"It's My Birthday"

On Henry's birthday, Gran brought him over a present and a balloon.

He was excited!

Later, when we were waiting for Luke's bus, Henry posed in the doorway with his balloon so that everyone would know it was his birthday.

Yes actually posed!

He made sure that his balloon was at just the right height for people to see, and then knocked and knocked on the door. When someone was lucky enough to walk by, he would knock even louder and yell, "It's my birthday today! It's my birthday today!"

Josh even helped.

They did it for a good 15 minutes.

One boy actually waved at him, and Henry was ecstatic!

Watching that made my day!

Gina

Henry loves Amy's friend, Gina.

She's been one of his most consistent favorites.

A couple of months ago, when we were looking through Eli's 1 year pictures, Henry asked if he could have some pictures of Eli. Amy said that he could, but I limited him to only two pictures.

He quickly picked out two really cute ones of Eli.

As he flipped through them, though, he came across some pictures with Gina in them--she had her Christmas pictures taken at the same time. In the end he traded out his two pictures of Eli for these two:


One of them does at least have Eli in it!

He has been proudly displaying his two pictures on our refrigerator ever since.

One day the pictures were gone. Henry was ready to go after whoever stole his beloved pictures. I quickly found them slide under the fridge and all was right with the world again!

He certainly is crazy about her!

Star Student

Lucas got to be the Star Student in his class last week.

It's a special honor!

The Start Student gets a special chair for their desk and a bulletin board full of pictures. They also get to bring a show-and-tell item each day of the week.

Lucas' show-and-tell items included: his puppy that Amy gave him when he was born, an original book about emergency cars that he made, a random hotwheels airplane, and his cast and x-rays from when he broke the bones in his wrist.

It was an exciting week for him. He's been waiting all year for it!

Henry's Birthday Present

Today, Henry J turns 5!

He's super excited about it!

His birthday wish list includes: a rocket for him to get in and fly around in, a Top Gun plane--like in the movie, a marching band costume including a drum and a hat, and a karaoke machine so he can put on concerts in our backyard.

Unfortunately we aren't giving him any of those things.

Ben and I did, however, make him up a CD of awesome dance music. It includes such gems as:

• The Electric Slide
• Ice Ice Baby
• Party in the USA (his favorite song in the world right now)
• Superfreak
• Brickhouse
• Baby Got Back (because who doesn't want their 5 yr old dancing to "I like big butts and I cannot lie")

It wasn't on his list, but I'm pretty sure he's going to love it.

Someday, when he's able to clear a dance floor with his awesome moves, he's going to really thank us for the awesome present that we gave him when he turned 5!

Plus, you never know, someone may just get him that rocket he's been dreaming of!!

Hateful and Bossy

Josh Oliver is going through a bit of a hateful stage.

All day long we hear, "I hate that!".

It's really amazing how many things he hates.

He hates his bed, our bed, pillows, this cartoon, that cartoon, T.V. all around. He also hates cookies, cups, chairs. You name it, he has probably hated it at one point or another!

He's also a bit bossy. (That's not so much a stage as the way he tends to be!)

He tells us what he will and will not do. He also tells us what he needs us to do, and he is very persistent!

Even when it comes down to sweet things like rubbing his head or giving him Gouchers--pinching the chub in his face--he tells me what to do. "Do it on my ears. Do it on my forehead. Do it on my cheeks." Sometimes I feel a bit like his servant! He at least says it in a sweet voice!

He's currently on a conservation kick.

He tells us that we are "wasting powers" and will turn off every light/T.V./energy waster that he comes across--whether someone is using it or not.

It's annoying!

Despite all of it, though, he gives us tons of sugars and "I love you's" throughout the day. It makes it a lot easy to overlook his current "rough spots"!

Secrets

For the last several months Lucas has been using a "secret code" when he doesn't want his brothers to know what he is saying.

It works a little bit too good because even I don't know what he is trying to tell me!

His messages come by way of writing words in the air--like you would with a sparkler, only I don't have the benefit of a trail of light to help me out!

There is a couple of problems with this method of message sending.

For one, he does it really fast and with all the letters right on top of each other. I just can't ever figure out where one letter/word ends and the next begins. Secondly, he isn't a perfect speller just yet. He does pretty good, but he still tends to spell a lot of words the way they sound, not the way they are actually spelled.

It's all just too much for me to have to work out in my head!

Every time he does it, it goes the same way. I tell him that I have no idea what he is trying to tell me, and then he gives me a look like he has no idea how I couldn't possibly catch on. He explains to me that he is spelling it out for me as he rewrites his message. After the second or third time time he usually questions whether I actually know how to read!

I have yet to understand anything that he has tried to tell me via "air mail", but he just keeps trying.

I guess he figures one of these days I will smarten up!

The Resale Shop

We have had two issues around our house over the last week or two.

1. The boys can't seem to keep their room cleaned. Within a day of it being cleaned they seem to be back to being a total wreck. I don't know how it happens!
   
   
2. They have been walking around with a TON of money in change. They each got a roll of gold dollars for Christmas and, even though I tried to hide them away, each one got opened and added to their loot. (Josh Oliver was pretty much constantly carrying around $40+ dollars in a little orange pitcher--or the back of a dump truck or where ever!)

Finally out of desperation I came up with a plan to solve both problems.

After giving the boys one last chance to clean their room and I took everything that was left on the floor and set up a shop in my bedroom.

Ben and I had quite the inventory. There was a ton of books, several pairs of shoes and boots, a sleeping bag, a "nearly new" dirty coat, a dillons bag/mail bag full of "original artwork", a race track, a nice pile of dirty clothes--for an additional $.25 I was willing to wash and dry them, and lots of other random items.

We tried to price everything high enough that they wouldn't have quite enough money to buy everything back--I wanted them to be a little sad at losing some of their stuff.

When the boys saw the store they thought it was great!

Henry bought everything he could get his hands on--he was really into getting all the fun stuff that he could now claim as all his own. Lucas was sensible. He bought only what he really wanted. Ben tried to sell him back some of his clothes, but he passed on them--apparently they weren't necessities! Josh pretty much just handed over fist fulls of coins and bought whatever item was closest to him--like Luke's pants and Henry's underwear!

We did get back most of the money--they each have a reasonable amount left--however, they didn't really seem to notice that they were paying money for stuff that they already own. In fact, they keep asking when we are going to have another store.

I'm guessing that next time, when they don't have tons of money and aren't able to buy back all their favorite things, they will think twice about making me pick up their stuff. I will say, though, that everything they bought this time around was put back in it's proper place!

Now I just have to hide the gold dollars so they don't end up in Josh Oliver's stash again!

How Low Can You Go?

Ben and I took the boys rollerskating this weekend--the last time we went was last January.

While we were there they had a Limbo contest.

Henry was nowhere near ready to skate on his own. He spent most of the time I skated with him trying to do "tricks" like squatting while he rolled along instead of just trying to master staying up by himself.

Always the Party Boy, though, he decided to give the Limbo a try!

As he headed out onto the rink, I considered stopping him, but then I decided to just wait and see how far out he got.

He sort of had a Parkinson's type of shuffle as he made his way out there--trying desperately to move, but not really making much progress forward. He also fell many, many times, but he just kept looking back at me and giving me a thumbs up and a great big grin. I couldn't stop laughing!

FINALLY, he made it to the back of the girls line. I could see one of the girls telling him he needed to get in the other line, but when she realized he really couldn't skate she helped him get over there. Thank goodness for her!

By the time Henry was in the right line, the limbo bar was already so low--he didn't have a chance! When it was his turn to go under he fell as he bent over, so he just crawled under it, got the whistle blown at him, and then stood in front of the bar and celebrated.

I ran out to get him just so he wouldn't get run over!

He was ecstatic!!

He asked me if I heard the whistle get blown at him and then he told me that it meant that he had won!!

He was so proud of himself! I was so proud of him!!

I really can't believe that he made it all the way out there by himself, and that he even managed to get back up by himself each time he fell.

It was the funniest thing to watch!!

Sadly we only had to Ben's phone to capture it--we really needed Luke to "catch it on tape"!

A New Year

We said goodbye to 2009 and celebrated the start of 2010 with a party at Aunt Gretchen's house.

It was so fun!

With the exception of a few calm periods, the kids were bouncing off the walls the whole night. The adults were busy playing cards, trying our hardest to tune the loud kiddos out! It worked for the most part!

At midnight we all put on our hats, blew our horns, and pulled our crackers! Sadly, Ben was at work, but I did steal some smooches from my other boys!

When we finally left Gretchen's at 2:00 am, the kids were all still going strong. I didn't get more than a mile down the road, however, before they were all fast asleep!

It was a good way to start the year! (I even got to sleep in the next morning!)