Sam's "half birthday" celebration!

Sam got to go on his very first half birthday outing tonight. He hit the golden age of 4 1/2, which is when (in our family) the kids get to have a special night out with just mom and dad! We went to Chuck-E-Cheese and had lots of fun! Samuel also helped me make a cake earlier today (Daniel and Anna helped too!). For some reason Sam is quite excited about police cars and wanted me to put a police car on his cake, with us and him inside! I told him that I wasn't making a super fancy cake for a half birthday, so we settled for a picture stuck on top of the cake of all of us in a police car, hmmmmm . . . still not sure why we're all inside the police car!!, I'm not going to ask any questions! Nevertheless, we had a really fun night with our super silly boy! (Can you tell who took the picture of the three of us out front?!!)

My sweet Daniel!

I had a "mom's night out" over the weekend. The older kids were still awake when I got home and Daniel (6) rushed to greet me. I asked how the night was and this was his reply (complete with big sad puppy dog eyes)

"It wasn't that great of a night. We had ice cream for dessert and we finished the 'full house clean up' fast enough that we even got to choose 3 toppings for our ice cream . . . and we got to have a tailgate party in the driveway while we ate it! . . . and it was a beautiful night . . . there was a nice breeze blowing and it was all quiet and still, except for the crickets chirping . . . but it wasn't that good . . . because you weren't here"

aaaaaaawwwwwww! Can't they stay six for just a little longer?!

Silly camera fun!

Motor oil and mentoring

Levi and Kevin have spent quite a bit of time in the driveway lately, working on an old Chevy Suburban that we've acquired. Kevin is in the process of trading out his Navigator for an older Suburban with a "bigger engine" (as Samuel loves to say!) In spite of its many broken parts (some of them quite endearing ~ like a driver's seat that rocks back and forth as you drive . . . and some of them just down right funny ~ like having to roll the windows down to reach outside and open the doors!), it is better equipped to haul the travel trailer than the Navigator was. So, we upgraded our sleeping quarters and downgraded our driving digs . . . which probably means we came out even!

Nevertheless, one fun side benefit to this has been having some extra opportunities for Kevin to indulge Levi in his love of working alongside his dad and learning to fix things. Levi enjoys many free time activities, but he will drop WHATEVER he is doing (at any hour, in any weather!) when the opportunity arises to help Kevin with a repair project (in the house, on a car, in the yard, wherever). A few months ago, the lock was broken on our bathroom door (and people kept getting stuck inside accidentally!). Kevin bought a new locking doorknob and handed the package to Levi. Levi replaced it himself in a matter of minutes. We find ourselves frustrated from time to time with his lack of enthusiasm for schoolwork, but really appreciate his willingness and enthusiasm to learn and serve in so many other ways.

When Levi was about five years old, I noticed that he could fix things that I couldn't figure out (clocks, vacuum cleaners, fans, etc). We could see, even at that age, that God has uniquely gifted him to understand how things work and to take great delight in using his mind and hands together to get a job done.

There's a 10 year old in the house!

We had a fun weekend celebrating Emily's birthday. She had a mini-slumber party with two girlfriends Friday night and a "Monkey Madness" party on Saturday. We did a "monkey decathlon" (thanks to Kevin's creative genius!), ate monkey ice cream cake (I think the experiment worked) and generally monkeyed around! Sunday, Emily and I (and Auntie Penny) got to spend some "girl time" clothes shopping for her. It was a fun, busy weekend and we have an awesome ten year old! Emily is excited to start her first (sort of) "real job" today. She is taking care of the neighbor's plants and cats while they are out of town!

Countdown to double digits!

We are enjoying the last few hours with our "single digit sweetie" before Emily turns 10 in the morning. I don't think I'm ready for double digits, but they are upon us whether I am or not! I've spent my evening figuring out how to make an ice cream cake -- and how to put a monkey on the front of it! (Emily is very into monkeys right now) We'll find out tomorrow if I succeeded or not.

Goodness Gracious!!

What just happened? It seems like I just posted pictures of our first track meet and now the season is over! At the second meet Emily finally brought home a blue ribbon (in the long jump). The boys continued to do amazing in all of the running races they entered and all three of those kids can throw a softball! (one of the events was a softball toss). All in all, it seems that track was a fun experience for everyone. As soon as track ended (a week ago), the kids enjoyed a short soccer camp (hosted by a local church). We squeezed two different camping trips into July--at a local state park with a "pretend beach" (since the real one is still too far away). About a month ago, we upgraded our old motor home to a travel trailer (so we can actually travel somewhere with it--and not have to drive two cars) . . . it's a far cry from "camping" as I've always known it -- but it's awfully handy with so many kids (since we're required to get two hotel rooms when we go anywhere, it helps to take your own lodging with you!). We're hoping that it also provides us with the chance to "take school on the road" a bit in the coming months. We found our travel trailer on Craigslist and ended up driving to Omaha to pick it up. That worked out great for us because we finally got to see Taylor and meet his girlfriend (Kelsey). It was a rushed visit, but very, very fun to see both of them!

Running and throwing and jumping . . . oh my!

The older 3 kids are involved in a local track and field program and had their first meet last week. Both Levi and Daniel won every running race they entered! The "blue ribbon boys" really enjoyed themselves! Emily did best at the long jump-outjumping all the other girls her age (but not the 2 boys that were in the competition with her). I think it was a good experience for all of them. We were really proud of Emily for how well she handled the disappointment of not bringing home a handful of blue ribbons like the boys did. It was a lot of fun watching Levi and Daniel do so well . . . and Samuel and Anna were very patient (and goofy) cheerleaders!

Geocaching!

Kevin talked us into an early Father's Day present when he found a used hand held GPS on Craigslist. For many months we've talked about going geochaching and finally decided to try it! (This was obviously before my back went out). Kevin printed off a few "easy, kid friendly" caches . . . located a few steps from some local playgrounds. We put fresh batteries in the camera, packed a lunch and went off on an adventure -- our maiden geocaching voyage! We missed our turn for the first site. At the second site, we located the little grove of trees that the coordinates and the clues led us to -- we dug and we searched and we dug and we searched and 30 minutes later we decided to give up! Off to the next site . . . where we had the exact same experience! We came back home, looked on the computer and discovered that there was a cache hidden somewhere near the playground right across the street from our house! So we grabbed the GPS and walked over to the park -- determined to rescue this whole experience, so it wasn't a complete failure!! We found it! Microscopic as it was, we located our first itty bitty little cache! Hurray! We are looking forward to seeing how this sport of hiking and treasure hunting may just evolve into a treasured family hobby.

Walking is not to be taken for granted!

I've re-discovered this in the past week. With no warning (and for no apparent reason), my back decided to quit working last Sunday and remained that way far longer than it normally does! In spite of several trips to the chiropractor, most of the week spent lying on an ice pack and generally "taking it easy" (mostly because I had no choice) . . . it wasn't until Friday that I could finally walk more than a few steps. It still isn't back to "normal", but I'm very thankful to be mobile again. Fortunately for the kids, they were enrolled in a Vacation Bible School last week (each morning). When she was home, Emily enjoyed providing "room service" for me since I couldn't get downstairs for meals. She even found a dinner bell that she jingled delightedly to announce her arrival!

Sweet!

The morning of my birthday Emily asked permission to rummage through my box of fabric and other stuff for crafts, a few minutes later all of the kids disappeared into the basement. After about 30 minutes of secretive giggles, I discovered that they were creating matching "I love my mom" t-shirts! (which they wore when we went out to lunch and bowling with my sister and her kids)

Musings on Metamorphosis

So, we recently did the butterfly thing ~ you know, you order caterpillars, they arrive in the mail, they eat really yucky looking "food" for a few days and then they each form a chrysalis and hang upside down (or at least it looks that way) . . . and you wait . . . and you wait . . . and you wait and then one day you wake up and there is a butterfly! Well, all things considered this little adventure went well and we released 5 little butterflies into our backyard earlier today.

Here's where my brain has been wandering recently. A good week or so into the pupal (chrysalis) stage, I commented to Kevin that it sure looked to me like nothing was happening and I wondered if we would ever be seeing butterflies and that if butterflies really did appear that it would be a good lesson for me in "things are really happening, even when it looks like nothing is happening". Well, you guessed it . . . the very next morning we saw our first butterfly. Followed by three more within a few hours. The fourth chrysalis just hung there quietly. After two full days of four butterflies flitting about in their little habitat (and that last chrysalis just hanging there), I told the kids that "maybe the 5th one just wasn't going to become a butterfly. Sometimes that happens. Human babies sometimes make it to the embryo stage, but just don't make it". Low and behold, Emily came running into my room the next morning telling me that there was a 5th butterfly . . . I think I was more surprised than she was. So my take away from this little adventure is two-fold: 1) when we are waiting for something to take place in our lives or for God to answer a particular prayer -- we shouldn't give up too quickly . . . because 2) often times there is a lot happening even when we can't see it. Hmmmmmmm.

Happy Birthday Anna!

Anna's birthday was over a week ago . . . I'm trying to get caught up! She wanted a "pink puppy dog birthday", so we had a pink puppy dog cake in the park and adopted "pound puppies", lapped up ice cream (without spoons), tossed doggie treats into the "mouth" of a big, print out of a dog . . . and nearly got really wet when a storm moved in . . . all in all, it was fun! Anna loves to play on the swings at the park--on her belly! Kevin also managed to remember the annual photo with her big bear. Once we stop taking them every month (when the kids are babies), I'm really horrible at remembering to take them on their birthdays (yeay for Kevin!). The photo below of Samuel and Anna is from "field day" a few days before Anna's birthday. (We must really like her in that outfit, I just realized she's dressed the same on both days!)

They did it!

The older kids (along with one of their cousins) competed in a kids' triathlon this morning. They all had a great time and did really well. None of them placed in the top 3, but Levi and Daniel each came in 4th in their age groups!

From the mouths of munchkins . . . .

We went to Dairy Queen last night after Emily's dance performance, I was attempting to simplify the ordering process and this was my conversation with Anna:

(mom) "Anna, do you want to have a dipped ice cream cone or a fruity drink that's like a slurpee?"
(Anna) "an ice cream cone and a drink like a slurpee"
(mom) "no honey, you can't have both, you need to choose one or the other"
(Anna) "other"














(she chose the ice cream cone!)
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(Sam) "mom, why does everybody have a different blankie?"
(mom) "I don't know honey, maybe so you can tell whose is whose"
(Sam) "I think it's because God gave everybody a different blankie, He made each of us our own special blankie for our birthday!"

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We recently bought Fruit Loops as a treat and Levi was trying to explain to me why I should let him have some for breakfast before going to enrichment ("school") on Monday ~ we usually only use them as a dessert.

(Levi) "I think Fruit Loops would be a great breakfast"
(mom) "No, they're full of sugar and not the best choice right before school"
(Levi) "well, I would think you'd want me to be really wide awake for school, wouldn't you?"
(mom) "maybe, but once the sugar wears off you'll be tired and hungry and you won't be able to think straight"
(Levi) "that's okay, I don't need to think at school"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(Dad) "Sam, you're a little smartie pants!"
(Samuel) "Daaaayyyd!, that's not appwopwiate"! (reminding him of our "no name calling" rule)

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The very busy month of May!

How we are already well into the month of May is beyond me . . . but we are enjoying the culmination of several things. We wrapped up our Mother/Daughter, Father/Son discipleship class (at a local church) a few weeks ago. It was a lot of fun, but it's nice to have another week night free again. Emily and Levi both enjoyed participating in drama productions at their enrichment program over the past few weeks. AWANAs has just finished for the year as well. The older kids were all very excited to earn book awards (for completing the activities and memorizing all of the verses in the books they were working in). We had a really fun Mother's Day. "Waitress Emily" ordered me back to bed as soon as she woke up, donned her apron, grabbed her notebook and took my order for breakfast in bed. After mine was delivered, she went on to take orders from the rest of the family and served all of us breakfast on mom and dad's bed! -- what a girl! Daniel, not wanting to be outdone, waited on me hand and foot asking every few minutes if there was anything he could get for me! We visited a new church and the kids made some sweet little Mother's Day crafts. Our usual tradition of planting our vegetable garden got bumped until nicer weather. We opted instead for a family attempt at cleaning the garage followed by ice cream floats, games and a movie night. The garage was a great success, except that Daniel took a few minutes to ride his bike afterward and donated a good portion of his epidermis to the cul-de-sac out front! After many, many tears and a pit-crew style nursing effort, we got him cleaned up and bandaged ~ and then he beat all of us at Rummikub (twice!) . He's thankful that he still has a week to recover before the kids triathlon next weekend (the older 3 kids are all participating in it). Emily has her spring worship dance performance tonight and Anna turns three in a few more weeks. She has asked me every single day for the past 3 weeks if it's her birthday yet! We have field day next Monday and we are wrapping up school for the year right before Anna's birthday ~ hurray! We decided we couldn't quite manage baseball and t-ball this summer, but the kids are looking forward to lots of playdates with friends, participating in a local track and field program, Vacation Bible School, dance camp (okay, the boys aren't looking quite as forward to it as Emily is!),camping, swimming, riding bikes, making snow cones, playing tennis at the park and most of all not having to do any math! (although Daniel will probably find some sneaky way to finish off his 4th grade math and catch up with Emily before September!)

"Look Mom, It's Christmas Day"!

That is what Anna exclaimed with great delight as she looked out the window Monday ~ at the already budding trees buckling under yet another blanket of new snow. Her holiday calendar is a bit off, but her whole world was white and glistening once again ~ with just four days left in April! Just when we think we can polish off the last of the cinnamon rolls, pack up the boots and snow suits and move on to warmer weather--it snows again! Sigh. Such is springtime in Colorado!

Levi had the distinction of having the first birthday party (in our family) which included sledding and hot chocolate! Fortunately, we are blessed with a great back yard, the side of which is sloped -- making a perfect sledding course!

We had a revelation while decorating Easter eggs a few weeks ago . . . we noticed that it wasn't as messy and chaotic as in years past. It appears that our kids have crossed that threshold (at least the majority of them have) which allows projects like that to be . . . do I dare say it? ~ enjoyable!

Even though the ground may be white, we are moving (at least mentally) into the days of winding down the school year and anticipating summer! Drama performances, dance performances, the culmination of AWANAs and other church activities are upon us.

We still don't have a definite sense of Kevin's next step (with work), but we are hoping to fairly soon. We will keep you updated.