The boy's school had a carnival on September 19th. The kids always have a lot of fun at this. They have inflatable slides and bounce houses, a train ride, and lots of games. This year was no different than any other except for one major difference. Gage didn't want to stay with us, he wanted to go off with a friend!! UGH! I knew he would have to grow up sometime but he's only 9, isn't that a little young?? I was preparing for like 13 or something. Everything still turned out just fine, we had a good time and most importantly, Gage made it back to us safely. I guess I am going to have to start letting him do more on his own one VERY SMALL step at a time.



Gage with his friend Luis

Eliza's Date Night

So yes, Max did also have his date night but I am terrible and forgot the camera. UGH! I hate that. We had a great time though. He chose to go and try the new burger place, (Max is such a burger kind of guy!) 5 Guys Burgers and Fries. It was really good, they have the best fries! Then we took him to go play miniature golf, and then off to Baskin Robbins to get an ice cream to cool us all off! It was a hot day. We had a blast and miniature golf is all he ever wants to do anymore since that fun day we had together!

Eliza's date night was a little different. We went to Build-A-Bear because Blake has been wanting to take her there for a while. He thought she would just love it and he wasn't the least bit wrong! She ate it up! Running all around that store deciding on about 100 different things her bear should have. Luckily, we were able to tone it down by ALOT. She picked out a very cute bear and a fuschia colored, sparkly evening gown for it and a hot pink wig and a fuschia colored bed. EVERYTHING was pink, as if there was ever any doubt she would choose anything else! Blake had to meet us there after work but was late so I bought her an ice cream with sprinkles of course and here she is acting silly. She loves to act silly for the camera.


Then we took her to Mc-a-Donald's (her choice, not ours) for dinner.

Gage moves up in the world of scouts...

Gage turned nine and completed all of his Wolf requirements so he has advanced to the Bear Den. He earned a lot of belt loops along the way and also had a lot of fun doing it! We're very proud of you Gage, love you!

No surprise here, Max lost another tooth .... or two!

So Max woke up one morning and told me that his gums felt funny. I looked and they were swollen with a small white bump on them. I took him to the dentist and they said he had a small infection starting because his teeth were too crowded (thanks Parke's!) preventing two of his teeth from coming down. The dentist recommended we pull two of his teeth because he was pretty positive the same thing would happen on the other side within a couple of months. Max was a champ and handled the whole thing like a man. He wasn't scared or upset, just excited that the good ol' tooth fairy would once again be making a visit to our house! I think he is one up on Gage now!


His gums look a little beat up because they lasered them a little to allow the tooth to come in a little easier. They healed up quickly and quite nicely though.


Have you ever seen such a crazy long tooth??? Some of you dental people have I'm sure, but when they pulled that thing out, I was like WHOA! Max was pretty proud of it!

Who did we buy Guitar Hero for?????

Blake is a Guitar Hero addict!!! He comes home from work and immediately starts playing. He has no shame, he'll even tell the boys to get off, that it is his turn! He looks like he's fitting the part pretty well "wife beater" and all, huh?! Him and Gage are always harrassing each other about who is better. It's pretty close so far, but if you ask Gage he is WAY better than Blake.

Gage's 9th Birthday Party!

We had Gage's 9th birthday party on September 4th. We waited because school had just started and he wanted to invite some kids from his class and then the next weekend was Labor Day. It finally happened though. I was starting to feel kind of bad about it. He had a great time when it finally came though! He had it at Orchard Lanes, a bowling alley just down the street from our house.




We bought him a Utah Jazz jersey (Kirilenko's)which he loved, a couple of Nintendo DS games and then the one he was most excited and surprised about was Guitar Hero III, Legends of Rock.

Eliza's 1st day of preschool...

So today was Eliza's 1st day of preschool (but her 2nd year). Her school is called My School. There are two teachers - Miss Nanette and Miss Kathy. She goes with her very best friend Lucy Bleu so she loves it. She couldn't wait for school to start! She kept asking me, "is it time to go yet." Last night I guess she was also pretty funny about starting school too (I worked, so Blake told me all of this). She told him, "you need to give me a bath, I can't go stinky to my first day of school." (like the girl has ever been stinky in her life!) He said, "we'll do it in the morning" and she said, "No, I can't be late for my first day of school." I hope she stays this enthusiastic about school! I took her and Lucy to school this morning and as we got there she kept reminding me that I needed to write a check to pay for school, she was so concerned with it! We finally got that out of the way and I gave her a hug and kiss and she said come on mom so I told her that I didn't get to stay and she said you're leaving? I said yes and then all of a sudden she was off!! Not a second thought, no qualms, just ran off! Luckily I had already gotten my hug and kiss so I just called out to her that Lucy's mom would be picking her up, she gave me half a glance to acknowledge it and off she went. I don't know why I ever expected anything different, this is all coming from a little girl who asks me every day either what are we doing today or can I play with a friend. She is definitely not a homebody! The other day she threw a fit because she asked me the usual what are we doing today question and I told her we were staying home. She begged me to go do something and the conversation went something like this:

Eliza: Can't we go to a movie?

Me: No, not today.

Eliza: Can we go to Cherry Hill?

Me: No Eliza, we are staying home today.

Eliza: (now crying) Can't we even go shopping or anything?

You had to see her face and actions to appreciate the whole conversation but it is so dramatic and pathetic at the same time it is funny! I had to try not to laugh at her because that just makes her get crazier! All I know is the girl hates to stay home!

Anyways, I would much rather have her enjoy going to school and run off without a second thought about me than than have her crying, scared and refusing to let me leave her. She is definitely a confident, independent, fun loving girl and it helped her to have a great first day back.

Eliza was acting silly and trying to make silly faces as I was trying to get a nice first day of school picture. See can you tell she looks nervous, NOT!




Eliza and Lucy