Wedding - Part 3

Yes, that's my son rolling around in the grass in his suit. But he was playing with Sophie, and the most important part, keeping her from wandering off.

Help me!

Of course I had to take a picture before I could rescue him!

The tooth fairy is coming!

This is the news around our house. Jolie even shared it with her church class as the highlight of her week.

The tooth fairy is coming!! 

Don't you love how Jolie works her way into the pictures?

So, Olivia lost another tooth. And Austin too.

The tally for this month:

Austin 4

Olivia 2

Nyah 1

Ay carumba, the tooth fairy is going to go bankrupt! At least she doesn't have to make another trip to the dentist.

Here's a little reality check for all those people who are dealing with teething babies/toddlers- the end is not in sight. Teething doesn't stop for years to come- as in wisdom teeth don't come in until the late teen years. I've had to stop my older 3 kids from chewing on stuff all month- blankets, sippy cups, stuffed animals- nothing is safe. One of them actually bit through a blanket. It has bite marks.

I guess I forgot...

...to brag about my other kids' tooth-losing abilities, or so they have informed me.

This week Nyah also lost one tooth.

Austin lost 3 teeth. Yes 3!!!  He lost 3 of the 4 teeth the orthodontist wants pulled anyways. So I have him working on the other one too. One less trip to the dentist is a fabulous thing.

Pinewood Derby

Our family had a great time at Austin's Pinewood Derby! The cub scout leaders did a fabulous job and we all enjoyed watching the races and eating popcorn.

Getting ready

 Best friends

 The field

 "Muscle Racer"

One of the Austin's races

Austin's Birthday

Austin has had a fabulous birthday week - 10 years old now - whoo!!

On his birthday we went to the Clark Planetarium to wrap up our Astronomy studies for school.  I let him bring his best friend, Ethan (and left Olivia and Jolie home with a babysitter - so nice for me!!). 

Later we had a small family party with yummy food and presents.

Yesterday he had a party with his friends and it was a lot of fun. He wanted the theme to be Legos. 

The first game the kids tried to pick up and hold as many balloons as they could - its funny to watch them struggling to hold on to the slippery balloons.

Then we did a bunch of Lego Challenges - 1 minute to build the tallest tower, 5 minutes to build a lego house, animal, robot, etc. and they voted for their favorites.

Heavy, heavy hangoever thy poor head, what do you wish this person with a bump on the head?

More good food!

He has had a great week.  Thank you to all our family and friends who helped him celebrate!

Catching up - Star Gazing

I don't know if I posted these or not, but Austin, Nyah and I went to a star gazing party a few weeks ago and had a great time.  It was really neat to see Venus and Jupiter with 4 of it's moons visible.  We also picked out a few constellations, ran around in the dark with flash lights, and laid in the grass next to each other talking.  It was wonderful.  I love these kids!!

Happy Happy Birthday Austin!!

A little self-promotion never hurts when your the oldest, easiest-going kid in your family with 3 emotional and dramatic little sisters :)

Love you Austin!!

Austin's Recipe

Strawberry Juice

Translated:

1 1/2 tsp. sugar

juice from 3 squished strawberries

Add water

Stir

Eat squished strawberrries and drink juice

Austin didn't quite understand why I wouldn't want to hand squish a bunch of strawberries to make juice for everyone. And I forgot to include his Lego video with his pictures, so here it is:

Its fun that he is doing things he want me to include on the blog.

Austin & Legos

At Austin's club meeting this week a couple of the boys did a video presentation they had made with legos and still shots - claymation type stuff. I don't know what it is called with legos, but I hope you get the general idea. He came home and wanted to use my camera to experiment. Looking through his pictures I learned there are some basic things I haven't ever showed him, like focusing, but it was fun to see what he had been happily doing in his bedrooms for a few hours.

Here are some of his shots:

One of his story lines was about a group of storm troopers and a dragon. The storm troopers get the call about stopping a dragon. They go after it, many of them are beat up, squashed, and eaten, but eventually one guys gets the dragon.

There was also a Bionicle battle

Thank you Austin!!

Austin: Mom, you have a yum-yum in the oven.

Me: (thinking he's talking about dinner in the oven and a little surprised because he doesn't really like baked chicken) Are you ready to eat?

Austin: (patting my belly) No Mom, the baby is a yum-yum in the oven.

Okay? I guess? I have no idea where he comes up with this stuff. At least he makes me laugh!

Caged birds

Today my kids have chosen to not finish their work- they each have a chore and school list they are supposed to complete before they can play outside or with friends. As a result, they are caged up. From the picture above, let's see if you are thinking what I'm thinking-- Does it look like they are upset about being caged up or in any way motivated to complete their work? Yeah, I thought not. Maybe this will change when the neighbor kids who haven't started school yet come knocking on the door. Maybe. They look pretty happy and content.

The elusive Austin and Nyah birds . . .

. . . older kids? Do I have older kids? I have noticed a couple strangers turning up for dinner, but its pretty unwillingly and they disappear as quickly as the food.

Austin and Nyah have BFF's all over the place, and because said BFF's will be starting school soon and friend playtime will be drastically diminished, they are intuitively milking every minute of every day running around barefoot and in grunge-y clothes, catching grasshoppers and praying mantises, soaking up the sunshine, slip-n-sliding, swimming, trading Pokemon cards, riding bikes or scooters, playing video games and watching movies with friend-- or as Nyah says, being a "wild girl" or boy in Austin's case. (They do get their chores and school stuff done in the morning too- but I'm not taking pictures of that- maybe I should.)

Despite all this, I have managed a few shots of these rare and hard to find species.

Nyah and her BFF Ethan- she has another BFF Luke.

Austin and his BFF Ethan trading cards

(I keep them straight by calling the BFF's "his Ethan" and "her Ethan)

If we didn't have a sand box I don't know if I'd ever see them.
Biking

Scootering