Boxes-climbing and Monkey Bread

Well it is Sunday evening and we are all tired from a busy weekend. I FINALLY made the monkey bread Ben has been wanting since my friend Tricia made it a month ago for him. By the way, Tricia thank you for responding to my SOS text I was about to add 1/2 C cinnamon when in fact it should have been brown sugar. That would have tasted interesting!!
Ben tackled the rock climbing wall at the church picnic. Gabe would have liked to but he missed the 50lb weight. We were proud Ben made it to the top and rang the bell. Gabe and Ben spent Saturday making an airplane out of boxes and playing with friends. I think I am going to sell all our toys and buy a bunch of boxes-they are much more interesting!!!! We hope your weekend was as fun as ours. Enjoy your week!!!!!

Lost Gabe

Now that Ben has started school Gabe feels a little lost most of the time. We have tried to fill his days with fun things like playing with friends, painting with spaghetti and trying on Halloween costumes(Kevin has made it very clear this WILL NOT be Gabe's Halloween costume If anyone needs an adorable Jo Jo's Circus Costume let me know- as you can see, I have a really cute one!!!!) but- being without his sidekick, Ben he is still a little lost.

Mudroom

It is done. After long long months of work and nagging(by me) Kevin's masterpiece is complete. Now that it is finished I am glad I did not spend the thousands of dollars at Pottery Barn. We are very happy with our updated mudroom. Good job Kevin!!!!!

He made it!!!

Ben has made it through his first day of second grade. I am one of those parents that is not overly excited about the return to school. I love having Ben home and enjoy going at our own pace. Now we have alarm clocks and schedules to keep. I was excited for Ben because he was looking forward to it. But I will have to admit- Gabe and I were kind of lost with our new routine. So we did what any depressed mother and lonely brother would do- we shopped and ate. I am glad he is home and loved his first day of school.

1st Day of School

Ben's 1st day of school was today. I was not ready(as you can tell by my apperance) The bus came right on time and he was very excited. Where has the time gone? I have a 2nd grader!!!!!!!

Redamaks

Our family tradition after a day at the beach- is to drive to New Buffalo for a Redamaks hamburger. For those of you who have never been there, these hamburgers are famous and for good reason. Just look at that bad boy. I think they just roll up 1 lb of chuck and throw it in the pan to cook. who knows? I do know that they are very willing to accommodate Ben's peanut allergy. They do serve PB&J but it is prepackaged. They also provided us with a binder to check EVERY ingredient. Life is so much easier at restaurants that are willing to accommodate!!!!

A Day At The Beach

Living where we do, we are blessed to have some great beaches a short drive away along Lake Michigan. Yesterday- we spent the WHOLE day at Silver Beach. We had a great time "surfing"(notice that Ben's surf board" is actually a snowboard) building sandcastles, and relaxing. We had great weather and a lot of fun!!!!!