My sons,

Today you chose to get dressed in your matching shirts from Grandma and Grandpa, because you like each other and want to be like each other. You're buddies, playmates, built-in best friends. It's not always like this, of course. Sometimes you fight and argue and cry that you're getting left out. More often than not, though, you find life more fun with one or both of your brothers by your side.

I want this for you, this friendship of the heart as well as kinship of blood. When you grow up, life is lonely sometimes. I can't help but think that having your brothers be your friends, too, will help a little.

So love each other. Choose kind words. Encourage each other to do right, to do better, to have fun, to explore life together. My mama's heart says to keep each other safe, too, as you do all that.

                                                           Love,
                                                           Your sentimental mama

Tucking Daddy In

Luke usually gets home from work shortly before 7:00 am. He eats something and is in bed within an hour or so most days. This day he was waiting up to see Ethan, who had stayed with Grandma and Grandpa over Sunday night, but he decided to rest on the couch for a bit until Ethan got home. Alex and Ben decided to bring him pillows, blankets, and stuffed animals to make sure he was tucked in nice and comfy.

It's not every day I get to see him cuddled up with a snake and a penguin, so I was careful to get a picture of it.

Cousins

Shucking corn with Grandma, swimming, or just playing ... cousins are great! (And we wish we were able to see ALL of our cousins more often!)

Ooblek revisited

We made a summer bucket list at the beginning of the summer. The first thing the boys wanted to do was make more ooblek. 

Benny played with his so long his hands were smurf-like blue when he was done!

Ethan opted not to color his, but Alex and Ben both added food coloring to theirs.

They left this terrific mess and went outside to play. It took me a loooong time to clean up, mostly because I kept getting distracted and playing with it myself. It really is a fascinating substance!

 Alex is five! (Okay, he has been for over a month ... his mother may be a wee bit behind in her blogging.) We celebrated in our usual way. Grandma and Grandpa came over the weekend before for presents and dinner - there's something to be said about summer birthdays and opening gifts in your swim trunks!

Presents! The best part of a birthday when you're five!

He wanted a cake that looked like his two bunnies - Mama Bun-bun and Baby Bun-bun. I have a couple of pictures that show his stuffed animals and the cake, but I love his face in this one! Grandpa suggested that perhaps the Baby Bun-bun that he was holding ... um, tooted in his face. Alex thought that was funny ...

Very, very funny.

As a side note, these two pictures are good representations of Alex's sense of humor and personality. They may explain why I never quite know what to say when people (like Awanas leaders) tell me what a good, quiet boy he is.

On the morning of his birthday, he went with Dad to get donuts and a birthday balloon. There may have been other boys anxiously awaiting their return. Or the arrival of the donuts. Whichever.

Happy birthday, Alex! You are a joy to us, and we love you very much!

Ah, spring!

When a {very} young man's thoughts turn to .... well, piracy.

And chasing your brothers while defending your "ship" ...

... and wearing helmets askew ...

... and utterly mischievous smiles, too.

Benny is 3!

As hard as it is for us to believe, our baby is THREE now! Benny started celebrating when Grandma and Grandpa came over for dinner. They brought a new cash register and plenty of play money, making for a very happy birthday boy.



On his actual birthday, he went with Dad to choose the traditional birthday doughnuts and balloon.



And then ... he was ready for presents!




He chose monkey cupcakes instead of a regular cake. He wasn't being particularly cooperative about choosing a meal - they usually get to pick whatever supper they want as well as their cake - so we had sloppy joes and macaroni and cheese, two of his favorites.




Happy birthday, Benny-boy! You add sunshine to our day and make us laugh all the time. We are so blessed to have you in our family!

A Great Cause

Many of you already know that Luke and Trisha have been waiting on several things ... bringing home their son from Thailand, and getting their book (on waiting, of course!) published. The book is now available! And if you purchase a copy from this website, the profits will go to support their adoption. We can't wait to meet him!

Sprinkler Fun

We finally had some nice hot weather for Memorial Day, so we celebrated by getting the sprinkler out!


Ben was pretty pleased with the whole arrangement, it seemed.


Alex has decided to have a cheesy grin whenever you take his picture.


They got their hair cut Monday, too ... nice short summer cuts. It makes checking for ticks so much easier! And they like to rub their heads - both their own and each other's. Benny's never had his this short in front, but I really like it.


And of course, one of the benefits of being the big brother is chasing the little brothers around with the sprinkler! They all thought that was a great game.

Worth the Effort

Last spring one of Luke's coworkers gave us some pepper and tomato seedlings. Since we don't eat fresh tomatoes here, I used the tomatoes to make spaghetti sauce to freeze. It was a long, messy, putzy process - partly because the tomatoes weren't the type of tomatoes typically used to make sauces with. When I finished, I had serious doubts about whether I wanted to plant tomatoes again - it seemed like an awful lot of work for the amount of spaghetti sauce I got.

After eating the homemade spaghetti sauce all winter, seeing the boys take seconds and thirds every time we had it, and learning from my friend Cheryl that Roma-type tomatoes are better for sauce, we decided to go ahead and try again.





I guess those happy grins and messy faces are worth the effort!

Jet Packs

A while back I saw instructions for a simple rocket pack on this blog, and thought it would be fun for the boys. We covered ours with paper so they could decorate them with markers, but we added tin foil accents. Benny seems to think he's pretty awesome, don't you think?


They raced up and down the hallway ... note the multipurpose space/police helmets.


And who would go into space unarmed? Certainly not Ethan!




Balloon break! (Benny told me today that he "wuvs pink".)


Ethan and Alex teamed up to explore space, only to be stranded on Planet X. Thankfully they made it back before lunch.

Vacation

Luke had a week of vacation in September, and one of the things we did was go over to the Mall of America to visit the Aquarium (and the Lego store!). The boys loved the aquarium. (Luke and I thought it was overpriced for as small as it was, but that may be because we're cheap and old.)

They loved the tanks of jellyfish.

Here's Benny trying to hug some!

There were lots of oohs and aahs and pointing, although it was a little challenging to capture it because there was always something else just as exciting coming up!

The Lego store was closed for remodeling, but Ethan was a trooper and enjoyed browsing through the much smaller version they had open. We also got to stop on the way home at Cousin Trevor's football game!