father's day 2013

we had a wonderful day celebrating the man of the house on sunday.

tradition states we must go out for donuts in the morning. "donuts for dad!" the kids chant until it's time to go.

this year the big car was in the shop, so we had to take the little car. the little car does not fit six people. so dad stayed home with a grumpy boy and four of us headed to the donut shop down the road.

either donuts for dad is not a novel idea or the donut shop was under-staffed on this particular day... there were hardly any donuts to choose from! like, zero sprinkle donut choices. that is shocking to me! thankfully dad's favorite kind was in-stock. the boys didn't seem to mind that there weren't sprinkle donuts, probably because the only donuts that were left were the ginormous kind or the bars that could be filled with goo. they were pretty happy about that!

i have no pictures of getting donuts or eating donuts, which may or may not be a good thing! natalie was beside herself in the donut shop... "CHOCOLATE!!!" it was pretty cute.

after we came out of our sugar coma, we had spent a little time just hanging out with dad and having fun.

observing insects

the princess in her tower

pulling the rocks out of the rock tumbler

later in the day we had a dinner of chicken and veggie kebobs on the grill with rice. then we played a game of croquet.

 the boys got their games faces on.



playing croquet takes focus and concentration...

 



and a little bit of body contortion!





awww!



there were some tears. there always are.



we gave dad a fire pit and the job of building us a fire :)



then we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores.





the day ended with a little basketball for the boys. unfortunately, there is only this shot of zach, but they all had fun playing "horse" together.



it was the perfect kind of day to celebrate dad!

this weekend

• we all woke up bright and early saturday morning to ben singing shouting GOOD MORNING, GOOD MORNING, GOOD MORNING TO YOOOU!
• joe took ben and zach to a free ice hockey clinic at the local ice rink.
• zach signed up for a 4 week introductory class--his first class was today!
• i had not one, but TWO peppermint mocha frappuccinos and i would have had another if starbucks delivered.
• went shopping for our operation christmas child boxes.
• listened to christmas music while out and about today, because joe wasn't in the car to turn it off.
•  swept the floor two, three, four, five, six times! that has gotta be a record--sweeping and mopping is not a preferred activity.
• started to take down halloween decorations, but lost momentum due to a horrible head cold/headache.
• wishing i could go to bed, but dreading the night-time stuffy head snifflefest i will experience once i do.

i will try to post some pictures of our weekend tomorrow. and some of halloween, too.

just. too. tired.
to do it right now.

a new family fave!

two weeks ago we took taylor and zachary to the drive-in movies to see cars 2. this was on our summer list.



i hadn't been to the drive-in movies since high school. when i told my mom that, she laughed and said "me too!" ha!! we packed a goody bag with popcorn, sour patch kids, and bottles of water. we all had a nice time and thanks to tips on yelp.com, we didn't damage our car on the pothole riddled pavement!



next time we will arrive earlier so we don't have to wait so long to get in. to make matters worse, we picked the slowest line and then when we were almost there, one of the cars in our lane overheated. bummer! apparently people at the drive-ins don't listen to the kaiser radio ad promoting random acts of kindness and their link to happiness and health, because based on my experience no one at the drive-in will willingly let you cut in front of them. another bummer!

our family will definitely be going back to the drive-ins. not sure when we'll take ben along with us. ben's crazy meter shoots off the charts after 7:00 pm. the drive-ins provided us with some fun, family-friendly, and inexpensive entertainment. if you haven't been to a drive in since high school, go!

have you ever been to a drive-in movie? 

when did you last go?

july in pictures

we've been busy checking things off our summer list. school starts aug. 10th. that's right around the corner. gotta get check, check, check while we can, can, can.

i will post soon about some of our recent adventures. for now, enjoy some photos!


















































that was a lot of pictures! i realize there are not many of taylor and that is because the boy doesn't want to be photographed like the other hams in our house. "too old, too cool, too busy." i remember going through that phase. i'm pretty sure it means puberty is around the corner.

darn. i was hoping my kiddos would skip that stage entirely. ha!

saturday

35.

that's how old i almost am.

today we had a family party to celebrate me turning 35. that's how old i will turn on monday at 11:37 am. and not a minute sooner. can't say i am crazy about turning 35. i mean, that's half way to 70.

i did have a very nice party and i loved being treated like a queen. i had yummy bbq chicken and salad and sweet potato fries. oh, and cake. i know i said i don't like cake all that much and that is still true. except for this cake...


love this photo because ben and i are blowing out the candles and taylor is yelling at us "you are blowing out UNLIT candles, you know!" (the wind had blown them out already)

this is chocolate godiva cake and it is amazing in every way and if i made it, i know it wouldn't be nearly as good. my mom has to make it. she makes it sooooo good. i have had this cake every year for my birthday for as long as i can remember... since i've been 21, anyway. see the cake balls and cake pops in the picture? those are for the little rascals. no godiva cake for them, which means i have half a birthday cake left to keep in my freezer and snack on for the next few weeks.

thank you family for the lovely evening. and a special thank you to my mom for going the extra mile and making my special birthday cake dairy free this year! :)

thursday randomness

no craft to post about today. we have been running here and there and everywhere. or so it seems. but we did craft today, so next thursday i will post some darling paintings of dancing cows and dancing kids. i know, i know. it will be sooo hard to wait! so here's a sampling to tide you over.


too cute, right? any guesses as to whose cow this is?

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this morning the boys were having mandatory outside time. does anyone else have to force their kids to play outside? we've had a few incidents of mud fighting recently, so before i left them to make mud pies  unsupervised i nonchalantly reminded them that people with good character make good choices and do the right thing even when they think no one is looking. ha!

i'm just going to say this...
my children are a work in progress.

and now i will show you this...

 
and this...

i was so mad. i did not yell though. i think i whined a little. seriously? you did this again? seriously?!!! then i filled a bucket with soap and water and brought out a broom and scrub brush and some towels. they cleaned it up. as best as a 4 year old and 6 year old can. after zach hosed off the patio and it dried, ben cleaned the window and zach set up the table again. all by themselves. that made me feel a lot better.


what do you do when your kids keep making the same "mistakes"?

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when the boys were babies, they spent a lot of time cooling down in a bucket. buckets are the perfect for pint sized fun! i will have to see if i can find pictures of the boys in their buckets.

last week we finally had the chance to put natalie in a bucket and let her splash around. this girl LOVES water! she had so much fun.






she has recently started pulling herself up to stand and she did that in the bucket. no pictures of that though. scary!

i seem to remember a picture of me and my brother swimming in buckets at grandma lorraine's when we were little.  

 mom?

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6 weeks ago we decided to cut ben's hair. shave it off and give him a summer cut. like his dad and brothers.

this is what his hair looks like today...


i cannot bring myself to cut it! it's his benny -fro. now i think i'll just let it grow and grow and grow. i think i'm afraid that if i cut it, it will never be the same.  

what would you do?

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if you have more than one kid you know just how hard it is to get a good picture of all the kids together at the same time. you know, a picture with everyone simply looking at the camera. smiling would be a bonus. well i haven't done that yet, but i did get a good shot of 3/4 of the parker kids. enjoy!


"ahhh!!! he's gonna push me in the pooool!"


"aaarr! whatcha be lookin' at?"


i wonder what they are looking at?



winner winner chicken dinner!

as busy as we are some days, i sure do love summer and being at home with my kids is the best!