Hey mom - look at the new block pit I made...

Yeah.. Such a mess...Ben dumped his blocks out in the smallest corner by all the toys and has basically created himself a mess of blocks. a little cramped for my style but he's having fun I guess.

1st day of 1st Grade

 

 

 

Grandpa is a good wagon puller

Weee---

Happy Birthday Heather!

Happy Birthday Heather!

Just a shout out to the best wife/mother a family can ask for.  I'm not sure how you handle the kids/husband everyday, but you do with a smile.

Happy Birthday Heather.

Since its been a while.. since i've posted.. here's a few more family pictures.  Hopefully we'll add more pictures from our Apple Picking adventure in a little bit.

Happy grandparents day!

Just realized that today is/was grandparents day!

We didn't really plan accordingly, but Papa Mike and Grandma Karen and Grandma Bev will be happy to see this picture. Papa Russell also got a balloon today (Alicia accidentally let it go after a red robin visit, and we told her it was for Papa Russell)

Happy Grandparents Day
From The Kluesners
Heather, Drew, Alicia, Ben and Tanner (meow)

Sleepy boys

Ah, two of my boys are sound asleep.

Good garage sale find

I helped mommy find a good garage sale find today on our walk. Love my Fisher-Price little people!

Swimming & Pretty toes

More fun girl activities rounded out our last week of summer before school started!

Alicia got to experience her first "real" pedicure and manicure... which was more of a nail polish and trim but it was still exciting for her!

 

After we got our nails all prettied up, we decided to show off our toes by going to the pool! Happy end of summer!  

 

Toothy grin

I can almost see all of Ben's teeth in this picture :D hahaha!

the girls - part 2

And the fun continued for mommy and Alicia on day 2 without Ben at home. On the second day, Alicia got to pick a place to eat for lunch. Of course, she chose Olive Garden which is one of her favorites. She LOVES their breadsticks and salad.. I mean who doesn't, right? So perfect choice, Alicia. Daddy was even able to make the lunch date with the girls! But I didn't get a picture of him and Alicia before he had to leave to go back to work.



Alicia's second project she wanted to do was to make something with her souvenirs from our trip this summer to the beach. So we made some frames with the sand and seashells she brought home.

 

 

girls have fun while Ben is away - part 1

It was the last few days of summer vacation, and I was looking to spend some quality time with Alicia. She has been wonderful with Ben all summer and really never complains about the time I devoting to Ben, while often putting her needs second. You know, it's the "wait a minute Alicia, while I get Ben off the couch," "just a second, Alicia, I can't help you until I change Ben's diaper" or the "Ben leave Alicia and her toys alone" or the "just let Alicia read her book and stop climbing on her" and the list could go on and on... Needless to say, Alicia and I needed a Ben-cation. So we made arrangements for the last few days before Alicia started first grade this year, to send Ben to a local daycare for a few days.

Ben is off to "school" as Alicia was calling it. The first real all-day daycare experience for Ben. The teachers there said Ben did great for being a first-timer there. They claimed that he was their best cleaner-upper and organizer in the room. Yeah, Ben!

Ben off to daycare, puppy in one hand and water bottle in the other. Yeah. he acts way to old some days for an 18 month old. 

While Ben was off to daycare for a few days, Alicia and I had been talking about projects and activities she'd like to do by herself with the needed all-mine-mommy time! We had shopping, swimming, arts and crafts, and pampering time all on the schedule.

Alicia-  "Paint! Look what I found, I want to do a painting project!"  So that was one of our first big projects one afternoon, as during our shopping trip, Alicia found a kit she REALLY wanted. And of course, mommy couldn't say no.. so Alicia got stuff to make a birdhouse.

She did great putting the kit together actually, and a house quickly took shape. She glued, assembled, and built a pretty cool birdie house to hang outside on the deck. Then to finish it off, was a spectacular paint job. The writing on the house was pretty tricky, so Alicia told me what to write/paint exactly on the house.