John's Run 4 Kids 2016

For the 4th year straight, we entered the kids in the John's Run 4 Kids to benefit Backpack Beginnings. The difference this year is that we qualified for the "Brady Bunch" discount, so Emma could run for free if she was willing to run. Sadly, Rebecca had class this year so she wasn't able to come, so her Dad came up to help me manage the herd while I ran with each of them. 

Olivia was first up.

She ran well to start, but after going up 5 flights and back down, she took to walking here and there.

She did well on the obstacles.

Even the balance beam was no sweat for her. 

A running high-five. :)

And she finished in about 12 minutes. 

Once she was done, I had less than 2 minutes before the boys were on the go!

Ezra was quick out of the gate.

He was in the lead after the first trip over the parking deck.

Gabe wasn't far behind.

He took the hurdles like a veteran.

and Gabe was no slouch, either.

Ezra took advantage of a helping hand

But Gabe powered through...

By the time they reached the second time over the parking deck, Gabe had passed Ezra.

After all those stairs... whew!

the slide was a relief!

Gabe finished in about the same time as Olivia

and Ezra was only 10-15 seconds behind him. Once again, 2 minutes for me to rest before the next race. I just had to ask Emma if she was going to run it.

And she did!

She was a champ.

She kept running ...

all the way over the parking deck...

through the Cultural Arts Center...

Around the fountains...

over the hurdles...

under the nets...

across the balance beam...

back up the parking deck...

over the top and back down...

past her cheering section...

down the slide...

through the garden...

and across the Line! I could not have been more proud! She never complained, kept a smile the whole time and had so much fun! I can't wait to see if we can convince Irene to do it next year. :)

My racing team!

Owls!

We heard a rumor that there was an owlet in the Bog Garden that was spotted sitting in a tree, so Rebecca and Olivia went to check it out. Sure enough, there it was.

Rebecca came home and we went back with the boys and looked for a while, but couldn't find it. However, on the way out, we heard a whispery screech and looked around for it. We found it! And then we spotted 3 more!

They were so cool, flying from tree to tree, screeching at each other. It was like they were playing. One would fly to a branch, another would join it and the first would fly to another branch. They chased each other around for a while, but it was getting dark, so we had to go.

Perler Creations

So the new thing for the kids is Perler Beads. I know they're not new to the rest of the world, but over the last couple of months, ours have gone nuts for them. Ezra, in particular, will scour Google images looking for perler bead patterns of planes, space ships, Marvel characters and all sorts of random stuff. Then he and Gabe will sit for hours making them. 

 A set of Star Wars characters

Just a couple of the Marvel guys Ezra has done.

My only complaint is the sheer number of the things I have to spend time ironing! But, at least they're being creative, right?

Happy 3rd Birthday, Irene!

Now the second of our "twins born 3 years apart" had her own day of celebration.

 She was greeted by the traditional birthday banner, which she loved. Mama got her some cool watercolor painting pages that she spent a while doing. She also got a really cool balloon with little balloon stars inside it that she ran around with most of the day. Unfortunately, it suffered a ceiling fan mishap. 

That evening, we went over to Nana and Pop-pop's for a fun family birthday gathering. There was yummy pasta with homemade sauce for dinner.

  The youngest 3 enjoyed some relaxation in their chairs in the yard.

 And tasty cake, strawberry shortcake and ice cream for dessert.

It was great to get together with Nana, Pop-pop, Uncle Greg and Cousin Rooney for a fun couple of hours! 

Ezra's 6th Birthday

It's so hard to believe our little guy is 6! 

 This kid is, without a doubt, our most intense child. He does everything with great passion, whether it's playing and laughing or getting mad and upset. He does it all with all he's got. He loves to get physical, wrestling and punching, throwing balls, shooting Nerf guns, playing with cars. He's fascinated with planes and will spend hours building them out of Legos or Perler beads. 

 When it came time for a cake, I asked him what he wanted, expecting a plane or something from Star Wars. Instead, he said, "Chocolate." When I explained that I meant what did he want it to look like, he said, "A race car." Like a Cars movie car? Lightning McQueen? "No. just a plain old race car." 

Well, rather that a plain old race car, Rebecca had the idea of a racetrack with a bunch of cars, so this is what I made him. Rebecca picked up a few new cars for him and we put them around the track. Well, it was a hit. He loved it. :)

He loved getting up in the morning and seeing his giant birthday banner that the other kids had decorated with planes and cars for him. Olivia took some of the money from her own piggy bank and bought him a rubber band gun that he's been wanting for a such a long time. I think we'll all need to wear safety goggles around the house from now on....

I really can't wait to see what this next year brings. I expect more and more passionate activity from him for a long time to come.

Olivia's Recital - Spring 2016

Olivia had her Spring Recital today. She did wonderfully. It amazes me each time just how much she improves and how hard she works to learn her songs. 

There's no question in my mind that Olivia's got a lot of talent and can go as far as she wants to with her music.

As usual, the kids got some running-around time along with some snacks afterwards

 It's not often that I get a decent picture of all 5 kids, but today I was able to get 3! :) Unfortunately, the wind was blowing, so it was hard to keep it out of the littles' faces.

Strawberry Picking 2016

We took advantage of a beautiful morning (actually the only one that week without rain) to pick a few strawberries.

 The blooms were everywhere and just as pretty as can be.

 The kids paired up and worked to fill their buckets. Gabe and Ezra worked one row.

 Olivia and Emma worked another. Emma had quite a good eye for spotting great berries.

 And Irene followed me with the bucket. She wouldn't let me put any in it, though... She insisted that I hand them to her so she could put them in. 

 After she and I filled our bucket, she went to trail after Gabe for a while and point out what he missed. :)

We got a decent haul for less that an hour's work. Sadly, they ate them all within a week. :)

Olivia's Birthday Gift

Our Olivia is now an amazing 11 years old! She is so thoughtful and possesses wisdom beyond her 11 years. She asks great questions. She is an avid reader. She is also giggly and playful. She is creative. She is going through a stage of find her voice and doesn't always realize her facial expressions or how she sounds. But she is mostly respectful and continues to be a great role model for her friend and siblings. She cares for her siblings with the instincts of a mother but she also has been sure as of late about wanting her space from them too. Totally understandable. She loves girl time with Rebecca.

When we asked her what she wanted for her birthday, she said all she wanted was to get her ears pierced. We talked about it and decided that that would be a fine idea. She peppered us with questions about what it's like and if it hurts and all that jazz, but she bravely stuck to her guns.

 Rebecca took her to My Friend Kate to have them done.

 She seemed a bit nervous.

 The lady put dots on her ears to show where they would go and make sure they would be even.

 First one...

 Then the other. So brave!

 All done! Then she convinced Rebecca to get hers pierced as well. :)

She is so excited to have them. Now she keep asking to have her hair put in a braid so that she can show them off. :) And she is counting the weeks until her studs can be changed out for a pair of treble clefs that she found.

For another treat, she and Rebecca had some "girl time" and went to get a cupcake. :)

Gabe's First Book!

Olivia was an easy child to teach when it came to reading. she really wanted to learn and picked it up fairly quickly. Our biggest difficulty with her was getting her to slow down and actually absorb what she was reading.  Gabe, however, was a different story. it took a long time to get him interested in reading. It was a daily chore to get him to work on sounding out words and phonograms. Then, once he started with readers, we had to work closely with him and help him work through the frustration. But finally, all that patience (and impatience...) has paid off!

Gabe has finally read a book all on his own for fun! HE wen ton his own and picked out the first Boxcar Children book from Olivia's bookshelf and over the next week, sat down whenever he had free time and read his way through it. He was so excited to be reading something on his own that wasn't schoolwork. We are so proud of you, Gabe! Keep it up!

Electricity and Magnetism

We recently finished a specialty unit on Electricity and Magnetism. The kids got to learn all kinds of cool things.

 They learned about static electricity

 Magnets

 How to make a compass from a needle, magnet and cork

 Everyone got involved.

 They made an electromagnet (which promptly started to smoke and get really hot!)

 We walked in our neighborhood to look at the power transfer station and the transformers.

 And we talked about how power gets from the power plant to our home over these big transmission lines that we can see from our house.

 And finally, we bought a set of Snap Circuits so they could learn about how various electronics worked.

It has over 100 different things they can build and learn from, so we expect hours and hours of fun. :)