Zack & Mario... And about 30 other people!

We had a blast this weekend here at our house to celebrate Zack's 6th birthday. We had an awesome time with everyone, and as squishy (and chaotic) as it was, Zack LOVED having everyone there with him.

K, my niece Soleil is just about the cutest thing in the entire universe. I can barely handle the cuteness. :)

For those of you who have never seen a tired Nathan before, here he is cuddling with our friend Mike, and he's absolutely pooped.

Wow Bethany, this game is HARD, isn't it?

More Dorky Cupcakes

I made these for my cousin Dale's birthday, and they turned out so cute.

Still Roaming The Earth

Nathan has always been a big fan of dinosaurs. It's one of the things that he spends a lot of time thinking and talking and reading about. He's not really much for TV, but he sits and stares very intently at the TV when watching the only show he cares about - Dinosaur Train. It's a show on PBS on weekday mornings, and it's about a computer animated family of Pteranodons (ter-AN-oh-dons) that take a train to different places and times to learn more about different species of dinosaurs. Nathan thinks this is amazing, and often asks if all the dinosaurs really died because he's pretty sure some of them MUST still be alive and roaming the earth somewhere. Last month Nathan was SO SURE that a set of three footprints in a cluster in the snow was a T-Rex footprint; he stared at it with awed wonder for a really long time. It was adorable. And last week when we were walking Zack into school in the morning, Nathan saw a piece of wood in the gutter by the parking lot and was absolutely certain that it was a dinosaur bone. I sometimes wonder to myself what it would be like if adults still looked at the world with the same amount of excitement that kids do. I think we would have better imaginations.

Things I'm Not Supposed To Hear

Now that Zack is getting a bit older, he's in the "I'm the big brother so do what I say" phase right now. He often tells Nathan to do things for him, but only when I'm out of earshot. Last week the boys were playing at my mom's and while mom and I were upstairs making lunch, I heard Zack in the basement say, "Nathan, if you don't get me a kleenex, I'm going to punch you in the eye." Needless to say, Zack was called upstairs immediately and right away made sure to let me know that he "wasn't gonna really hit him." Hmmmm...

Yesterday, the boys were playing with Lego (surprise!) and I was cooking supper. I leaned around the corner to see Zack poised to whack Nathan on the back of the head. I asked, "Zack, are you going to hit Nathan?" Zack quickly answered, "No mommy, Nathan's hands are busy, so I'm going to give him a high five on his head." Again I say, hmmmmm...

Kinda Dorky

I made some hat cookies for Wee College at Beulah again this year. People tell me I need to start my own business making sugar cookies, and I'm considering it. Apparently my perfectionism with icing cookies isn't as dorky as I thought!

A White Shirt

My mom was over for supper on Tuesday and the boys sang a song as our prayer for the meal. After the song was done, my mom said, "I think Jesus was smiling while you were singing that." Zack replied that he couldn't see Him, and so we had a conversation about listening prayer. (For those of you that don't know what "listening prayer" is, it's really cool. When God says "behold" in the Bible, He means to "look with the eyes of your heart" and the eyes of our heart is our imagination. So it's basically asking Jesus to meet us in our imagination to talk with us.) My mom asked the boys to close their eyes and see if Jesus was here. Nathan closed his eyes for a minute and said, "Yes! He is!" My mom asked him what Jesus looked like. Nathan said, "He's got long hair. And a white shirt on!" After supper, my mom and I were talking about how cute that was and we looked into the living room to see Nathan on the couch with his eyes closed tight and his hands folded. He was double-checking that Jesus was still wearing a white shirt, and ran back into the kitchen to let us know that He hadn't changed His shirt and it was still white. It was so cute.

Zack's Art

The boys (especially Zack) and I spend a lot of time at the kitchen table drawing. Zack loves to draw all kinds of things, and he's really good at it too. He draws pictures and cards for everyone that comes over, it's super adorable. I've been getting better at drawing a few things over the past couple of years, but sometimes Zack will ask me to draw something for him and when I show him the end result, he just says, "It's okay mommy, you did your best..." So here's some of the drawings that Zack and I have done.

Here's our family in the car together - we are all our favorite colors. Pete is driving, then Zack behind him, then me, then Nathan. This is when Zack and I decided to draw some monster trucks. I actually didn't do too bad!

Here's a computer that Zack made for me, with "To Mom, I love u, from Z.H!" on the screen.

Nathan wanted me to draw him a robot on this super-cool paper that Pete's grandma got for Zack for Christmas.

This is a card that Zack made for Nathan whilst in his "I'm Optimus Boy" stage.

Here's Mario and Luigi getting an invincibility star. Sweet.

The Art Of Lego

Nathan plays with Lego all day, every day. He makes vehicles and vehicle-related objects, and is very intentional with every piece. He always makes sure that each vehicle he makes has a specific purpose, which is then outlined in his presentation of his newest creation right after he makes it. Nathan's cars are made by himself - if even one piece is added by someone else, he will remove it very hastily. He's so proud of each one, and always remembers what everything does and what it's for. Here are a few of his vehicles that I was able to take pics of...