Everyday Adventures- part I

I pray all the time that this crazy season in our lives will be one that all six of these kids remember as a blessing.  I KNOW this will absolutely shock you, but with six kids there are times when my patience isn't perfect, I make parenting decisions I regret, I have too high of expectations.  I pray all the time that HIS grace will fill in the gaps, that miraculously they will only remember that I love them, that they learned a lot, and that we had LOTS of fun! I pray that they'll see HIS glory in our parenting, and not our human-faults.  Here's hopin'

One thing I've been working hard at is keeping my camera available during the days.  I hope that these pictures of some of our everyday adventures will help remind all EIGHT of us about the good times that we were blessed with during our time together, however long it may be.  I hope these are some of the moments we will remember.

What was your favorite thing about today?

AB LOVES trains.  AND Woody.  Each night we go around the dinner table and ask everyone what their favorite part of the day was. He almost ALWAYS says "Play with Trains" or "Play with Woody".  This day, he was both!

Needing some "Me" time

Cbug has LOVED having a cousin so close to his own age to play with (they are less than one month apart).  He loves that sometimes HE gets to be the one to "take care" of AB instead of KJ always taking care of Cbug.  That said, Cbug likes his "me" time.  Just about everyday, I'll find him off somewhere by himself, playing alone.  I try to respect this and make sure the other kids give him a little space- although its hard to find a quiet spot when there are 5 other kids playing in 1400 sq feet.  This day he succeeded for a little while at least...here is what I found behind his closed bedroom door.  All of his cars lined up in a "parking lot", organized neatly and all the other toys cleaned up...with music playing and Cbug happy as a lark.
*On a side note, Cbug is wearing his Daniel in the Lions Den shirt from our Church VBS.  HE LOVES THIS SHIRT.  I'd love to think it is because this story of a Bible Hero has impacted him, but he loves it because of another hero.  He calls it his "Uncle Daniel" shirt.

Throw and Catch
Sweet baby B LOVES balls.  It is hilarious to watch him drop them, roll them, chase them, bounce them, all over the house.  The hard floors make it especially fun and keep him entertained for long stretches of time.  Unfortunately for him, he doesn't get free reign.  I do barricade the back half of the house using the living room couch, ottoman, and his exercauser so that the big kids can play with "big kid toys" without having to fear that they'll be eaten by this hungry little cousin/brother.

Rainy day Monday!
Although our neighbors would likely disagree, I considered it a stroke of sheer LUCK that the city decided to dig up some pipes in our neighborhood on a rainy Monday morning.  What could be better for three little boys (and their tag-along sisters) than getting to use their umbrellas AND watch construction trucks. AT THE SAME TIME. RIGHT IN THEIR VERY OWN YARD.  Seriously, I could not have planned a better Monday morning activity for these three.  Unfortunately, it was on a randomly cold May morning, so we didn't get to stay out long.  But in the meantime, the construction workers were so thoughtful to wave, smile, show the boys how things worked, and let us watch. 

Do you have trains that move?
I love my job.  I really do.  I love that I get paid to do something I enjoy and that I get to only do it 3 days a week. The company I work for is amazing and my work family has taken really good care of me over the years.  When I had surgery, when I made the decision to work part-time, at the birth of each of my children, and once again this last week.  We were invited to campus for a special party for our house full of kiddos.  THEY LOVED IT!  They were on CLOUD NINE getting to see trains, eat cupcakes (and cookies AND punch AND fruit), have lots of attention...and did I mention there were TRAINS? All 6 (or at least the bigger 5) were so thrilled that they got to walk up the stairs of a real railcar.  They REALLY wanted to take a ride and were really disappointed that "my trains" don't move.  I can't tell you how many times I've heard since then "Momma/Aunt A...you work at the trains, right?  You DO have some trains that move, right?" Someday I'll break it to them that I'm just a CPA.  But for now, I'll let them think what they think.  For now, I'll know the truth...whether I actually drive (or even ride) the trains doesn't really matter- I'm incredibly blessed by my work family.  Thanks so much to each of you that made Wednesday so special for us.

 

Fun times, for sure!  More "everyday adventures" coming soon.  I'm just too tired from all this fun to post about anymore tonight.
ABL

Last day of School

Although our preschool goes year-round, we still celebrated the "last day of school" before the summer program began.  The day before KJ's graduation, the littler kids (Cbug, A, and C) had a small end of year program.  Since I forgot to take pictures before they left that morning, for their last day of school, I snapped a few before we left for the program that evening.  I'm so glad I did- they were looking especially handsome/beautiful all clean and dressed-in-their-best.

KJ started at this little preschool two years ago, and we have loved every minute of it.  But I have never loved it quite as much as I did the day I sat in the school office, telling the assistant director about my niece and nephew.  They threw their arms open for these two, totally "bent" all the rules to make the best possible situation for their mid-year transition to the school, and walked step-by-step with them as they worked to adjust to the new place.  I'm so very thankful for the ladies that took care of all four of these precious ones while they were at school, especially in the midst of this crazy season for our family.

(When you see Cbug's picture with his teacher, would you join me in a unified song of praise that Mrs J has 3 boys of her own at home and just KNOWS how to love boys)

For comparison purposes, here are all of their first day and last day pictures.

KJ

First day

Bummed that somehow I didn't get a picture of KJ by himself on the first day.  I was so loving the boys excitement over going to school TOGETHER that I didn't think farther.  Ah well.

Last day

AB

First Day

On A's first day, Cbug thought he might need a little extra encouragement and suggested that A wear the multicolored macaroni necklace that Cbug had crafted.  Nice touch to his first-day-of school attire, I thought.

Last Day

Cbug

First Day

Last Day

I can see the biggest change in Cbug.  He has gained TONS of confidence this school year...not that these pictures would tell you that or anything (smirk).  Is it just me, or does anyone else see these and CLEARLY picture the ham-of-a-teenager that our Cbug will be? Watch out (and stick around for the fun)!



CB

First day

Last day

 Aren't they the sweetest?  We are so blessed to have a place for them to spend a few days during the week where they are so well loved and learn more about Jesus!

ABL

FIVE things about #5

Ok- I know no one else is quite as amazed that we have a five-year-old as we are. I PROMISE this will be the last 5th birthday post.

I just need one more to document his big day happenings. LET.ME.TELL.YOU, boy howdy... did we celebrate. The fact that his big day happened to fall on his preschool graduation day, made for a VERY full day of celebrations for Mr. KJ.  So full that there were way too many pictures to even get all the good ones on the blog.  I posted a bunch more on facebook, if you are interested.

Without further ado- here are FIVE things that our FIVE-year-old did on his FIFTH birthday.

1) Celebrated during a donut-shop outing with FIVE siblings/cousins.

He opened presents (with some help from his bro, as is their own personal little tradition), picked out his favorite donuts and got lots of phone calls from adoring fans (for which his fingers were too sticky to hold the phone himself).

 

 2) Legoland Discovery Center

with FIVE of his favorite fellas (plus his favorite Momma).

 

I’d definitely recommend the LDC as a place to visit ONCE. It was a bit overpriced, very crowded. BUT it did prove a far-superior alternative to KJ’s original request (ChuckECheese) and the boys LOVED it.
(below L to R) Build-your-own race car, Earthquake demonstration, Mini city and a 4D movie.

Quick funny story about how we decided on LDC for the party locale. KJ has been talking for nearly a YEAR about his ChuckECheese party. Can I just tell you how much that place makes my skin crawl? Seriously, I have GREAT disdain. BUT, I had told him that he could choose where he went this year (since he was a whole hand old and all).  I was determined to convince him the CC was not the winner. I’ve made no less than 1028376392 alternative suggestions. All with no success. When I started talking about Legoland he was excited and I was SHOCKED that he was willing to consider something other than his plan. FAST forward to just a few days before his birthday. His good buddy/across-the-street neighbor, Katie, told me that while she had been keeping the kids, KJ told her about the upcoming festivities. And mentioned that he wasn’t sure we’d make it back in time for his graduation all the way from Legoland. She asked “Oh really? Where is Legoland?” To which he replied,

“I don’t know exactly, but its really far. I think its pretty close to Costa Rica or something like that”

YUP. Apparently the LAND part of LegoLAND really stuck- he was picturing a whole LAND of legos. SERIOUSLY. So, we had to do some fast talking and website browsing to convince him that while LDC was just a mall amusement area, it would still be super cool. Luckily, he bought it…and I don’t think he was too disappointed. He still loved the adventure of it, even if we didn’t get to fly on an airplane to get there.

Then again, any place these five-year-olds (or nearly 5) go together...is SURE to be a fun adventure!

3) THE CAKE
He designed and enjoyed a FIVE layer cake.

This actually probably deserves a whole post on its own. BUT I PROMISED there would only be one more birthday post. I did not, however, make any promises about its brevity :)

Other than the party location, the primary concern for KJ, while planning his big day, was his CAKE. Literally for MONTHS we’ve been having conversations about what his cake would be like. Often, driving along in the van, he’d holler from the backseat a new idea or specification about the cake. When all was said and done, I had to sit down with him the night before I made the cake to actually draw a diagram and be SURE I had it down. I HAVE NO IDEA where he gets this level of attention to detail…but his perfect cake was to be… “Five layers (you know, since I’m five) of Strawberry, then Chocolate, Strawberry, Chocolate, Strawberry with strawberry icing in between each layer and chocolate frosting on the outside, because if there was strawberry icing on the outside it might look pink and pink is for girls. AND it needs to have Spiderman on top” (the web was momma’s addition) Oh how I wish I could have documented all of the conversations that lead to this final conclusion, or had a picture of how he would use one hand to count to five (to be sure he didn’t say Strawberry/Chocolate/Strawberry too many times) with using the other hand to indicate the layers on top of each other. Oh, I love this boy!

4) GRADUATION

I would have SERIOUSLY been a mess about KJ turning 5 on the same day he graduated from preschool if this had been his REAL graduation from preschool. While most of his class is heading off to kindergarten, for KJ (and his Momma) this was just “practice” graduation. After a lot of thought, prayer and input from others, we’ve decided that he’ll stay another year before going to “big school”. So it wasn’t like I was all emotional quite yet. I’ll tell you what, though, if the welling of tears I got when I saw him walk in wearing his little robe (that swallowed him) and cap in the “practice” is any indication...WOAH, watch out whoever sits next to us next year- you might just see the UGLY cry. It was fun that we got to have a night with just him and some of the people that love him. He ATE IT UP.

It did make me laugh that he spent a large portion of the program in "ready position" with his hands on his knees.  For no reason.  He was like that for so long that eventually the girl next to him thought maybe that was the way they were supposed to stand, and gave it a whirl, too!

5) PICTURES
KJ had his picture taken approximately 500 times this day. And it didn’t go to his head, AT ALL (cough, cough). Here are a few of my favorites.

What a wonderful day, celebrating a wonderful 5-year-old.  Have I mentioned that he is FIVE?  If I haven't, he'll be sure to tell you next time he sees you!

ABL

Too much to ask?

Do you think it would be too much to ask...

to have JUST ONE picture

of these (matching but not twin) brothers

both looking at the camera

and both smiling

that doesn't end

with wrestling?

Apparently so.

ABL

More coming later (hopefully sooner than...) about our Legoland celebration of a certain 5-year-old.