Isa's Artwork

Eloisa will be starting preschool in about a month. There are a crazy number of Taylor families with kids her age that will be starting with her and they are some wild and hilarious kids. My friends and I have been laughing that we might be throwing the teacher a retirement party after this group of kids. I have been working on getting Isa to sit and draw for little bits at a time just to practice for being still at preschool. If you know her, you know that being still is not a strength. Even when we ask her to sit, she is constantly wiggling and moving (she literally looks like she has ants in her pants). But she has been doing really well and taking great pride in her recent drawings. It's been really fun and cute to see. My favorite is the family photo I asked her to draw for Daddy. I love that Daddy is wearing a purple dress. I love that Benjamin's smile is wrapped around his eye. I love that Samuel is wearing an eye patch.

Crystal Mountain: Family Pictures

Drew's parents rented out a cottage at Crystal Mountain Resort this past weekend. It was a beautiful place and fun to get away together.

Crystal Mountain: Pool and Misc Pics

There was a great little pool at the resort. It was shallow with an awesome little playground in the middle of it. Isa loves the water so much which resulted in a huge meltdown when we told her it was time to get out and take an ice cream break. Yes, she threw a tantrum over getting out to eat ice cream.

Sam was all ready to go to the pool but had to wait on his brother to wake up a little bit. Sam loves sitting on Benjamin's lap to watch cartoons and has an older brother sweet enough to tolerate it.
We had a birthday party for Nana while we were there. Here is Benjamin sporting his frosting fu-manchu.

Crystal Mountain: Alpine Slide

Papa took Benjamin down the alpine slide. Benjamin checked out the test sled before they got started and headed up the mountain on a ski lift.

Crystal Mountain: The Dunes

We attempted the 'Dune Climb' at Sleeping Bear Dunes. Looking up from the bottom I thought it looked pretty easy. Halfway up, my 8 month pregnant self realized I am a little too cocky and am in worse shape than I thought I was. Benjamin loved it and spent his time running, falling, dancing, and making sand angels. Isa never looked up from digging in the sand. (Poor girl's mama forgot to tie her hair back so she looks like Cousin Itt in most of the photos.) Samuel was a tad bit grumpy so he spent most of his time observing others.

Guaranteed

If you feel motivated to wash windows on Wednesday, this is what will occur on Thursday:

Cherished moments

Silence. Ahhhh, it doesn't last long but I'll take what I can get. Thank you, Aunt Julie.

The almost finished room

Curtains are up! I couldn't find curtains I liked so I bought some fabric and Nana made curtains for Isa's room. The curtains in the photo below hide Isa's 'closet' which is just a suspension rod with her hanging clothes and a dresser. Works out perfectly with how the room is shaped.

This corner is still in progress. I need something else on the wall but haven't decided what yet.

Saturday at the Lake

Papa and Nana came to spend the day with us. The kids greatly enjoyed having Papa and Daddy to play with at Taylor Lake.

Sleepover

Benjamin's friend Andrew spent the night at our house Wednesday and Thursday night. His parents were out of town and the boys were very, very excited about their first sleepover. Samuel loved making Benjamin and Andrew giggle and would not settle down and go to sleep. He was using his mattress as a trampoline and flying up and down. We eventually had to move him to our room to sleep in the pack and play.

The Dangerous Moser Boys

(Drew here, hijacking the family blog.) Ben, Sam, and I embarked on a journey this past week. We're going to gradually work our way through the bestseller, The Dangerous Book for Boys.I'm going to chronicle our attempt to do each 'essential thing every boy must know and do' here online and eventually convert it into a book for each of the boys to keep. I'm doing this because I'm committed to my boys having as many varied and positive interactions with their dad (me) as possible. I deeply want to instill within them a sense of adventure, and experience life through more than just a computer screen.

Many of the assignments will have to wait until they are older, but the first entry in the book was perfect: 'How to Make a Paper Airplane.' We learned the two greatest paper airplanes of all-time: the Bulldog Dart and the Harrier. The Bulldog Dart is built for speed, and the Harrier is built for distance.

The planes were a success! We tested them out in front of Morris Hall.

4th of July

Grandma Ruth and Grandma Pam came down yesterday to take us out for lunch and hang out for the afternoon.

We went over to our friends' house last night for delicious bbq and sparklers. The kids weren't super impressed with the sparklers. :) It's hard with little kids to wait until it's dark to start.

They were super impressed with their ice pops though.

Ryan and Sara, don't worry. We did have Ollie with us he just refused to be in any pictures. :)

Old Friends!

The Newton's came to spend a day with us today. They recently moved from Denver to Illinois and we are so excited to have them within driving distance. We hung out down by the lake for about 3 hours and they had so much fun!

Isa and Norah make me laugh in this picture. Can you see the pure joy on their faces after a wonderful day with friends? Tired girls.

Construction Bliss

Construction has begun on the new science center at Taylor. The kids love it. Sam asks multiple times each day to go watch the trucks. He gets so excited it's hard to ever say 'no'.

Samuel thought that the dump truck dumping out a load of rocks was going to be really loud. This particular day we ran into baby Hez who was also out to watch the action.