Andrew's 7th Birthday

How is it that my second little baby is already 7 years old? Andrew is my funny, sensitive, inquisitive, lovable guy with a passion for all things dinosaur. He isn't really into a lot of "book" work as far as school goes, but he loves when he can do projects or science experiments or games, anything hands-on. He is pretty good when it comes to numbers and reads fairly well now, but it's dinosaurs that draw his attention from anything else academic. He can tell you the name of at least 30 different dinosaurs and tell you random facts about equally as many. He studies his Dinosaur Encyclopedia he got for Christmas and watches dino shows on TV regularly. He wants to be one of the few Christian paleontologists when he grows up-- already scoffing at those who say the earth is millions of years old.

 His second passion is video games. He loves the XBox and will lose himself in a game. When he puts his mind to accomplishing a goal on a game, he won't stop till he gets there. He loves a race car game we have, and a Disneyland game where you complete a variety of tasks around a virtual park. He is really pretty good at computer-related things.

He is still progressing in Taekwando, already up to green belt, which has taken a full year. He rarely practices outside of class, but enjoys going to class, and I think will eventually dedicate more time to the sport so he can work his way up to black belt. He enjoys sparring, as well. He likes to be outside, but only if there's something specific to do. He's usually good at imagining he's some sort of wild animal and will play to that extent, but often he gets bored just being in the backyard. He is always full of questions! He has to sit in the car where he can see the dashboard because he likes to see how fast we're going and see how all the things work. He is curious and imaginative.

This year of course he had to have a dinosaur themed birthday party. We invited a few of his friends from church (unfortunately there are only about 2 boys that are close to his age & they are not regular-attenders-- there are lots more girls!) the Saturday before and had cake and just played in the house. I think he had a great time and enjoyed being with his friends and opening his gifts.

I love putting time & effort into their cakes, and this is one of my favorites I've done. The volcano was definitely the most fun part! 

His gifts from his friends (Autumn, Beau & Colby) included a kite, a ball, and a couple trucks.

We bought him a Nature Explorer vest (which has pockets for binoculars, a compass, etc.-- it's similar to one worn by a character in his favorite show Dino Dan), a Sketch Pad (which quickly became a "Dino Field Guide"), and then on his actual birthday he opened a new Bible (not a storybook one) and a Dinosaur Science Kit.

ECHO Museum

This past Thursday, we had another fun family day trip to the ECHO Museum in Burlington. It is a neat science museum, and the largest one in Vermont, but nowhere near as cool as the museum we loved in NC. Much of it was geared toward older children, or just too "educational" to be really fun, but there were two sections that the kids really loved.

One was the live butterfly exhibit. There were thousands of them inside a heated little tent area. Leah loved that one landed on her back.

Our other favorite area was the play space for younger kids. Jacob LOVED the water table and happily played for a long time.

There were things to climb on and slide down and lots of imaginary play. They would have happily stayed all day.

Leah is really in to sea turtles right now so she loved the pretend animal hospital where you had to feed and care for the stuffed animals.

Jacob loved the big aquariums, and here he is giving the fish a kiss.

There was an exhibit about the weather where they got to put on their own weather forecast for a pretend TV news show.

After we went through the museum, we had a picnic outside. The museum is on the waterfront of Lake Champlain and it was a beautiful day, so we enjoyed being outside.

We also decided to make a stop on the way home at Lake Champlain Chocolate Factory. I had heard they had a Factory Tour, but in reality it was just listening to a guy talk while the workers did their thing behind a big glass window. So it was not very exciting, but there were a few samples, and of course we bought a few chocolates to take home!

July 4th

4th of July fun this year:

Jacob painting for the first time. I wanted him to do a handprint picture first, and at first he liked the paint on his hands, but after I tried to put them on the paper, he was no longer happy with his messy sticky hands and cried until he got to play with the water I put in the cups for his brother and sisters to paint. I did manage to get a handprint picture and another where he finger painted a few things. Leah, Andrew & Abi painted flags & fireworks.

I bought a mix to make elephant ears (fried bread dough/ whatever you call it in your neck of the woods), a fun summer/ fair-type food and the kids helped roll them out & add sugar. They loved them! It was really fun and so tasty. (See, even Jacob got in on the action.)

For the third year in a row we went to the Bristol parade with a couple from church. It is the largest in Vermont. This year wasn't as exciting as year's past. We also didn't get a great seat because we waited too long to sit down after walking around at the playground & other things set up for the holiday. Jacob also HATES being out in the hot sun if he just has to sit, so he cried most of the time and Brett & took turns holding him in the little bit of shade we could find.

Later that night we all did our usual sparklers on the porch in our jammies.

Jacob @ 21 Months

Oh how much this little guy makes us laugh! Jacob is a funny little kid and his new words and mannerisms amaze me every day. Here are some examples of what he does that is funny.


1. Lately all animals are called "meow." Even birds. And anything soft. And he gets really excited about bugs in the house. They are called "mimi!" and he tries to catch them. He does know the sound a dog makes, but anytime he sees any kind of animal, it is "meow."

2. Jacob loves giving out kisses. When Daddy leaves, he gives everyone a kiss. So then Jacob has to go give everyone a kiss. And if he gives one, he can't leave anyone else out. He also loves giving a fist bump, complete with sound effects. He will give them to random strangers who have no idea why he's holding his fist out to them.

3. His new favorite thing is to "hide"-- from diaper changes, from medicine, from anyone calling his name-- by covering his eyes, or burying his head in something. He thinks by running away and closing his eyes he can't be found, even if there is a great deal of giggling involved.

(This picture just included because I always told Abi when Jacob was a baby that "one day he'll be big enough to sit on you & get you back for smothering him!")

4. He's pretty picky when it comes to food (will only eat fruit in yogurt & the only veggie he eats is peas), but he loves his snacks. "Mommy, a 'nack!" is what I hear frequently. And if he's not asking, he's running to the snack cabinet, which he can open himself, and sneaking a Vanilla Wafer or graham cracker. He also loves juice. Too much. "Momma, a 'ji" means get me a drink now!

5. One of my favorite little boy thing is watching them drive cars around the floor. As soon as he so much as sees a toy car, he sticks his tongue out and blows raspberries for the car noise and will "vroom" (as Andrew used to say) them around.

6. He loves getting books off the bookshelf and pretending to read them. He only has a short tolerance for being read to (because he would have to sit still too long), but he does enjoy looking at books and loves to have one read at night before bed.

7. This kid loves music. He still loves to sing "e-i-e-i-o" everywhere he goes. And he has a hilarious dance he does when the music is upbeat, which involves a whole lot of shoulder & head action. He loves pretending to play Daddy's piano.

8. He loves to be "ou-side!" and is always happy when he can run free. He will beg to get his shoes if anyone is going outside and even attempts to put them on himself. He always asks to go "ou-side!" And he has no fear when it comes to playgrounds or climbing. He still loves the sandbox, and he loves slides.

VBS 2017

Every year we look forward to Vacation Bible School at church. We don't plan much else for that week, since we are there from about 4:30 until 8:30 every night. This year I volunteered for the nursery, so I don't have many pics of my big kids, but they had a blast. Even Abi was in her own group that went from station to station, and I never heard of any of them getting in trouble, or being sad or any kind of issues. The theme had to do with Maker Fun Factory, so fun things like inventions and colorful creations were involved.

I had four in the nursery most every night. Jacob and his buddy Woody were a handful- they are so much alike they are constantly taking each other's toys and instigating trouble. But they are so funny to watch together. And watching Jacob with the littler babies is so sweet. He loves to kiss them on the head and will usually help try to take care of them.

The weather was rainy most nights but we were able to get in the bounce house one night. It was Jacob's first time and he had no fear. He got right in and bounced his little heart out with his little nursery friends.