So Long Beryl!

We did have a dose of Beryl over the weekend but it really wasn't anything to get all worked up over. I was hoping for some good storms but we just got some rain, not even any good wind really. I love storms. It reminds me of God's power and God's strength and it reminds me of how awesome nature is. Yes sometimes they are disastrous and I am not saying that I enjoy disasters or destruction. I don't. I just think that nature is amazing and I find it fascinating. I truly believe that God is our protection even in the midst of the demonstrations of His power and strength. We desperately needed the rain so I was thankful that we got some. The kids watched the radar with us and weren't afraid at all which was wonderful. I was worried that they would be scared but they handled it all really well. My brother and his family came over for a little while before the storm came and the kids all played. It was good to see them. Their little boy is starting to talk up a storm and loves to play with my boys.

Here's the four boys together. They look like they all come from the same family!

After my brother's family left, we all got ready to head to bed. The boys wanted to have a sleepover on the floor so we stuck them all in GQ's room. We didn't fight them on it because we thought it would be comforting if they did wake up from the storm and they didn't have school the next day anyways.

Unfortunately, their sleepover didn't last long because they wouldn't settle down to go to sleep. I had to be up super early to drive to work in the storm so I wanted to get some sleep. The boys each went to their own beds. I didn't sleep well but it didn't have much to do with storm. It sure wasn't loud enough to keep me up or anything. We just got rain off and on for about 3 days. Now I can say I have been through a tropical storm though.

On a totally different subject, the boys love to be helpful. Lately, they want to help with a lot of things. WB took these pictures of GQ and Doc helping make pancakes.

Pancakes is one of their all-time favorites and they help just about every time we make it. I usually let them help me measure stuff out and stir. I think I will try to get them more involved with cooking our meals this summer since they will be home from school. I am thrilled that the homework battle is over for a few months!

Happy Birthday Doc!

Apparently, now I only blog for birthdays. I don't know what happened. We've just gotten busy and blogging has fallen by the wayside I suppose. I need to try to get back to taking pictures and blogging. With summer coming up, hopefully I will be able to blog more.

Anyways, yesterday Doc turned 5. That boy is so sweet and compassionate. I love how he looks out for others and always wants to help. He is empathetic and hates to see another kid upset. He always wants to fix things and make them feel better. Other than that, Doc is all boy, rough and tumble. He even says he doesn't like "girly" things, such as songs and colors. His favorite color is still red but he now says he likes all the boy colors. Doc is into superheroes. He wants to be a superhero when he grows up, or a policeman. Sometimes he still says he wants to be a firefighter. It definitely fits his personality so I don't see him wavering from that anytime soon if ever. He loves all the superheroes and is so excited for his superhero cake on Saturday. My aunt was so sweet and sent him superhero shirts and Spiderman socks for his birthday and that is all he wants to wear every single day!

This was this morning. His Green Lantern shirt was freshly washed so he HAD to wear it. He has worn his superhero shirts the past 4 days in a row now. He has a Green Lantern shirt, Superman shirt, and Batman shirt.

Yesterday we celebrated his birthday a little bit with him and then on Saturday, he will have his birthday party. To celebrate yesterday, we brought cupcakes to school for his class.

I made Doc a special all red one just for him. He was so excited about it!

When he got home, he had his gifts from our family waiting for him.

Mr. X has a book fair going at his school this week and bought a Ninjago book for him and Doc to share so they were looking at that for a few minutes before getting to the present opening part.

 Doc had a package waiting for him outside the front door from his Oma and Opa.

They all love getting mail!

He got Lightning McQueen velcro balls. I'm not sure what they are really called but I remember them from when I was a kid. The cool thing is, the ball isn't a tennis ball but rather a bean bag.

He also got a Mickey Mouse ball hop.

Sorry the picture is blurry. He was having a grand ol' time bouncing on his ball hop.

And a Pop-up Tent!

I think they like it!

GQ got him one of the hero factory guys that he wanted.

Mr. X got him another one that he wanted. Of course, Mr. X had to help him look at it and was very excited about it too.

And he got a Green Lantern planet from us. He wanted the big cave but they didn't have it at the store when we went. He was thrilled with the planet anyways and calls it his Green Lantern cave.

I asked him what he wanted and got the few things that we could find at the store. He had listed about 4 different hero factory guys and they only had those 2. I think it's OK that he didn't get everything he asked for though. I try to teach my kids to enjoy the more important things in life like friends and family over materialistic things. I am blessed that my two oldest boys believe in Jesus (I don't think GQ gets it quite yet) and love church. To me that is more important than what we have. Nothing is greater than having Jesus! We are looking forward to celebrating Doc's birthday with friends on Saturday and then life will settle down a bit. WB only has one class for a couple months and he will be home every evening now. We are excited to have some family time back and looking forward to doing things with the kids this summer.

Happy Birthday GQ!

The big 3 today!

Three years ago you flew into this world and you havent stopped since. You are charming and sweet. You are a daddy's boy but fight with your brothers saying "MY mommy". You have learned to keep up with your brothers and to stick up for yourself. I love you and am proud to be YOUR mommy. (my facebook status this am)

I can't believe how fast time flies! My facebook status really does say it all. GQ is always on the go lately....so much so that he fights bedtime always worried he will miss something and he is up early every day. Crazy kid. The other night he made himself a bed on the floor. He is a kid with a mind his own. GQ refuses to sleep on his bed some nights.

He had come out of his room and was sent back to bed. I went in to check on him a little while later and this is what I found. Lights on and everything.

This morning we did gifts for GQ for his birthday since Dad has class this afternoon. This school he goes to...I'm telling you. All his classes are at night or weekends. I really wish his classes were NORMAL class hours but I guess they are after the working adults.

GQ is excited to get started.

He loves the transformer robots but most of them are too hard for him to do on his own so he always asks for help to transform them. This one is from Doc and transforms very easily so that he can do it on his own. It turns into a fire truck.

 Mr. X got him some hotwheels because he keeps stealing his brothers' cars. This package even came with one that to him looks like Bumblebee.

Oma got him a shirt and shorts.

And a bean toss game also from Oma and Opa.

Mom and Dad got him a bike with training wheels on it. It's a 12" bike and perfect size for him.

 

He only has a hard time riding it because of the pedaling. He can pedal a trike but for some reason this is giving him some troubles.

GQ is now 3 so that means I am past the infant and toddler stage! I am so excited to have my children growing up and past those stages. Of course each stage brings new challenges. I am so excited to see what this next stage in life holds for us. Happy birthday to my youngest, may you be blessed by all that God has to offer you in this life!

Legoland!

We got a great deal on Legoland tickets so we took the kids out of school on Friday and went. It was a lot of fun! The boys are so into legos and were so impressed with all the lego things built throughout the park. This was their first trip to an amusement park and the first roller coaster ride for Doc and GQ. Mr. X has been on a rollercoaster at the fair but that's about it.

 

Most everything is made completely out of Legos! At least all the figures and stuff.

They had a minicity made out of Legos. The shuttle was Doc's favorite I think.

Made completely out of Legos!

The first rollercoaster we went on. Doc and GQ were able to ride this one. It's the only one GQ could ride but he loved it!

The dinosaur outside Coastersaurus made out of legos.

A model of the rollercoaster car outside Project X.

Doc and I are in the front of this car.

Project X

WB and Mr. X rode in the front of this car. Mr. X wasn't sure about this rollercoaster. It had some sharper turns and one large drop.

Technicycle.

Jr. Driving School

They got Driver's Licenses!

Driving School. Mr. X was old enough for this one.

Duplo Farm play area.

This is a rollercoaster within the Lego Kingdom area. It was Doc's favorite. Unfortunately, it's hard to get a picture of the rollercoaster because of the castle. GQ was too little for this one.

 

Royal Joust

Doc is excited about the ship wreck.

Do you see the ship wreck on the bottom?

Every 8 minutes or so, the shuttle "engines" would start for lift off. Of course it doesn't actually go anywhere but it does send out billows of "smoke".

The treasure chest outside the Pirate show.

 

The pirate show was a water ski show with tricks.

With some acting, dancing, and water-fighting thrown in.

R2D2

Another part of the minicity

Safari Trek

All the animals are made of legos.

Pharoah's Revenge. As we rode through the ride, we had little laser guns to shoot at different things.

It rained while we were there but the kids still had a blast. We actually made good time through the park and were able to do most everything that we wanted to do. We even rode a few of the rides more than once. The kids didn't get overstimulated or cranky until the very end so that was good too (especially considering they were up at 4:45 am and hadn't gone to sleep until 9 pm the night before). The lines had lego stations that you could play at while waiting. The food was a little expensive but it wasn't outrageous like you might expect. The yearly passes are reasonable considering the cost of admission and later this year they will be opening up a water park area as well. We didn't get an annual pass or anything but I was overall pleased with Legoland. I like it better than Disney for sure.