I love a parade!

Our town celebrates the end of summer with a festival, and we kicked it off with a parade down Main Street. This parade is hands down my favorite. It has tractors,

OUR favorite scouts on a hayride,







fire trucks and their sirens,
bands, an UNBELIEVABLE drill team,


(These are the speakers for said unbelievable drill team!!)

floats, and (thankfully) VERY FEW politicians.

Dave and I love it. The kids love it. They hang out with their buddies, see lots of fun things,

and collect candy,

major

amounts

of candy that they had to proudly show to their friends and their friends' grandpa. :)

That parade made for happy,

memory-making,

treasured time

spent with family and friends. Looking forward to a day (and overnight) at the lake with friends!

Just look what my sister's tooth fairy started...

A while back, my sister and her kids stayed overnight at our house. Eight kids under one roof is always quite exciting, but what made it even more exciting was that my niece lost a tooth right before they left to come visit us. Everyone was wondering if her tooth fairy would make the long trip from Texas to Illinois to commemorate Evie's lost tooth.

She did! In the morning, Evie found a little note under her pillow that said, "LOOK IN THE DOLLHOUSE!" So Miss Evie, her sisters and Caroline ran out to the doll house. There, on one of the Barbie beds, was this note:

"Oh Evie! I can't believe you lost another tooth! You are getting so old! I'm sorry I didn't come before you left. I was on vacation at the Fairy Spa! I got a beautiful Pixie Pedi! I was so happy to hear you lost another tooth for my collection, and that it was pearly white! Your younger cousin (Caroline) has a wonderful dollhouse too! I slept in the pink pull out couch. It was so comfy! Oh, and Penelope (another tooth fairy?) slept in the purple bed. We had a great time! Skyler (I guess they had a tooth fairy road trip) kept riding up and down the elevator with a small blue blanket around his neck and shouted, "I'm Superfairy!" He was very happy. Well, it's time to leave! I love you, Evie! Love, Jenna"

The girls were so excited by this, and Caroline couldn't stop talking about the fact that tooth fairies slept in her dollhouse for days! This led to a small tooth fairy obsession, where she kind of became a tooth fairy penpal for a while.

Fast forward to yesterday...the kids were out playing tug-of-war with Moxie in the back yard. Caroline came running in to the house all worried because she thought that they had hurt Moxie. She thought she saw blood in the front of Moxie's mouth. Upon doing a quick exam, I noticed that Moxie had lost her top front teeth, but that new ones were starting to peek through.

You would not have believed the excitement generated by this event. Caroline and Seth were laughing and congratulating Moxie and, indeed, making plans for a note to the tooth fairy dog. Here's what they came up with...

"Dear Tooth Fairy Dog,
Moxie lost two teeth! She's a good dog. Please give her a bone."

I bet you didn't know that there were Tooth Fairy Dogs. I didn't either. This morning, after finding Caroline's letter, I learned of their existence. Hopefully she'll come TONIGHT (since she didn't last night). ;)

Happy Birthday, Dave!

I love this man.

He is a wonderful husband and an amazing father, and it is so nice to have a special day to spoil him.

I asked the kids what their favorite things were about their dad, and of course, they mostly revolved around how much he plays with them. He wrestles, plays catch, swims, throws them off the water trampoline at the lake, chases, tackles, hikes, camps...you name it, he's the dad for it.

But I bet you didn't know that he also makes a mean grilled cheese. (That fact was recognized by his eldest son, Henry.)


This card is really special. Caroline and Seth made it together, and then presented it together. They, as well as their dad, were quite pleased with it.


Happy, happy birthday, Dave!

No Media for Us

Grrrrrrrrr.....
I have no idea what is wrong with my computer, but it is achingly slow right now and is constantly freezing. I'm backing up all of the pictures on the computer now just in case. I wish that I was more tech savvy so that I could figure out what the problem is, but such is not the case. I think we'll be calling in the experts. I'm praying that it's not something too bad. However, in the mean time I'll be using Dave's computer which means that I can't download too many pictures or spend too much time on it.

That's good in some ways though. We've decided to cut back on the kids' time on the computer and video games, so I need to set a good example. So far, so good...the kids really played for the longest time together today, and successfully completed all of their chores and extra jobs. And I actually did too!

Dave's cousin just posted this picture of herself and Dave with our kids and the cousins. I thought it was such a cute picture, so I needed to post it as well. :)

The Best Playdate EVER

We had some friends over for pizza on Friday night. We had a houseful...between our kids and theirs, we had 8 boys and 1 girl in the house. It was, of course, so much fun for Dave and I to hang out with our friends, and I knew that the kids were having a great time. But I didn't know HOW great. According to the audio of the following clip that I discovered on Henry's camera, they were having, like the best PLAYDATE EVER! (There was a huge storm that rolled in, and the kids were all watching and taping it from Evan's room.)



I love listening to the audio on these clips, and hearing how excited they were about the storm. :) They are all sweet kids, and play so well together. Thanks for the fun night, friends!

Backyard Campout

My husband is a saint. There is no disputing this fact. And when I complain about him leaving the toilet seat up, I need to remember that despite that shortcoming, he is, indeed, a saint.

He is camping out in the backyard with all four kids tonight. I briefly considered sending the dog out to sleep with them as well, because, well, I'm NOT a saint, and also just because the thought made me giggle.
I'm hoping that they all get some sleep tonight.
We'll see. Our three year old was being a bit squirrelly. (Have I mentioned that Dave is a saint?)
As I was walking back in to the house, I eavesdropped on some of the deep conversation they were having. The highlight?

Caroline: There are really only 3 things you need in life: food, water and TOOTHPASTE. (Her dentist grandpa will be so proud!)

My husband: Hmmm...interesting theory. What about love?

Caroline: Yeah, that too.

Evan's first sleepover...

in a Sleeping Bag! Yes, indeed! He slept over in his brothers' room, and after being a little squirrelly for the first 15 minutes, fell asleep in the blink of an eye. He slept through the night, and felt like such a big boy in the morning!

Shouldn't I be doing laundry or something?

But seriously...the kids are going to love this! :)