Happy Days!

Dear Friends and Family,

Life is good! I had to pause this week to appreciate how fun the kids are right now.  Will is getting more and more independent and Claire has become a little buddy - helping her mama out!  Just this week, I was making soup for lunch. I put the microwave cover over the bowl and hit start. When the timer went off, I went to stir my soup and it had suctioned itself to the microwave cover!  I tried to squeeze the cover to break the suction, I tried to use a knife to wedge between the bowl and the cover, and then Claire says, "Mom, why don't you put a hole in the top of the cover?"  Of course!!!  So I drilled a little hole with the tip of my knife and the suction broke!  I gave Claire mad props for helping me with that problem and she has been glowing ever since!

This week we went to the library and the kids had a blast with the new blocks. They were also excited to give the big library Elmo hugs.

Will: "Mama, I love Elmo!"

Home from the library - and shirtless - Will reads a few books in a nest of blankets!

Claire surprised her brother with a cupcake from the neighbor's house. He was thrilled! 

 This weekend we had a nice lazy day on Saturday.  We stayed home all day and played and relaxed next to what we hope is our last fire of the year.  Chris built a very warm fire and the kids and I tried to roast marshmallows for dessert!

I had to take a panoramic picture to fit the kids in with the fire! The fire was so warm, this is about as close as they wanted to sit. 

Will checks his marshmallow to see if it's done yet!

 We were surprised by a package from my Mom and Ralph this weekend with lots of goodies from their recent trip to the Kennedy Space Center!  Mom found this awesome astronaut suit for Will, along with some astronaut ice cream, and some cool NASA bags!

This suit makes you run really fast!

Will decided this suit needed to go for a walk!  So Claire pretended were on another planet and went for an exploration walk!

On Sunday we went to brunch with our friends Kasey, Erica, baby Ellie, and Anne Walker (who was in town visiting).  We had a great time and the kids really enjoyed dining out.  Then our wonderful neighbors, Laura and Mike Billings invited us over for dinner. (Any day where no cooking is involved is a total luxury!)

Will and Abby are buddies!

Mike is our family's new Dentist!  He also became a big star for the kids when he got out his fishing minnows for the kids to touch! Look at how excited Will is!

 On Monday and Tuesday the weather was amazing!  As a result we did lots of playing outside.

The kids love playing with their daddy!

We even got to do a sunset walk after dinner!  I'm LOVING these longer days!

I hope everyone is having a great week!
Love,
Bethie