe enough to pick. He ate it and said it was good. It must have been good because later...

...when we were out taking this picture he told me he was just going to pick some more to eat. Too bad there aren't any more ripe yet. I told him to give it a few more days. We are also growing cucumbers (Max's) and Mer planted a cabbage she got from school.
When Doug and Jack were walking outside to pick his tomato, they spied a Hawk, we think, sitting on our back fence. One more bit of wildlife we can add to the list that we've seen in our yard or neighborhood. (along with an armadillo, opossom, turtles, sandhill cranes, bunnies, raccoons, skinks outside and in our bathroom, lizards and snakes, just to name a few)
And finally... yesterday evening Doug was so excited that mutual got cancelled that he took the whole family out for Frosties. Everyone got their own including Luke with his very own tiny size. Of course he's at the age that he wants to do it all by himself and he screams if you are even touching the cup, so we let him have a go at serving himself. He did fairly well until...
...until I looked back and saw that he was shoving his whole hand down into the cup. I hollered "no no no" at him and he started crying.
He recovered quickly with another bite and I think thoroughly enjoyed his first very own Frosty.

Meet Lucy

Max and Mer played their last soccer Game today. It was the first game day in the real heat, with a game at 10 am and one at 11:30 (the car read 100 outside when we got into it but I think it was . Max's game was so fun to watch, the kids seemed to finally turn the power on and they tied at 7-7. No goals for Max but that wasn't for a lack of trying. He played his heart out. Mer's game was rough. It was so hot outside that they kept stopping the game entirely for water breaks. They won, 2-1 and Mer played great as well. Max's team had a little pizza party afterward and he got his trophy.A couple of pictures from the week... Mer has been throwing parties again. She checked out a kids party book from the library and came home and threw a Jungle party for dinner. She made sandwich kabobs, green jungle juice, and decorated with stuffed animals.

And for dessert she made "bug" jello cups. (if you're wondering, those are Chocolate chips on peach jello, yummy.)And finally... introducing "Lucy" our new little sister, compliments of Mer. She's bound and determined to get a little sister.