Temporary babysitter

I had the pleasure of being a backup babysitter for my good friend Mary. Lily's babysitter had a child with the flu so she called on me and we had a great time. Ryan and Lily just kinda followed each other around and entertained each other. Thanks Mary! (for trusting me mostly!)

Light the Night Walk 2009

We got to be part of an incredible experience last night. We, along with 400 friends/acquaintances of our dear friend Ally, walked along with her to help raise money to beat the battle against leukemia/lymphoma. I haven't touched on this on my blog yet but Morgan's friend, Ally, was diagnosed with leukemia in May at the age of 7. It is such a long battle ahead but they have come up with "Ally's Army" and that consists of all who support her and follow her blog. We met Ally when she was 1 - she and Morgan went to Gymboree Playplace together. Last night 400 people showed up - JUST FOR TEAM ALLY'S ARMY!!-and together with the help of all of these wonderful people, approximately $35,000 was raised-again, JUST BY TEAM ALLY'S ARMY!! Their original goal was $10,000.00 so they exceeded that by far! It was a beautiful sight to see all of the survivors, supporters, and those who have lost loved ones carry balloons that illuminated the night.

During the walk

Ally's sign

me and the boysjust a few of the kid supporters(morgan is in the middle)

Morgan, Chloe and Maddie

Refinishing a bench

My friend, Amy, introduced me to the Springfield Extravaganze flea market last spring. I guess it comes around twice a year, spring and fall. We feed off each other when it comes to buying trash to turn it into treasure. She got a library bench(I think that is what it's called) at a garage sale and made it a beauty) so I told her we had to find one for me too! We found one at the flea market - priced at $47 and she took $30(not too bad) I painted it, got new foam and fabric for the cushion and I am loving it in the foyer. While I was at it, I painted my coat tree - it was a honey oak color and the black just makes it feel a bit more current! Fun fun! We also got 2 more friends addicted to this - Tara and Jill, aren't you happy we introduced you to this? I even drove Kirk's old red truck(which I think has been deemed "big red" to haul our treasures away in and boy, did it come in handy!)

12 years!

Our anniversary is actually on Sept 27 but my mom offered her babysitting services on Friday so Kirk and I could go out to dinner. We went to a place down by Ikea called Mesh and it had wonderful food and a HUGE wine cellar with glass windows displaying all of it. Of course, being so close to Ikea, what husband wouldn't want to make his 1st trip there on his anniversary-but with a little pleading, I got him to go - heck! we're saving gas $ since we are already down there, right? I would highly recommend the restaurant, it is a bit pricey though! 12 years? wow! We are blessed to still be able to put up with each other and have such beautiful, sometimes charming kids!

Tote bags

I was a bit behind on having Bradley's bag ready for his 1st day of preschool but we did have it done at the end of the 1st week- he helped me by painting his hands and pressing them onto his bag - he loved his bag! Ryan got in the spirit of it,however, not sure we will let him take this particular tote bag with him to preschool - not that there's anything wrong with that! :)

Bradley's 1st day of preschool

Today was Bradley's first day of school at Epiphany Lutheran Preschool - he was excited and it went off much better than last year - no tears! He was eager to go into his room and had a great day!

Fall decorations

I love to get out my fall decorations - I think it is such a great way to quickly warm up the house! I bought those little black shelves at a rummage sale and they were yuck! Imagine crackle white with a gold ball on the bottom and gold shelf at the top- very dated! So, again, the wonders of spray paint and voila! I love them now and they were the perfect place to perch my pumpkins in the kitchen - $5 for the pair, not too bad!