Showing posts with label Zion. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zion. Show all posts

Sunday, February 24, 2013

Gabe is 9

And the celebration took a whole week!  Ha!  Not really but sort of.  We were having a hard time coordinating when family could come and when friends could come so we did a family dinner last Saturday and had friends over yesterday.  His party couldn’t start until he went out for testing for the Highly Capable program.  He’s technically already pre-qualified for next year but the school is having him finish the test anyway.  I’m sure he did brilliantly but we won’t get the test results for a couple of months.

As usual, I don’t have a lot to say but I do have a lot of pictures:

The family dinner.  My sister and dad come as well as my sister’s foreign exchange student and a friend of the family.  Also my friend Nora and her whole family come since it fits in their schedule better and they’re pretty much family anyway.

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Gabe was given a choice of the kind of cake he wanted and he picked a chocolate fudge bundt cake with sprinkles.  Easy enough for me – yay!

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Elias says “I Matman!”

After the party my sis takes all the kids with her and gives us a couple of days off.  Sunday we got to go to church, then to lunch and even shopped a book store all by our lonesome.  Rob worked the next day so I even got to do a few things by myself.  At first I felt a little lost but I managed to do a few fun things just myself.

Fast forward to his party yesterday (some of the pics aren’t here because I don’t know if a couple of his friends’ parents are OK with having their photos online).

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Rob concocted this wonderful Angry Bird Triathlon in keeping with Gabe’s party theme of choice.  The kids were divided into teams doing the different activities.  1) Coloring an Angry Bird page, points were given for coloring and then for the kids’ pick of favorite 2) Completing one level of the Angry Birds game on the iPad, points equal to their score 3) Playing the Angry Birds Jenga game, points given for pieces knocked down.  Elias mostly just bombed the photos I was trying to take of the activities.

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There were prizes for first and second place.  We were all a little surprised when Gideon won first place.  Apparently all his time “practicing” at both the electronic and “real” Angry Birds games has paid off.  Gabe came in second.

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I had every intention of making Gabe’s cake again.  He wanted lemon so I baked that cake, two rounds, put the first round on the platter and covered it with raspberry filling.  Mmm.  Looking good.  Then went to move the second round and could tell right away it wasn’t going to be easy.  The second piece was falling apart just sitting there.  I did everything I could to move it in one piece and managed to get it on the bottom round but it just disintegrated.  I even tried “gluing” the major pieces together with frosting but I’d be working in one area and the other areas were falling apart even more.  I have no idea what happened.  So I had to make a call to a local grocery store for an emergency cake.  They did the grass and sky and I put on the Angry Birds pieces (from one of our games).  Oh well, at least we had a cake.

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Afterward the kids get to try out one of the games Gabe got for his birthday.  At one point we walked out to meet the chickens, a couple of Gabe’s friends were so excited to meet real chickens and had lots of questions about them and their eggs.  I ended up sending two of them home with half a dozen eggs.  They were possibly more excited and them then they were the goody bags.

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No post is complete without a cat picture, right?  Silas and Savannah spent the party trying to figure out what the heck was going on and had to have some time to chill after.

It was a great time celebrating our oldest.  We are so blessed by him.  He’s smart, funny, inquisitive and we just enjoy him so much!

Sunday, January 6, 2013

Thank you, Grandma!

Oh we surprised the kids big time yesterday!  Rob’s mom sent us some spending money as a Christmas gift and yesterday, on the way home from a birthday party, we pulled into Toys-R-Us instead of going home.  THEN we got to tell them they could actually purchase for themselves some things that have been on their wish list for a while. What a joy for all of us, Rob and I got to say “yes”and their faces were just lit up!

Zion chose a scooter and a cute basket (thanks to the scooter being on sale).  She’s been wanting one for so long.

Gideon and Elias wanted the same thing so we/they pooled their portion and got them a Batcave add-on to go with their Geotrax train set and they each got to choose a smaller item.  Gideon picked a stuffed Angry bird (a green one of course, his favorite color) and Elias chose a two-pack of Cars characters that also go with the Geotrax.  The love of trains in this house is not going away anytime soon that’s for sure.

Gabe looked and looked but didn’t find anything he’d been wanting.  He perused.  He browsed.  He checked out a lot of things but ultimately decided to shop elsewhere. So after we went home Rob and he went back out and checked out GameStop.  Ooo, we love it there!  And Gabe SCORED!  GameStop was having a sale.  Gabe got two game guides and a set that came with a game guide, a game and a Lego toy.  Wow!

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You can see how happy they are.  Well, Elias may be a bit overtired but he’s happy on the inside! Thank you, Grandma Marlene!

And because I’m overdue, puppy shots:

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They are HUGE and they are characters and so sweet, like giant teddy bears and they were a couple of days shy of 4 months old in these shots.  More puppy photos soon.  :)

Saturday, September 8, 2012

First Days of School

Yes, first dayS, because Gideon and Gabe started school on Wednesday and Zion started today, Friday.  I did not want school to start or summer to come to a close (though it was about 90 degrees today so our summer is in no way over with).  I love having my kids at home.  Alas, the dayS came. 

First came time to drop off my sweet Gideon.  I was not sure that he would let me, he is my homebody, preferring to hunker down with a show or toy than go anywhere – ever!  But he did well.  All morning Zion had been coaching him on what to expect since she went there last year.  What a great big sis!

So here we are, about to enter the school…and he’s more interested in eyeing the playground behind me.

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Then he needs to sign in.  Our summer was so nuts we didn’t do much teaching at home so I brought my highlighter, wrote his name and he wrote over it.  I was surprised today at how many letters he was already able to do today, his second day, even though I didn’t write it out first.

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Then Zion showed him where to put his back pack and where to find a toy and he was all ready for me to leave.  Just like that. *sigh*

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I had no time for emotions, I had one more to get to school this morning.  So home we went and I packed Gabe’s lunch complete with a special note and a little pack of Smarties candy. 

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I’m not yet sure if I feel we are lucky in that we are living with the “walking zone”, I’d much rather a bus pick them up, but walking isn’t so bad (though most days I will drive them). 

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He allowed me just a couple of pictures and then said “I have it from here, Mom.”  Why do they have to grow up so fast?  *sniff*

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On the way home Zion has to climb and have her picture taken. 

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And I take a shot of random grass.  I love Fall (except for sending my kids back to school).

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Fast forward to Friday and I’ve got three to get to school.  Zion starts Kindergarten today, Gideon has a second day of PreK (he goes three days a week for 2 1/2 hours) and Gabe has his third day of third grade.  First, Gabe and Zion and Gideon wants in on Zion’s photo so we do a silly one first.

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Then just Zion in her sassy outfit.

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Then we go find her classroom, where to put her bag and her desk.  She has been looking forward to this for years.  I might have cried if I wasn’t trying to keep Elias wrangled.  He is a good distraction.

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And before we knew it we’d survived our first week of school.  Liked it even.  Today I went shopping with only one child while the other three were at school.  I guess there is a benefit or two to sending the kids off to school.  Maybe.