Birthday Fun

We finally got Julia and Philip's birthday's celebrated with the extended family.  Philip (influenced by Augustine's party last fall) chose a fire fighting theme and I made a firefighter/Lego cake.  Julia went with hearts and my mom made a lovely cake.  Philip got Legos from almost everyone and has been very busy building today!  Julia got a variety of things, all of which she loves.  Thanks everyone!

 

 The two fire chiefs

State Wrestling

Samuel made it to State wrestling again this year.  He lost, won and then lost in the double elimination tournament.  He was a little disappointed because last year he won two before he was out but he did a good job and we're proud of him!

Also in wrestling news Thomas won another match at the last tournament of the year to pass his goal of winning three matches so he was very happy and we were very proud!  Philip wrestled one more tournament as well and won another match and, since it was a trophy tournament, came home very proud of his 3rd place trophy.  Say what you will about everyone getting a trophy, but it sure makes everyone happy when you do that once a year!  :)
And now I'm am reveling in wrestling season being OVER! 

Happy Birthday!

Philip enjoyed a quiet 5th birthday.  We made him this caramel cake with caramel frosting that turned out REALLY sweet.  Maybe just regular frosting next time...  We didn't do a lot of celebrating because he woke up at 4am with a splitting headache and a 103 degree fever.  I anticipated an icky feeling birthday but after he finally woke up for the day (at 9am, which is super late for him) he felt pretty good.  A little slow moving and a low grade temperature but not awful. So we celebrated by putting 5 puzzles together and having waffles for dinner and we'll celebrate some more next week.
We love you Philip!

Reason #238 Why We Don't Live In Town

Outside naked digging is frowned upon.

He does pretty well with his self-initiated potty training when he's naked.  Not so good when the pants are on but that's okay.  He's still little.

Spring Break Fun

Jeremy took both days of the kids' spring break off and we had family fun (and some need-to-get-it-done shopping too)!

Thursday we got up, went to Mass and cleaned the church because it's my group's month.  Samuel went to wrestling practice because he made it to state again!  (More on that next week after the tournament.)  After lunch at home we went biking.  We headed to a city park with lots of cement that also meets up with the bike path.  I borrowed a bike from my friend who has a WeeRide.  It's a seat for a little one that goes in between the rider and the handlebars.  It was fun to ride with Nicholas and hear what he had to say while we rode.  The littles and I biked around the cemented loop while Jeremy and the big boys went down the bike trail.  The trail has gravel and turned out to be rather muddy but they still had fun!  We also hit the bread store and went grocery shopping.  Nothing like taking everyone to the grocery store!  "Be a good example of a big family!" is my mantra when we shop.  They did pretty well.  On the way home we stopped for pizza in a small town about half an hour from us.  If it was closer I'd eat there all the time- it's SO good!  We'd bought a gift certificate off a silent auction and needed to get it used up.

Friday we headed to the movies.  Jeremy had found out about free tickets at a theater Friday-Sunday.  Each week it's a different movie that's free.  It was Annie this week.  It turned out to be pretty good and since tickets were free we even got to have popcorn!

After lunch we checked out this park and lake.  I discovered it last year but when we went it was rainy so we didn't really get to check it out.  Since the weather was gorgeous we had a lot of fun and I took the only pictures of the weekend!

We also hit Lowe's for a couple things we needed for the bathroom.  Everyone was tired and it didn't go so well.  Which, unfortunately made me rather crabby for dinner.  We met Jeremy's parents and his sister's family for dinner at our favorite small town bar, Elmo's.  (It's not actually called that but that's what Thomas thought it was when he was little and it stuck.)  We celebrated Raleen, Julia and Philip's birthdays and headed home very ready for bed.
Saturday was Sister's day for me and "you-figure-out-what-the-kids-are-doing day" for Jeremy.  The littles had fun with Grandma and Grandpa in the morning and Daddy in the evening and the big boys helped Dad around the house in the morning and went to a hockey game with G & G in the evening.  I thoroughly enjoyed my day off with my sisters and found everything on my shopping list except new shoes.  Thanks sisters!
Sunday was just normal, recover from the fun day and everyone is back to school today.  It was a good break!

I Spy

Seven differences

Plus this one!

 

 Some are pretty hard to spot.
1. New toilet seat
2. Picture on the wall
3.  Handles on the cupboards and drawers
4.  Trim on window painted
5.  Fru-fru decorations on the counter
6.  Globes on the light fixture
7.  Scratches on walls repainted
8.  Stacked washer/dryer

We got a new stool too so now the kids can wash their hands and I can reach the dryer controls!  Just kidding, I can reach them without a stool but I do have to back up a bit to see what they're set on.  It's okay, I think the functionality outweighs the inconvenience.

Just a little touch up on the ceiling paint, hooking up the heated flooring and hauling up the freezer left!

Field Trip

I got to attend Julia's field trip last week.  They went to the football field, got a tour of the facilities, touched the horseshoe and ran the field.

 Then we went to the Natural Science Museum on campus and explored there for the rest of the day. 

Glad I got to go!

Priorities

Julia got this Lego set from GAP (great aunt Pat) for her birthday.  She opened it in the evening while she had a few friends over so she couldn't start building it right away.  She was so excited she got up at 5:45 the next morning to get started.  Later she told me something to the effect of
J: After I finished the first part I got really tired
M: Oh, so did you go back to bed?
J:  No I just sat back in my chair and took a little nap.  Then I went back to building.
No need to sleep when you have important building to do.

What Nicholas Has Been Up To

Doing lots and lots of building and making "houses"

He also asked me "Ralph make dis?" about our upstairs bathroom and asked Jeremy "You make dis?" after he installed the towel bars.  We may have a builder on our hands.

It Just Keeps Getting Better

We have squeaky clean kids,

 I hand washed the singlets (without having to empty and scrub the kitchen sink!)

 There's a toilet paper holder and light fixture

 And towel bars!

Next time I'm just going to post a picture and you'll have to spot the differences so look closely today!  ;)