ten

Elliott turned 10 yesterday.

TEN.

I really cannot believe that we have a child in the double digits now.

Where did the time go?

The usual suspects - breakfast pancakes.

He wanted his to look like Mickey Mouse this time.

I forgot to get the whipped cream in a can, so he was a bit disappointed about that,

but was happy with the M&Ms, chocolate chips and marshmallow.

I'm sure the boys' teachers were excited about the sugar highs :)

Brian had to be at work early, so he buttered Elliott's nose, ate a pancake and headed to Wally World.

That left Ethan and I to actually sing "Happy Birthday".

One of us sang the traditional version.

One of us sang a funny version.

One of us almost got punched by the birthday boy.

I'll let you figure out which of us filled those roles.

We prayed, thanking God for another year of life and for Elliott's role in our family.

He was so thankful for us making pancakes and celebrating his birthday.

He gave hugs and said thank you I don't know how many times.

Love these times when they are beyond sweet.

I took Taco Bell to him at lunch time.

His request.

He gave me another huge hug when he saw me and thanked me for coming.

I could tell he was a little sad about something when we sat down.

I don't think he was having the best school day.

And he said he was hoping that Brian was going to get to be there, too.

But he perked up and was more cheerful halfway through lunch.

At one point he looked me in the eye and said to me in such a sincere grateful tone,

"Thanks for coming here and bringing me this lunch, Mom.  That was really

nice that you did that."

and gave me another hug.

Seriously. melt. my. heart.

Showing such gratitude.

And maturity.

I stayed while he passed out birthday snacks in his room.

He enjoyed getting to share something special with the friends in his class.

It was fun to watch him be generous as well as be excited to celebrate his birthday in a special way.

He didn't want to go out to eat for dinner (they always get to choose a special meal or a special place to go).  He wanted to eat at home and do smores around the fire pit with the kids on our street.

So that's what we did.

We even sang "Happy Birthday" and embarrassed him :)

His original request was to grill cheeseburgers for dinner.

It was too late after the smores, so we ended up having leftover hotdogs instead (thank you Nyla).

Ethan offered to pray.

Usually these before-dinner prayers consist of "thanks for the good day, for the food, let us have a good night and day tomorrow".

Apparently they are in a hurry to eat or something.

But this time it went something like this:

Dear God,

Thank you for a good day.

Thank you for Elliott and his birthday.

That he gets to be 10.

Thank you for his "funniness".....

Amen.

He said some other things after "funniness" but I can't remember them.

I was so struck that he would really be that grateful for his brother that I didn't process anything else.

I love these boys so much!!

Happy Birthday Elliott!!!

We love you always and are so proud of the man you are becoming (even though it hurts to say "man")

late summer adventures

The very last of our summer days.

The Magic House

Festival of the Little Hills

Wabash Days

weekend stories | 9.17.12

SATURDAY | 9.15.12

It was a busy weekend - really, what weekend isn't?  But Brian had to work this weekend, so those weekends are a little more difficult, having one less adult around.  But since this is the "no sport" fall, there were no games or matches to attend on Saturday so the boys and I did some jobs around the house and really just enjoyed the rest of the day.  It was awesome!

We did venture out later in the afternoon for a fond farewell BBQ for these sweet friends who are leaving us and moving to Arizona.  Unbelievable that they would choose the AZ over the MO, right?

Seriously excited for them and their new adventures.

And, according to my boys, the house that they are leaving behind has the most awesome yard EVER.

I will have to agree that it was an awesome yard.

Their main love was that there were trees to climb and "the woods".

Someday, boys, someday.

SUNDAY | 9.16.12

I managed to paint my finger blue within the first 20 minutes of First Look.

I consider it a success, though, since we managed to send the kids home "unpainted" except for 

one little friend, who had a small black smudge on her white shirt.

Of course, it had to be white.

Hoping the Tide did its job with that one.

Had lunch with friends at Pizza Pro.

I caved to the Wild Cherry Pepsi......and the alfredo pizza, cheese pizza, oreo pizza....ummm, yeah.

It was good to hang out with them.

We miss seeing them and catching up with them every week.

And, bonus, was that M's family was there too so we got to chat with them as well

and I got my hugs from my M.

Had a quiet afternoon, and then hosted a small group at our house that night.

We just started this series:

The title definitely has shock value, huh?

The first session was very good, and I'm excited about getting to know

the people in this group as we go through this study.

And did I mention they all brought awesome food?

weekend stories | 9.10.12

Saturday

This was THE weekend.

Ever since it was announced that Mizzou was going to the SEC and that they would be

in the SEC East (meaning they would play Georgia every year), this date has been

sheltered and protected at the Weiler house.

We thought for sure that we would go to the game since it was such a short drive,

but as we started to look for tickets we realized that was probably a bust.

Apparently there is a good deal of money to be made on Mizzou's inauguration into the SEC.

And it ended up being a 6:45 game, which would have been a very.late.night.

No worries, though.  We drove over and had a great time tailgating with some good friends that we know from

pharmacy school.  In all honesty I only knew 3 of them, but they were the 3 that counted :)

In Ethan's words this morning as he was looking at this picture...."Hey there's Dad and Steve

LOSING corn hole!" 

And again, from Ethan....."And there's me and Elliott WINNING corn hole!!!"

I guess that pretty much sums it up.

Oddly enough, I had no idea this was called corn hole.

And I don't think I had ever played it before.

I'm thinking it's a Missouri thing, like Washers. 

I could have talked to Kara all day.  She is so sweet and friendly!  I wish that we did this

more often.

We came home in time to see the game on TV.  I'm pretty sure I impressed Brian with

my football knowledge :)

Sunday

I had the privilege of helping with the 4 and 5 year olds Sunday morning at church.

They're sweet and funny and have a LOT of energy.

We sang a song called "Get Down" and the motions involve getting down and getting

back up - or trying to, anyway - several times - over and over.

About halfway through the song I realized my quads were not used to jumping squats anymore - 

or more likely, they never were.

I was relieved to get through the song only to hear "Jump" come up next....yeah, pretty much

the same motions.

Add to that singing "Get Down" 2 more times over the course of the morning, and you get

a girl that's still hardly able to move over 24 hours later.  Ouch!

It did motivate me to go to the gym this morning, though, so good.

But it was a good thing I had my worshipping workout earlier that morning, cause that afternoon

I was asked to be a dessert judge at our church's fall picnic.

What?  You want me to sample ALL of the yummy homemade desserts brought

in by uber talented ladies?  Ummmm.....let me think-YES.YES.YES!!!

Sign.me.up.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you to Darla for getting me such an awesome job!

Actually it was a really difficult job - they were all so good and looked so pretty.

And of course I was the last one trying to decide which one I liked the best.

Too many awesome choices.

But alas I did it, and there were 3 very happy ladies in the end.

And I wasn't the only one with a cool job.  Brian got to be a carnival guy for an hour.

He was in charge of the incredibly popular "smash cans" game.

I can't believe I didn't get any pictures, but he was a great "carnie".

Hope everyone else had an awesome weekend too!

Ethan's turn

So, Elliott had his time at Grandma and Grandpa's earlier this summer, and now it was Ethan's turn.

He ran trains with Ryan and Eli and Ben.

He helped Grandpa trim trees and haul the branches to the burn pile.

I'm sure he was upset that he had to drive the golf cart :)

And he went to the children's museum in Evansville with Grandma, Erin and his cousins.

He ended the week with the Cisne Reunion (which is a different post).

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa - he had a great time with you!

we love our neighbors

As much as I would love to have a private backyard with more space, I cannot dismiss the fact that we are incredibly blessed with great neighbors!

Most of the kids play together up and down the court almost daily.

In fact, the boys can hardly wait to get their homework and jobs done so that they

can rush out the door to play with their friends!

I love that they all have so much fun together

 and that I get to have adult conversations as we watch them play.

This was the scene yesterday....pretty typical day on our street.

You know, pile as many kids in a wagon as you can, add two kids on plasma cars, and then run

like the wind pulling them all behind you and see what happens.

I'll tell you there were lots of squeals and laughing and "let's do it again".

Ahhhhh......cooler, shorter days are right around the corner, and I don't think any of them are going

to be too happy about it.

today

TODAY it was supposed to look like this all day....

TODAY it looks like this instead.

I'm usually excited about sunshine 

(in fact ask me how I feel about it in a few months).

But TODAY I really wanted to enjoy a cloudy, gloomy stormy day.

Maybe there is still hope for the afternoon.

TODAY I saw more of these all around our house.

I don't think they're edible.

I'm not going to find out.

TODAY I saw these pretties.

They survived our crazy summer.

TODAY I am doing some of my favorite things.

Editing, organizing and printing photos.

Drinking chai tea out of the forbidden Florida cup.

Getting ready for my pre-k kiddos on Sunday.

Writing notes to myself.

 I had been looking forward to organizing pictures all day today.

For some reason I like to do that when it's raining.

Decided to do it anyway - even though the sun is shining like crazy.

Except it's almost 1:00 and I still haven't started because I thought maybe I should

catch up on the blog today too.

Which meant getting online, which led to being distracted by emails and blogs and Facebook.

And then I remembered I needed to call the electrician.

And then some other people.

And then the washer started buzzing.

And then I realized I was hungry.

And then I folded the clothes in the dryer. 

And then I wanted to take some pictures to put on this post.

Which led to more editing.

And then the washer buzzed again.

And now my tea is gone, and I have not organized one. single. photo.

But, TODAY,at least you have a new post to read, right?