Chicago Pics

We went on two vacations this fall. The first was to Chicago on the week after Labor Day. Richard did some work in Schaumburg, IL and the kids and I went with him. We were able to visit with Marianne and her family while we were there. Then we spent the weekend with Angie in Chicago and did some touristy things.

Here is the list of what I wanted to do while on this trip...

1. visit Marianne

2. visit Angie

3. Lincoln Park Zoo

4. Natural History Museum to see dinosaur bones

5. Navy Pier

6. Boat Tour of Chicago

7. eat a Chicago Hot Dog

8. eat some real Deep Dish Chicago Style Pizza

I knew I had high hopes and would be traveling with a preschooler and a toddler, but we were able to do all of that and more. It really was a great vacation! Here are some pictures...

Josh and Lucas hanging out in the hotel

Lucas developed a fear of shiny floors and wouldn't walk on any floor that was not carpeted

Josh at Legoland near a sculpture of Chicago's Navy Pier

Marianne and her kids - Elly (8) and Isaac (11)

Marianne and Ali at Rainforest Cafe

A couple of monkeys at the Lincoln Park Zoo


Josh checking the map - he wanted to go back and see the Naked Mole Rats

Angie and Lucas at a park in Oak Park

Ali and Josh - self portrait while riding the BIG ferris wheel on Navy Pier

Angie, Richard and Lucas stayed on the ground

Our brave boy enjoying the view

Boat tour on the Chicago River - totally worth the insanely high prices!

And finally, the Chicago Hot Dog!!!

Applebutter Fest

We went to the Applebutter Fest in Grand Rapids over the weekend. I went every year when I lived at home, but it has been awhile since the last time. I took Josh and Lucas for the first time and it was great to see this fun tradition through their eyes. Josh loved the magician in the children's area and couldn't wait to get some kettle corn. Lucas loved seeing the birds of prey from a nature rehab center.

We spent most of the time in the village park. It was the place to be... that's where they make the applebutter. Josh helped my dad stir and had his picture taken for The Blade. Check out the article and Josh and Dad's picture in Monday's paper.

little bean embroidery

Just wanted to let you all know about my friend's new business adventure. I am sure you all have heard me talk about Jen... she's the crafty one... Lilly's mom...the Jen who was so kind that she let me and Josh live with her for about 6 weeks when we moved and I was still teaching in Hilliard.

Well, her newest business adventure is an embroidery business called Little Bean Embroidery. Some of you may have already seen her work. I have given many of her items for gifts this year (hand towels for Brian and Heather's cottage at the lake, onesie and burb cloth when Elliott was born, and bath towels for Anna's graduation). Jen does a great job! Her specialty is custom made baby gifts. Check out her work and place an order! Click here to see her website.

Good luck Jen!

to wii or not to wii...

We are starting to make our Christmas lists here in the Boger house. We shop super early so that we can transport gifts to where they need to be while we aren't dragging 2 weeks worth of clothes (that is a whole other blog entry...) One of our family gift ideas is a Nintendo Wii. Josh is even able to play some of the games and I love making Wii people! We wondering if any of you boger blog readers have any advice for us...

Do you have a Wii? Do you like it?

If have have even played Wii games at a friend's house... What are great games to get? Any that our 4 year old can play?

We would love your input while we make this fun decision! Thanks!

what happened to the summer?!?!!!

It's the last day of July! Where have we been? Why no blogs? I really don't know myself! We have been camping a few times and have been around the state visiting friends and family.
Here are the highlights...


June -
Bradley turned 3 and we camped at East Harbor State Park
the water guns were a hit...so was t-ball
This is also when we became obsessed with getting a kid trailer for our bike. That is our newest family toy. We found a used Trek trailer on Craig's List for a great price the next week and went to Mason to pick it up. We have used it at least once a week since then. It is a great Saturday or late evening activity for the whole family.

We spent a weekend at Devils Lake with my whole family. My cousin, Brian, and his wife, Heather have a second home there and we enjoyed jet skiing, kayaking, and just hanging out with the family. Enjoy the many pictures from that weekend...

Cheri (Neil's girlfriend) and my sister, Leslie

Grandma and Papa Box with Lucas
Richard kayaking with Josh
Leah, Josh, Connor, and Ethan in the pool...playing with bubbles
I stayed up with Mom and Dad after the lake trip because Richard was scheduled to be out of town for work. He didn't end up going, but I had already promised Josh a week of play with his cousins, Tristan and Leah, so the boys and I had a week in Grand Rapids. We had a great time going on walks to see the cows. My brother has 20 cows and 2 more babies due this summer! It is an exciting field trip for my guys. Lucas especially LOVES them! He can say Moo! which is sooooo cute. Josh went to Vacation Bible School while we were there and Josh and Leah gave me daily concerts of the new songs they learned.

We were home for 2 nights and went to an outdoor wedding where it POURED!!!! The rain didn't start until the reception, but we listened to the wind pick up and the thunder start while we hoped and prayed that it would hold off until the ceremony was over. We were under a tent for the reception, but still got wet.


July -
We went camping in Indiana with my parents, Leslie, Leah, and Tristan. We canoed 2 days. Lucas even canoed for about an hour. He was fine, but really didn't like it when I had to get out of the canoe to pull us over a fallen tree. Richard was like a camp counselor there. He taught Leah, Tristan, and Josh how to collect and cut firewood, took them on a hike and played Capture the Flag with them.



Leah and Josh - canoeing buddies
(Richard was a brave man and took the kids in his canoe.)
Hot chocolate -YUMMY!!

We went to Cleveland for the 4th of July and went swimming in Lake Erie. While we were there a dead rat washed up on the shore and a little toddler girl started petting it! YUCK! It was so gross.

The next week I went to Lakeside with Kate, Liz and Tamara. We all brought our kids so there were 4 adults and 6 kids. Josh is the oldest of the bunch at just over 4. We took the golfcart around with all 10 of us and probably looked pretty crazy. While we were there we went to a puppet show which was Josh's favorite thing of the week. We also went to God Squad, got ice cream, and swam in Lake Erie again. It was great spending a few days with some of my best friends from college.

Josh is 4!!!

Josh turned 4 on May 18th!

We celebrated with 2 birthday parties. The first party was in Grand Rapids on Mother's Day and was shared with his cousin Tristan who turned 10 that week. We had chicken barbeque and some ice cream brownie cakes with M & Ms. Yummy! His most anticipated present was a scooter which he got from Great Gram Heitzman.

The next Saturday we had a Birthday Safari with the Boger side of the family. We met Grandma, Papa, Melissa and Bradley at The Wilds between Zanesville and Cambridge, Ohio for a picnic and a bus tour that afternoon. We saw many types of deer, Rhinos, Giraffes, Cheetas, African Wild Dogs, and Camels. Josh loved being on safari and having such a special event mark his 4th birthday. We looked forward to this day for a long time and I'm sure he will remember it for even longer.

Then, on his actual birthday we celebrated in Athens. Josh woke up to a house filled with birthday balloons, signs, and streamers. He loved all of the balloons! He feels that a birthday celebration isn't complete unless it has cake, presents, and party hats so he was very excited about all of the extra decorations. Grandma even bought him coordinating plates, cups, and party favors!

One of his favorite presents was the Splash Rocket from Grandma and Papa Boger.

I let Josh look through my cake book and pick out his own cake. He picked a rainbow cake (probably because it was covered with jelly beans...don't ask me how much I spent on those jelly beans)

Lucas's birthday - March 9

Lucas's 1st Birthday
happy birthday hug from Josh

all dressed up with Mom and Dad... ready for the party!!!
Mom made me a kitty cake - yummy!
I loved the cake!!! I ate 2 pieces and some ice cream too!
Thanks to Aunt Leslie for spoiling me! :) There was a blizzard the day before so after the party we went out to play in the snow.

Daddy put together my new car from Great Gram Heitzman! Thanks for all of my new toys!

i've been stampin'

I just wanted to show off some of my latest cards that I made with my newest Stampin' Up! set called All in the Family. I went to a workshop in April and got started on them. I had to stamp heads, bodies, clothes and accessories separately. Now that I have started giving the cards away, I can share them with you...

a new baby congratulations card...made for the Fuhr family

a cute kid birthday card... made for Cohen

the Boger family card...check us all out!

mother's day

I attended the Mother's Day Tea at Josh's preschool on Thursday. It was great event that must have taken so much planning by the teachers. They even had babysitting available for the siblings!


Here are some of the things we did...

*played with the parachute in the gym
*danced the chicken dance
*played dress up (the kids dressed us up in prom dresses, feather boas, tiaras, beads and sunglasses
*ate a snack (fruit salad, teddy grahams, tea, and ice cream)
*kids sang songs to us...I'm a Little Tea Pot, M-O-M-M-Y (like BINGO), The More We Get Together, Mommy is the One I Love



The teachers asked the kids some questions about their mommy. Here are Josh's answers to questions...

My Mommy is 1o years old.
My Mommy's favorite food is chicken.
My Mommy's favorite TV show is cooking show.
My Mommy's favorite color is blue.
My Mommy's eyes are blue.
My Mommy smells like peanut butter.
My Mommy likes to do cooking at home.
My Mommy is as pretty as a flower.
I would like to give my Mommy a new remote.
I love my Mommy because she helps me get my favorite movies out.

Josh giving me a present...

a new marriage and a new baby

the new marriage is really a joke and the new baby is not ours in case you were wondering...

It recently became official - Josh and Lilly are getting married! I was team teaching with Lilly's mom, Jen, when I was pregnant with Josh and she was pregnant with Lilly. They were born about 7 weeks apart and we joked that Lilly was Josh's first girlfriend. We went to Lilly's brother, Cohen's birthday party two weekends ago. Josh and Lilly played outside on the swingset for a long time. I don't know who proposed because Richard actually witnessed it, but they finally decided to "get married". They would swing back and forth singing, "We're getting married! We're getting married!" Then Lilly kept trying to kiss Josh. She suggested to Josh that if they wanted to be "real married" they would need to kiss. Josh was not too sure about that and said he wanted to just be "pretend married". The four parents thought it was hilarious! We are all for this marriage as long as they wait about 20 years!

Last week Carrie and Paul had their new baby, Elliott Steven. He was born on Tuesday, April 29th and was 6 lbs 12 oz, 19 1/2 inches. I get to meet him tomorrow and I can't wait! Here is a picture of him at the hospital in the middle of the cutest baby yawn.

our nature bug

I had a good start to the year with my blog and then I dropped off the face of the earth..... so sorry. I still don't have those pictures up, but we'll try again soon.


Josh, our little nature bug, is really into plants and bugs right now. We planted some seeds 2 weeks ago and they are starting to sprout. Josh and Lucas helped me with the project. We have 2 flower beds at the back of our yard. We didn't really water them much last year and they are really far back so I thought that would be the perfect place for Josh's flower garden. We had lots of seeds - marigolds, sunflowers, zinnias, cosmos, and sweet peas. I made little maps of our garden and planned where to put each thing. Josh wanted to put in all of the seeds himself. I tried to sneak as many as I could to even things out and keep things moving. Lucas entertained himself and tried to eat mulch when I wasn't looking. It was quite a project! By the end I was just roughing up the soil, tossing seeds on and covering them quickly with dirt. The funny thing is those seeds are doing the best. Josh also has a mini greenhouse starting seeds in the bathroom with more zinnias and sunflowers. They are doing awesome and I think I should have started everything inside. Maybe next year...


Josh is also impatiently waiting for raspberries to grow on his raspberries bushes. He checks them out everytime we go outside. Richard and I call them the raspberry sticks when we aren't around Josh because they looked so small and sad all winter. They are doing better now with lots of green leaves. We also have 3 blueberry bushes ready to go in the ground. Can't wait to eat all of those berries!


Josh is really intrigued by dandelions. He thinks they are beautiful. I was torn between letting him enjoy the childhood pleasure of blowing off the white fluffy seeds and yelling, "Stop, you're ruining our yard!" He was so confused about why I wouldn't want my whole yard filled with them!

what a week!!!

What a week for the Bogers!

we had a computer hard drive problem...

then a blizzard...

and Lucas turned one!

First, the hard drive problem... I am not the computer expert in the family, but I can tell you that we thought we had lost all of our pictures and whatever else was on there. The only important things for me were the pictures. Now that we have a digital camera we don't print as many or as often so I knew there would be huge gaps. Richard and I were so upset! But, thanks to some anwered prayers, some freeware, and some magical skills Richard has with computers we have most everything back. Don't ask me how! We are now going to be extra careful with our pictures! All I can say is back up, back up, back up! Richard had already finished the taxes, but hadn't checked everything and sent them in yet, so he has to do them again.

The blizzard... It started snowing on Friday morning around 8 or 9 and it didn't stop until Saturday at 3 or 4. The inches of snow just piled up to about a foot. There was a lot of drifting so taking an accurate measurement was difficult! Richard shoveled the driveway 3 times and I must say our driveway was the best on the block! Richard's parents drove through the worst of the snow on Saturday and it took them 5 1/2 hours to get here instead of their usual 2 hrs. 45 minutes. It was some crazy snow in March! I went out to the grocery store Saturday night and really couldn't see much of the roads. The ramps were the worst! I even had to have someone help me pull my grocery cart to the car!

Lucas's birthday... He turned one on Sunday and we had a nice party with family, friends, and neighbors. He loved his cake and got lots of nice presents. There will be another post with pictures and details soon!

naughty words and more questions from a 3 year old

We have been lucky so far and Josh hasn't learned any truly naughty words, but he says some that he thinks are naughty. A while back Josh was calling us "Baby Bottom" and we decided to bring up the subject of naughty words. We told him that wasn't a nice thing to call another person and we weren't going to use it. He eventually forgot about baby bottom, but it has resurfaced. I don't know why, but he has started using it again. Last night while I was changing Lucas's diaper I said something like "Lucas, you have a very stinky baby bottom!" and Josh just chose to hear "Baby Bottom". He said, "Awww, Mom! You said baby bottom!!!" Then today in the car after a nice lunch at First Watch with Richard where people actually complimented us on our cute kids, Josh starts with baby bottom again. We are saying goodbye to Richard and dropping him off at work while Josh is saying baby bottom, baby bottom, baby bottom over and over again! Argh!

more questions from a 3 year old...
How do frogs hear? (he is very observant and has noticed that frogs don't have ears)
How come my eyes can't see my face? (think about explaining that one for a second)

As you can see, with Josh around I am challenged with my teaching skills every day. I don't really think I am taking time off from my career. I am getting full-time continuing education!

happy heart day!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone! The Bogers had a lovely casserole dinner with bread and jam along with a spinach salad. Many people probably went out with their significant other, but we stayed in and ate at home.

We went out last weekend with a group from church and are going out again next Friday with a group from Richard's work. Last weekend we went to a vineyard, next weekend it is bowling. This is a lot for us, so I must also tell you that we found a babysitter. An actual teenage babysitter who we will have to pay. This is a good thing. Up until now we have usually relied upon our parents and other family members to watch the kids. Lucas will be one soon so it is time for us to occasionally go out by ourselves. So I am celebrating Valentine's Day by thinking of all of the dates yet to come!!!

Other exciting news... Lucas is starting to walk!! He took some steps from Richard to me last night and some more today. His longest "run" has been about 4 steps. Josh was totally amazed when he saw his little brother "walking" tonight! He still needs some help getting steady before he takes off, but we will keep you posted.

Josh news... When were were at gymnastics this week a photographer came in to take pictures for the local paper. Josh didn't make to front cover, but you can see him in the extra pictures that are online. check him out! He is in a couple of pictures so look through them all. He is incorrectly labeled as Michael in one picture, but you'll figure it out...

the boys are growing up

Well, I have recently been reminded over and over again how much my boys are growing up. All of my boys... Even my biggest boy, Richard.


Richard turned 30 last month on Jan 24th and we had a party for him that weekend. It wasn't a surprise party because I don't think that ever could have worked. Richard is my biggest helper and I never would have been able to get the house "party ready" without his help. Plus, how would I have explained all the food... beer, chips, and 15 pounds of pulled pork!!!! He's too smart to miss that clue!!! He loved the party. Thanks to everyone who was able to come. Sometime the next week he thanked me and said that I knew him better than he knew himself. He never would have asked for a party, but he really had a good time! Richard's mom put together a wonder photo album filled with pictures of Richard growing up. The best part of the present was the captions that explained what was happening in each picture. I noticed one that showed Richard at his Eagle Scout ceremony and commented that Richard looked sooooo young. They said, "Yeah. He was 15 - that's half a lifetime ago!"

The whole family at Richard's party (photo by Gordon's Photo Booth)



Now for news about the little boys (or Small and Medium as we call them when we talk about them in their presence...)

Josh started going to gymnastics at The Little Gym in January. I had been thinking about sending him to gymnastics since he started bouncing from the coffee table to the couch into a handstand. He would stay upside down with his back leaning against the couch to watch his TV shows. He is a fun kid. He is so light and just jumps all over the house and us. Since we are inside a lot in the winter, it is a good opportunity to get the crazies out and burn off some energy. We are not pushing him to be the next Olympian, so we picked a gym that is noncompetitive. His teachers, Miss Page and Mr. Kevin, are married and are the owners of the gym. We went for a trial and they got us hooked. I look forward to it almost as much as Josh. He asks me almost every day if he is going to gymnastics.


Josh's other big news is that he started preschool! He goes to Cornerstone Christian Preschool which is located in a Methodist church about 5 minutes from our house. He goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the afternoon for 2 1/2 hours. He just started last week and his teachers say that it seems like he has been there from the beginning. They are having their Valentine party on Tuesday and we have been working on writing his name on a dozen valentines. The only letter that is legible is o. We have 4 more to sign before the party!

Josh - fingerpainting

Lucas is as wonderful as ever! He just turned 11 months old this weekend. He recently learned to clap and can climb up an entire flight of stairs! He now has 4 teeth and ate his first complete meal with the family (turkey meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans) last Thursday.


Lucas - first haircut


(BEFORE)

(AFTER)

Does all of this growing up mean that I am growing up too?