Superheroes

Hannah, Caleb and Georgia played "Superheroes" complete with capes.  I love how they posed just perfectly for the camera without even knowing.  I also love how sweet Georgia has become with them.  She let them put this cape on her and play with her for a long time. She was the Green Lantern. 

Library Day

Wednesdays are library days in our house and this is what happens after we get home.  It "warms my heart."  

Sleepover

We had our close friends' two boys sleepover last night. The boys are 13 and 7 years old. The two 7 year olds in the house (Hannah and Rhys) started a HUGE Wii competition complete with trash talking, light teasing and victory dancing. It was hilarious!

1st Soccer Game of 2012

The kids' first game of soccer season ended with a tie, a win, and a lost but they all had fun. 

Who's in the Box?

Who's in the box chasing all the boys? Hannah is. The kids had the most fun one night all taking turns getting in the box and chasing each other around. The decimal level was quite LOUD that night enjoying the cheapest toy ever, a box.

Old Navy Shirts

Every 4th of July, the kids and I have the tradition to go to Old Navy to get their Independance Day shirts for $5.00. I forgot to post this year's picture of my gang with their shirts on. Aren't they cute? Just ignore the 10 year old's face, he didn't want to interrupt the festivities to take a picture.

VBS

The kids finished up VBS this week. To sum it all up..... they were absolutely beat by all the fun times. Hannah started sleeping in until 10:30 and 11:00 from all the hard exercise she exerted. But the absolutely BEST part was that Andrew came home one night and claimed he got SAVED! Whohoo! We received another answer to our prayers, isn't God good?

Psalm 118:21 "I will give you thanks, for you answered me; you have become my salvation."

Acts 2:21 "And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

Mark 16:16 "Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned."

Fireflies

It's June 1st and the kids are thrilled that the fireflies are back. They've been anxiously waiting for their return and had to wait a little longer this year. No May fireflies were seen but June 1st gave us a ton to go chase after. Summer is officially here now that the kids' night time hunting trips for fireflies is back.

Cornerstone Church's Easter Egg Hunt

Saturday morning was spent at church welcoming a new tradition: a Cornerstone Church Easter Egg Hunt. It was so well organized. First, there were door prizes giving away free dinners, makeovers and massages for the moms, golf stuff for the dads, day passes to Dollywood or the Wilderness in the Smokies waterpark and more. Then, came the relay races for kids. The planning committee even went so far as to boil all the eggs for the egg race. That was HUGE in this mom's "laundry eyes." Then the egg hunts came next. The kids were divided up by ages on different parts of the property. On one acre or so, they let the 3-5 year olds go first. Then came the 3 and under munchkins in the front of the property, then the 6 and above came last on the soccer fields. The parking lot attendants even corralled all the cars to the side of the property where no little kids might get hurt running around for eggs in the front. It was so well planned. I was thoroughly impressed. We LOVE our church! Enjoy some of the pictures I got today. Sorry for the low quality, I took them with my phone.

Hannah in pink, Andrew in light blue shirt, and Ethan behind him in blue too racing with spoons in their mouths and a egg on top.

Ethan's race face.

Hannah and her BFF, Ada

Hannah

While waiting on dinner to cook, I took the time to read my Bible and pray at the table. Jason and all the kids were outside so it was a perfect time to listen to worship songs, sing, read and pray. A little time later, Hannah joined me. She asked if we were going to pray out loud or in our brains. This time I started by praying "in our brains" as Hannah called it. Then my plan was to pray together "out loud" with Hannah. Well, I guess I took too long for this is how I found her when I looked up.... asleep at the kitchen table. Naturally, I stopped to take her picture before moving her to the couch. How long with this happen in my life? Not long enough. I'd love to bottle her up and keep her a 5 year old for life. She is too precious and definitely a gift to me from God!

Lego Family

You know you're a LEGO family when the Legos are stored like this. I bought the kids (and me) a craft box to hold their Legos. The sorting took a few hours but was so worth it! Now, it won't take me half a day to rebuild something for Caleb because I'm struggling to find the right piece. Yes, I did that a few Saturdays ago. It took me from lunch to dinner time to rebuild a SpongeBob Squarepants' Crusty Crab restaurant for Caleb. Even then, I finished it only through the help of the other 2 boys. I decided then that the kids' Lego storage would have to change.

Now, they are all sorted by color. There are separate boxes for their instruction manuals, and Lego magazines, and there's even a big drawer to keep their creations in progress. Our only struggle now is to keep Caleb from dumping them all out on the floor at the same time. The good news is that each box has a lid on it that's too strong for him to open by himself. Whoohoo!

Molly the cat

You never know what is lurking around my house. With 4 kids here ALL day, there's bound to be mischief. I am constantly cleaning up after them. It feels like I follow them from room to room some days checking on what they've done.

Today, Molly was given a sweet surprise in her water bowl. The 3 year old was to blame for this. Her water was a girly shade on pale pink. Hmmmmm..... What could that be but none other than Caleb's pink lemonade! He poured out his cup into her water bowl, poor thing.

He cuts her whiskers, gives her a haircut on her back, rides her like a cowboy and now gives her pink lemonade. I guess he likes her. Don't worry about Molly though. She's faster than Caleb and gives him warning swats with her paws. If he gets too mean, she'll give him a little "love" bite to get him to back off. He does and runs off screaming! I've felt them before. They're not hard enough to break the skin but strong enough to let you know to walk away slowly, and we do.

Caleb's 3rd Birthday

On Saturday, January 15 Caleb Trent turned 3. It's hard to believe the baby of the family is already three! We celebrated by taking him the Childrens' Museum in Oak Ridge. First we had orange sweet rolls for breakfast with bacon. One of his favorite breakfasts. Then, Andrew and Ethan had a basketball game that we went to. After that we had Chick-fil-A for lunch then headed to Oak Ridge. It was Caleb's first trip. He loved it. He cried hard when having to leave from one exhibit room to the next. He just wanted to stay and play all day.

Kid size 2 story doll house

Caleb crying that he has to leave the doll house room.

Hannah and Caleb playing in the Waterworks room.

That afternoon, our former neighbor Linda aka Knoxville Grandmother brought Caleb a gift card to Target and red velvet cupcakes that were so yummy. After cake and presents, Jason took him over to spend some of his birthday money.

Smiling at Daddy singing the birthday song in a silly way.

Caleb blowing out his 3 birthday candles.

He bought a Toy Story 3 Lego toy. His big brothers were so proud that he's following in their footprints. They just loved his toy too. Overall, he had a good birthday. He was super cute that morning when each sibling said happy birthday to him, he replied back to them, "Happy birthday Andrew, happy birthday Ethan and happy birthday Hannah." It made us all giggle.

The outlet

Here's a glimpse in to my morning.  Caleb came to me saying that he popped something.  After searching for it, I found that he had popped the breaker!  A dime and nightlight in the same outlet do not do well together,  Here's the result.  The dime is even bent in two corners from the power surge.  Scary!  Obviously, all prayers are much appreciated for this boy.

Results from our "Crafty Sunday"

The village

All the holiday parties, baking and shopping are done at my house. Now, it's time for arts and crafts with the kids. On Sunday night, I pulled out my glue guns, newspapers, a box of 1000 popsicle sticks and started crafting. Jason even joined in the festivities and to my surprise enjoyed the night and thanked me for planning it.

Jason hard at work

We made popsicle houses, a tiny village too. Each was equipped with a sleeping area, play area, blankets, pillows, and ladders. All I needed was some felt and popsicle sticks to get going. The kids loved it! Ethan colored his house with markers. He drew a rug on the floor and added Lego minifigs for his.

Ethan  adding the gutters and color to his house.

Hannah's house was a little more girly. I made pillows and blankets for her home. I even monogrammed her pillows with a H. I color coordinated the colors on the pillows with the blankets. On the first pillow I even cut out a flower and ladybug from felt on it. I was having at much fun as the kids were. Hannah fell asleep on the couch before seeing the finished product. Monday morning after she awoke, Ethan rushed her in to see the village. She immediately ran to me with these big blue eyes, all smiles, and jumped on me hugging my neck screaming thank you. It was precious. I haven't seen her that excited about something in a while. That will be a memory I keep forever. She just loves her house. I haven't painted hers yet, just waiting to see if she wants it colored.

Hannah's blankets and pillows

Hannah's cute house

Caleb was the most impatient, go figure. He cried and cried for his to be done as soon as one wall was glued together. He's been putting Lego minifigs in his too and hoarding it from the rest of the kids.

Andrew? Not interested as usual. Too old for this craft. He played some online game on the laptop beside us the entire time.

Overall, Crafty Sunday was a success. Now, what should I make next?

Walk Through Bethleham

Church Street United Methodist Church in downtown Knoxville offers a "Walk Through Bethleham" every year for free. We love those free events so we headed down there Sunday afternoon for a tour. I prepped the kids that it was like stepping back in time 2000 years ago to see the city of Bethleham as Mary and David did upon entering it for the census. The church members all dress up in character and have different roles. They transform their entire downstairs hall to feel like the city. The floor is covered in wood chips. The walls have been covered with hard materials painted like stone buildings. There is a marketplace filled with tents set up for each vendor selling their items. They even turned off the overhead florescent lights and only lightly lit the area.

Upon entering the city, we were greeted by a census tractor asking how many people were in our family. The kids were surprised to see the tall Roman soldiers. One soldier even followed Ethan around for a few minutes pretending to be is shadow. I love the fact that the church always gets the biggest and tallest men or teenage boys to play this part. It really makes it seem real.

The vendors we visited were the basket makers, the medicine men, the jewelry makers, the bread bakers, the wine makers, the herb sellers, and more. The children also got to listen to a storyteller telling the story of the Tower of Babel. We met the Wise Men carrying their gold, frankincense, and myrhh to the baby Jesus. We were told their was no room in the inn and got to see Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus (a real baby). After leaving the city, we saw an angel sitting below a star above the manger. Then Caleb's FAVORITE part was seeing the live animals and feeding them. That's where Jason stayed the entire time, outside in the cold feeding the camels with Caleb. Hannah's favorite part was making a jewel necklace in the marketplace. My favorite part was having the kids experience it all and especially seeing the big boys help Hannah to make her necklace.

Hannah's Karate

Hannah loves to pretend she doing karate.  Often she goes around high kicking Jason and the boys.  The other night she confessed to me that she thought she was really good and could "maybe beat up a 3 year old."  Not a 5 year old but a kid 2 yrs. younger than her.  Now that was funny to me.  Her confidence level is not very high regarding her karate skills but she so dang cute.

Oatmeal Surprise

Jason's morning surprise in the oatmeal container was MARBLES!
A whole box full from you know who.

Snowball Forts

To our dismay, no snow! We only received rain and lots of it last night. At one point, a meteorologist said we might have a few inches of snow. Then it was changed to one inch. Two disappointed boys woke up in my house this morning. So we decided to have a snowball fight anyway. We threw off all the cushions of our sectional couch and built away. We made forts on separate sides of the living room and turned the small pillows into snowballs. Then Hannah and I sat back and watched the boys go at it! They even learned how to call time-out and time-in when the forts needed repair. We even changed the forts around to make 4 different ones they could run and hide in. The funniest moment was after Andrew nailed Ethan in the face with a "snowball" and started yelling, "I'm the man, I'm the man, I'm the man." Where did he learn that phrase? Who knows.