Date Night

Seems like we've been eating out less lately (that darned economy!) and when we do, it's typically with the three kiddos in tow. It was a nice treat to have a "parent's-only" night out this weekend. We grabbed a drink with some friends, then headed to an engagement party. Just think...an entire evening that did NOT involve Color Wonder markers, stickers, hand-feeding our dining companions, or sippy cups! How heavenly!

Halloween prep??

Halloween is a big deal around here. We got a Grandin Road catalog in the mail last week that was heavily peppered with Halloween decor. It's now Katie's favorite book. Ugh! So now she spends most of her days preparing for the blessed event, trying to determine her costume, and practicing looking "scary". This face is courtesy of a blue sucker from Aunt Heather, but we felt it fit nicely into a pre-Halloween dress-up montage. If a blue face isn't scary, I don't know what is.

Katie normally hogs the dragon costume that she wore for Halloween last year, but one day this week, she actually let Ben try it on for the first time. He rather enjoyed it, until he realized that it's about 125* in there. A bit warm for August in Florida.

Okay, I know we probably should not have posted this photo, but we just couldn't resist sharing our darling little "princesses". Ahhhh, Ben, you have no idea how much ammunition your are giving us for when you are older and we need something to blackmail you with! The scary part is, he wore this Little Mermaid costume ALL MORNING and was quite upset when Dad made him take it off so they could go to Best Buy. He would have been delighted to wear it all day. I wonder if this is how Lady Chablis got started??

King of the Surf

Tyler has recently taken surfing back up as a "favorite sport" and has been enjoying lots of free days at the beach. He even has a rack that attaches to his bike to help him carry his board as an early birthday gift from Grama & Grampa Beutel (thanks!) As a proud mother, I would like to point out Ty's shoulders and abs...this from the kid who thinks he's not very toned! Are you kidding me? He looks like one of those drawings they use in anatomy class to teach the muscles of the body.

Lakefront property

Well, we always thought it would be nice to have a house on the water. We just didn't know it would be THIS house. The storm drain across the street is not only NOT draining, but it seems to be emptying the Intracoastal Waterway into the streets of our neighborhood. Our neighbor says that all the intersections look this way. Katie is asking to go to the park. We'd have to take a boat!

The Morning After

Tropical Storm Fay has been pestering the entire state of Florida since Sunday and made landfall for the THIRD time in our fine state Thursday around 2:00, just north of the Daytona Beach area. Being on the north side of the storm (which is the most dangerous part of the storm as far as tornados, high winds and flooding) we had a rough night. Our power held firm (thankfully) but we had many branches down in the yard this morning. These photos really don't do justice to how big of a mess we have to clean up. We have yet to go out in our cars (officals are asking people to stay home unless it's an emergency) to survey the whole neighborhood, but let's just say we are in a heavily treed area.

Treausre Chest hunt

Ben and Katie decorated a "Tresure Chest" and then we filled it with all kinds of jewels, precious stones (AKA polished rocks) and snacks (pirate's booty!)

Daddy made a map and the kids "followed it" to find the treasure. They had fun trying on the jewelry (old necklaces, bracelets and rings) and the snacks ended up being lunch. We've become much more lax about the rules of the house while we're all trapped indoors. Brownies for breakfast? Sure! Popcorn for dinner? Sure! Run around in your jammies all day? Of course!

The Invasion of the Village People

We've been cooped up in the house for three days now and are trying to find new ways to keep the kids occupied. Last night, we pulled out some new costumes for the kiddos to play with and they had a ton of fun acting as pirates and construction workers. We think we'll go as a modified version of the Village People for Halloween this year.

Tenth grade!!

I'm not sure how it's even possible, but today, Tyler started his first day of tenth grade. I got up this morning to see him off and to take the annual picture. One day, I'll have to print them all out to compare. He spent his last day of summer surfing. I woke in the morning to find a note on the counter which read: "Last day of summer. Living life to the fullest. Gone surfing at the pier." I just love it!

Great Expectations

This past weekend, while Chris was in the Keys with a bachelor party, Krista and her friend Kristin threw a baby shower for mutual friend Jenny. She's due in October and is SO excited to welcome her first child...a daughter to be named Sarah (in case you didn't pick up on all the pink....) Katie went to the shower as well, which left poor Tyler to babysit brother Ben for SEVEN hours!! No, the shower wasn't that long, but it was 45 minutes away, and when you add up commute time and set-up/break-down, you end up with seven hours. Yikes!

Big girl!

I debated long an hard before finally making the decision to cut Katie's hair. When I was about six, my mom "forced" me to get the trendy pixie cut and to this day, I can remember how upsetting it was that I wasn't able to get my hair cut "long". Katie agreed that if we cut her hair a little shorter, it might not get so tangled at naptime, and we've been happy with the results. I took her to a "fancy" salon for kids called "Sweet & Sassy" and she had a lovely time. We all think she looks so much older!

Our emotional rollercoaster

Katie is quite fond of demonstrating her mood at any given time. She can go from cranky to delightful to downright wacky at the drop of a hat. For reasons we're still not quite clear on, sticking her tongue out of the side of her mouth is her new "silly face" and she attemtps it anytime she sees one of us holding the camera. Gotta love the Tinkerbell costume (from Halloween two years ago).

Time for cake!

Ben wasted no time digging into his cake. He had good intentions of using his fork, but when the whole slice got stuck on the fork, he proceeded with caution.

Katie ate mostly frosting.

Matthew ended up with more on his face than in his tummy, but seemed to enjoy himself none-the-less.

Family birthday party

Althoug he hasn't really opened this many gifts at once since Christmas, he seeemd to have no problem getting into the swing of things.

"Oooooohhhhhh!" Ben LOVES anything to do with cars (which he calls "dar-dar"). Good thing we speak Ben-ese.

A "Cars" themed cake.

Since we were missing some members of the family on Ben's "actual" birthday, we held off a couple extra days before celebrating with the family and doing gifts and cakes. So basically Ben got TWO birthday parties, and has continued to get gifts here and there. Katie finally commented that "Ben sure has a lot of birthdays."

Birthday fun, part 2

The rest of the birthday attendees included: Walker, Lindy (climbing) and Ben (the birthday boy, also climbing!) and cousin Matthew. We managed to get just about all the kids in the pool at one time for the above shot. Clockwise from far left: Walker, Lindy, Ben, Linda (Lindy's momma and one of my closest friends), Olivia, Katie, Jake and Matthew. We had such fun splashing around!