Animal Kingdom

Our day at Animal Kingdom was a fun one too! Lots of cool animals to see. And the Nemo show, we loved the Nemo show!

When Simon has just turned 5 he and I spent a day at Animal Kingdom. There was a new ride there from the last time I had been there. Mt. Everest. Simon was tall enough so we rode. Turns out that was a horrible idea. He was so scared, and all I can do on roller coasters is laugh and scream. I tried to comfort him, but that didn't work out so well. Consequently, he is now VERY fearful of roller coasters. We had fast passes for Mt. Everest, but we couldn't convince him to ride it.

Fun playgrounds to play at too! This one is the dinosaur playground.

The whole crazy bunch!

Fun at Hollywood Studios

We had lots of fun at Hollywood studios.

Here are all of my boys ready for some Star Wars 3D action

 

This is the only time we'll be able to see my aunt & uncle in snow!

Tower of Terror with Mom. One of her favorite rides.

 A little shopping at Downtown Disney to go with lunch. Can you see Jesse?

Nice lunch with Trex

Meeting Lightning & Tow Mater

 

Basically, a great day!

Legoland!

With this house full of boys, and Legos always underfoot, it seems only fitting we would take a vacation to be surrounded by even more Legos. Wait, what? At least we weren't stepping on these!

And yes, we do color cordinate when we are out in large groups.

 

It was a little chilly to start out the day, but that didn't stop us from jumping right in to the fun.

 

I personally love how Noah and Simon pretented to eat the pretzel, and so Jesse joined right in, but he was "eating" the rolling pin. Love it!

 

We took a millon pictures, it was all so fun! The boys got drivers licenses, which they are still carrying around and flashing to me.

 

We have never seen so many Legos in all our lives. It turns out we think we could have gone two days because we did skip some things, but it was a jam packed fun day and I'm so glad we took the time to go this year when all four of the boys are still so into Lego.

Snow Fun!

My sister came to town between Christmas and New Years, which hasn't happened since, gosh, I can't even remember when. And we had a big snow, so we bundled up and played in the snow.

Here are the boys with their aunt, great-aunt, and grandma after playing in the snow. They all had a very good time! We got some pretty hilarious pictures of them wiping out.

And me and my sweet sister Olivia. We don't have hardly any pictures of just the two of us. I always make sure to get some of her and the boys when she's in town, but somehow neglect to get them of her and I. So we got one this time around!

 

Also, I love my pink carhartt jacket and hat, don't you? Thanks Timmy!

New Year

Happy New Year!

The annual library fireplace picture of the boys. So I can see how they've grown, a mom thing. That's all they do is eat and grow. They are not even teenagers yet! I look forward to those days as a challenge, will I be able to keep four growing boys fed?

Hogwarts

Santa brought the boys the two Hogwarts Lego sets to share. And since they were in and out during the week, I made them wait until they were all home on Friday to put the sets together. They were beside themselves with excitement. However, they had been playing and building Legos all week and towards the end of the day did get a little burnt out on building-one of the sets had 10 bags of Legos! But they pushed through-troopers they are!
We had also gotten Eli "Hagrid's Hut," which he is pointing to here. It is a neat set and has a light up brick for the fire. He did a great job putting it together and has had lots of fun playing with all of the creatures and pieces.

We got Noah "The Burrow" which he needed only a little help to put together. And it has some really neat features that he is enjoying, like the drawers and plates in the kitchen. Noah is pointing to himself, he's a little bit "gangsta" you know.

Here are the two Hogwarts sets put together, with all of the people. I knew we had to take a picture quick, since once they started playing and dividing things up it would never be the same!

Oh the fun they are having! I'm so glad we get to enjoy it with them. They divided up all of the minifigs between themselves to "own" and there was one extra, so it was determined that I should get one too. I said I would just take what was left but that I didn't really want a dementor. Guess what was left? Yep, I have myself my very first Lego minfig, and it's a dementor. I keep him on top of the Castle!

And then Hogwarts with the additonal two sets for the full effect of Harry Potter's life.

 It's a regular wizarding world around here!

Gingerbread House

The boys love to put together a gingerbread house every Christmas season. I'm just glad they make the kits you can get for $5. I did pick up some extra candy to decorate with since this year there are four boys who are all very interested in getting in their fair share of decorating.

Here they are busy at work. There was a little frustration as eight hands wanted to work at the same time. They are learning compromise and kindness. Especially since I wouldn't let anyone quit!

They made it through, and were asking to eat it as soon as it was done, but no eating until Christmas Eve!

We added a small bag of M&Ms, some gummy Life Savers, and a pack of tic tacs. Seemed about right.

Caroling

I've never been caroling, have you?

Noah's school set up a caroling night for one of their "family nights" at school.  The boys and I went and stood with some friends so when they broke us into smaller groups we'd be with them.  Our group got the first side street next to the school so it wasn't a long walk and boy it looked like no one was home on the whole street.  I asked one of the teachers if they had set houses that we were going to.  Nope!  Just see who would answer the door to a mob in the street!
There were kids who would run up to the door and if someone answered we would sing them two songs, wish them a Merry Christmas. Then kids would run off to ring the doorbell at the next house.  My Noah was dying to be one of those kids ringing doorbells.  He made it on the last house, which looked dark to me, but they came to the door and we sang. Noah was quite pleased.  I was just glad he had a good time.

I imagine we looked a little bit like this:

I do not have the photographic proof myself because I felt like a purse, a hand each on a three and five year old, plus eyes on the seven and nine year old while walking down the middle of a street with no sidewalks would be enough for me, and thus no room for the camera.  Maybe next year!

After caroling we went back to the school for sitting on Santa's lap, a Christmas craft, and a cookie with scalding hot chocolate.  It was a very fun night.  By the end of the night I even managed to find the mitten and glove that I dropped as I was getting them out of my purse for Simon and Jesse when we got there.  Kind people picked them up and put them in the lost and found, and we were able to get them.  Yay for that!  I hate losing gloves!

We all enjoyed it, and I think the neighborhood did too! Now the boys and I are wondering who else we can go caroling to?  We'd need Tim with us though, we need a deeper voice in the mix than what the boys and I can offer.

Have I mentioned lately that I love the ages of my boys? And the fun we are having? Partly why my blogging has been sparse, there's just so much we are doing, learning, and experiencing. So glad I get to be their mother and share in forming who they become.  Love those little men!

The Twelve Days of Christmas

Apparently the boys' bus driver is doing a little Christmas trivia with them to pass the time. She tells them what it will be about and then asks for the answer the next day. They came home wanting to know about the Twelve Days of Christmas.

While I think that song is a wonderful Christmas tradition, I'm not about to sing it, it's horrible! The repetition drives me up a wall. However, I was more than happy to sing the final verse, starting at twelve. I was singing it and trying to get the boys to join in and act out what was happening so they'd be able to remember it better. Eli was excited to be a Leaping Lord, Noah and Eli would both be Ladies Dancing, they would all do "swimming" motions for Swimming Swans. They pointed to my rings for the Golden Rings, Jesse would fly like a bird for any of the birds, Simon would act like a turtle crawling for the Turtle Doves (which cracked me up by the way).

The VERY best one though was when we came to Geese. I wasn't sure how to do a goose laying an egg, so I figured I'd see what they came up with, I mean, why should I be the one with all of the ideas? I will document below:

"Noah, be a goose laying an egg!" I encouraged. Noah thought for a second and before he could act, Simon came over and sort of sat down, as one would to lay an egg. It worked for me. I was ready to head to the Golden Rings.

"Wait! Wait!" Eli yelled. He ran over to the center of us, sat kind of on his knees and ripped a BIG fart. Then he laughed and laughed. All the boys laughed and laughed. I laughed and laughed while shaking my head.

Bet you'll never think of "Geese-a-laying" the same will you?

VBS

This was Jesse's first year in VBS as a participant, instead of just being in the nursery.  I work in the preschool classroom and this year Simon has moved on, but I had Jesse.  I will say 6:15 to 8:00 five nights in a row is hard on the three year old crowd.  I noticed it with all of our three year olds.  Several of them had meltdowns at one point or another during the week, Jesse included.  I did a lot of comforting and holding of the melter-downers.  And a capri-sun and goldfish work wonders for the spirit of a three year old!  Not to mention a session on the playground!  We're pretty flexible in the preschool rooms.

There's always a contest to see who can bring in more pennies, the boys or the girls, and this year, the boys rocked the house!  Woo hoo!  Miss Betsie got the bucket of water on her head since the boys won, which my boys were very pleased about!

She's such a good sport!

Art Show

Our school district has an art show to showcase selected artwork from throughout the year.  Eli had a drawing in the show so we wanted to be sure to make it this year.  The boys and I went and looked at all the artwork.  They pointed out cool things the older kids could do and the things kids they knew did.  It was fun.

There was also face painting (free, so it was right up my alley), as we were leaving they all ended up deciding they wanted something on their faces.

I took a picture when we got home:

Eli in a mustache and goatee

Simon as a dalmation (the whiskers are pretty fat)

Noah with a skull (I worry about his teenage years)

Jesse with a soccer ball

Eli's comment was that now he was a man.  He's been working on growing out the hair in front of his ears, you know, so he can have sideburns, like Dad.

Riding Bikes

We had a break in the rain so I rushed the boys outside to ride bikes.  I took a few pictures.  They love to ride and it was nice to be outside and see the green green grass of spring.

Simon reverts to his little bike when I'm not helping him with his bigger bike

Jesse chooses to drive his car a lot of times during bike riding

Easter Fun

The boys all had fun on Easter too!
The guys hid the eggs and then Tim let the boys go outside youngest to oldest. The younger ones didn't know what to do without the older ones to help though. But once they were all outside, they were off!









There was hunting and searching.












Running and laughing.











Then the adults started looking around to see what had been overlooked, offering advice of "hot" or "cold" or teasing when they walked right by one.











Jesse found one under a car and had to use a stick to get it out.










The boys all had a great time.

Working with Dad

The boys were getting a little stir crazy so Tim asked me to bundle up the boys and send them out with him. He had been cutting up a dead tree and wanted some help loading up the wood to bring in. Here they are ready to go.Jesse lasted 20 minutes I think before Tim brought him back in.

Simon lasted 40 minutes, and then his hands got cold. He wanted to wear his new gloves, but I should have had him wear his mittens for better hand warmth.

Eli and Noah stayed out with Tim until they were done loading the wood and then they played in the neighbors barn for awhile hiding behind hay bales and whatnot. Good times!

Swords

My boys all got swords over the summer. They routinely get taken away. But we watched Pirates of the Caribbean, so they all got the swords out again. Then they asked if I would take pictures, that never happens so I grabbed the camera.

Swords up! Merry Christmas!

Summer 2010

I take a posed group picture each summer of all of the boys together. It's a hoot to get them all looking at the camera and smiling. Jesse was the challenge this year, being two and all. I try to take a picture that will help me remember what they were all like at this season in our family life. They are all so into camo and army stuff, that's what I will remember about this summer. I love the vests-here's a shout out to Peggy! My cousin Peggy made these vests as party favors for her son's birthday party. That's some good stuff!

Eli is growing his hair out just a touch. I try to give them freedoms where I can.
Noah took the scissors to his bangs about 20 minutes before this picture. I was not happy, I'm sure it was not my finest parenting moment!
Simon just tries to be happy and get it over with, and is happy to laugh at Dad.
Jesse will cry one minute and be laughing the next-two pictures before this one he was crying and reaching for me; like I was getting on an airplane to leave him.

It was also the summer of silly bandz in our part of the world. We'll see how long those gems last. The summer of 2010 was good to us, we've had a great time, I hate to see it go, but we must as we head into the holidays.

Happy Halloween!

A little late on the upswing here, I'm not even sure what my excuse is other than Tim enjoys browsing the world wide web now that we have high speed! That and I just haven't taken the time to do it.

Here we are on our night of trick-or-treating. I dressed up a little this year, so it was nice that Tim was home on break to take our picture.Happy Halloween (right before Thanksgiving-HA!)

Caterpillars

The boys and I found this bright green caterpillar on one of our walnut trees. It was so interesting!

Then Tim found this big dog. I've never seen anything like it before. The boys and I wondered at what it would turn into.The thing is huge. We tried to keep it, but that didn't work out so well....

Face Paint

We had a cook out at church where they had face painting. Noah asked me if he could get his face painted, he wanted Darth Vader. I said sure and he went to check it out. He came back and said they couldn't do Darth Vader.

So I wandered over there myself. They were using stencils to do the painting. Apparently they didn't take into account the Lego Darth Vader fans when purchasing the stencils. So I asked if they cared if I painted Noah's face. They were more than happy to hand over a brush. Here's what I came up with:

Then of course the other boys saw Noah and wanted the same. Here are they all are.

It's almost like they are lining up for mug shots. Let's hope this is the only time!

Tent City

Did you ever make tents in the living room as a kid? I know we did and it was so fun. I think it's something kids just love to do. Our boys use the whole stack of blankets-and we have a big stack because our house is cold in the winter.

They have various "homes" for the whole lot of them. I love to see their creations. Here is Simon, he's so proud of his little home. Pay no attention to the big brother posing in the background-who is he, James Bond?

I would like you to note that Simon couldn't get the blanket to stay over the two chairs, so he got his tools out and used pipe wrenches, tightened down, to hold it in place. Pretty smart!
Then there is Eli and Noah's, they incorporated the recliner, love seat, and various other chairs for their house. As a side note, Eli took his rest in there and fell right to sleep on the hardwood floor.

Here is the finished house that they will share.