Just having fun

Leaf and Everest made a teeter totter in the driveway one day, while Nathan worked in the garage. They played so well together and had a lot of fun. They ran back and forth on the plywood ramp.

Leaf was a little more cautious than Everest. He would run full force, but then slow down once it started to tip.

Chef Elliot was over one night and cooking in Leaf's new kitchen.

Playing

 Aurora has been staying up late working with her daddy. Phew, all this cuddling is hard work.

Nathan put in a new water heater and he gave the boys the box. Everest drew the lines and Nathan cut them to make a fort. Our friend Micah was over and the boys had a great time playing.

Leaf wearing his safety glasses while playing with Legos. If anyone is interested in well made, real life, kid size things (like the safety glasses), check out For Small Hands. It is a wonderful magazine, it is where Montessori gets their supplies. I ordered 2 more pair of gardening gloves because the boys LOVE the pair I got last year. I also ordered brooms, dust pans and spatulas for Leaf's birthday. (He got a wooden kitchen from my parents.)

My beautiful girl. She is a very happy baby. She smiles and laughs when you talk to her. She also coos often, even in her sleep. It is a nice change to have a baby that sleeps and is happy. We are enjoying her so much.

More playing in the "fort". How many kids can you fit in one box? This box has been a fort, house, ice cream and pizza shop. Now they are working on coloring and papering it.

When our friend Micah was over, the boys asked to play with the beans. They all had so much fun, Micah did not want to leave. Heather ended up buying beans later that day for Micah and Elliot to play with at home.

Leaf will play with the beans for long periods at a time. He loves filling and dumping. We are still working on dumping. He gets about half in the container and half on the floor. For clean up of the floor, I give the kids tall shot glasses and we have a race to see who can fill up their glass first. The kids love this.

Hope you are having a wonderful Fall. My parents were out for Leaf's birthday. We had a great time. The weather has been beautiful, well at least the temperature. What season are we in?

Bottling "kid beer"

The day after the apple pressing, we had Heather, Christopher and the kids over to bottle some apple cider. The kids had a lot of fun bottling. A few bottles got over filled and some under filled. The kids had fun and that is all that matters.

Elliot filling up a bottle.

Aurora slept through the whole event. She has her harness on now. She has to have another ultra sound in a few weeks. That will determine how long she is in it.

Nathan helping Elliot, while Leaf waits patiently.

We pasteurized the kid beer in Nathan's 10 gallon brew pot.

Everest and Leaf unloaded the brew pot.

Leaf just about fell into the pot trying to get the bottles on the bottom.

Making "kid beer"

The boys love to help Nathan make beer, but they constantly ask to drink some. Last year we made them a batch of "kid beer". We had some 8oz glass coke bottles, we decided to use for kid beer. We had the kids help bottle apple cider, then we pasteurized it. They loved drinking it and sharing it with friends. 
This year, they asked to do it again. We asked some friends to come to. We all had a great time.

Nathan and Leaf checking out the apple press at the beer brewing club party.

 This months party was at a friends house who lives on a farm. She has sheep, chickens, ducks and bees. I thought the kids would love all of that, but the huge dirt pile was MUCH more fun.

 Everest and Elliot played on the dirt pile all night. Micah and Leaf joined them for a while too. All kids were quite dirty.

 Leaf, Micah and Elliot washing the apples before putting them in the press.

 Everest and Elliot got on each side of the bar and walked in circles pressing the apples.

 Elliot enjoyed her first experience with an apple press.

Having fun at the gym

We went to the local open gym over the local schools Spring Break. Even though we had a good time, we have learned NOT to do that again. It was raining that day and there were 4 times as many kids as usual. Typically Everest and his friends are among the "older kids". On this day, there were kids as old as 14 running around the gym.

I am not doing anything I shouldn't be doing....at least not right this minute while you are looking.
Everest and his friends, Morgan and Roman, jumping and having fun.


This is Roman's little brother Julian. He has the most beautiful chocolate eyes. He is such a happy baby.

Courtney got out a parachute and the kids had a great time playing under it.

We have so much fun at the gym.

Babies, babies and more babies! And all are boys!

February and March have been a time for lots of babies among our friends. We want to say congratulations to all those who have recently had a baby.

Congratulations to Nathan's sister Liz and Jordan Good. They had a baby boy March 2nd. Baby James joins his sisters Victoria, Lily, and Cece. Congratulations, we can't wait to meet James Jordan.

Congratulations to our Montana (now Michigan) friends Dana and Mike Tuffelmire. They had a baby boy in Feb. Jones Danger! Jones joins his brother Tannen.

Congratulations to our adopted sister Krista and Jason Kirk. They had a baby boy Matthew Carlson on March 8th. Matthew joins his brother Joshua and sister Sarah.

Congratulations to my cousin Heidi and Kenny Gianella. They had a baby boy Gavin Julius on March 15th. Gavin joins sister Gabriella.

Congratulations to our Utah friends Melanie and Justin Ballard. They had a baby boy on Monday. Haven't heard the name yet, I know they were struggling with a boys name. It took us a week to officially name Leaf, so I know where they are coming from. Baby boy Ballard joins brother Ethan.

Soon our good friends in Winchester Virgina Carrie and Matt Ludwig will have their second baby. They have a 3 1/2 year old Molly Jane. Can't wait.

This was also the week for many we know to pass onto the next chapter of life. We want to say goodbye to Monsignor Heberleine, he was my grandparents priest and good friend for as long as I can remember. Noni Meehan, who is my uncle Mike's long time girlfriend, Chris's mother. And to my Aunt Robynn's father grampa Carney. May you rest in peace.

Visit to Raleigh

We left Friday afternoon for Spring Break. We were ambitious and hoped to reach Raleigh (11 hours away) at the wee hours in the morning. Nathan had to drive to Chicago that morning to visit a student teacher. When we started our journey, Nathan had already logged 3 1/2 hours of driving. Needless to say, we did not make it to Raleigh on Friday.
Saturday morning, we were ready to go and thought we would be there by noon. We should know better. Traveling with 2 kids, a tired daddy and a pregnant mama, doesn't make for a quick trip. We finally arrived in Raleigh Saturday around 5pm.
One of our goals while we were in Raleigh, was to get Everest some new shoes at REI (the closest REI to us is in Chicago). Sunday we got up and went hiking at the Art museum. Everest was all decked out in his sweater that Grami made, strobe light (that we keep in the car for emergencies) and his fox boots (the only shoe-boot that fits him right now).

Nathan and I actually got a chance to talk on our walk. We had Aunt Teresa to "look at this", "run over here", and "watch me do this". It was a very nice break.

As we walked the sun got higher, brighter and hotter (something we do not see much in Indiana). Teresa and Leaf hanging out.
The family at the whisper bench.
Leaf learning how the whisper bench works.
Everest listened intently to Leaf babbling on and on. He really is a good big brother...most of the time.

While in Raleigh, I got together with my wonderful friend Jen Super. We were supposed to get the kids together to play (Jen had a baby boy in Nov., Sofia and Everest are about 6 months apart). We planned on meeting at a playground, but after a long day walking both boys zonked out and slept for 3 hours (we finally woke Everest up). They missed all but the last 15 minutes of the play date.

Sofia and Everest still enjoyed playing for a short while.