Happy 9th Birthday L!!!!

9 years ago......


.....and today. Quite grown up, wouldn't you say?


We had the most fabulous day celebrating L's birthday. My husband and I decided that all of the children's birthdays would be days of celebrating as a family, but this year L was the only one who had a birthday on a school day! So the rest of the children were very happy and thankful for him as we took the day off school and just played and had fun all day. :-)

We spent a good portion of the day at a local park with a huge playscape, and had a picnic lunch. For any of my readers who happened to be at my house Thursday night and know that L got sick, he felt fine the next day! (hopefully you all did too!)










After my husband got home from work, we told the children we were going on a quick errand related to L's birthday, but didn't tell them where we were going. We ended up at the library so L could get his very own library card! This is a rite of passage in our home, and occurs with each child when we feel they are strong enough readers and responsible enough to handle checking out books on their own. L was very excited and felt very grown up. He checked out 12 books. (He had previously opened new batman pajamas from his grandparents who live close to us, and he proudly wore these to the library!)




Then we came home and had his requested birthday dinner ~ boxed macaroni and cheese (hubby and I had pizza!) . His siblings gave him their present, which they bought with their own money pooled together (a small secret agent lego set).


He opened presents from his Washington relatives, and was very intrigued by a new book he was given called "The Severed Head" (despite the title, this was pre-approved by me and is the first book in the Elijah Creek and the Armor of God book series. I think he will love it!). The crowning moment of the entire day was when L opened the one thing he had wanted above all else ~ Indiana Jones and the Temple Escape lego set. What joy!

For our movie night we watched the first "Night at the Museum" movie, and the children loved it! (we had previewed it the night before and deemed it appropriate for all with a bit of background explanation and assurances of "nothing bad happens to the main character" for the younger ones). L began putting his lego set together during the movie, and we let he and his two older siblings stay up until 11:00 putting it together. It has been happily played with all morning today.

Happy Birthday L! We love you so much and are so thankful God gave you to our family. We can see God working in your life, and can see you growing and maturing. What a blessing to know that you love Jesus, and that He loves YOU more than you can imagine. Have a wonderful year being 9!

Inside and Outside

We had a glorious spring day today! We started the day outside, playing and then reading. We sat in our crabapple tree and I read outloud from Early Thunder. We had a picnic lunch outside for the first time this spring! It was just wonderful.

After lunch and errands we came inside and continued with our schoolwork. I bought our daughter an electronic thesaurus today, and she had fun figuring out how it works and typing in words to find synonyms for! She was pretty excited about it.

Our son G finished putting together his lego boat that he got for his birthday, and we launched it and watched as it had its inaugural ride! The bottom of it is a solid piece for better floating, and it has a motor that makes it really go, so this was an exciting thing to watch!

Lego Ballista and Castle

There has been much lego building of late, and I am always amazed at the things our children think of to build. Here is the latest creation of our son G (the true lego fanatic of the family). It is a weapon similar to a large crossbow called a ballista, based on a design by Leonardo da Vinci. It really fires!

Then he decided to build a more traditional cannon as well and see which one would fire the farthest.

Here he is just after firing both of them (the ordnance was too fast for my camera!). Any guesses on which projectile traveled farthest?

Yes, the cannon traveled farther. But the cannon was much bigger. Next he plans to build them the same size and try this experiment again. Who says you can't do school with legos??

Meanwhile, his older sister was starting on this amazing castle.

Here is the front entrance up close. Their castles are always very well guarded!

Inside the castle there are many different areas, such as the stable area for the horses.

Here the blue knight and purple knight are having sword fighting practice.

Here is the "keep", the safest place in the castle and also the place that holds all the treasure. It has its own drawbridge.

And here is the hangman's noose for bad guys (hanging from blue beam) with the executioner dressed in black underneath. Fortunately for the bad guys, most of them seem to escape so I was assured the noose doesn't get used much.

Mud-Daub Houses and The Pizza Palace

The children finished their mud-daub houses today. First they painted.

Then they covered the roofs with grass and straw.

And here is the finished product! This one belongs to our 8 year old son G. He is a lego fanatic so he added some lego figures to his house. In fact, the boys played house with these for much of the afternoon!

And here is the whole village.

We are the house of perpetual construction. Here is "The Pizza Palace" that was constructed today of legos. The large white square in the lower left corner is a drive through window that swings up and open. The worker in the red hat at the counter is taking an order from a customer in a black hat.

Here is the pizza chef, hard at work in his puffy white chef's hat! Notice all the pizza boxes stacked up in the lower right corner.

And here is the drink stand. You can slide your tray along the grey slats and select your drink of choice from the colored buttons above. I must admit, I was impressed! And once again, to my dear sister in CA, please show this to your son! My son G always asks that I send these pics to you, your son is his lego hero!!