Ugh.
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| Pitiful |
But - it was just a cold-type thing and everyone is much better now. Consequently, we spent the better part of July staying close to home and doing much lazing about.
Fortunately, we celebrated some birthdays BEFORE everyone got sick. First up was Matthew who turned six! He'd been counting down the days for a good month or so (excellent calendar practice!). When the day finally arrived, the whole family helped him celebrate the way HE wanted.
His special day started with honoring one of his special requests - breakfast at Bob Evans with just Daddy (he has a bit of an obsession with Bob Evans. We don't know why). It was a beautiful day and the restaurant is right down the road, so they decided to enjoy walking there.
Which gave me a chance to pile the rest of the boys in the van to go take care of some shopping.
Not that I had waited until the last minute or anything. I never do that.
When the Birthday Boy returned from breakfast, his brothers gave him the presents they had picked out for him. Since Daddy needed time to get the all-important treasure hunt ready, I took everyone to the library (free books!). Once we returned, it was time for the thing the boys look forward to the most on their birthdays - The Hunt! We love that we unintentionally started this tradition with the boys - it allows us to get them one, largish gift for their birthday with the added excitement of having to solve clues and search for it.
After decoding some clues, Matthew eventually found his big present - the new Lego Mine set!
When we were all hungry and able to pull the Birthday Boy away from his Lego building, we went out for pizza. That was followed later by ice cream for dinner.
Because sometimes you just have to let your kids have ice cream for dinner.
Matthew got to continue his birthday celebration in Indiana at Nana and Papa's house.
All in all, he ended up being a VERY happy six year old.
After our trip to Indiana, we turned our attention to celebrating Thomas!
One of Thomas' birthday requests was an early morning fishing trip with Daddy. Thomas is our outdoorsman.
The rest of us did our usual morning thing of breakfast, coffee drinking (just me - not the children), playing (children) and time wasting on the computer (me). But with the added challenge of NOT eating the birthday donuts until the Birthday Boy returned from fishing.
We were successful. Mostly.
Actually, Thomas' birthday celebration began a few days before, when we took everyone to the drive-in movies! We are fortunate to have a drive-in theater not too far from where we live and there is usually a great kid movie that comes out around the time of Thomas' birthday. The last couple years it was Toy Story 3 (did anyone else cry at the end?) and Cars 2. This year it was the movie Brave. The Birthday Boy thought it was great and it was a wonderful way to spend a family evening together.
Back to the actual birthday. After fishing and birthday donut eating, there was present opening, of course! Starting with the boxes of goodies from Grandparents.
After enjoying those gifts for awhile, it was time for The Hunt. This time my very clever husband put most of the clues IN a computer game that the boys have all been obsessed with playing a lot lately - Minecraft.
Needless to say, Thomas LOVED that. Once he had all the clues worked out, with a little help from his brothers, he still had to figure out what it all meant.
After the boys took turns saying it out loud approximately 745 times, they got it.
"Oops Tears Indy Close Hit Been Jamin Bed Broom"
Say it fast. There ya go.
"Oops Tears Indy Close Hit Been Jamin Bed Broom" = "Upstairs in the closet Benjamin's bedroom."
That would be the Lego Sopwith Camel that Thomas has been pining after for some time. Otherwise known as Snoopy's Plane.
Much Lego building satisfaction followed.
Until everyone was starving and the Birthday Boy managed to tear himself away to have lunch/dinner at his restaurant of choice - Texas Roadhouse.
He still managed to finish it! And at 883 pieces, it was no small task.
Eating ice cream cake for dinner (yes, we have a thing for ice cream in this family) probably helped.
I think I made everyone at least eat a sandwich first this time.
Now we just need to practice riding a little more and he'll be zipping around the neighborhood in no time.
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| Because this post was short on Benjamin pics! |
Two special birthday celebrations! It was a great way to start the summer.
Hope you've been enjoying yours!
~ Dori
I also wrote about Michael's week of Lego Mindstorm Camp on my homeschooling site. You can read about that (in a word - awesome) here.
