good luck Collin!

Just giving a little shout out to our Collin, who will be presenting his cookie dispenser at the state level of Invent Iowa tomorrow in Ames.  We're heading up tonight & are planning on making a weekend of it.  We're bring along Aunt Carol & cousin Payton for some extra fun.  Praying for some good weather so we can take the kids exploring the campus at ISU... we always loved walking & riding bikes around while we lived there.  The kids loved it last summer when we visited.  Anyway, best of luck Collin, we know you'll do an awesome job!

thanks honey!

Dan surprised me with roses last night... I'm not going to lie, I was quite shocked!  {is that really my hubby?}  Dan's not the type that thinks ahead to do sweet things like that, but I'm not complaining.  It was nice to have a mid-week, post-vacation pick me up!

outside!

Yesterday was a lovely day, so when we got home we brought out the cozy coupe & the pink bike to play.  My intention was for Lydia to play on the porch with the gates up, so I could get supper started, but, of course, our little lady didn't comply!  She wanted to play on the swingset, the concrete, walk randomly around the house & buildings, everything except the porch.  Collin helped out by taking her in the wagon, the stroller & playing cars in the dirt.  Thanks big brother Coll!  When I came out with the camera, Lydia immediately said "cheeshe!".  {Yes, her face is that dirty}  Lydia was also lucky enough to play ball outside with Mark at the babysitter yesterday with the other girls.  Apparently, he gave them quite the workout.  They were all still sleeping when I went to get Lydie & none of them seemed too thrilled to have to wake up! Sounds like the weather is going to be good over the next few days at least.  Collin is lucky enough to get to go to a Bees game today in Burlington for a reading reward at school & tomorrow to Keokuk to a Civil War program, where they'll be outside as well.  I'm hoping it will be nice over the weekend as well, so we can take the kids for a stroll around the ISU campus.

mornings are rough

I just found this picture on my camera as well... it was taken the morning of Lydia's birthday.  If you can't tell, Lydia takes a while to wake up.  For some reason, this morning she had to hold up her head just to eat her cheerios {probably up too long during the night}.  Too funny, little girl!

growing up?!?

Imagine my surprise last night when I looked out the kitchen window to see Collin driving the lawn mower around the yard by himself.  Yikes!  He looked so grown up!  He's been asking me if he could learn how to mow the lawn recently & I told him that he'd have to take it up with dad.  Well, Dan gave him a quick overview of how things worked & let him do some laps around the yard. Next step will be to let him try mowing in the front yard, where there are few obstacles.  It's a good start, anyway.