Lego Birthday!

Elijah celebrated his birthday this weekend with a lego party!  He picked out the theme months ago so we had ample time to plan.  :-)  The only activities he wanted was for the kids to have contests building different lego things, so we set up a table in the garage with all our legos on it and all the bigger kids had contests, first to see who could build the tallest tower, and second, to see who could build the coolest thing.  The kids had so much fun!  After all the games were over most of the kids just kept playing with the legos, they are such a universal toy!

For Elijah's cake I made some giant legos.  I choose to frost them in bright colors, just like the real deal.  I tried stacking them but that was a dismal failure so I just lined them up on a few trays. 

After cake Elijah opened his gifts.  He got all kinds of legos, books, clothes, and other stuff.  He was one happy camper!!!  Overall it was a great party!

Awana Award Night!

This past week was the kids last week of Awana!  All the kids finished their books and got awards.  They were all so proud of themselves!

Emmaline recieved a ribbon and a certificate for completing her book, review book, and multiple other verses!

 Elijah completed 2 books plus 3 review books plus multiple other verses so he received a special award from the commander, she called it the "Wow Award", because he went so far above and beyond what was required!

This was Josiah's last year as a Cubbie, so he received a special certificate, big ribbon, and very own tote bag!

After the awards there was ice cream floats provided to celebrate!  The kids had a blast! 

Store night!

The kids had a wonderful time shopping at the Awana store this past week!  Josiah had just over $50 (Awana bucks) to spend and ended up getting just a few bigger things.  He has had a great time racing his cars on his new Hot Wheels track!

Elijah had almost $130 Awana bucks!  He also ended up with a few bigger things including a book for him to fill in all about himself, which he has had a great time doing!

Emmaline by far had the most money, coming in at nearly $160 bucks, and she had a marvelous time spending it all!  She came home with 4 huge plastic bags full of her stuff!

All the kids also bought Mother's Day gifts for me, but I, of course, won't see those till Mother's Day!  :-)

Next up is Awards night and then Awana will be done for the summer.  It's sort of bittersweet, nice to not have to focus so much on keeping up with verses for all the kids but at the same time they love going so much, and I love to see them enjoying themselves!  We still are not sure what we will be doing for next year, but we'll keep you all posted.

Library

The kids had fun this week turning our living room into a library, including displays, a sign, and a box of books that people could buy, as well as library books to borrow!  We had just gone to the library so we had lots of books on hand to use! :-)

Display Table and sign

Hand lettered sign done by Elijah

The library!  Looks so comfortable and homey!

When I grow up...

For Awana the kids dressed up as what they want to be when they're grown up!  Elijah dressed up as a farmer, Emmaline dressed as a Mom, and Josiah dressed up as an airplane pilot.  They had so much fun putting their outfits together!

Here is a picture of them all together.  Micah just had to get in on the picture, even though he probably has no idea what he wants to do when he's grown up!  (Jeremiah missed out because he was asleep.)

Emmaline just had to have long orange hair to be a Mom, not sure quite what that says about me!  ;-)

Easter 2012

                       Here the kids are, all dressed up and ready to go to church!  So cute!!!

Kids

It's been awhile since I took pics of the kids, and this past week I was able to take some.  So, here are some current shots of the kids.

Awana Store

Last week was Store night at Awana!  For any of you who have ever had kids in Awana you know that this is very exciting for the kids.  :-)  Elijah had almost $100 Awana bucks (Awana bucks are earned for various things from saying verses to wearing your vest) and Emmaline had almost $120!  Emmaline didn't spend much of hers, she came home with only a few things.  Elijah came home with only a few things as well, but he had one big purchase which took most of his money.  Here it is, a Cars clock that cost $50!

He is quite proud of his purchase and has it hanging above his bed in a prominent place so everyone can see it!

Awana Grand Prix

Elijah and Emmaline had so much fun building their grand prix cars for Awana!  They spent a bit of time on the internet with Mark looking at ideas and picking what they wanted to do.  Emmaline settled on a Strawberry Shortcake car and Elijah picked Mater (from the movie Cars).  Mark cut out the cars, then Emmaline and Elijah did all the painting themselves!  I was so proud of them!  The Grand Prix was last week, Elijah didn't win anything which he was pretty disappointed about but Emmaline won an award for "Most Colorful Car"!  Ha! 

The actual Grand Prix was a fiasco, I thought it was crazy last year but this year was really bad.  We actually came home and talked about our options for someplace different to go for Awana next year (It was BAD).  I guess we will see how the rest of the year goes, but we have not been very pleased with things this year and the Grand Prix is the proverbial straw that broke the camels back!  Pray for us to have wisdom in this decision!

Snowman!

Elijah and Emmaline took advantage of the snow we got a few weeks ago to make their very own snow man!  They were so proud of themselves!

Book It

I enrolled Elijah in the Pizza Hut Book It program for the first time this year.  The first day of the program was October 1.  I told Elijah he needed to read 3 chapter books for the month.  Well, on October 3 he had already read 3 chapter books!  To say he was excited about the program might be understating it a bit!

Mark ordered Elijah's pizza and they went to pick it up together, then came home and ate dinner with the rest of the family.  Elijah was so excited to eat his pizza, all by himself.  :-)  Now he is counting down the days till next month!  (The goal for next month will be a bit higher, so it will take him a little longer to earn, hopefully...)

Fishing with Papa

This past week Elijah went fishing with Mark's Dad.  They were gone for the whole day (8:30 a.m. - 7 p.m.).  Elijah had a wonderful time!  He caught one fish, which he was so proud about.  He also came home with wild flowers that he had picked for me, so sweet!

Breakfast!

Elijah made breakfast for us all by himself on Saturday!  He choose what to make, pancakes, and then proceeded to make them with minimal help from me!  I'm so proud of him!

 They were so yummy!  What a special treat to not have to cook!  All that training is finally paying off! :-)

Elijah's 7th Birthday!

We celebrated Elijah's Birthday this weekend with a big party for family and friends!  We tried, once again, to combine the two groups rather than having two birthday parties.  And amazingly, this party went much better than last year!  Yay!

We started the day by giving Elijah his birthday present from us:  2 turtles!  Elijah has been saving up for a turtle since Christmas and he was sooo excited!  He named them Sam and Missy.
  

In the afternoon we had his birthday party, which was quite large:  12 adults and 15 children, not including our family!  I had planned a few activities for the kids to do, which seemed to help to keep things under control and manageable.  I also had several adults out back supervising kids, so we didn't have any accidents this year, whew! 

Another Lost Tooth!

Elijah lost another tooth this week!  He was sitting and reading a book when he said he heard a noise and looking down saw his tooth sitting on his book!  He is so excited, he can hardly wait for the "tooth fairy" to come!   Even though he knows who the tooth fairy really is it's still fun for him!  He is getting so grown up...

Silliness

One evening we were waiting for company to come and the kids asked me to take some pictures of them.  They were in a silly mood...

Kid Pics

These are some random pictures of the kids that I took this week.  They are not the greatest pictures but...I love to take pictures of the kids to share so here they are!

Emmaline, so serious, at least for this picture. 

 

Here, Jeremiah clowns around in typical "Jeremiahish" fashion.  He is really quite silly...

 

Josiah, fixing his airplane.  He loves to fix things!

Micah, swinging out back.  (Or being swung?  Whatever is the correct way to say that he was being pushed in the swing.  :-) )

 

Josiah on the swingset.  Look at me, Mom!

Elijah with a lego project that he built.  It is fun to see what he comes up with.  This is supposed to be a zebra, I'm not sure that I see it...!

First Model Car!

Mark and Elijah spent the afternoon Sunday building a wooden model car kit that Mark had picked up for a $1 on clearance.  We, of course, didn't tell Elijah where we got it or how much it cost, only that Daddy had bought it just for the two of them to do together and he was thrilled!  Elijah was so proud of himself for being old enough to work on a model with Daddy.  :-)

Frogs

Once a week we clean the frog cage, and while it's being cleaned the kids have fun holding the frogs and watching them jump around the living room.  They all have to take turns since we only have 2.  Here, Josiah is admiring Mrs. Jumper, who was enjoying all the attention and sitting perfectly still for my picture... 

When it was Emmaline's turn she was wearing a sweater that the frogs could climb on and they climbed right up her sweater and nestled next to her hair!  She was a good sport and held still, except for giggling...

Here Elijah gets a turn.  He had to take a break from cleaning to hold the frogs, since they are his pets it's his job to clean the cage.  The frogs have been a good pet for us so far, they are easy to care for and don't require much attention or maintenance and they are fun to have around.  :-)