Happy Mother's Day...

To my mom - I love you!!!

A picture of my mom and niece, taken earlier today

To my mother-in-laws, sister, and sister-in-laws!

To all of my wonderful friend moms out there (you know who you are)!

And to me, the luckiest mom alive. :)

All my "babies"

Birthdays... and Lots of Them!

It amazes me how birthdays always seem to occur in clumps instead of being spread throughout the year. November is of course a busy birthday time for us, but so is May.

Yesterday was Bill's birthday, at which time he turned... 29 years old (hee-hee). I'll let him stay 29 with me; I decided years ago that would be my permanent age. I can do that, right? :) We spent most of Bill's birthday at baseball games and then doing Alex's party. Family stayed after Alex's party and we celebrated both Bill and my sister's birthdays. It was such a full, wonderful day spent with our friends and family. I was worried that since we were having Alex's party on Bill's birthday, the day wouldn't be as special for Bill. But in the end, he said he had a great day and it was one of his best birthdays. Of course, bringing joy to your children on their birthday will always result in your own happiness. But it really was a great day! Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!!!

The theme of Alex's party was Star Wars, which was perfect for my Star Wars fanatic husband as well. I made Alex a Millenium Falcon cake and as one of the games, Bill made Star Wars character targets for the kids to shoot at with a "laser gun" (Nerf dart gun, actually). We had Darth Vader masks and special Yoda Soda (green punch) to drink. And of course we had the Star Wars soundtrack playing in the background. Who wouldn't love a Star Wars themed party? :) We also rented one of those moonwalks for the party and were able to keep it through this morning. This enabled them to play on it during the cooler evening and early morning hours. What a blast they had with that! And as part of a birthday request from Alex, his cousins got to spend the night, really making the perfect ending to the perfect day.

Jedi knight target practice

Alex with his cake

Rocket moonwalk in our driveway

Not sure who had more fun in this thing... Bill or the kids?

Like father, like son

Oh, and I also made a second birthday cake for last night's birthday celebration. This cake was especially for my sister Lisa. When she was a young girl, she was having a Star Wars themed birthday party and asked my mom for a Princess Leia cake. But feeling apprehensive about making that particular cake (how do you make those hair buns, or her facial features?), my mom chose to make her a Darth Vader cake instead. Lisa was somewhat disappointed by her Vader cake, even though my mom did a wonderful job on it. So, as had been requested all those many years ago and fitting with the theme of our party, Lisa finally got her Princess Leia cake... or Bob the Builder in drag, as my brother put it. ;) We had a lot of laughs over that cake!

Lisa and her Bob the Buil... I mean, her Princess Leia cake

Today, Alex's actual birthday, we all went to my sister's to swim. The kids had a blast playing in the pool and we all overindulged on hot dogs, chips, dips, fruit, and a whole lot of dessert! But what a fun day it was. Alex couldn't have asked for a better birthday. And I couldn't have asked for a better Mother's Day. Happy Birthday, Alex!!!

Playing in the pool

Amy cuddling with her cousin Cody

The silly birthday boy

Fishing at Last

We live only a short walk from a lake and have planned on taking the kids fishing since they got their new fishing poles at Christmas. But as with all things, time gets away from us and we don't follow through with our plans as quickly as we'd hoped. But Bill was off today and he told the kids early in the week that today he would take them fishing. So they went and bought worms this morning and then prepped their fishing poles and gathered other necessary supplies (such as the ever essential bugspray). Then we all drove down to the lake because it was starting to drizzle outside and we didn't want to get caught in a down pour without a quick getaway. Thankfully, the heavier rain never came and the sun did eventually come out.

The kids had a great time, though they struggled to be patient as they waited for the fish to bite. Bill was the first to catch one. He called it a small mullet fish. Then a little bit later he caught a catfish. The kids were really getting anxious after that. Finally, Nathan caught a catfish even bigger than the one Bill had caught. He was so proud! Bill also caught another big catfish a little later. But Alex and Amy weren't having as much luck. I ended up holding Amy's pole almost the entire time as she got bored with it pretty quickly. She was getting quite a few bites, but no takers. When it was about time for us to go, Amy finally caught a small mullet fish.

Alex was disappointed not to have caught any fish, but he can't say he didn't catch anything.... He managed to reel in two of these little guys (picture obtained from the internet - they let go before we could pull them from the water!)...

If only we could have gotten a picture of Alex with his crab catches. He can definitely claim the most interesting catches of the day!

Speedy Snail

The other day the kids saw a snail on one of the posts outside our back door. It wasn't out of its shell at the time. Then yesterday they informed me it was still there, which didn't necessarily surprise me. It is, afterall, a snail. Then this morning they came running in, exclaiming that the snail was out of its shell and moving. Sure enough, he had managed to crawl down the post and was working his way across our patio. He wasn't moving very quickly, which is why we were all surprised when shortly after the kids had placed him in a box (which was placed ON a bench, mind you), he disappeared. We searched all around, but in no time that snail had escaped from the box and cleared out of there. Maybe they're not as slow as we think!

Matching Dolls

One more post, because this was too cute to not share...

Preparing for Next Year

Now that this school year is only a few months shy of ending (we school through the summer), I am beginning my plans for next year. Once again, we will be changing curriculums. We used My Father's World this year, and even though we've enjoyed it, I just feel like we are lacking in places. So next year, I will take the advice of so many of my homeschooling friends and we will attempt Sonlight. Thanks to a dear friend who lent me her catalog (since mine seems to be lost in the mail system), I have been making my book lists and price-checking the various online stores to see where I can obtain everything for the cheapest. It's exciting, really! I think we are going to enjoy using Sonlight next year, and my biggest hope for this next year is that my boys will develop a new love for reading. Sonlight is centered on so much reading. I know they are going to either love it or hate it. Hopefully, they'll love it!

Another change I've made is to move their computer into our sunroom where we do all of our schooling. I find that I rarely let them do anything on the computer since it is way off in a back room. Now instead of being hidden off by themselves when they want to be on the computer, they can be in the center of all our activity. It will become a useful tool in our everyday homeschooling. And it even looks good in it's new home if I do say so myself!

Spring Showcase and Science Fair

Our homeschool co-op had their Spring Showcase last week to show off much of what the students have been doing all semester. One of Alex's classes was a wonderful class called Action Songs. They used sign language and other hand actions while they'd sing precious scripture and character songs. During the showcase, they performed some of these fun interactive songs. So precious to watch!

Just before the showcase was our co-op's Science and History Fair. Alex entered a project on testing a derby car to see what location along the car a weight should be placed to make it go the fastest. He had fun testing his car and putting together all of his results... but I have to say he did not enjoy the write up so much. The results and awards were presented during the showcase. There were not a lot of entries in the science fair, but even so, he won second place in his division and we are so very proud of him. He was quite proud, too!

Finished!

The kids' playset is finally finished. Bill and my dad had completed the "clubhouse" part of the playset months ago, but did not have time to drill and attach the swing beam. It's been on Bill's mind for quite some time now, but life has just been too busy. But this weekend he did it, and the kids are already enjoying it. Today Nathan asked for a "recess" during school to go and try it out. Other than a need to raise the swings just a tad, it couldn't be more perfect.

Active Kids

I know I've mentioned it many times in my previous posts, as it is my excuse for rarely blogging, but we have a lot of activities! We are always running here and there from one activity to the next, or so it seems. But no doubt about it, the kids have a great time and we enjoy watching them have a great time.

Yesterday, Alex, Nathan and I, along with the other parents and siblings, got to go into Amy's ballet class and watch her and her classmates perform part of their recital dance that they have been working on. It was such a treat to watch Amy perform. I could tell she was a little nervous and she definitely doesn't know all of the steps just yet, but she didn't let that stop her from trying. She watched her teacher, who was also dancing off to the side with them and she danced along. I was so proud of her!!!

And the boys have been keeping us busy with their many activities, baseball in particular. Below are pictures of their most recent games (last night). Nathan is a Rockie again. He was a Rockie last year when he played mini T-Ball, and this year we switched him to a different team and had him repeat mini T-Ball because we felt like he needed time to grow with a new team (we were disappointed in his experience last year). It was really funny when we saw that he'd managed to get the same team name this year. Alex's team is the Mets (they were the Athletics last year). He is dong "coach pitch", although they actually use a machine to pitch the balls. The boys are definitely struggling with that. Alex can usually hit it one of the 5 chances he gets, but it's not easy. Those balls are thrown at them fast! I'm sure they will all get better as the season continues.