Happy Birthday V 11.8.13

So while at Bill's birthday party, I got to visiting with one of his milkers.  Such a neat lady and we had a lovely visit.  As the party was winding down, she even invited Linda and the girls and Logan and I to her daughter's upcoming birthday party.  Well, for the past few years I have heard Karen just rave about these parties that this family throws, so I thought, of course, we'd love to come!  What a sweetheart to invite us.  So, this evening we headed to a local indoor play area for a birthday party for our new friend, V.  Logan had a blast playing with all the kids there (one of whom ended up being his friend from his class, Samantha), eating delicious food, and celebrating the birthday of one very special princess.  We always have so much fun meeting new people and making new friends.  Thanks again for the invite!!!

Brett convinced me to climb up in this big ole toy with him...what can I say, I'm a sucker for that cute little guy!

Karen and her boy in the maze.

The birthday girl in her Sophia the First finest.

Craig and Logan enjoying their cupcakes.

Happy Birthday Bill 11.2.13

While Logan was with Mike this weekend, I had the pleasure of helping to celebrate Bill's 70th Birthday!  Bill is my best friend Karen's dad and I've known him forever.  He's such a wonderful friend, father, husband, and grandfather.  For his birthday it was requested that we all bring lotto tickets for him (I thought this was a brilliant idea...one I will have to remember for the future!)  The family rented out the upstairs of one of my favorite breweries and treated us to great good and delicious beverages.  Happy Birthday Bill!  May this be your best year yet!!!  (I only took one picture!?!?  Crazy, I know.  But here it is...Craig had just said something funny and Reese was loving it!)

Happy Halloween 10.31.13

Happy Halloween!!!  Since Logan was headed to Mike's this evening to do trick or treating with him, I decided to get my Halloween fill I needed to take the day off work and help out at Logan's Halloween party at school!  And I'm so thrilled that I did.  What fun to be able to participate in these fun school events.  The kids started by all working together on the big rug on a Halloween worksheet, then they were off to do all the different stations that were set up for them.  They got to decorate bags, make spider webs, decorate cupcakes, try to get paper leaves in a bowl with just a straw and their breath, and then they got to enjoy a delicious Halloween feast!  After they were done eating, they headed out to tour the school.  How neat to see all the costumes and even to see the adults participating!  Awesome!  I'm so glad I got to help out.  Happy Halloween everyone!

Quite the snack plate.

Decorating bags.

Cupcake station.

Leaf into the bowl station.

Spider web station.

Little Red Riding Hood (Lola), The Incredible Hulk (Logan), and a black cat (Macie).

Aquarium Birthday 10.27.13

When I asked Logan what he'd like to do for his birthday this year, he said he'd like the entire 2nd grade to go to the aquarium with us.  Ummmm, er, since I'm not a millionaire, unfortunately, I had to deny that request, however, I did tell him that he could invite three friends and we could bring those friends to the aquarium.  Luckily he was cool with that.  He invited, Craig, Lucas, and Archie and I turned around and invited all the mom's to join us as well!  Unfortunately, Lindy had to work, but lucky us, Karen and Carolyn were able to join us and Brett as well!  Karen even offered to drive since she has a nice big SVU!  Thanks again Karen!!  So this morning we all piled in Karen's car and headed out for the hour drive it would take us to get there.  The boys had a great time being silly on the drive down and I was delighted to hear in the car before we even got to the aquarium, "This is the best birthday party ever!"  Score!!  I was have tempted to tell the boys that that was all there was, just a car ride.  Hee, hee!  The aquarium was awesome and the boys did a great job of staying together and behaving so well.  We saw some very cool animals, had a great lunch, and then all got some souvenirs on the way out.  Then we were off to our favorite cupcake place for birthday cupcakes and presents.  Logan had such a great time celebrating with his friends and what great friends he's so lucky to have!  Thanks to everyone who helped celebrate my almost 8 year old!

Family Birthday Dinner 10.26.13

This evening we met our lovely family at one of Logan's favorite restaurants...Red Robin for his birthday dinner.  It was great to celebrate with the whole family.  Logan got some very cool presents and his standard grilled cheese, mandarin oranges, and chocolate milk.  Then he was embarrassed to no end when the Red Robin crew came and sang him happy birthday.  They were out of birthday hats, so they put a coffee filter on his head.  Sure why not?  Thanks to our awesome family for helping us to celebrate this very special little guy.

Soccer Game #7 10.26.13

Today was Logan's last soccer game of the season.  I'm not gonna lie, it was a tough season.  Between not playing local with his friends to losing every single game, I think we were both ready to be done.  In fact, Logan was so ready to be done that he only played the first half of the game.  And while I was a bit frustrated with my darling boy (as I'm a firm believer that you need to finish what you start), part of me could not blame him.  Ah well, live and learn.  Logan made some neat new friends, we met some very nice people, and we have another soccer season in the books.  Here's to a fresh start next year!  :o)

Soccer Game #6 10.19.13

So we missed last weeks game because we were out of town for the wedding, but we were rearing to go for our second to last game.  Today Logan got to try his hand at goalie for the second half.  He did really well and had some great saves.  I've noticed that Logan tends to gravitate to defense.  He's so darn fast that I think he would excel at offense, but for now his comfort zone is definitely to hang back and defend that goal, so goalie was a good fit for him.  The kids had a blast and played their little hearts out.  Unfortunately, it was another loss for the Northsiders, but a great effort all around.

School Treats & Pumpkin Patch Take 2 10.16.13

In Logan's class today they were celebrating October birthdays.  Well, there are only two, Logan and Samantha, and they happen to be on the same day!  So, I had coordinated with Samantha's mom and we went for a Despicable Me 2 theme, she even made these awesome cupcakes that looked like minions!  So, I got off work early to bring everything in, but when I got to Logan's class he was sitting by himself in tears.  ;o(  Apparently, he had been having a tough time of it.  One thing that Logan struggles with is moving on to the next activity if he's not done (and not done to his exact specifications) with the previous activity.  Poor guy finds it hard to switch subjects quickly and then he gets himself all worked up and it takes even longer for him to complete a task.  We're definitely working on this, but for today, he was upset because he hadn't finished a previous task so Ms. D was having him do it and he thought he would miss the party and he was confused as to what he was suppose to be doing.  And on top of that, when a teacher's aide tried to help him, he was disrespectful to her.  Ugh!  Parenting is freakin' hard!  So here I am to help his class celebrate him, but I'm just so frustrated and sad for him.  And we had plans to go to the pumpkin patch after the party to pick out the pumpkins we would actually bring home and crave and I was so tempted to just cancel it as a punishment for his behavior.  But when I mentioned that to Ms. D (whom I absolutely love, by the way) she helped to remind me that this is a very small thing and he's only 7 and clearly he's feeling pretty punished (notice the tear stained face in the picture below), etc.  It was a great reminder to me to put everything in perspective and to figure out ways to help Logan work on these areas.  So, after getting Logan all squared away, we passed out the party treats and had a great class party for Logan and Samantha.  Oh, and sweet Samantha asked her mother if Logan was her brother since they were born on the exact same day in the same hospital!  I loved it!  After the party, we did end up heading to the pumpkin patch and had a lovely time.  Oh, my sweet Logan, I do love you so much little man.

Congratulations Brian & Danielle 10.12.13

This evening Logan and I attended the wedding of my cousin Brian to Danielle.  We had never met her before, but were so happy to be able to share in their special day.  I know it meant a lot to them and to Marion (my aunt) that so many of us drove over for the wedding.  Mick, Cheryl, Marvin, Cheryl, Dad, Mom, Kim, Shane, me, Logan, and Emily were all able to make it.  The wedding was a beautiful outdoor affair and was probably the shortest ceremony I have ever been to.  :o)  The reception was in the same location which was great.  There was great food, delicious beverages, dancing, laughter, and good times all around.  I'm so thrilled for the happy couple, they were so clearly in love and made such a great team!  Congratulations you two!  After the wedding, we went back to the hotel thinking we could get an evening swim in, but unfortunately a youth soccer team had booked rooms in the hotel that evening and the pool was just way too crowded to have much fun.  (At one point I counted 43 kids, and this was not a big pool.)  So we headed back up to our room after Logan and Shane tried to swim and I got a chance to visit with both of my Aunt Cheryl's.

The groom's son and stepfather.

The groom's father, mother, stepfather, and the bride's mother.

The bride and her father.

Two handsome devils.

Logan met two new buddies and they played football while the bride and groom were getting their pictures taken.

Beginning the toasts for the bride and groom.

Two thumbs up for a great wedding!