Tenzi – one of the few games everyone will play together.
Ben
The littles were awake and sitting in the living room just waiting when I came downstairs at 7 am. They quickly decided to build a fort and bring their stuffed animals to visit.
We continued with a lazy morning until lunchtime. Then I got everyone out the door and to the post office in time for our passport appointment. We finally decided to bite the bullet in terms of paperwork and get the kids their passports. For the most part everyone was pretty well behaved and things moved pretty quickly. Alex is the one that held us up. His picture had to be taken over and over and over to meet the requirements. Poor Alex and his issues with low light and flashes. They finally got a good one!
Then we headed back to the house for some time with Granny and Pop.
Pirates and swords!
Ben spent the morning with two of his best friends from preschool. He joined them for a morning of cupcakes and cartwheels at a local dance/gymnastics studio and had a great time.
Games with Pop!
I can’t believe we now have two teenagers in the house! Teague turns 13 today. It’s probably the first child birthday where I barely saw the birthday child. Teague had his friends spend the night last night and those boys didn’t stop until almost 6 am this morning. (I know this because they were also very loud.) Traditionally, sleepovers happen on our third floor. Then the rest of the family lives on the other two floors. I woke up this morning, a little grumpy with little sleep, stumbled downstairs and found two boys asleep on my living room couches. I managed to keep everyone quiet until they woke up around 10, but it was not fun.
The boys left around 1 pm. I took Ben, Teague, and Alex out for a sushi lunch. Then Teague got home and went back to bed. I didn’t see him again till we woke him up for dinner, cake, and presents. I don’t think I have ever taken so few pictures on a birthday before!
Ben drew a treasure map!
It occurred to me recently that Ben has never been to Build-A-Bear. Then we were planning out this week and I realized Ben wouldn’t be able to attend the evening fun at Apex with Teague and his friends. Taking him for a one-on-one trip this morning seemed like perfect timing. Ben had a lot of fun going through all the animals and finally chose Longhorn. I let him choose one outfit and Ben picked a Marvel outfit (from Black Panther) because it had a spear. Definitely a successful trip!
Ben and I had a one-on-one trip today. I realized he had never been to Build-a-Bear. Meet – Longhorn, dressed in a Black Panther outfit.
Deep discussions about Minecraft and toys while I fix dinner.
Ben has discovered a program on his iPad that translates his words to text. He loves to read a book and watch the words translate to his iPad.
Ben wanted to make pop-tarts this morning.
Alex and Ben were having quite the epic battle tonight. I’m not quite sure how it began, but they were having an awesome sword fight – with wooden spoons. It was around the kitchen island, over the floor, over the kitchen island, and then involved wrestling (of course).
Ben thought I was taking a picture of his new fidget toy. I was actually taking a picture of his attempt to button his top. I tried to tell him his buttons weren’t quite right, but he checked them in the mirror and told me they were perfect.
Ben’s new I Spy book was fun for everyone tonight.
All ready for school.
Valentine’s Day!
School was cancelled last night when they were still predicting 14″ of snow. We woke up to the beginning of a snow but a new forecast of 4-6.” The kids were up early and cooked breakfast. Ben and Kaitlyn were out playing in the snow pretty quickly. We all had an early lunch and then a neighbor came to play with Kaitlyn. Other than completely forgetting to check if gymnastics was cancelled (it wasn’t) we had a wonderful day at home.
Snow cream!
We were a few days later than we had planned, but today Ben and I went to the store. He picked out the sweetest Valentine. He wrote a note. Then we addressed it and drove to the post office so he could mail it to Miss Janet.
Ben forgot to bring entertainment to swim tonight so he decided to read Kaitlyn’s book during her swim practice.
Today was SONSHINE Sunday at church.
Alex woke up as a 15 year old!! Unfortunately for Alex, his birthday fell on a Sunday – a Sunday where both boys had bell concerts. That meant we had to get to church even earlier than normal, but it also meant we were all up and ready to go really early. That worked out well for Alex because we had extra time for donuts and he could open all his gifts before church.
The upside is that we celebrate SONSHINE Sunday today. Everyone wears bright clothes or Hawaiian shirts. The three boys got new shirts and Wade borrowed one of Alex’s.
(The picture of Ben above shows him doing his new favorite job at church – handing out bulletins. The guys say he does a great job and loves greeting everyone.)
Our church has community events every month or two. Tonight they had a hoe down. I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect but it sounded like fun so we dressed almost everyone up, took a few pictures, and headed to the church. (Note in the first picture Ben is wearing a gun and holster. He found it in the barn earlier today in B’s old toys. We agreed to let him wear the holster to the Hoe Down but he left the gun at home.) We ended up having a great time and did quite a bit of dancing – Ben and Kaitlyn loved it and danced with everybody!
(Note Ben’s belt – that is a hand-me-down from Alex’s second Halloween costume. See here)
Dressed and ready for the Hoe Down.
We had a family movie night and I was once again amused by how my kids watch movies. Ben snuggles in under a blanket and with an adult.
Ben loves to get some help on his current game (Zelda) from Teague.
Now that the two littles have starting playing Fortnite we have multiple games going multiple times a day. The big boys use their electronics time to play. The littles have to have help to play – for lots of reasons (skill, account login, etc). What ends up happening is they beg Wade to play right before bedtime and he agrees. Because we don’t have enough computers with accounts, they each get to play one game on the Xbox with Wade, Teague, and Alex. It’s one of their favorite parts of the day.
A rare school morning where all four are in the kitchen at the same time. (It’s probably due to the muffins Alex made last night.)
Today was the 100th day of the school year. This is only celebrated in the lower grades, but they all celebrate different ways.
In kindergarten, the kids have to do a project using the number 100. Ben loved the idea of using googly eyes so he glued 100 googly eyes to a poster where we drew a monster and wrote “Eye” Survived 100 days of school.
In 3rd grade, the kids dress of like a 100 year old. Kaitlyn doesn’t always like to participate in dress up days, but she was all in one this one. We found a granny costume on Amazon and Kaitlyn loved it.
Celebrating 100 days of school.
“Eye” survived 100 days of school!
In a new twist, cereal has become the breakfast of choice and the cereal milk doesn’t go to waste.
Ben heard me for calling for Alex to unload the dishwasher and jumped to start unloading it himself. I was impressed that he got everything unloaded and put up by himself. He was incredibly proud and kept telling me that he had now unloaded it and not broken a single item, unlike his brothers.
Sunday lineup.
The littles were having a blast burying Teague under all the pillows and blankets this morning.
Ben obviously felt like morning came a little too early today.
Pajama and stuffy day. Could Friday get any better?
These two have been doing a lot of Lego playing together recently. It’s adorable.
The kids had a half day today. Alex went up to the Common with some friends right after school. (They later appeared back at our house for snacks and an impromptu snowball fight.) I picked up Kaitlyn and her friend from school so they could start their play date with lunch. They made pigs in a blanket for lunch and a big cookie cake for dessert. Teague and Ben showed up right on time and enjoyed having the rest of the day at home. Teague made a cheesecake and Ben enjoyed everyone else’s cooking.
Half days are for playing and cooking and even some movie watching.
Ben appeared downstairs after bedtime with a twenty dollar bill in his hand. He evidently wanted to read the books under his lamp and found the money when getting them out. I knew immediately it came from Pop but the question is when? Obviously we must have missed a twenty somewhere along the way!
Two hour delay means its of time to play this morning.
Knowing it was supposed to rain/sleet/snow all day, we decided to stay home from church. For the most part everyone was lazy. Kaitlyn took the day to try out three new recipes so she spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen.
Ben has to write a book for school and chose to write about a pharaoh and a pyramid. (Treasure and a water wizard made an appearance too.)
We had an old friend visiting from out of town which obviously meant – Games.
Nightly Skip-Bo game.
When Ben and Kaitlyn were playing scientist this evening, they both kept refilling the water from the kitchen sink. Kaitlyn can reach the faucet. Ben always does a hop up onto the countertop so he can reach the faucet. I watched him do that. Then I watched him fall down to the ground. I didn’t see him hit anything but he started to cry. (Ben rarely cries and has a high pain tolerance.) It took me a few seconds to find where Ben was hurt. Then I saw a huge gaping wound on his chin. I’m still not sure how or on what he hit it, but we cleaned it, iced it, and put some butterfly bandages on it. Poor kiddo.
Little scientist.
Alex has decided to modify a computer case. He has asked for all kinds of supplies to do this for his birthday. Today this means he is working to learn the ins and outs of our 3D printer. That also meant we were all hanging out in the basement. Ben used that time to race the cars he built with his dad and make a new video.
Wade is experimenting with other possible food options for his Sunday School class using easy to store and easy to cook methods. Wade’s current appliance of choice is the toaster oven. Tonight he tested out s’mores on the kiddos. They were all big fans.
Ben and Kaitlyn were playing school and this was the “look” Ben came up with.