Stars and bugs and a Zoo to boot!

Yesterday we took the kids to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. We also took Travis's mom. We got to see lots of super cool fish and some neato animals too. We had a great time. We walked and walked for over 3 hours. Elizabeth was determined to walk the entire time...and she almost made it. She crashed at the Red Fox house at the very end.

After the Zoo we took Mom N. home. Connor found a roly poly pill bug while there and brought it home. It has it's own container of dirt (it's house). Today he rolled the thing around in a Matchbox convertible car, "flew" it in a toy plane and then sat it on his hand so it could 'see' the movie that they watched together. He calls it Mr. Pillbuggy. Connor is such a cute little character. He has so much life!


Lastly...last night when we came home, Spencer looked out at the stars (cause it was late!) and said, "Look at all the stars. The stars are the Sun's little children." He was so serious...My heart grew three sizes at that moment. (o: He's such a sweet and perceptive little boy.

So...I'm gonna download a bunch of pictures and so you can see Mr. Pillbuggy and also a sampling from the zoo.

Here is Mr. Pillbuggy watching Tom and Jerry help Sherlock Holmes solve a mystery.

Look! It's Mr. Pillbuggy!
Travis and his mom at the zoo. She looks so good! Travee's always cute!

Lizbet and the mama tiger had a little chat. I love this picture!!!

Aren't we just the cutest little family? (o;

She was meowing at the monkey. It was pretty cute! He was pointed back at her.

Touching the sea life.

Cutest boys ever!

Just a Recap

Busy, busy, busy. In the last 10 days we celebrated Travis's birthday, have had school every day except weekends, babysat Jake once (cause it was a teacher work day and he had no school), served 2 people their court papers (we do process serves for our friends husband-he's a lawyer...and they pay us), moved Joseph out of the boys bedroom and into Lizbet's room (cause he needs alone time and she doesn't believe in sleep so it's like he has his own room), helped Travis get ready to start school on Monday, gathered the seeds that weren't used at our assigned 5 Home Depots and packaged them up to send back to the Stover company (this is a merchandising job that Travis did over the summer) and went to the Fair! Elizabeth is still more work than all three of her brothers combined, and the boys are going through a teasing phase that makes it very loud in our house.

BUT...we all love each other and are pretty much in good health (lingering colds are almost gone and Elizabeth has 2 teeth ready to break through)...so...we say...we are great! Hope you are all having a great week and have a fabulous weekend!

Joseph's Birthday (and mine)

Friday was my 36th birthday. Zoiks! Travis's parents took us all out for breakfast at Denny's (they give a free Grand Slam to birthday people). Then we came to our home and had icecream cake and Deone took me to the store and bought me a new purse. It was a lovely day.
NOW....on to the really important birthday! (o: Joseph turned 10 yesterday!!!!! 10!!!!

First, may I mention, that Travis had to go have a tooth pulled first thing in the morning. He got happy pills and went through Joseph's birthday in a fog, but pain free. (o:

Here is Joseph on the way to Grandmas house in this picture. I made him hold the cake cause I had to hold the pizzas.

Per his request...Papa Murphy's! Mmmmmmmmm

Condor being cute. Look close...pizza sauce face!

Grandma Teese got him a big Medusa!!! Sweet!

90% of the toys that he got were legos. I love watching him create. Nothing better than watching your child follow instructions and create something cool...or use their imagination and create something even cooler!

He worked an hour on it, but put together his gas tanker truck all by himself. He was so proud!

Lizbet has NOT been sleeping for the past...oh, I guess her entire life...but it's been worse this past week (yes...my brain is mush from lack of sleep). Apparently, it all caught up with her yesterday because she spent almost the entire party time at Grandma's looking just like this! (noice in the picture above this one...she's passed out behind Joseph)

I gave Connor and Spencer little party bags with playdough and stuff in them so they would have something to play with while Joseph assembled his lego things. Worked out nicely. (Peppo needs a haircut!)

Notice his awesome plates and cups!

Joseph said it was the best day of his life. I'm glad he had a good day. I'm not glad that my baby boy is already 10 years old!!! Where did the time go?

We Will Never Forget!

First day of (home)School

Today we started school. It was fun! I had them dress in their new shirts and comb their hair...this will be about the only time this year that they do this....then we took some pictures.
We talked about paragraphs and did some Saxon math. Then we discussed recycling and the new recycle container that we have at our apartments now. Connor practice writing his letters and we are going to read together tonight. We set some general rules and made a goal to earn 100 rocks by October so that we can go to the Zoo/Aquarium. It was a good day!
Joseph. I guess he's supposed to be in 4th grade. He's doing work all over the place. Some 5th grade, some 4th grade and even some 3rd grade stuff. I really don't like the grade level thing...he is where he is and that's what matters.

Spencer. He's 3rd grade.

Connor is doing Kindergarten work this year!

And Elizabeth had a great time making a HUGE mess while I taught the boys!

Some of the things we discussed that can be recycled.