Gabby-In-The-Box

Most people have heard of a Jack-In-The-Box but in our house, there is a slight change in the wording...at least yesterday!! Gabriella empied out this storage container, containing miscellaneous toys and stuffed animals, and decided to play hide and seek. She'd place herself in the box, the lid (ever-so-gently) on top of the box, and the rest of us had to pretend that we had NO IDEA where she was.

Great fun for all of us!! :-)

Rules for playing...

Find box. The size is entirely up to you but the bigger, the better!

Roll up into the fetal position...like so...If at any time you are not comfortable, you have the option to lie on your side...

like so...

Place lid on the top of the box, making sure you do not seal it tight!! :-)
Have child with their sweetest, most adorable face peek out of the box or jump out, depending on their energy level. The choice is theirs :-)
Like so....
And there you have a Gabby-In-The-Box!

Happy Birthday Nicholas

My little boy turned eight on Saturday. First thing in the morning, he climbed into bed and snuggled with Daddy but Jeffrey and I ganged up on him and held him down for his eight (16) "whoopins." :-) He then informed me that he is halfway to driving. *sigh* He deserved eight more whoopins after that (but he didn't get them)!! :-)
We took the kids to breakfast then over to Grandma and Papa's for a little visit before heading to Nicholas's soccer game. It was picture day which meant that the team needed to be at the field an hour prior to gametime. For us, that meant arriving at the field at 11:15, pictures at 11:30, and game at 12:30. The photographer failed to show up which meant we sat in the sweltering heat of a 98 degree day for over an hour and then poor Nicholas had to run for an hour afterwards. About halfway through the game I saw him running out of gas and started to worry. Lots of liquids and sitting out the third quarter seemed to help but I could tell he wasn't his usual go-get-em self. Even though he didn't feel well, my little guy scored 2 goals!! Come to find out later, a low grade fever can't keep him down.....

This one went in....GGGOOOAAALLLL!!!
Nicholas fell asleep on the way home from the game, sat in the tub for over an hour with the water just running on him trying to cool down (the tub unplugged), slept an hour in his bed after drying off, came out to the living room and fell asleep again in the recliner until Grandma and Papa came over around 5:30. His 100.4 fever seemed to really take it's toll. He didn't eat a lot for dinner but perked up when it was time to eat cake. This year he chose chocolate cake with chocolate iciing with M&M's on top.

Blowing out the candle....

Grandma has this oversized pencil in her classroom that Nicholas has been eyeing up for the last five years. He's always asking if he can do his homework with it :-) Grandma finally parted with it and gave it to him this year but because of his fever, couldn't show his excitement, although he did manage a slight whisper of a "thank you for the pencil" as Grandma and Papa were walking out. He's has done a LOT of writing with it today :-)
He threw the M&M's on the cake just the way he wanted them :-)

Despite the fever, he had a pretty good day.

Happy 8th Birthday my Sweet Boy!!

We love you!!

Catching up!

Life just seems to be flying by at such a fast pace these days and before I know it, so much time has elapsed. So. here are the cliffnotes on life here on the West coast!

July is usually the month that the kids and I head "home" for a few weeks. This year was a first for us. We weren't able to make the trip this year because my surgery got scheduled for July 7th. After anticipating it for months, I started freaking out the closer and closer it got. The day came and went without any excitement and recovery was just as exciting. I went in on a Tuesday, came home Wednesday night, and laid on the couch for a couple days. Other than a spinal headache , which gets cured only with massive amounts of caffeine (who knew), I had no pain and recovery went smoothly. I'd like to report that I laid on the couch for the entire 8 weeks and was waited on hand and foot but that would be an outright lie. I was up and about 4 days later. Doing too much? yes! Doing things I was told not to do? yes! With a business, husband that is working, and three children, sitting for 8 seconds really isn't a luxury, let alone 8 weeks!! :-)

August brought Mom and Tom out for 2 weeks for a visit. What a huge help that was. We ended up camping for a weekend and Mom helped with the kids a whole lot. We got the kids ready for school, the laundry room painted, but mostly we just hung out. A nice relaxing visit. Two weeks go by WAY too quickly!!

We are now into our fourth week of school for the kids and all is going well. Homework for the kids, soccer for Nicholas, schedules for everyone. We just took the children to Pismo Beach for Labor Day weekend and Jeff and I just returned from a weekend in Vegas for the CHP Softball Tournament (pictures coming soon). Busy, busy, busy!!!

On a sad note, I lost a good friend just two weeks ago. A young beautiful friend, wife, and mother of two was taken entirely too early. She accomplished so much in her short 31 years. Can't help but think about life a little differently.

Some pictures of our crazy couple weeks...
While Mom and Tom were here, we got to celebrate Tom's 67th birthday. Chocolate cake, chocolate iciing! YUM!

Mom and the kids at the lake...

Mom and Tom painting the laundry room! :-)