ALOHA!

This weekend, we had a surprise Luau for my parent's 50th wedding Anniversary. 50 Years!!! Wow, do you realize how few people actually make it to 50 years together anymore? I admire my parents for that and they have been a wonderful example for me.

My dad is not so keen on parties, so it had to be a surprise... and it sure was!! My parent's were expecting to go out to dinner with my brother Bryan and his wife. The luau was all set up at my sister's house, so Bryan drove to her house to "drop off Sydney (his daughter) for my sister to babysit". The driveway had luau signs by the street and cars lining the driveway, so by the time they drove the quarter mile to the back of the house, they knew something was up. They were greeted with a "Congratualtions Harold and Betty" sign. We had to practically pry my dad out of the car with a crowbar, but once he made the grand entrance, I think he felt at home with all of the family and friends.

My sister gets all the credit as the master mind behind the planning. She did a great job and worked hard at it.

Tiki torches, good food, and Luau music... put it all together and you get a very fun and memorable night!

Nathan's First Birthday

Nathan's First Birthday was on the 16th of this month. I can't believe my baby is a year old already! We celebrated Caleb and Nathan's birthday together with family earlier in the month. He got to dig into his own mini cake (made with whole wheat flour and sucanat instead of white sugar... yeah, I know I'm weird) and loved it of course. Good to the last crumb!

For his actual birthday, Paul took a half day at work and we met him for a picnic lunch. The kids love meeting daddy for lunch at a park and it makes daddy feel like he can be part of their special day. We usually bring some sort of dessert that we can stick candles into and sing "Happy Birthday". I brought cinnamon rolls, but forgot the candle, so we improvised with a used lollypop stick from one of the kids. (Believe me, until he's old enough to read this blog, he'll never know the difference). We told him to blow and he did, though there wasn't much of a flame to blow out and he gnawed away on his roll.

After lunch, we went to the Dupage Children's Museum in downtown Naperville. I hadn't been there since Caleb and Seth were little, and I had forgotten how much fun it was. Penny pincher that I am, all of the kids got in for free via some coupons that we received with a summer reading program. I am still amazed that they actually charge for the adult to get into a children's museum. Duh, like they'd let any kid in without a parent?? Ahh, well, I guess I played as much as any of the kids, so fair is fair...

Yikes!

Uh, oh, I think I have a climber on my hands... Nathan is continually being brought down our 2 flights of stairs from the attic. We used to block the stairs with a big gate type thing (since it is an open staircase on the last few steps, we really don't have anything to connect a regular gate to), but he would just move the gate out of the way and go up anyhow. We took the gate down (since it didn't do any good) and would just listen for him calling from the attic when he wanted to come down. He goes up there for 15 or 20 minutes and plays with whatever toys are on the floor. He hasn't figured out how to get down and he hasn't even attempted it yet. At least he's smart enough to know that he might fall...

This morning, as I was working with the kids in the dining room, we heard delighted squeals coming from the kitchen. Nathan had pushed a stool over to a chair, climbed onto the stool, then the chair, and then onto the table. He was standing on the table looking into the mirror and laughing. He was so proud of himself! And I, the proud momma, grabbed the camera instead of him so I could capture "his first time climbing the table" forever...

But then, about 20 minutes later (after another trip down from the attic), I found him making excited noises in the kitchen again. This time he was using his push toy as a stool to see what he could reach on the counter. I am amazed it didn't roll right out from under him.

As I type this, he is making his way up to the attic for the third time today (I've already had to stop typing and get him because he was standing at the top of the stairs holding onto the post, yelling for me to get him). On the bright side... we have a winding staircase with platforms every four or five steps, so when he does fall, it will only be a few stairs at a time :) lol... Hmmm, looks like naptime is coming up pretty quickly for little Nathan...

Back to the beach....again...

We headed back to the beach on a whim last Thursday. This time, we went to the Warren Dunes in Michigan. There were 6 homeschooling moms that went, and I think we had 20-something kids. It was great! The parking lot and beach were pretty much empty except for a few stragglers trying to get in their last few rays of warm summer sun. It was a PERFECT day for hanging at the beach. We couldn't have asked for better weather, and the kids had a blast. And, hey, we even got some schooling in on our "field trip". One of the moms brought a scavenger hunt list for our nature walk which included bugs, plant pieces and even an exoskeleton. Now, that's the way I'd prefer to learn...

TEA Party Express Rally

The TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party "train" is making it's way across the United States with it's final destination being Washington DC on September 12. They are planning to have a massive protest of the way things are being handled in DC on the 12th. Anyhow, we headed to New Lenox to meet with the "train" on it's only stop in Chicagoland.

It was to start at 10am, and my mom, who was already there, called at 9:15 and said there is a steady stream of cars and she recommended I get there asap. Well, as things have it, we were running about 5 minutes late, and I thought most of the people would be parked and settled in and we could make our way there without any problems. Nope. I-80 had a line about 1 mile long of cars waiting to get off the interstate at the New Lenox exit. After sitting in line for a few minutes (and going nowhere), I decided to either find a different route, or if I had no luck, I was going to go shopping :) I ended up finding a long way around and had to park in an Ace Hardware parking lot. All of the parking lots surrounding the Commons were packed (plus most of the grassy area at the park itself). I couldn't believe how many cars and people there were!! It was a great turn out. There was talk of about 10,000 people!!

I explained to Caleb that we were a part of "history in the making". It is really cool when you think of the overall picture and how important our actions are right now. Congress IS hearing and seeing. I don't know what the future holds for our nation, but I am glad that I can say I'm not sitting idlely by and letting others do the deciding for me and my family.

OK, so I said that I parked in the Ace Hardware parking lot. On my way back to the van, I heard rumors from people that Ace had called and told people to remove their vehicles because their customers couldn't park anywhere... Well, as I headed through the parking lot with kids in tow, I saw 2 police cars pulled next to eachother chatting. I didn't know if they could ticket me or not, but I kept headed straight for my van and was relieved to see that I didn't have a ticket hanging on my window. I loaded the kids in and shut the door to turn and find a police car pulled right up next to me. He said, "Were you down there?" I looked as innocent as I could and said, "Down where?" He said, "At the Commons? Where you at the Commons?" Uh, oh, I thought, he's got me. My whole family was dressed in red, white and blue... it was a dead give away! I gulped and said timidly, "yes..." He replied with an enthusiatic, "I sure wish I could've been there!" I'm sure he saw the look of relief on my face as we talked about the crowd. From his experience, he thought that there was at least 7,000 people. Wow, if there was over 7000 people that came, just think how many are thinking the same thing and were with us in spirit... I can't wait til the next round of elections...

Caleb's 10th Birthday!

Caleb's Birthday was last Friday on the 4th. He has finally hit double digits :( It is good to see him growing up into such a responsible and caring young man, but soooo sad because it's happening so quickly. It seriously seems like just yesterday that he was bouncing around the living room singing to the tune of "Veggietales" in his cute little 2-year-old voice. Now, he's more than halfway to moving out of the house... yikes... where does the time go??

On Caleb's actual birthday, as is tradition, we met daddy for lunch at a park near his work. We brought doughnuts for his "cake" and played horseshoes. On Saturday, he had a combo party with Nathan (I'll blog about Nathan's half of the party after his birthday) with a bunch of family and a cookout. The three amigos were together again (Nathan and his 2 cousins- Levi and Jay) for their "look how their growing" picture. They are too cute and I love seeing all of the cousins together.

Happy Birthday Caleb!! We love you!

Back to the beach

The kids and I headed back to the beach for some of the final "hurrah"s of summer. My friend Lisa and her kids joined us in another search for shells... Twas a beee-u-tiful day!

All of our kids get along VERY well. She has six kids too and all are 10 and under, like our family, so everyone seems to have someone to play with. You may not believe it, but having these 12 kids around is just as easy as having 2 or 3.

Nathan... it's not always easy to catch his smile on film...

Lisa and Anthony. Anthony is 2 days younger than Nathan.