A Late Happy Birthday

I had planned on making a slideshow of pictures to post for PeterXavier's second birthday, but I can't figure out how. So here are a few pictures to at least highlight how much he has changed in his two little years! Some things have stayed thw same though -- he is still a sweet fat little guy who can light up a room with his smile!

This picture was taken at his first birthday celebration.

Of course, the most thrilling part of the day for the birthday boy was the cake. When asked "how old are you??", he proudly announced "cake!!" And he thoroughly enjoyed eating it straight from the tray.

What a little man!

Monster Under the Bed

This morning at about 4:30, Christopher came into the room looking for Andrew, claiming: "The blanket under the bed is breathing! Or maybe Slow* came alive?? Daddy!! Come help me figure it out!"

So Daddy dragged himself out of bed to investigate the resident monster.

As it turned out, PeterXavier had fallen out of bed, blanket and all, continued to slumber peacefully on the floor.

*"Slow" is the gigantic-humongous-ridiculously-large-get-it-out-of-my-house bear who lives on PeterXavier's little bed.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day from your children!

Thank you for being our mother! Here are some of our favorite mommy things: made to order breakfast in the morning, helping you put away the laundry, when you take us to play at our friend's house, we love the field trips with our friends, when you drive us to Daddy's work to have lunch together, TaeKwonDo Lessons, Ballet Lessons, being silly, when we are grumpy and you cheer us up with chocolate(oh wait...it might be Daddy that does that, although you have left half eaten candy bars in the butter-door of the fridge for us to finish), going on walks with you and Daddy, when we ask for Hot Chocolate and you let us make it ourselves, playing games together (mancalla, go fish, banana slap), and we especially like it when we are playing outside and you surprise us with a awesome snack!

We love you Mamma!

Field Trip!!

I always swore that I would never homeschool. And on most days, I still wonder when it was exactly that I completely lost my mind. Then there are the days that we get together with our friends to have a picnic, play some games, and learn even more than was intended. The other day we took a field trip to Prophetstown, where the kids learned all about the Indians who first inhabited this area, life in a 1920's farmhouse, and that when you raise your hand, you need to have something to say! All of the kids had a chance to milk "Pebbles", the worlds most patient cow.

Here we are in the Indian meeting house. Notice the randomly raised hands??

And here's the crew with our fantastic tour guide!

Buccaneer Bay

Last weekend, we took a little trip to Buccaneer Bay, where the kids had a fantastic time splashing around, watching cable (big treat!!), and chillin' in the hot tub (oh, wait, that was me). Here are some highlights.

Sorry about the neck cramp you'll get from looking at these. Here are my pirates, ready to set sail for adventure.

Christopher loved the water slides!

This is my fifth child. It is quite possible that he had more fun than the kids.

Real Motherhood

involves eating the "turkey-cheese- and double-stuffed oreo-on-crackers" sandwich with a smile. And no gaging.

Last night we went out to "return a movie" (aka drvie the kids to sleep) and as we were pulling out of Blockbuster and preparing to turn onto 52, we saw a helicopter landing in the visinity of the hospital. Since the bigger kids were still awake, we decided to find out where it had landed. We drove round and round in search of it, when I had a flashback to childhood and remembered seeing those orange ball thingys that they put on electrical wires so that airplanes can see them. I remember asking my dad about it and thinking it was pretty weird. (to a child they look like dodge balls suspended on a wire). Anyway, I told Andrew this and directed him over to where I remembered these things being. Sure enough, there was a helicopter landing pad, complete with helicopter and pilots! So we stopped and the kids got to look all in and around the helicopter and talk to the pilots. It was a pretty neat experience -- except that it was sad because they were only there to pick up a patient and take him to Indy. I love random adventures!

Overheard at Breakfast

Grace: Hey Christopher!

Christopher: Christopher's not home right now. Please leave a message.