Update

I kicked off the weekend Thursday night at my book club. Truly one of the highlights of my month. My book club night is SACRED and is NOT to be messed with. I will seriously go to insane measures to get there and am devastated if I ever have to miss. It's kind of a random group of women and most of us didn't know each other very well when we first started. Now, however, these women are some of my very favorite people who I just love and admire. I rarely laugh harder than I do at book club. After being cooped up with a sick little boy for several weeks it was exactly what I needed. Friday afternoon we had my nephew and niece, Rex and Lucy, over to play for awhile and when it came time to meet Ryan and Macy to return their kids we decided we might as well meet for dinner. It was really fun once we got past the "there's nothing here I like" and "I want my own root beer" etc. There was plenty of action with a total of 7 kids, but it was good times. Saturday we worked, Brennan golfed, I shopped, and then we came home for a mellow night. Sunday we had a nice visit with my parents. Fun weekend.



While we were eating with Ryan and Macy and crew Anna was begging us to have them come over to our house after so the kids could play longer. She kept saying, "Come on, Mom, don't you want to snooze?" I finally realized she meant "schmooze" which is the word my family uses to describe the times we get to sit around, laugh and chat. The kids had SEP conferences (fka parent/teacher conferences) last week. Anna's teacher had great things to say about her which is always rewarding. She is a hard worker and does a quality job on everything she does. The other thing her teacher mentioned which all of her teachers always mention is how much they love how affectionate she is. Anna always hugs her teacher when she first sees her and before she leaves for the day. We love Anna.



Abby's SEP conference was great as well. She's a responsible, good little student and got excellent grades. She's also recently begun to love to read which makes me very happy. If Abby isn't playing with a friend or playing Webkinz computer games, she is creating. She has a few of those little gooey lizards and so she designed and created a little home for them. Here are some pictures of the lizard home. We love Abigail.

Here's the outside of the house of the girls' part of the house.

Here's the outside of the boys' part (she has already realized girls need more space)



This is looking down into the house and the yard.

This is sideways, but still gives you an idea of what my dining room table looks like more often than not. Clearly I need to make an art station somewhere so I can have my dining room back.

Last night Nate kept asking, "Mom, what is Ben?" "What do you mean, Nate?" "What is he, you know, like I'm a baby goat?" Needless to say I was very confused until it dawned on me that a baby goat is a kid and the word he was looking for was toddler. I guess the girls told him that a kid is also a baby goat. Nate's teacher had really good things to say about Nate and I am so grateful he is having such a great Kindergarten year. We love Nate.

Ben is finally feeling better. Our last doctor's visit revealed walking pneumonia and an ear infection. Poor guy, thank goodness for antibiotics. As my parents visited last night my mom was at the table with the kids who were being even louder than normal, especially Ben. My Mom said something like, "Benny you are a noisy boy!" He looked at her and very helpfully suggested, "Dus put yur hands like dat" as he put his hands over his ears. We love Ben.