Shedd Aquarium

On a recent Friday off school, we took our first day trip into Chicago.  We rode the train in, and went to Shedd Aquarium.  After the aquarium, we had some Chicago style pizza for supper before heading home.  The boys loved looking at all the fish.  The sharks, sea lions, and whales were the favorites.

On the train

Beluga whales

Halloween pictures

A family from church hosted a Halloween party for the Sunday school.  Here is a pizza, baseball player, and an old man/nerd.  I dressed up as a cowgirl.

Here are the kids playing musical chairs.  We also went on a hay ride.

Here we have a race car driver and pizza ready for trunk or treat at church.

This was the whole group of trunk or treaters.

Jonathan and I went for a hike to the lake last Monday while the boys were in school.  There were some beautiful fall colors, and we had what will probably be our last warm day of the year.

Paul eating snack at his school party.  This time he wore his football player costume.

This was a picture of the waves on Halloween.  We had a strong north wind, so we had to go check out the lake.

Halloween afternoon, we had some snow.  The boys decided (thankfully) that they didn't want to go trick or treating.  We did stop by a couple houses, and ate pizza with one of the families from church.

This isn't Halloween, but I had to take a picture of Paul and Daddy in matching jammies!

Fall Train Ride

We went on a Halloween steam train ride with friends last weekend.  Fortunately, it wasn't too scary, so Paul was okay with it.

Paul plugged his ears most of the time we were there, in anticipation of the loud train whistles.

Becky's birthday

My birthday was on a beautiful September Sunday.  After church, we went on a river cruise that went out on to Lake Michigan.  Then we went to a nearby state park for a small hike through the woods to the Lake.  

Jonathan made me a red cake for my birthday.

More Iowa pictures--A walk in the woods

Brothers and Cousins--Michael, James, Paul, and Benjamin

Grandma and Grandpa with the boys

Fallen tree?  Must climb on it!

Weekend trip to Iowa

The boys had a 4-day weekend this past weekend.  We went to my parents house, since Jonathan was at the pastor's conference.  James and Michael were able to come for the weekend as well.  The boys had a great time playing together!  On Monday, it was rainy, so Grandpa and Grandma took us bowling and to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch.  The boys couldn't get over getting to do both of these things in one day!  =)  Here are some videos of the boys bowling:

Michael and Grandpa reading stories

Our Rainy Day Sock War

by Benjamin, Paul, James, Michael, Mommy, Grandpa, and Grandma

Monday, October 13, 2014

It was a rainy day so we decided to have a sock war.  Most of us had not had a sock war before so Mommy and Grandma explained the rules.  We put all the socks on the coffee table in the middle of the living room.  We cleared out most of the breakable items and divided up our teams.  Each round lasted one minute.

It was a good, crazy, and awesome game.  It sounded loud, with lots of laughing and talking.  The socks went whoosh, poof, and ker-plop as they went whizzing around the room.  Our favorite part of the game was throwing the socks and hitting people.  The socks boomed people.  We are sorry to say Grandpa cheated by hording socks and throwing them all at once.

We are glad we didn’t break anything, even when the socks hit the wreath.  It was really a miracle, because socks were flying everywhere.  We didn’t break any windows and the cuckoo clock is still on the wall.

  At the end Grandpa threw the basketball at Grandma, who was doing a Loser Dance.  He hit the candle on the china cabinet, but it didn’t break, even though it fell on the floor.  Good thing, Grandpa!

All in all it was a great game!  Even though James took a time out because he got hit.  Grandma told him there was no crying on her team.  We were happy that he decided to play with us because he ended up having a lot of fun.

       Thank you Grandpa for letting us use your socks!

First day of school

Benjamin's first day of school--September 2nd.  Paul's first day of school was September 15th.  (I dropped my phone before having a chance to put the pictures from Paul's first day on the computer.  I got them on Facebook, but can't figure out how to put them on here, too.)

Our Garden

With help and advice from a couple local farmers, we tried our hand at gardening this summer.  We planted raspberries and strawberries--for next year.  We also planted tomatoes, peppers, green beans, cucumbers, and watermelon.  We had a bumper crop of cucumbers and tomatoes.  We had just enough green beans, watermelon, and peppers to eat as they ripened.  Jonathan tried his hand at making pickles, and I've been making spaghetti and pizza sauce like crazy.  Jonathan also makes fresh salsa every few days.

Picking the first green beans.

Almost all of our watermelon have been very sweet!

Just a small sampling of the tomatoes, on two different days.

Paul standing by our accidental "planting" of pumpkins.  We threw our old jack-o-laterns from last Halloween into this pile of old trees, sticks, and shrubs behind the church shed.  We've got several very good-sized pumpkins growing there now.

Soccer

Influenced by watching the World Cup, Benjamin wanted to play soccer this fall.  These shots are from his first game.  His team didn't score any goals that night, but this morning, Benny made the first goal for his team! 

End of Summer Shots

Grandma and Grandpa visited us over Labor Day weekend.

We made it to one last concert on the beach.  Beautiful sunset that night!

Lighthouse in Michigan City, IN...where Jonathan was supposed to get on the train to meet his brother.  He got the time wrong, and we had to drive him, but we did get a nice walk on the beach before that!