Josiah's 13.

Josiah turned 13 yesterday. I now have 3 teenagers in the house. Lucky for me I happen to really like teens, my own included. :) It's really neat to see them developing into their own people.

Since Eric was working all day yesterday, Josiah chose to celebrate today.

Joe's choices for meals have had me in the kitchen all day long. For breakfast he wanted Apple Fritters a la Pioneer Woman. I have never deep fried anything in my house except recently we made fried ice cream. And it made the house stink. So today I fired up the side burner on the grill and fried the fritters out on the front porch. No stink, and I got to enjoy my morning a bit. :)

For lunch he wanted summer sausage and cheese on artisan bread. It's really easy to make it, and we all enjoy eating it. Another hit.

For his "cake" he wanted to take chocolate chip cookie dough balls and roll them in melted chocolate. Yum. We will enjoy them for snack.

And for dinner this evening, he requested shrimp. For those who don't like shrimp, I will serve "squid". All will be satisfied.



And thus endeth Birthday Season 1 - where we celebrate 6 birthdays between Dec. 25 and March 17. Phew. I survived. But please don't look at the weight I've gained... I'm working on losing some before we hit Birthday Season 2 - 4 birthdays between July 2 and August 2. I'll start (again) tomorrow.

Truth in Blogging

I just wanted to let you know that not all days look like this in the Peterson household.



Many days don't even look like this.



Many of my days are filled with the mundane... the crazy... the insane...

The crying
The cooking
The never ending laundry.
The pages upon pages of school to correct.

So this post is for you. If you have ever wondered if you are permanently destroying all chances of your children being productive members of society.

I've been there too.

Just so you know you're not alone. :)

Nate's Boogie Board Adventure

Even Nate learned to boogie board on our trip.



OK- maybe not.



But he sure fooled us!



It's tough being so darn cute.

Road Trip Part 2

Lots and lots of playing in the water for Emma...



I think this board was particularly good for Matt. It suits him.



And the expressions on Anna and Emma's faces here are priceless...



Nate had gotten a splinter in his hand, and wore that paper towel all morning after it was out.



Sara collected shells for everyone, and let us choose.




Here's my shell.






See the pretzel in the seagull's mouth?



The big boys heading out.



Beth was happy as long as her feet never had to touch the sand.






And lots of playing "Blitz" with frisbees... a few adults forgot their ages and played like kids. I think they regretted it the next day.

And, oh, the sunrises... they were worth the price of admission.