Buddy is 8!

Buddy wanted an army or camping sort of theme to his family birthday celebration.  Mainly, he wanted army and I found some cute camping party ideas.  All that really happened was some decorations and a cake.  The cake doesn't technically make sense since it's army guys battling with a giant campfire between them.  Sort of a combination of two different cake ideas I saw on Pinterest and couldn't decide between.  It's also supposed to be camouflaged if you can see the green and brown sprinkles.

He got to do whatever he wanted to do today so this was our day: he woke up at 7AM and played the GameCube for a long time.  Then breakfast.  Then presents.  Then waffles for an early lunch.  Then building new Lego sets.  Then a trip to some of his favorite stores which included H.H.Gregg (he apparently loves the fridge section of the store), a brand new tractor supply store's grand opening (which included a free hat, and seeing baby goats, sheep and pigs).  Then he finally got to go to Toys R Us to spend his hard earned money (and a $3 gift card they sent for his birthday).  He bought more Legos.  Then a party store for army balloons.  Then home for English muffin pizzas and his cake and more Lego building.

Pics from my phone at H. H. Gregg

Birthday Hike

Some of the National Parks and Battlefields were free this week so we thought Buddy would enjoy going for a little hike for his birthday.  Except Saturday's forecast looked rainy, so we went on Friday and made it also into a mini-field trip learning about the Second Battle of Manassas (which we just learned about in our Civil War studies).

Little Guy took a lot of these pictures (flowers, me, etc.).

Girl Scouts

Princess Sparkley made this volcano at Girl Scouts.

PS's leader sends out pics from each meeting.  Here are some of them:

Making a clay dolphin.

Camp May Flather 

(PS didn't spend the night but went up for the Saturday part of camp)

PS had to do a project for being a Junior Girl Scout.  

Her project was about transportation in our town.

Airport

The boys, fresh from seeing the Space Shuttle ride on the back of a 747, built airplanes, control towers and an airport out of Legos.

Little Guy build the row of teeny little Lego planes.  I told him the first one was adorable.  He went away and came back with a bunch more and asked me if they were adorable too.  Later on, he found out that adorable meant cute and he wasn't sure he was as happy about having "adorable" planes.

Space Shuttle Discovery

The Space Shuttle Discovery is retiring and will be displayed at the Air and Space Museum at Dulles Airport so it had to fly here, piggyback on a 747 from Florida.  It did a bunch of fly overs in DC and up near the airport, but we're sort of on the flight path to Dulles, so rather than fight crowds, we found a big empty parking lot with a big sky view and waited for it.  And we saw it.  It flew directly over us, really low once and then circled back by in the distance a second time.  It had a little NASA jet escorting it. 

I took some pictures with the camera the first time, and the second time I grabbed our video camera but it was pretty far away that time so the video isn't great.

We came home and watched it land online while the kids drew pictures. Here are the kids' renditions:

Lego/Shuttle 3D art

 by Buddy

 by Buddy

 by Princess Sparkley

 These last three are by Little Guy.  The 3rd picture is all the fighter jet bad guys.  There weren't really any fighter jet bad guys.  It all went very smoothly and without incident.  He just likes bad guys.  Lately, this includes him randomly telling us "I like the Gadianton Robbers."  That's the part of the Book of Mormon were in as a family.

Princess Sparkley Learns to Ride a Bike

Princess Sparkley, Buddy and Little Guy all have a goal this year to learn to ride their bikes.  B started with PS on a grassy slope (I have video on my phone, but can't figure out how to get it off yet) and worked up to our sidewalk out front.  Here she is, doing great.  And don't worry, she crashes into a car tire at the end of the video, not the car.  She needs to work on braking, especially in instances like this when her chain comes off.  Next up, Buddy...

The New Boy aka Mystery Baby

In all the hoopla of announcing the pregnancy and sex of the new baby at the same time, I forgot to tell about how the ultrasound went.  He's measuring right on target.  AND, exciting, the baby's head is also measuring on target.  Usually my baby's head is measuring larger than the rest of the body. 

Due to Little Guy's heart condition (aortic valve stenosis), my OBGYN made a note for the ultrasound technicians/doctors to pay special attention to this baby's heart.  Everything looks great for this baby's heart, which is a huge relief.

And, here he is.  Not quite as exciting as the 3D ultrasound we got for Little Guy that was identical to a newborn picture of Buddy. 

*This baby is being referred to around the house as Mystery Baby since that was PS's vote for what to call Little Guy in the womb, except she lost and we called him Baby X.



Happy Easter!

Dyeing eggs on Saturday.

Easter basket and hidden eggs.

I made Princess Sparkley's skirt Saturday.  The wind is blowing it weird in this picture.  Pattern from here.

Richmond

We went for General Conference Weekend (3/30-4/2) in Richmond.  Grandma and Grandpa M were there.  Uncle G and B ran the Monument Ave 10K again.  Princess Sparkley attended a drama camp at the high school with cousins S and Pickles.  The girls made Baklava (Grandma M's Easter Greek tradition) with the grandparents.  The kids played the Wii, watched the Chipwrecked movie, played with Mollie Doodle, and we ate a lot of yummy food.  I didn't take very many pictures though.

Aunt H, Buddy, Little Guy and I went to the race to cheer on the runners.  This is the only picture I got.  We got rained on, cheered for G and B, saw a lot of dogs, and some fun runner costumes.



Video coming soon (we hope).
||||||While we were at the race, the three oldest kids went to a drama camp and then we went to that performance. PS starts out 4th from the right. Cousin Pickles is 2nd from the right.||||||

Baklava

Mollie Doodle is getting bigger!

We stopped at Sam's Club on the way home and the kids shared an Icee.  I like how Little Guy's creepy eye is peeking at the camera.

Little Guy hurt his left leg somehow on Saturday.  At bedtime he complained that it hurt a little.  By Sunday morning, he refused to walk and had to be carried everywhere.  He would cringe if he had to put weight on it or if in moving him, you hurt him.  But he'd kneel on both legs to play Legos.  At bedtime he had me help him roll over on to his stomach, etc.  On Monday morning, as we were packing up to leave he started to put some weight on it and would limp around.  By Monday night, he was using it with a heavy limp.  Tuesday a slight limp.  Wednesday a slight limp.  Thursday, he seems fine and told me it doesn't hurt anymore.  No idea what he did to it!

Grandma and Grandpa came over to see our place Monday night (4/2) and had dinner with us before heading out for a business meeting early the next morning somewhere in Pennsylvania.  It was a big treat for the kids to have them visit.

Spelling

Little Guy spells.  The other day he colored the words "Happy Birthday, Nick!" for a cousin.  The next day he asked me where that paper was so he could use it to write the words again.  I'd thrown it away after we'd taken a picture of the sign and emailed it to Nick.  I told him I could help him spell the words again (I was in the kitchen making dinner).  I went to look to see where he was with the words so I could help, figuring he had maybe sounded out H-A and maybe a P.  He'd written Happy all by himself.

Then, the other day he made me this baby card.  He sounded out Baby as Babe.  Then he wrote mom and dad and big and smol on his own.  Then he tried to write baby again and wrote dab.  He's got some problems with confusing lowercase b and lowercase d as well as writing things completely (mirror-image) backwards, which is apparently more common in left-handers learning to write.  He drew a picture of the baby small and big.  They are oddly colored because he was completely coloring their skin and it was too dark to leave room for eyes and a mouth, etc.

Hiking in Shenandoah

3/23

Princess Sparkley had a Girl Scout campout near Shenandoah, but didn't want to spend the night.  She drove down with her troop and a few hours later we headed in the same direction and hiked with the boys in Shenandoah NF (Doyles Falls and ___ hikes). 


The first part of the hike is a very steep decline, during which we were drizzled on the entire way.  And we didn't really dress for rain, or cool weather.  Oh well, we survived.

Scenic shots. 

We sent B across the stream to get the pretty

purple flowers with the waterfall in the background.

We did a loop that was two trails together.  B and I did the first hike, Doyles Falls, last May when we went camping on our own.  Roundtrip, this hike was 8.5 miles.  Little Guy and I gave up (he's four after all, and I'm 20 weeks pregnant) at 5.5 miles and waited in a parking lot 3 miles down the road from our car while B and Buddy high-tailed it 3 miles on the Appalachian Trail to the parking lot where our car was.  Little Guy and I sat in the parking lot, swatting bugs away, watching the sun slowly get ready to set crossing our fingers that they were going to be quick.  And I thought they only had 2 miles to go.  They did it in just about an hour.  We were all worn out. 

Then we headed to Taco Bell for dinner (so I could try the Doritos Taco).  Except the steamer for Cheese Roll-ups wasn't working and our boys had been excited about Cheese Roll-ups for the entire hike!  So we drove to a different Taco Bell, ate, and then drove around in a thunderstorm on dark back roads until we found the Girl Scout camp and Princess Sparkley. 

Little Guy was long asleep by then.  When we parked at our home about two hours later, Little Guy woke up, said, "What about... Oh."  He was wondering where PS was since he was asleep when we picked her up.  Then he saw her sitting next to him.

Marine Corps Museum and a Hike

The Richmond cousins had a day off school (3/19) and wanted to meet us for some fun halfway.  Except, it turns out that there isn't a whole lot to do halfway between them and us, so we tricked them into coming a little further and we took them to Buddy's favorite museum, the Marine Corps Museum.  Then we took them hiking and played at a park in Prince William Forest Park.

In the gift shop, there is a Lego version of the Iwo Jima Memorial.

L->R: PS, S, Buddy and Pickles

Then we played frisbee and volleyball at a park (we picked up a couple of stragglers).

Then we went on a little hike and ended up at a stream we played in.

Then we followed them to IKEA to help load bookshelves, etc. 

St. Paddy's Day Hike

On St. Patrick's Day, we headed over to Manassas Battlefield and hiked the Old Stone Bridge.  The kids had been sick during the week, which we'd taken as our Spring Break so we decided to get out of the house and be active on Saturday. 

When we hike and we come across a bridge, the kids take turns (at each new bridge) being a troll and asking each of us a question before we can pass.