Luke is 4!!!

Today is Luke's birthday. Doug asked him how old he is today and he said that he was 3 and that he wouldn't be 4 until his birthday party started.   We just got home from his birthday party so I guess it's official, He's 4!


The kids had no school today so we had a party at the park.  Luke's little sports coach came and led them in some fun games and relay races.

Tug of War

They had a race to make a mummy.  

Then the mummies came alive and chased them.

Luke wanted a full body Hulk cake, NOT just a face.  I love making my kids cake dreams come true.

Now we are home enjoying a little down time.   We'll have the rest of the party when Doug gets home tonight.  Happy Birthday Luke!! Can't believe you are 4!!

Ho Hum

Every Wednesday, we go to the park to meet friends and play.  One day I actually brought my camera.

One day Luke had a little fun with olives.

Max is enjoying his basketball season.

Cousin Eli sent us a Flat Stanley to take care of for the week last week.  He joined playing Pictionary one night for FHE.

We also took him with us to the Zoo, the beach and to all our usual activities.

Jack is doing really great in School.  He received an award for outstanding achievement in Math last week.  He also finished his Firts Magic Tree House book and is on Number 2.  I don't think he could be more excited about that.

Luke is loving his sports class.  Its time for Basketball now.

And those are some of the things we did over the last couple of weeks.

And the days go by...

A few weeks ago Max asked when the leaves were going to fall from the maple tree in our back yard.  About a week later, they all fell.  The kids have been having a great time raking them and jumping into them. We hung swing from one of the branches and they have been jumping off of the swing into the piles.

 I'm thankful that we get to have a little fall fun in always green Florida.

The kids are always thinking up new ways to have fun on the trampoline.  The fun addition of blankets have opened a whole new world of trampoline fun, it seems.

Meredith had a piano recital on Saturday. Here she is with her fabulous teacher.  I think the recitals are Meredith's favorite part of taking piano lessons.  She played two songs: Have a Holly Jolly Christmas, and Ballade.  She played both flawlessly.  She is awesome!

On Monday the kids had a day off from school.  We met some friends at one of our favorite parks and fed the birds.

They were all swarming around us and the kids were throwing bread in the air for the birds to catch. It was pretty cool.

I felt like we were in the movie The birds. Thankfully they weren't attacking us.

Other news of the week.  Max and Jack both figured out how to do a pull up.  I challenged them about a year ago that if they could learn how to do a pull up I would pay them $20. They have a pull up bar in their doorway and have been working toward it for a long time.  Of course they used their money to buy more Lego. Can't get enough of that over here.

Max had a basketball game on Saturday.  Their team is undefeated so far.

Mer and Max spent the weekend working on their science fair projects.  Mer is done and Max is just about there.  I'll be glad when it's over.

Jack is on chapter 6 of his first Magic Tree house book.  He is so excited that he is reading well enough to read chapter books.  Of course he needs help on some of the big words but he is getting really good. I'm so proud of him.  It's fun to teach kids to read.

Luke is just happy to tag along and be able to hold his own on a trampoline with 3 big kids.  He is getting a little more mischievous and showing his temper a bit.  I guess the baby is always spoiled.  He is doing soccer in his Little Sports class right now. He thinks he's so big. I guess he is, he'll be 4 in a month.  CRAZY!!

Vacation ends.

The kids go back to school tomorrow.  I have heard complaints about not wanting to go back more than once in the last couple of days. We didn't do too much over the last week but we had a lot of fun doing nothing.  There was a lot of this...

And a lot of this...

We built a tire swing last weekend and it has upped the back yard fun quite a bit.

Doug let the older kids stay up and watch the Lord of the Rings series this week. Of course they loved it and felt extremely special to be able to watch a PG-13 show. They walked around robed in blankets all evening outside playing some game based on the movies.

Funny things this week:

Luke has taken to spanking everyone at any unsuspecting moment. I think it came from a trampoline game they played one day.  Today he was caught giving Jack a good swat as he walked by him in the bench at church.

The favorite word of the week is "Ugh!" Luke says it mostly but everyone has jumped on board. It is usually said in desperation when you don't get your way or when you spill something on the floor.

Favorite song of the week: White and Nerdy by Weird Al. If you haven't seen the video yet, I highly recommend you watch it. My favorite part is the background dancing by Donny Osmond. Max and Mer got iTune gift cards for Christmas. This is just one of the many songs they have downloaded this week.

Doug got a Pancake creator for Christmas and we have been having a bit of fun with it.

This is Mer's first print with her new screen printing kit. She's moving on to T-shirts next.

I finished the boys Lego bags this week.  You can read more about it HERE.  See that yellow lego head?  I have a lovely yellow stain on the carpet from that painting episode.  It is probably the worst stain/spill we've ever had living with white berber carpet for the last 8 years.   I'm hoping it will inspire me to get new flooring in our living area.

Jack had a school assignment to have his friend Gingerbread Fred tag along with us this Winter vacation.  We took him for a ride around the neighborhood this week.

And now I leave you with a few pictures from our New Year's Eve festivities.

  Caught up!! My goals this week are to nap Luke every day (He is exhausted), take my sewing machine into the shop to get fixed (sadly it broke down on Saturday), fill out a couple of applications for middle schools (is Mer really already that old?), and be a little more prepared for my primary lesson next week (I get to teach Luke's new Sunbeam class).

Over and out!!