Learning with Legos

 The littles love Legos. We've only had Duplos in our home for years - the larger version of Legos. But now we have added the smaller Legos to our collection. Such a good tool for imaginative play. Jenni and Joshua love team work and creating things together. The first day they had their new sets, Jenni spent five straight hours building her Cinderella set. And then she helped Joshua with a motorcycle set. Since then the littles work daily with the Legos building cities, farms, zoos, offices, etc. Lots of fun.

Houston Fun

With Eric spending much of his time working in Houston, the littles and I decided to make the trip to check out the town!

The littles think that hotels with indoor pools are magical. :)

 Jackson enjoyed his swim time enough but was ready for a nice, warm, bubbly bath.

 Jackson was up to his tricks at lunch time. He's learned a few things to get laughs out of the children. Putting a straw in his mouth like this is one of them. :)

 We went to the Lego store and bought Joshua his first set of Legos and a couple sets for the littles to work on together! Joshua's always used the bigger Duplos before so it was an exciting trip.

 Yogurt break! Both littles chose a blueberry mix-in with their yogurt.

 This little boy does not like blueberries. So we got some chocolate yogurt to share with him. :)

 A late night movie night :)

 The walk (or march) to the elevators. The littles love elevators. Plus at this hotel, it's a glass elevator so they could watch as we went from the top floor down - super fun. Joshua always presses the button to go up or down and Jenni presses the button for the floor we go to. Good team work. :)

 One evening we met up with our sweet friends at an outdoor restaurant for dinner!

We stopped for ice cream on our trip back home. :)

 And Jackson was thankful we shared some bites with him. :)

Feeding Little Brother

Jenni wanted to get out of eating her yogurt, and being the quick-thinking girl that she is, she offered to feed it to Jackson so it wouldn't be wasted. It was a super cute win-win. :)

Fun with Little Brother

 Jenni and I were doing her morning school work in the kitchen when Joshua stopped his activities to entertain Jackson. "Watch this, Jacks!" :)

Jenni's Half Birthday

 Off to the bakery!

 Joshua, being a Joshua, chose a chocolate cupcake with a cherry on top. :)

 Jenni chose a new cupcake, a banana split cupcake, also with a cherry on top. :)

Sweet Jenni J turned SIX and a HALF today! :) In this family, we celebrate half birthdays. They are super fun. Plus we always love a reason to celebrate!

Educational Activities

 Putting together an "I Spy" game, matching riddles with pictures

 "No Stress Chess" - Our favorite new board game

 I highly recommend this game for beginners. Jenni has really picked up how to play, the names of the chess pieces and different strategies. And she's super cute trying to win.

Little man working on his puzzles :)

Joshua's Pirate Party

 We had a "Jake and the Never Land Pirates" birthday party to celebrate Joshua's 4th birthday. Our big family was in town to celebrate his special day which made his heart extra happy!

Basketball with Our Big Family

 Early morning games are always better in pjs and on daddy's shoulders :)

 Jenni played in another weekend basketball game, but this time her "big family" was there to support and cheer her on! To make the game even sweeter, Jenni scored a basket during the last play of the game!

Donuts & Disney & Dinosaurs, Oh My!

Oh, how we love birthdays in this family. A special day for a special person. I'm pretty sure Joshua woke up by Jenni pouncing on him wishing him a very happy birthday. Sweet Joshua forgot even though Jenni has had a birthday countdown going for him for weeks and reminds us daily of the count. So what an extra surprise for Joshua when he realized it was his special day! :) And then Jenni said, "Joshua, you are four! Can you believe it?!" And Joshua goes, "How that possible, Jenni?" And Jenni said, "You turned four already this morning!!" So Joshua was extra excited. He started jumping up and down in bed exclaiming, "Look, Mommy! I'm getting bigger!" Jenni replied, "Joshua, you're only bigger because you're standing on the bed." :) But throughout the day, Joshua found examples of how he was bigger, taller, stronger, smarter. I loved it all.

We started the morning with donuts. As we were driving to the store, Joshua learned that we were eating in the store. Oh was he exited as he exclaimed, "You the best mommy ever!"

Then I told the kids we were going on an adventure. They had many guesses while on our drive to what would be the mall. The kids know what a mall is but are not familiar with one, so they hadn't picked up on what our next adventure would be. As we were walking through the parking lot, I explained to Joshua that we were going to the Disney store and he could pick out a toy for his birthday. Another, "You the best mommy ever!" as he was jumping up and down all around. Very sweet. (Earlier in the morning Joshua told Jenni and I that he didn't need any birthday presents, he just wanted to spend the day with his family. Precious heart.)

Then we went on a carousel ride. It was super fast and spun many, many times. I told Joshua that I felt bad. He asked, "Are you getting sea sick?" :)

And then we went to pick up a special cake for our boy. Thanks to Jenni, who distracted Joshua by turning his back to the counter and telling him jokes, I was able to somewhat secretly place an order for a cookie cake for Joshua. The lady did a wonderful job and had it ready for when we were done shopping. "I hope your birthday is DINOmite!" Too too perfect for our dinosaur loving boy. He was so very happy looking at the wonderful job the cake lady had done. "Mommy! I didn't know you were going to surprise me like this!"

Then we came home and played outside while baby brother napped and even had a play date with our sweet friend.

And then the littles blew out Joshua's four candles. Several times. :) And then in sibling birthday tradition, Joshua let Jenni have the first piece of cake. A very happy birthday, indeed!