October 2016 Highlights (part 1)

Creekfest

The boys enjoyed attending a free, local festival held near our public library. It was especially fun with cousins and aunts along! :) The festival included all sorts of fun activities, including face (or hand) painting,

painting clay pots,

doing activities at various booths (including a mini-workout routine at this booth hosted by a local gym),

doing an obstacle course,

riding a train,

petting animals at the petting zoo,

and climbing the rock wall! (This was Ian's first time trying to climb something this high. He really enjoyed it and was able to keep trying it since there weren't others in line for a while.)

Ryan tried it, too, and thought it was fun!

One of the boys' favorite activities, which I didn't catch a picture of, was learning gymnastics tricks from older boys who are students at a local Gymnastics Center. It was so cute seeing boys a few years older than Ian trying to help him perfect his cartwheel. :)

Mad Hatter Tea Party

Amy noticed that our children's museum was hosting an Alice in Wonderland themed Mad Hatter Tea Party and invited us to join her and her boys. What fun! The boys poured themselves "tea" (lemonade) and then got to ice and decorate some huge, yummy sugar cookies. They also got to meet some Alice in Wonderland characters, including Alice, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, and the Queen of Hearts.

After the tea party, the boys enjoyed their usual children's museum favorites -- building with blue foam blocks, playing with the train table and big light bright, and going to the water and rice tables.

Chelsea's Birthday

We loved hosting a birthday party for our dear sister-in-law Chelsea. We love her! She requested stir fry for a meal and apple pie for dessert. She let all of the boys help her blow out her candles.

Then, we planned an obstacle course involving activities that Chelsea might enjoy -- sliding (with Isaiah), drawing pictures in sidewalk chalk, doing yard work,

giving "Isaiah" a ride in the stroller,

and giving a hug!

The boys challenged themselves to all fit in Ryan's Jeep ...

...before playing a balloon "volleyball" game in honor of our favorite Volleyball-Playing Schleicher. :)

We ended the kids' game part of the evening by highlighting Chelsea's literature/language arts expertise. I read the Three Billy Goats Gruff story while the (bigger) boys took turns acting it out. It was hilarious!

Gender Reveal

We loved learning about the baby GIRL that the Lord is knitting together in Amy's tummy! It was fun seeing Jaden and Cody's reaction to the PINK balloons! :)

Galveston

God gave us a beautiful weekend in October for spending the day at the beach with family! We started out by riding the Galveston-Bolivar ferry (and seeing lots of dolphins!).

At the beach, Ian liked going into the "deep water" with Matt to ride the waves in.

Ryan preferred wave jumping with Aunt Chelsea, Jaden, Cody, Grammy & Papa.

Nathan's favorite part was playing in the sand with Isaiah.

Everyone liked eating lunch,

and feeding the seagulls.

We always love our time at the beach! :)

January Highlights

Home Depot Workshop

It's been a while since we've had a Saturday morning free to take our boys to a Building Workshop at Home Depot (or Lowe's ... which recently ended their free kids' workshops. Boo!). This cold Saturday morning our boys enjoyed building and painting tool boxes. Even Nathan was pretty good at hammering his nails in. This time, we got smart and brought some of Matt's old undershirts that the boys could wear as paint smocks. (Who knows WHY they insist on using acrylic paint at a kids' workshop!?!) It was a fun morning together!

King Cake

Papa and Grammy offered to bring the dessert at one of our family dinners this month ... King Cake from Rao's Bakery. Yum!! The boys had never heard of King Cake. Papa had fun reading a kids' book from the library that explained more ...  about the three kings (wisemen) that visited baby Jesus and about the time from Epiphany to Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras). They were very intrigued about the plastic baby that would be hidden in someone's cake --usually meaning that the lucky person would be the next King Cake for everyone but this time meaning that they'd get a special prize from Grammy and Papa. Cody instantly realized the unfairness of only ONE child getting a prize. Thankfully, Grammy had everything well in mind. She had made each boy a chocolate cupcake (since they didn't really like the cinnamon coffee-cake-like King Cake that we adults thought was delicious). A baby was inside EACH cupcake. It was so fun to see their reactions when they found the hidden babies. And the prize of a WHOLE bag of M&Ms was so exciting! I got the one baby hidden in the "real" King Cake. I guess I'll bring one to a family gathering next January! :)

School Festivities

Everyone at the "big school" got to dye color their hair pink or blue one Friday in January (after the whole school met a chapel offering goal). We didn't have blue hair dye on hand, but washable tempera paint worked just fine. :)

One of the preschool days following Christmas break, Ryan's class had show-and-tell. He had fun bringing a Lego helicopter he had gotten for Christmas and built himself!

Ryan's class did a lot of snow-related activities this month, including building edible snowmen.

A fireman and K-9 dog came to speak to all of the kids at the early childhood. Ryan liked that! It was so cute seeing each child come out of the classroom at the end of the day wearing a plastic fireman hat.

Random Stuff

We met some two of Ian's friends (and siblings) at the Tire Park on one of the last days of Christmas break. Three others from Ian's class had the same idea! So fun!

Ian enjoyed building this Star Wars Lego set over the Christmas break.

Even though it's a bit easier to go grocery shopping with just Nathan :), the four of us can make a pretty mean shopping team. Nathan "drives," Ryan pushes his own cart to carry stuff that doesn't fit in the car cart, Ian manages highlighting items found on the list, and Momma pays. :)

Nathan and Ryan make good running companions, even on chilly mornings.

Who knew a little CLR sitting in the washer hoses overnight could clear up a leak into the drum? Good work, babe! (And great idea, Mom & Dad!)

Nathan is now officially potty trained! He was the quickest of our three to catch on. After just a couple of focused days of staying home to practice, he got it! We still put him in diapers for sleeping but he otherwise does a great job of telling us when he needs to go, even when we're out and about. He's SO proud of himself!! Gummy bears were a good motivator, but his biggest motivator is watching the Huggies' "Potty Dance" when he goes #2 in the potty. We're proud of him!

The boys found some old pieces of wood one day while playing outside and asked for some nails so they could "build a house." Ryan's shirt is off because they had played in mud prior to finding the wood. :)

Some friends from church, the Limmers, came over to our house for dinner and games. Mrs. Limmer brought some cut fruit and encouraged the boys to make a design or animal with it. They thought this was fun. Ian made a smiley face, Nathan (with help) made a turtle, and Ryan made a snake.

After our two nights of temperatures below 30 (I know ... it's not THAT cold to you northerners!), our poor oleanders lost most of their leaves. The younger two spent a good thirty minutes one afternoon raking the leaves together into a pile and running or jumping through the pile.

When the temperatures got as cold as they did, the older two LOVED playing with the ice that formed on top of our kiddie picnic table. They also enjoyed setting out plastic containers of water and seeing how long it would take the water to freeze.

They didn't mind the cold too much, but they enjoyed warming up with a bubble bath and hot cocoa!

One of Nathan's current favorite things to do (besides playing the kids' version of the game Sequence) is banging on pots and pans.

Thank you, Lord, for a fun January! :)