Ellie is 7!

Guess who just turned 7?  That's right, Ellie.  We have a tradition in our birthday for everyone except for Joe, who would rather not get up early, that we get up first thing and open presents.  The kids all came rushing down the stairs to wake us up and let Ellie open her presents.  She said she wanted a new camera and lots of bracelets and necklaces for her birthday!

 

 That is what she got...lots and lots of bracelets and a couple of necklaces and a camera.  I found this cute craft on pinterest and made her a magnet board using a cookie sheet.  She felt it wrapped up and thought it must be a picture frame, so she told everyone that she was getting a picture frame.  We all joked back that it was just a cookie sheet.  She didn't believe us, but sure enough it was....

 Adam ran downstairs before he woke Ellie and brought this Lego creation down that he made, first for my birthday, but he finished it for hers. Isn't it cute?

Since this is an odd year for her birthday, (7 is and odd number) we didn't do a big party.  Instead we invited Ellie's favorite friend, Sydney and we all went to the movies.  We saw the movie Hotel Transylvania.  That night was trunk-or-treat, so we didn't have Ellie blow out candles until the next night.  She didn't mind.

 Here is Ellie's 1st grade picture from school.  I think she looks a lot like my sister in this picture.  Ellie is busy with school, dance- she takes jazz, tap and ballet, gymnastics- she just moved into the pre-developmental class which is hand selected girls that they want to give special training to prep them for competition in a few years, and also piano.  She has been doing piano for about 9 months and is about ready to move out of the first set of books.  She loves school, has a lot of friends- not only because there are a lot of girls at church that are her age, but also because she is a social butterfly and likes to play with other girls.  She loves to play games and wishes that I will play games with her every second of every day.  She doesn't want to be outdone by her brothers, so she can play video games, especially Minecraft, right along with them.  She loves to be right and will argue a point with Adam and Michael until someone else intercedes.  Her current favorite colors are red, orange, pink and purple.   She has perfected the fake cry and uses it as often as possible to try to get someone to take pity on her when I'm making her do something she doesn't want to.  She gets perfect grades in school, seriously, her report card was 99, 99, 98 and 100.  I think she gets a little bored at school, but she makes up for it by telling the kids around her what to do, "so they don't waste so much class time."  She still loves to sit on mine or Joe's lap and she likes it when we play with her hair or cuddle her.  We really are lucky to have one (and just one) girl in our family!

7 Acre Wood with Nate

I got to go back to the 7 acre wood with Nate.  He enjoyed it, and I didn't hate it like I thought I might;)

First we pet the animals- they have a really cute baby llama.  Once you pet it, though, it follows you around and doesn't leave you alone.

 They also have a zipline.  There were a few kids who were a little afraid to go on it...not Nate.  He rode it again and again and again, with no fears.  He loved it.

 The wheel was on the hayride this time, and stayed on.  Apparently, I have forgotten how to smile.  I can work on that.

 And a pumpkin patch!

Just as I am typing this, Nate asks when we can go back...so he can go on the zipline again!

Adam's Arrow of Light

Adam earned his Arrow of Light.  He actually earned it a couple of months ago, but they had the big Arrow of Light ceremony yesterday.  He is on track to be a Webelos Super Acheiver, he just has to do two small things.

 We had several "indians" come and explain the legend of the Arrow of Light.

 Then the Webelos were brought up and they were initiated into the Arrow of Light group by making promises and painting colors of paint on each of their faces.

 Adam with his Arrow of Light arrow.

 Me and my boy, sadly, this was the best pictue I got.

Fall Pictures

I went out this morning and shot some quick pictures when I thought the light was probably about right of the kids.  I was hoping to get a good picture for the Christmas card (we really only need all 6 of us every other year).  I told the kids if they smiled good they could get donuts...it turned out to be a very worthwhile bribe.

Fall Flag Football

Last weekend, we started our first games of flag football.  This is the second season that the boys have played- they played last winter.  They really haven't played much football between then and now, as it has been almost too hot to go outside for most of that time. They picked it up and did REALLY well at it.

Adam got the ball a couple of times, advancing the play. He made a couple of good catches too.

Here is he losing his pants as well as his flags to a kid-  luckily nothing was revealed.

 During the last minute of game play, the score was 14-7. (We were the 7). The team did a running play and Michael got the ball. He took off and started running...

 He kept running, right past a bunch of kids who tried to get his flags...

 He slowed a couple of times because he was sure they got his flags, but soon he had outrun them all-all the way to a touchdown.  We played the extra point, and got it, to tie the game.

 Michael got the player of the week medal for his great playing.  We were so excited for him.

 Mike with his two best friends Shane (short hair) and Logan (long hair).

 Of course, there are other members of the family who don't want to be forgotten.  Nate takes his socks very seriously.

I'm excited for football, it sure is fun to watch the kids play.

Ellie's Field Trip

I haven't posted in a while because I haven't had anything to take pictures of.  Don't worry, Halloween and two birthdays are coming up, so there will be plenty to post about then.  The ironic thing about it all is that we have been unusually busy (well I guess it isn't really unusual for us anymore), but its just the day to day things that I don't normally document.

This week on went on my first ever field trip with any of the kids.  I specifically went with Ellie.  I told someone that and they were shocked that I had never been with the other kids.  Problem is you can't take siblings with you and although my other kids have preschool, it is not long enough to cover the whole time that we would be gone for a field trip.  Nevertheless, Ellie was the lucky recipient of my presence at the field trip.  We went to a place called the seven acre wood.  Last time I went I thought the place was highly overrated, but going with such low expectations allowed me to see the finer qualities of the place.  They had a petting zoo, so we went there first.  They had the cutest baby llama, but I didn't get a picture of that.  They did have lots of goats that liked to escape.  One even enjoyed standing on the fence.

They also had a short zip line.  There were lots of kids there and several were afraid to go on the zip line.  Of course, Ellie had no such problem since she is very comfortable with riding a zip line.

Then we got excited to go on a hay ride.  Right before we got ready to go, the hayride was rounding the corner (full of kids inside) when the wheel fell right off.  It was very funny, but like I said, not really a surprise at this place.

They were able to produce a smaller tractor shortly thereafter and take us on mini-hay rides.  Ellie saw her friend Sydney on the ride, but for the rest of the day she was with some girls from her class.

There were lots of other activities- mini-golf, riding razor scooters (one of the girls in our group had never ridden on one before!!!), playing on a playground and playing on an old abandoned boat.  Here is Ellie with our next door neighbor, Walker.

Finally, as we were leaving, we got a picture with all of the kids from Ellie's class. 

Hmmm, when Nate is in school next year do you think I will go to all the field trips?