A post about a birthday that happened a month ago... oops.

I forgot to post about Atty's bird birthday!!! His 5th birthday. In February. Good Grief!

It was a lot of fun! Atty is still really excited about birds, so we centered all the fun and gifts around that theme. Bird decorations, bird games, bird feeder craft... everyone had tons of fun.

{Ignore the glare off those horribly dirty windows, I swear I wash them but the kids just get them sticky all over again, like instantly.}

Birds, birds everywhere! He was so excited to wake up to all these birds. :)

In our family I get all the kids some sort of little present in the morning of a birthday. So that everyone feels included. We don't open presents until the night time {Usually daddy's not home until then, and we all want him to be there, so we wait...} Waiting until night takes a lot of patience though so I like to give them all a little something fun in the morning. :) This birthday they all got a little Audubon bird, of course.

My big bird loving five year old, sitting in his special birthday spot at the table, waiting for his birthday pancakes.

The high point of his morning was opening a present that was sent from his biological brother in Montana. I'm so thankful for this special relationship we get to have with his brother and family. His brother is adopted as well, and in another state no less, so it's pretty special that we get to be so close to them! In fact we are planning a trip to Montana this summer to see them and it's about all we can talk about around here! :)

Bird boy!

Special heart cake made with almond flour and a sweet cashew butter frosting. I tried something new and made it sort of like a spice cake and it was really yummy!

He just couldn't wait, ha ha!

We also had an amazing birthday party for him the following weekend with some family and close friends and it was a lot of fun... so much so that at the end of it all he passed out on the couch with out a moments notice. One moment he was partying like a big boy, the next he was out like a light. I'd say that party was a success. :)

It was a wonderful birthday, for an amazing boy who is growing up entirely to fast! One of the funniest moments at the birthday party was when he open up a present from a friend that was a bag of bird seed and some nyjer bird feeder sacks... and he was so excited! He couldn't believe he had his own bird seed! {Normally I buy it and fill the feeders myself} He wanted to carry it around with him. Everyone had a good laugh... I mean seriously what five year old boy do you know would get so excited over bird food! That's what I love though, he is so uniquely him.

Happy Birthday Son!

Even if mommy is over a month late posting this... oops.

Rushed Narrative

My kids have been saying the silliest things lately. And growing like crazy. Sigh.

{They love these wooden blocks!}

We have been pretty busy, and then not at the same time. I know that makes no sense. It just seems like the days are full, but then I wonder what in the world I accomplished at the end of the day. I can't wait until winter is over and spring starts for real. We have had some freak snow these last couple weeks, just enough of a dusting that I feel discouraged about my garden plans. Looks like I will be putting them off for a while longer.

{Could she be any cuter?}

My baby girl is growing faster then I can keep up with. I've started noticing little babies and pregnant women everywhere. It's hard for me to think that I will not be having any more babies. It's a weird mixture of emotions because I feel so done and ready for raising them and not having them, but it also makes me feel old and a bit sad to not be in that stage of my life any more.

{Brothers, wow do I love these boys!}

We got to go visit with J and my hubby's sister and her family a while back. J just turned 17! Time does fly!!!

{My heart is full.}

Had a beautiful Valentine's day at home with the family. Couldn't think of a better way to spend a day of love.

{He is trying to show where his tooth use to be, and he's holding the little tooth in his hand but it's hard to see.}

Bubu lost his first tooth! We were planning on going out that night, my husband and I, and I had felt so disappointed when the plans fell through. {Mostly because a night out with the husband, just the two of us, is a rare treat indeed!} I had curled my hair and had an outfit all ready so we ended up taking the kids out to eat with us for the first time {It went surprisingly well!} because why waste cute curls right!?! Poor Bubu couldn't eat because it hurt his tooth so bad. He was also a bit freaked out because it kept bleeding, so he just sat through dinner with a tissue to his mouth. When we got home he went to brush his teeth before bed, and got the surprise of his little life, his tooth came out! He was sooooooo thrilled. He just couldn't believe it! I loved seeing his excitement and ended up being so thankful that our original plans fell through. Funny how life works out that way some times. :)

{I attempted braids in Lala hair, yes I know I'm desperate, haha!}

This post is going backwards in time. The winter has been mild, a little snow, a lot of rain, and a few weak sunny days sprinkled in here and there. I've been chasing them outside the moment the sun comes out. Well to be honest I chase them outside rain or shine, but they last longer on the sunny days. :)

{My kids like to make bird nests to watch movies in.}

We have been watching the Little House on the Prairie series together this winter. I love it, and the kids look forward to watching them with me. I love snuggling up with them, and it has started some amazing conversations as well. We will be getting the book series soon, and I'm even more excited to read the books with them. We have started to read chapter books together out loud, me reading... them listening. Bubu really enjoys it and Atty and Ira listen fairly well too. Even Lala likes to sit on my lap while we are reading, but she often tries to "read" her own books out loud when I'm reading... little stinker. We just finished "Island of the Blue Dolphin" and I just got a bunch more fun books to read with them at the library. "The Black Stallion", "Old Yeller", and "The Last of the Mohicans" are a few of them.

{Atty is finally getting the hang of peddling his bike, but he still just isn't that interested in bike riding.}

In moments of sunshine the boys have been breaking out their bikes. Still with training wheels. I have a feeling Spike will be getting his training wheels off way before my very cautious oldest son. Spike is a very competitive and driven little mister... Bubu not so much. He cruises slowly back and forth on the side walk, having a panic attack {kidding} when ever anyone gets too close to him or too close to the road. Where as Spike tries to see how fast he can make his bike go. He makes me nervous, haha!

{Bubu being his normal worried self because he doesn't want to get too close to his sister in fear that he might run into her...}

I wish we had a better place for them to ride their bikes. We don't live on a dead end so it's not safe enough for them to ride in the street, and the side walk is so narrow and the dips for the driveways cause problems for kiddos just learning how to ride... it's also impossible at this point for me to just load up their bikes and take them some where fun to ride, I hope to figure that out soon. We might be getting a small flat bed trailer for our up coming summer trip to Montana. I might just have to figure out how to drive the van with a trailer attached so that I can also load up their bikes and we can go on an adventure. That would be fun. Or scary, depending on how well I can drive with a trailer... hummm....

{My wild child.}

I've been dreaming of all the exploring I want to do with the kids this summer. We are going to have a pretty tight summer, money wise, because we are trying to save all our pennies for the much anticipated Montana trip, but even so I hope to do lots of relatively free hiking and river outings. :) I guess it will mostly all depend on gas prices because it's really starting to hurt at the pump! My husband already has an hour one way commute time... so that really bites into the gas money. Although he has been able to car pool for the most part, which really helps! We do have a few fun out door exploring places close by so we might just have to recycle those over and over again. :)

{Don't you just love her adorable owl hat!}

Lala recently figure out how to pedal her tricycle! I think she is the only one of my children to master a trike so early! She was so proud of herself, and is getting quite fast!

{The kiddos got the most adorable animal hats for Christmas.}

Lately Atty and Lala have been playing together a lot. It's nice because Bubu and Spike pair up often. There is a pretty peaceful balance around here right now. Atty and Lala both ended up with owl hats and they will put them on and play baby owl and mommy owl, it's pretty cute. Atty plays well with Lala because he likes playing imagination games with stuffed animals and little animal toys and Lala enjoys playing along. Bubu and Ira are a lot more into super heroes, action figures and active games. They like to use their imagination as well but in a completely different... much more rambunctious, good verses bad, sort of way.

{Enjoying a walk on a crisp but sunny day.}

My boys often talk about how many kids they are going to have. Bubu often says 10 or so, Atty always says two and Spike of course says a number some where in the hundreds because he's competitive like that. ;) The other night we had the following conversation, Bubu said

"Mom, I'm going to have 10 kids, five boys and five girls." He held his hands up in the air and looked from one hand to the other then said "five girls mom, That's A Lot Of Sass!" The way he said it was so funny that I couldn't help but laugh. Then Atty said "I'm only going to have one girl, that's just a little sass." Oh man those boys are funny! The things they say, seriously I should start a journal. :) Just carry it around with me and jot down every silly little thing they say so that I never forget.

{snug little bugs..}

The boys made a fort with one of the bunk beds {with my help} and decided to camp out together a few weekends ago, which turned into almost every night since then... I love how close my boys are and how much they seem to enjoy each others company. They've always preferred sharing a bed rather then sleeping alone though, so it's no surprise. Normally I would be very strict about them going straight to sleep at their bedtime, especially during the week, but I've been trying to relax a bit on certain things. We home school after all so we have nice relaxed mornings and if they want to sleep in they always could. {Although they NEVER do, not even on the weekend, I dream of the day that I can again sleep past seven.} As long as they are quiet I've been letting them camp out, and I have to say it's pretty cute hearing them whispering to each other.

{Our one big snow fall of the year, we made a snow bunny.}

I've thought of plenty other things that I wanted to blog about but I never seem to have {or make} the time to do it... and then I forget all about it. I'm still not really caught up, but I've rambled long enough. I really hate it when I forget to blog for a while because I want this to be a record of our lives. I want to be able to look back and get a good picture of how things were. Not a rushed narrative. Sigh. It's so hard for me to really get down what our lives are all about.