One less tooth

Johnny has been wiggling the same tooth for at least the past week.  Yesterday, he proudly informed me that he had lost it.

Warning: Don't try this at home!!

I asked if someone had punched it out for him (the standing joke, since his older brothers have literally punched each others' teeth out in the past.)  His tooth story is even better, though.  He was jumping to catch the football when his tooth got caught in the volleyball net and was ripped out.  Definitely takes first prize for tooth stories around here.

Hauling wood

Here's the crew working on Friday and Saturday.  Even Matt, who came to play video games, got suckered in to helping.

Sorry that most of the pictures are blurry but I wasn't about to ask them to stop and pose while getting all that work done.

Joseph requested these pictures

Here's the evidence of an extremely dry summer...

I know you're thinking it looks shallow because of all the sand we hauled in on this side of the dock.

But this is the other side of the dock and it looks even worse.

I'm thinking everything is pretty much beached for the winter.

These two were pretending to be samurais before I roped them into helping me put extra life jackets away and other really fun things kids love to do.

Marianna begs for Dad to take her for a ride....

and this is the thanks he gets for it!

It's all in a good night's sleep...

Since I posted about Clare's new room, I thought I better keep things fair and show off Therese's and Marianna's new party room bedroom.  Clare has a real knack for color because when she picked this out in the store, I said no way it was going to match the walls in that room.  I was SO wrong.

While Marianna sleeps, Therese changes her dolls into pajamas for bedtime.

In the room next door,  we have these two squirts.  Have to admit that I wasn't sure how they would do without Matthew and Andrew reading them to sleep each night.  They've been really good sports about it, though.  They look at books and talk a little bit and then we just hear snoring for the rest of the night!

Down in the Swamp we have the newest sleepy heads.  Andrew used to be my early riser but something about sleeping in the basement makes everyone down there tired.  They ARE really good about going to bed when we tell them, which is more than I can say for the first batch of boys that originated down there. They've also succeeded in keeping the room (and Stephen) neat and tidy.

Although it was a ton of work to get everyone moved around,  this arrangement is working really well.  Joseph and Tim might feel differently about that, since they had to sleep on the floor when everyone was home last weekend.  Guess, I'll still have to work on a few of the finer details of the sleeping arrangements but I think we have a good start.

Random pictures

Johnny is very excited that he gets to do math on the computer this year.

 Last picnic of the season?  We weren't sure since it's been pretty chilly lately.

I think Friday's lunch is officially fried eggs and toast from here on out .  Fast, easy and they like to eat it.

This picture was taken the first week of school because they are putting a puzzle together.  Or maybe I should say...together, they are working on a puzzle.  Key word here is together, since the only other thing they do together is wrestle.

90 Coats of Paint (or so it felt like at the time)

This project took more time than we originally planned on.  This was the hideous color on the walls of Marianna's room...

Stephen, Clare and I devoted a couple of afternoons to some hard core painting.

And a couple of little boys tried to get in on the action....

See how sweet they're pretending to be?

After more painting than any of us care to remember (and finally getting the bed put together)...

Clare's very own room!

We still have a little more decorating to do but this has been really fun to work on with her.  (Oh, and long before this became a perpetual baby's room, it belonged to a certain somebody who forfeited this privilege due to a lack of organizational skills. Now he's off in seminary and has to do push-ups when he doesn't make his bed.  If only I would have known back then....)

Sneaky Chocolate Chip Thief

Gabers and I were trying to make bars but Marianna had other ideas...

Time to put away the summer fun...

Just one last ride on the floaties.  Please, Mom!

Joseph emailed this to us.  We got a kick out of it and thought we'd share it with you. It was done by some seminarians from Joliet. (Click on the picture, Grandma. Then click in the lower, right hand corner if you want to make it full screen.)

Guess who fell asleep?

Who's faking it?

Our very own swamp things...

The little people discovered that the mud from the spring down by the lake
looks awesome on their hands.  Thankfully, that's all they
spread it on!

Chicka Chicka

Marianna's favorite book is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (she calls it "A B" or "boomboom")  and everyone gathers around to hear it read by Joe K.  Poor Joe must be totally sick of the repetition by now, over and over.

Last volleyball of the summer....

and I didn't get any pictures of the actual volleyball games.  I just get too busy talking to remember to use my camera.  Dan took these pictures of the Mass with Fr. Scott and the two Joes serving.

It was beautiful down by the lake, or so I'm told.  I was busy keeping Marianna busy up by the house.  She is NOT a quiet Mass attendee just yet.