Eliot James, 5 years old

I love my precious kiddos so much!

 

 

This week

Alison was able to change her earrings this weekend.  She helped Ben clean up the yard and earned a new pair of earrings.  She LOVES shopping in Claire's!

 

This t-shirt she's wearing, was a Christmas present and was big when she got it...she's growing up way to fast.

Ben took Monday off work and we went to the zoo.  We've been to this zoo countless times, but it's been a year since we've been there and everything seemed new and exciting to them.  

 

Wednesday we had a picnic on a fishing pier next to our "gym class".  The kids fed the birds the crust of their sandwiches and thought it was the best thing ever. 

Alison moved up in swim lessons!  In just 6 weeks, she's swimming alone in the deep end.  This is her first time jumping off the block:

You know you've had a busy week when someone crashes in the car.  We went to the Y Thursday night and picked up a pizza on the way home to make the evening run a little smoother.  Eli fell asleep in the middle of eating his pizza.  Colin was loudly exclaiming, "MOMMA! ELI FELL ASLEEP IN HIS PIZZA!"

We started the week in shorts and t-shirts and ended the week in jeans and warm jackets.  We met some friends at the farm today and it was freezing!  The kids looked at the animals for a few minutes and then decided to make a game out of jumping over a mud stream.  Eli jumped once, saw the mud on his shoe and stood back to watch.  Colin on the other hand, found the muddiest spot and jumped back and forth countless times.

Speaking of my nut, he's been wearing this get-up for 3 days; even sleeping and riding his bike in it.

This and that

My completely random post for the week :)

Our grocery bill has been growing the last few months.  A combination of the kids eating more and eating 95% whole foods has equaled a painful swipe of the card at the check out line.  We've had meals that every single morsel of food I cook is gone.  1 whole chicken used to last us 3 meals, now it only lasts us 1.  I know it will only get worse and I know it's worth it to feed our family healthy food, but it's still painful.  I went to BJ's last week; this giant carton of raspberries was gone in 24 hours, as well as a large bundle of bananas.  It did make me smile that this is what Eli asked for as a snack while he played Minecraft on his birthday.

School has been going well.  I feel like I should blog about that more, but know that we are doing school and the kids are learning.  Easter week, we did some Easter learning activities.  We mixed some fun in with the serious, but the week really showed the kids true colors of learning.  One day, I poured some jellybeans in a divided plate and some in plastic eggs.  I told Alison and Eli to sort, count and graph the colors of jelly beans in their eggs and I told Colin to just sort the colors into the different compartments of the plate.  Alison finished her graph in 2 minutes, Eli quietly focused on learning the new skill of graphing and Colin just started shoving jellybeans in his mouth as fast as he could.  He is a stubborn little boy when it comes to learning.  I totally respect that putting a plate full of sugar in front of a toddler is a strong temptation, but even when I tried to get him to repeat the colors after me before he could eat one, he would just say "green" and sneak one in.

Last week we took "spring break" along with the public schools.  Really, it was just a week of catching up on chores and planning out the remainder of school until SUMMER!  Alison got to spend the day with some fellow homeschool friends and they went to see Cinderella at the theater.  She loved having a day full of girly stuff.

 She has also made a sweet friend at swim lessons.  Charissa is only 6 but they click really well and have a great time playing together on Wednesdays.

We've had such a great experience at the pool that I signed Eli up to begin lessons in a few weeks.  He's been practicing in the bathtub:

No morning is complete without hearing this:

Colin says, "I NEED coffee!" He wants coffee in the Curious George coffee mug.

Eli decided he was big enough to ride his bike.


I love how just moving toys around makes them completely new to kids. I moved our kitchen down the wall and suddenly it was irresistible. Eli spent a lot of time today setting up the kitchen and cooking for us. I love how his blankie became the fire to cook over. It seems loud in the video...that would be our house when the dishwasher is running and the kids are playing.

Rick's 60th Birthday

Sunday was Rick's 60th birthday.  We started the day with Ben guest preaching at another church.  It's always good to hear him preach, and the kids loved that the church had free bagels and activity packs :)  After church we took Rick out to lunch. 

God gave us another beautiful day and nothing says "Happy 60th" like blowing bubbles.

 The kids saw a bunny in the yard and begged Ben to help them catch it so they could keep it as a pet.  Ben agreed to try to catch it, but only to look at it for a few minutes.

He set up the trap and the kids would periodically check on it.  While they were playing, Ben snuck in a stuffed rabbit and called them over.  Oh how wish I could have gotten a picture of their faces.  It was a mixture of excitement and nervousness but they were mostly scared.

The miracle of all miracles happened this weekend while we were playing outside.  Our backyard neighbors emerged from their house!  This is only the second time I've ever seen them and they actually came over to talk!  The kids instantly started playing and their little girl asked if our kids would like to play on her swing set.  The dad said that they've been wanting to catch us for awhile and tell us that we're welcome to play in their backyard any time.  MIRACLE!  First, I have to say how proud of our kids for not touching that swing set and having a good attitude about it.  Second, I definitely feel bad about how I judged the situation.  Turns out that the wife is pregnant with their 3rd and on bed rest.  The kids have been staying with her parents during the week and to top it all off, the kids suffer from severe allergies which makes it difficult to play outside with everything is covered in pollen.  I took them over some cake with our phone number attached in case the wife ever needs something while he's at work...I suppose that might be awkward driving a laboring women I've never met to the hospital, but if it anyone could handle it, it would be the person who had a baby in the ER waiting room.

  For dinner we had smoked pork, coleslaw and roasted sweet potatoes.  And for dessert, apple pie and vanilla bean ice cream. 

It was weekend full of fun, too much fun for the littlest.

 

We were cleaning up the dishes from dinner and found him crashed on the couch.

Happy 5th Birthday Eli!

Eli requested a "play games as a family day" for his birthday.

Eli was up bright and earl, so excited for his birthday.  So, in the darkness of the morning, we tiptoed downstairs together.  The night before, we set out his presents and surrounded them with balloons.  This is him saying, "What.is.this.  Balloons are supposed to be on the ceiling."

I figured they would fall over night and the kids would just want to play with them, so I left them on the floor.  Oops.

Long ago, I made up the rule that you had to be 5 to chew gum.  First thing in the morning, Ben gave Eli his first piece of gum.  Here he is showing him how to chew it:

  I think it freaked him out that you just keep chewing and don't swallow.  So he would put a piece in, chew it for a minute, spit it out and make a comment about his jaw hurting.

We went to the Y for a little bit and then stopped to pick out some donuts.

  Eli picked a chocolate glazed.

 

For his birthday shirt, he got a new t-shirt to go with his theme=Minecraft + Lego.

He requested a jelly sandwich, cheetos and lemonade for lunch and then we opened presents.

Colin fit in the bag that his sward came in :)  

Rick was here visiting for the weekend and Eli really enjoyed having some time with him. 

Our kids also seem to like to change grandparents names and started calling Rick "Pop".  So Pop and Daddy took turns helping Eli put together his Mincraft Lego set.

This is my favorite picture of the day:

We got him the Minecraft game for the Xbox and the boys spent part of the afternoon playing that together.  I have no idea how to play but did my best to understand his narration of what he was doing.  He's a smart one, this little boy.

It was a perfect day outside, so we also spent a lot of time outside playing.  We had a party for dinner, complete with pizza and chocolate cake.

He requested a Minecraft cake that was chocolate with white frosting.  This is supposed to be the face of a creeper, but my m&m's are too far apart.  Eli said it looked creepy, so I guess it was a success.

I found these awesome Lego party favors at Target.  I set one at each seat and I think they were the biggest hit of the day.  Eli barely touched his pizza or cake and spent the whole "party" building ships and castles.

I had a great day celebrating my favorite 5 year old and I hope he did too.  I know I'm not ready for all this growing up.  He already is more confident and feels bigger.  Just today he said, "I can read now, I'm 5."

Easter '15

 

The day before Easter, we colored a eggs.  The kids were excited for the activity, but I am so glad I didn't put too much effort into it because they each painted 1 and were off to play.  Naturally, Colin had to dress up for the affair.  He wore this hat and one sleeve all day.  I think he was pretending to be a doctor because they often pretend that sleeve is a cast.

All that playing left them tuckered out.  Colin climbed up on Ben and snuggled up like he was still a baby.  I'm sure going to miss having a little one in the house-these kids are growing up way too fast!

Easter was filled with way too much sugar.  We began the day with cinnamon rolls.  Colin was the most excited about them and stayed at the table after everyone was done to finish all of his.

this is his excited face

The kids snuggled up and watched a movie after breakfast.  I wanted to tell them that they had to get dressed before they could watch anything, but they were just too cute all bundled up.

We finally got dressed and ready for church.  I snapped these on our way out and I'm so glad I did.

Colin didn't get to stay in his cute outfit for very long.  You see, right in the middle of church, he told Ben he had to go potty.  Ben took him out, but long story short, Colin pooped his pants while Ben was getting a cup of coffee.  Happy Easter to daddy!  So church was a little less than relaxing for us, and we didn't get a dressed up family picture.  I took this selfie while waiting to facetime my parents:

Just have to figure out how to photoshop Ben in there.

After church, the kids found their baskets and went on an egg hunt.

We also attempted to make peep playdough...it was a huge pinterest fail.  Sure, we made dough, but the blogger forgot to mention that it would turn rock hard in about 1 minute.  So we got out our oldschool playdough and Eli built a castle for "good guys".

It was a beautiful day and we spent a lot of it outside.  We had some friends from church over for dinner and had grilled lamb, asparagus and potatoes for dinner.