Boys will be boys!!

So what is more fun than playing tackle football against your brother? Playing tackle football with another set of brothers, duh!! We had B and A over on an early release day and the boys had a blast! First they did their homework, then had 45 minutes for video games and then it was ON! They started up a great game of football.

It was 'original' friends Ben and B vs. the little brothers A and Sam. You can judge for yourself but don't ever count the little bro's out. They are so much tougher than the average guy!!

Little bro's tag teaming B!

I would like to say that no one was hurt in this football excursion. T, you know I wouldn't let them get too rough and as you can see.....they were all smiles!!

Sammers is FIVE!!

For Sam's birthday weekend we had a spend the night party with some cousins and a great friend. It included pizza for dinner, a competitive game of HyperDash (thanks Grandma) and a SpongeBob dance party! It was so much fun. I had as much fun as the kids.
I thought it was hilarious how many make shift beds we had in here! 3 twins and a queen!

In our house you get to pick every meal for your birthday and Sam's birthday breakfast was bubble gum!! LOL! He LOVES gum. After that Daddy brought some donuts in for 'substance'. Sorry to dentist everywhere but we brushed thoroughly!

Look how happppppy his gum makes him!

Cheese bubble gummers!

Here we are getting Sam's fish tank ready!

Silly smile! How happy he was!!

Then we actually went and bought fish, cardinal tetras, 3 of them, freddy, bubbles and gravy. ....and well, may they rest in peace. They didn't make it a whole week which I'm pretty sure is a pet store defect. I cried. Sam was pretty big about it, he was happy for the 5 days we had with them. Mick, he says dump the water and get a lizard!

I worked hard on that dern tank though! I dechlorinated water, washed rocks, got live plants to make a great eco sysytem in our tank, got the filter going, used the thermometer to get the temp right for our new 'pets' so I was BUMMED. I loved watching the fish too. They really are calming. Oh, but anyway this post is about Sam's birthday.......

Cake time!

Make a wish baby! (make a wish, of the things i do for you, make your wish now, baby our love rain down on you....sorry, michael mcdonald moment?, who is that anyway, and I'm sure my lyrics are wrong!)

YES! A mini mag flash light and gummy worms from Uncle Willie!!

Thank you Sam! You are the most amazing 5 year old I know. You complete our family so well. You always make us smile and laugh and you are sooooo smart. Smart beyond what I can even gauge right now. I am impressed with your love for us! I feel so privileged that you picked us for your parents!! Thank you!

Fire Fire!

How much fun is a fire in the backyard? Too much fun for two little boys collecting sticks with flashlights! How much fun is it to have an AWESOME uncle who can play almost anything on a guitar and play name this song against your husband? SO FUN!! I love fall! It is my favorite time of year and for reasons such as this post. Not one of these pictures is in focus and they aren't the best but we sure enjoyed it and wanted to share the ghost of BEN!
Oh yeah, they were in PJ's and slippers, bad mom!

look how cool their flashlights look! and Ben's ghost is there slightly.

HOW! My Indian name is 'runs with scissors'

Look at Ben's 'ghost'. It's a bigger,wider version of him and is that a pair of nostrils on Ben's ghost behind Sam's back? weird!!

Seriously??!!??

So.......another Sam'ism.

Tonight we went to Aunt Becca's to hang for a bit and eat dinner. (soup was awesome by the way) Before we left, uncle Matt had everyone gathered around the computer to show us pictures of the latest group to hike LeConte. The pictures were great but.......halfway through Matt says, "who tooted"?
Sam RAISED his hand and said "My mom did it!"

I was two rows behind him and no, I did not toot! We fell out laughing!!

Eight things

The Eights: (in random order)

8 TV shows that I love to watch:

1-Survivor
2-Amazing Race
3-Project Runway
4-The Office
5-30 Rock
6-Lost
7-Top Chef
8-Grey's Anatomy

8 Favorite Resturaunts

1-Sushiko
2-Chick-Fil-A
3-Speakeasy
4-Moe's
5-Deorio's
6-Don Chucho's
7-12th Street Deli
8-Dinglewood

8 Things that happened yesterday

1-Family night at Chick-Fil-A
2-work
3-doctor visit
4-kids painted pumpkins
5-switched out summer/winter bins, UGH!
6-made a grocery list
7-learned I was anemic, duh!
8-kissed my kids

8 Things I'm looking forward to

1-Halloween party
2-catching up with friends
3-Christmas
4-Sam's next punchline
5-Ben's next random hug or extra wave goodbye
6-watching my kids grow
7-a good night's sleep
8-a nice hot bath and finishing my book tonight

8 Things I love about Fall

1-leaves changing colors
2-crisp air
3-warm fuzzies
4-hot chocolate
5-sitting outside without sweating
6-playing football with the boys in the yard and hearing the leaves crunch
7-sweaters to hide the muffin top
8-watching the men play Acorn "Corn"

8 Things on my wish list

1-my boys to live long and healthy
2-to be here to watch them with my husband
3-another bathroon
4-peace on earth
5-new boots
6-I-pod
7-a new bra
8-a yoga retreat

8 people I tag

1-Elsa
2-Angie
3-Carrie Ann
4-Kerri
5-Deidra
6-Michelle
7-Anna
8-Ashley


Have fun!

Another Charade Story

So we were playing charades last night and Mick drew 'dealing'. So he starts his motion of dealing cards and after he threw the first card off of the air deck.......

Sam: "picking a scab".........................huh? ewwwww and what, how?

Ben: "playing poker".........................uh oh, I'm sure I can attach this one to Uncle Matt


I wish I had a picture of the actions from last night's game because there were some funny things to come from both of them. So I would like to say, if you don't play charades with your kids, please start, there is never a dull game.

Ginapalooza!!

So we had our own small fall festival out at Mimi and Papa's which I nicknamed Ginapalooza! Gary was very involved so next year we'll call it Collinspalooza. It was a blast! Bec and I invited some of our kids' best buds from school and some of their families and some of our best friends and their families. All in all it was a BLAST! I had a lot of fun and I hope all the other families and children had fun as well. Thanks to Angie there is some documentation to the event because we were so busy playing and talking and having fun! Oh, and eating!! Oh and a bonfire once the sun went down but I don't have a picture of that or the neon bracelets that everyone was wearing that made them glow in the dark.

Isaac shows them how to really bob for apples!

But at the first dunk it was a little cold!

Alex and Sam try to go for the stems vs. dunking their heads all the way in.
Micah said forget the apples, I'll just bob for water bottles because they are easy to grab!
Golf cart rides were all the rage! SB with the wind in her hair!
Isaac took a tumble trying to lead his team to victory.
Maddie and Sam get to hoppin' and Luke had a great time with the kids hopping around him. I wish I had a picture of him giggling.
Mimi and the cart riders.

Another load.
The Cheetah girls! Just kidding, waiting in the garage for the golf cart to go another round.
Maddie and SB are kitty cats! Angie and I did face painting which was a first time for me. I think we did OK! The kids liked it but ended up wiping it off because it got pretty warm.
Scary Dimented Ben
Mimi playing defense on the court! How cool is your grandmother if she will play some one-on-one bball? Ballers in the house! Go MIMI!!

Intense sack races!

Lining up and sorting teams

Filling the trailer!

Look at the peace signs! Little girls are so funny!

Papa pulling the trailer!

It's blurry because this is one of my pics! Sorry!

Malinko

I just needed to pay respect to Malinko. Such a special servant in our circle of friends and Lucy's brother. He was AMAZING with a wonderful family. He is and will always be missed and I'm glad that Elsa got to say her piece even though it is just the beginning of healing from losing him.

Like Snoop Dogg says.....

"It's official, like a referee wit a whistle!"

We are referees!

Yesterday Sam punched Ben right in the face and gave him a bloody nose. His nose bleeds fairly easy but still! Apparently Ben said something like "let's play hockey" and that is why Sam punched him. Yeah, right!

Then tonight Sam is going up for the dunk putting his dirty clothes through the basketball hoop,

........side note: WHY I bought a laundry set up that is a basketball hoop for a chute into the basket that is next to a bed, I have NO idea, call me stupid!!..............

but Ben shoves him mid air into the door that the hoop hangs from. It was the loudest thud and then the cry came. Not for long because Sam is pretty tough but BLOW<>BLOW your whistle!!

Foul on Sam, Foul on Ben!! What is going on? Someone please tell me this is normal. If you have two sons or brothers or grandsons or anything of the sort and this happens with you, please let me know so that I don't feel like we are raising two future members of Fight Club!!

Art

Some of our favorite art from the boys!

Isn't this soooo Edvard Munch???
Sam's 'blow art'
Is this a replica of a famous painting???

VOTE FOR BEN!!

In case you can't read this, it says, "If I were the Presiden, I would give toys to kids that don't have toy".

Thanks Ben! You're awesome!

New Beginnings

What's wrong with this? Ben did NOT want his picture taken on the first day of school. How about the fact that I have a first grader now?
Sam was excited about pre-K, thank goodness!!
This is our 'millionaire' kick-off at Ben's school. We had a tailgating party that was so much fun!! This is Northside High's drum section playing, so cool!!!!
The Kempffers and Maddoxes, plus one Christopher. The Maddoxes are our buddies, they play so great together and started a football game that all little boys wanted to get in on. Not only do we like Georgia football but Ben is also a Bulldog at school! Go Dawgs!
A crazy blurry picture of the boys playing with Lucy loo loo before school.

HMMM......

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Besides that point, below is my favorite picture out of the whole Minnesota batch. For some reason, even though it's blurry and out of focus, this picture speaks to me!! It screams.........I'm so grown up now, you don't even know.....(and that is my 'baby', Sam who is almost five years old, WOW! )

In fact when we went to the meet and greet with his pre-K class, he was so shy and he wouldn't make eye contact and he licked his lips and beyond (which is a nervous habit of his) and he latched on to my neck and hid behind me, he was so painfully shy!! I wanted to pick him up and RUN!!! Run sooooo far away and say, 'no world!, you don't get my sweet, loving, wonderful, genius, amazing Ben and EXPECT to have my funny, smiling, irritable, loveable, walk-to-your-own-beat Sam too!!!!!!! It's not fair!!!! UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!