Here are some pictures from the eldest kiddo's sixth birthday. He got to choose his birthday meals and a birthday outing: Daddy took him to the Science Center, where they had a great time. Unfortunately, Margaret was sick, so the rest of us stayed home. We definitely joined in when it was time to eat cake, though!
Ready to open presents!
Grandma B made a vest.
Showing off both his special snack and his new (and much-prized) watch. Keeping us informed of the time is something he really enjoys.
Cake!
He suggested we use an abbreviated form of his name so that it would fit.
We were able to head out for four nights of camping last week. It was a lovely trip, and we are all relaxed and bug-bitten. The children really enjoyed it and kept a running tally of the caterpillars they found during the trip.
We mostly had the place to ourselves, until the masses arrived on Friday night and kept us awake, stirring our misanthropic feelings.
Getting ready to identify nature.
Riding along bumpy trails is very exhausting.
Making a sketch in his nature notebook.
E. spent a lot of his time driving matchbox cars on the picnic table.
Playing ball with a baby doll in the other hand.
Rubber boots.
"Here, I'll help make breakfast."
Learning to play marbles.
On our way out we stopped at a little cemetery that had graves from the first half of the 19th century.
I haven't shared pictures in a while, and wanted to post some. You will see that Mr. Third Born clearly envisions himself as a toddler instead of a baby. If he hears anyone mention the word "outside," he runs for his shoes. If the big kids come to the table, he calls his own name, clearly indicating that HE would like to eat whatever it is, too. And he loves to climb up on the couch to sit with us.
The other two kiddos are growing fast, too! M's two favorite games are: 1. Pretending to be a pet mouse (not sure why), and 2. Pretending she's found a lot of lost babies and needs to take care of them. The eldest kiddo is currently very enamored with pruning. He was allowed to prune a tree in the back yard, and now wants to prune pretty much everything in sight. He's not half bad at it, either, but I've had to tell him they all need to grow more now before he can take another go-around.
Here's a photo of us right before Aunt G's wedding.
The HAT. Right now, our third child really, really, really likes hats.
We found wonderful boxes for each of the big kids' craft supplies. Any papers left outside of the box are FORFEIT, and the cupboard is now blissfully tidy.
"Don't you know I want to craft, too?"
Picking currents of our bush.
A craft we made. When opened:
Voila! Baby birds!
This shoe goes here, right?
Fancy that--another hat!
The Duplos are still in constant use.
And apparently I have a video of the hat, too, from a different day:
