Birthday Parties and a New Roof!

Sunday was another fun-filled day.  Alexander's Dinosaur birthday party was just after lunch, and the Jacob's were kind to include Beau.  He especially loves dinosaurs and hanging out with the big boys, so he was in heaven!  Ms. Sarah had tons of fun stuff for the boys to do . . . bounce house, dinosaur bones buried in sand to dig up, and super cool masks to wear.  These two made their scariest dinosaur faces!!!

Mommy had tennis later in the afternoon, so Daddy took Lincoln and Beau to West's party at Pump It Up (the bounce house place).  Daddy wasn't able to provide any fun pictures of them playing, but Mrs. Kate sent a picture of them enjoying the pizza at the end of the party!!   They definitely had fun@

We went about our week as normally as possible with school and work, then we had another dose of moving stuff.  We got a new roof one day!  We had plenty of hail damage from a hail storm earlier in the year, and it was time to fix it.  Another first time experience - getting a new roof sounds like living in a war zone.  Those loud nail guns shooting all over the roof at once will make a person pretty scared just standing around inside!  As with the foundation repair, they were gone as quickly as they came.  Hooray for a new roof (that insurance paid for)!! 

At this point, the move is impending.  We still have a few more weeks before we can close and begin renovations on the new house, so we are just living our busy life and waiting on the next step. 

Bowie Fall Festival 2015

Saturday afternoon was the much-anticipated Bowie Fall Festival!  We volunteered to help with set up and were assigned the photo booth.  Lincoln had so much fun helping get the decorations up and taking silly pictures.  When Daddy and Beau joined, Beau loved it too!

One of the most popular attractions is always the confetti eggs.  What could be more fun than smashing eggshells filled with confetti on your friend's head?!?!  Lincoln and Canon were the first ones at the booth, and they had a blast!  (Because Lincoln and Canon are just the sweetest guys ever, they gently smashed eggs and had so much fun.  No wild and crazy with these two!) 

Bounce houses and inflatable obstacle courses were a big hit too.  The boys went through this obstacle course 10 times each and pretended to be on American Ninja Warrior!! 

Out of all of the carnival games, the Toilet Paper Toss was their favorite . . . of course!  Beau thought it was hilarious to throw rolls of toilet paper into a fake potty.  Boys!! 

Lincoln did some toilet paper tossing as well, and he was followed by the rest of the first grade boys.  Toilet humor and little boys . . . priceless! 

Lincoln was off eating candy with some friends, while Beau gave his all at the strong arm swing.  He was determined to get the bell to ring, but his sweet little self just couldn't put enough muscle behind it.  He was rewarded for his efforts with two pieces of candy, so he got over it pretty quickly! 

There is no photographic evidence to prove it, but we went through the Haunted House as well.  We all held hands, and Mommy had to yell, "Little kids, No scare" as we went through.  The Bowie 6th graders think it's an honor to be in the Haunted House, but they are super kind when little kids are going through.  After we had participated in each and every part of the Fall Festival, we made plans to take our party for pizza.  The back room at Palio's was kind a zoo as we took over.  The families in attendance: Kuhlman, Katsoulis, Moody, Boyuls, Greeson, Evans, and Cruse.  It was a fun way to end the day! 

 

We had so much fun at the Fall Festival with so many great friends.  It's a tradition we all look forward to!  Emotional backstory for Mommy:  In October 2012, Mommy and the boys sent Daddy off to Belgium for his first really extended overseas work trip.  Mommy was a little more worked up than anticipated and was doing a little aimless driving.  An extra long week with little communication and a person on the other side of the world seemed like way more than a day business trip one state over.  We stumbled on the Bowie Fall Festival two years before Lincoln would go to Kindergarten there.  We didn't know anyone there, but the boys were excited about the activities and it was a great distraction.  As we were unbuckling from the car, Daddy called to say love you for the last time before the flight.  A round of tears from Mommy were hidden behind sunglasses and excitement about games and bounce houses.  We spent a fortune on tickets to play every game and bounce in every bounce house, but the boys didn't notice that Mommy was sad.  During a performance by the Pearce Country Western Dancers, Daddy got to sneak one more call before the plane took off.  Bless those people around for not confronting the crying lady!!  So for only Mommy, the Bowie Fall Festival comes with a lot of emotional memories.  Thanks to the committee chairs for their hard work not just this year, but in a year when it meant a whole lot to us.  But seriously, Katrina and Andrea - y'all really gave us a great event this year!  We are so happy to live in a community where we all get to do so much fun stuff together, and each year just gets better and better. 

Home Repair and First Part of the Weekend

Important note to start out this post:  We are buying a new house and selling our current house.  This has been in the works since August, but things have been pretty slow.  The owners of our new house needed to wait until mid-October to move, and the buyer of our current house wasn't in any hurry to move in.  One of the perks (totally sarcastic!!) of selling a house is finding out all of the things that are wrong with it . . . first up, foundation repair!  The signs were pretty obvious with the cracking above doors and floor pulling away from the baseboards, but the major spring rains combined with the major summer drought really added to the problem.  The fix was to dig under the east and west sides of the house and use these concrete cylinders to lift the house back where it was sagging.  The team arrived at 8:30 on Thursday morning and began their work. 

All holes dug under the house, and that was a lot of dirt and shrubs just lying around.  In a few spots they had to drill through concrete.  Not a quite job! 

They dug really deep!!  Like when the guy climbed down in there to set up the pillars, his head was barely poking out of the ground.   

They got all of the holes prepped on Thursday and planned to come back on Friday to do the actual lifting.  No clue what to expect!!  While they were working on Friday morning, Beau and Mommy were busy at home.  We had a play date scheduled after school with Canon and Case.  Canon and Lincoln had a birthday party to attend that Mommy would chaperone, and Beau and Case would hang at Case's house with Ms. Katrina.  Everyone was excited, until Canon got a bit of a fever and wasn't feeling so awesome.  His mom decided he needed to bail on the fun, but Beau thought otherwise.  He had worked out a plan earlier that since Lincoln and Canon would be getting cupcakes at the birthday party, he and Case should get something sweet too.  So we got a cookie cake for the little brothers.  Beau decided that he would deliver the cookie cake to Canon and Case so they still got a treat . . . after he got a giant piece reserved for himself at home!!  He loved walking it over to their house and leaving them a fun surprise.  He has a sweet and kind heart after all! 

We went out for a little lunch and shopping and returned to the "lifting" action.  It was pretty loud and involved a bit of shaking of the walls and windows.  We were happy to pick Lincoln up from school in the afternoon and spend some time in the library.  Lincoln found Crawford taking AR quizzes too, and they worked quietly.   

Beau grabbed a few of his favorite magazines and comics then made himself comfortable in one of the reading lofts.  He can't wait to get real library time next year in Kindergarten! 

After the library fun, we headed to Kyle's birthday party at Lil' Ninjas!  Beau took Canon's spot since he had been under the weather.  Lil' Ninjas is always a favorite, and they had Campisi's pizza and cake!!!  That's a good looking table of awesome school friends, and we were happy to wish Kyle a happy birthday. 

When we got home, it was almost like the foundation repair had never happened!  The guys and their equipment were gone, the shrubs and dirt were replaced like before, they had poured a new layer of concrete on the spots they had jackhammered up, and all of the cracks and separated spots were back to normal.  It was a little unbelievable that it happened so fast!   

Flag Football came pretty early on Saturday morning, but the boys were ready to play!  Let's get another win in the books! 

Someone woke up with extra crazy shark hair, and we just rolled with it.  (They have an appointment with Mr. Danny soon because this is crazy wild!)   

It was colder than we had anticipated, so Daddy warmed Lincoln up on the sidelines with a beach towel from the car.   

The Saugier's brought donuts to enjoy after the game, and Beau was the happiest about that.  Having to sit in the early morning cold to watch big brother definitely earned a donut! 

The weekend had so many activities . .  more on the way!

Exciting Weekend!

Flag Football on Saturday, and we were all excited for the game.  Lincoln was playing extra hard on defense at the Safety position.  After one defensive series in the 4th quarter, Coach Malachi walked to the sidelines with Lincoln and was concerned about Linc's pinkie finger.  He had a hard fall and there was some pain and crookedness.  Coach recommended that we get it checked out ASAP.  We headed to the nearest x-ray spot, and Lincoln was brave and smiley.  The x-ray showed that his finger bones were fine, and perhaps he just has crooked pinkies.  Not something we would have noticed, I guess!!!  Lincoln was an awesome patient, and the doctor gave him a CD with his first x-ray just for fun. 

We had plans to watch some college football with friends in the evening, and Lincoln was more than happy to help prepare the kids fruit and cheese tray.  We attempted to make it in the shape of Captain America's shield.  That pinkie injury isn't slowing him down! 

Brother hug before Sunday School!!!  Beau was rocking some serious shark hair, and Lincoln had his finger taped up for good measure. 

After lunch, we went to swim at the club for the last day the pool was open.  Oh, the fun we've had this summer and the amazing memories we've made.   

Exciting weekend for sure!  We are hoping for a quiet week of school and practices. 

Hugs for Daddy

Friday night was spent at the club on the patio . . . so much fun for the boys to play with friends on the putting green and the tennis courts.  They each managed to stop by and give Daddy a sweet hug.