Cardboard Creations

I found out about this amazing video/story about a 9 year old kid who created an ellaborate arcade out of cardboard. You can watch the video here. It's pretty inspiring! I knew Eli would be inspired to make his own creation after he watched it, and I was right. For his first project, he made a football game where you pull back the die with the rubber band and try to make it through the field goal to get points. I'm looking forward to seeing the next game he's going to create, which Eli says will be a soccer game. What a great way for him to use his brain this summer! We had a talk about "plan B", trial and error, and it's also a lesson in patience!

I got the die in mid air!...see it?

Kids!

Our friend, Heidi, has her own urban farm, which is much more involved than ours, and she lives in a neighborhood just 2 minutes from us. They happen to have goats and one of the mamas just had babies, so we went to go see them. Baby goats are the cutest! She had three baby boys, so I welcomed her into the three boys club. I'm glad I didn't have all mine at once though! They are named Old Spice (b/c he was stinky when he came out), Jake, and Donny V.

Unfortunately, we heard some sad news yesterday that one of the baby goats didn't make it. They had to put the darker brown and black one down because they discovered he didn't have a hole for poop to come out. Poor thing! He wasn't eating and had a huge belly. I'm sure he was miserable. So sad.

Here's Jed with Jake

Mama and Old Spice

The brown one in the back is Donny V.

Max and Jake

Fun Times!

the jumpy seat!

Eli took this one of Spiderman

Eli reading books to his brothers

the superhero costume Jed came up with

Max 6-8 months

He is the size of a toddler, literally!  Max was just under 23 pounds and about 30 inches long at his 7 month appointment.  He's in 12-18 month size clothes.  It looks like he should be walking, but for now Max is just rolling to where he wants to go. He finally started sitting up by himself a couple weeks ago. That stage was short (a little over a week) but sweet because I could sit him down next to his box of toys, walk away, and he would still be there when I came back. Now he can go to a crawling position from sitting and then rocks back and forth on his hands and knees like he's going to take off crawling. Not yet, Max!

There are now four teeth (or toofies, as Jed calls them) in his mouth! Max eats like a champ and seems to like baby food more than Eli or Jed ever did when they were babies. We've started some finger foods as well, which he also likes. The boy just likes to eat!

Max still just goes with the flow. Even when he should be fussy due to the fact that he needs to nap, he still is generally happy except for some eye-rubbing and minimal fussing. I don't get it, he'll take only and 30 min. morning nap, we'll go swimming at the pool until past naptime but he's fine. He'll conk out a couple minutes after we get in the car to head home though.

Another new thing Max has started doing is babbbling! I love the baby babble. So far, he's only saying /ba ba/ or /ma ma/, and a few /guh/ sounds. Max likes to try copy us, especially Eli or Jed. He laughs back when we laugh or grunts/growls back to us. It's a fun game!

Oh, and his hair seems to be thicker and getting some curls in the back. It's still blonde with some red tint to it. He has more hair like Jed did and it's blonde like Eli's was...a good combo!

Father's Day

We had a great day celebrating John! It started with a loud, chaotic breakfast that involved loud, hungry boys, waffles stuck to the waffle iron after I forgot to grease it, and bacon grease spilled on the floor. Just another day in the life for us. We just had to laugh, and John said that we would look back on times like that and wish for more. True! Then John decided he wanted to mow and take it easy at home. He let Eli and Jed wash his truck, which was a great idea. Then we watched nature shows during rest time and learned about sharks. To top it all off, John watched some of the NBA finals game with his boys. A perfect way to hang out with Dad! We are all thankful for the amazing Dad he is!

This is the collage of trucks and that Eli made John for Father's Day. If you know Eli and how much he loves trucks, you know this is a perfect way for him to show how much he loves his Dad.





Max hung out in the swing and watched all the action from a safe distance.

Pink and Sparkly!

See my glittery pink toes? They are well deserved. I got a pedicure after surviving another week of single parenting while John was in Germany. They make me so happy! I had to bring a little more girliness into this household somehow!

Mother's Day

So, for Mother's Day this year we went to a jousting tournament. I'm a mom of three boys, and I'm okay with this. I actually thought it sounded like fun family time. It was a real tournament with real armor and everything. These people were seriously into this competition. I thought it was going to be more like a renaissance festival-type setting, but it was more of a sporting event, so there weren't that many people there for people watching. However, the boys loved seeing the knights in their armor and watching them on horses. All in all, it was a fun Mother's Day with my boys!

Tee Ball

Did I mention that Eli did t-ball again this year? He played through the YMCA once again. It was controlled chaos as usual. Eli did well and understood what was going on a little better than the other kids on his team. I think he was one of the oldest, if not the oldest on the team. We had fun getting to know our neighbors, who also had a son on the team, during the tee ball games. They also have 3 boys, all a year older than our boys. We'll be hanging out with them more often!

in the outfield w/ his new friend who lives down the street

The Phillies team picture. Isn't the little guy 3rd from the right the cutest little thing?

showing off his end of the season metal

Helpful Big Brothers

Eli has been a big helper lately. He especially loves helping out with Max. He feeds Max, reads to Max, gives him toys, makes him laugh, and distracts him when he's upset . Jed is good at entertaining Max, which can be very helpful as well. They are great big brothers!



Eli reading to Max...fun for both!



Eli feeding Max and Jed cheering him on...Max loves it!

Here's Jed entertaining...he was doing this face to Max before I took the picture.

Playdates with friends

Jed and his friend, Maya, at the zoo.

All of the boys' friends are girls in these pictures. They do have friends that are boys, but most are girls. I guess they know how to impress the ladies and treat them right!

feeding the goat at the zoo

beautiful peacock at the zoo

Max and his friends, Eliza and Harper. They are all 3 weeks apart!

Eli with friends from school at our after school playdate at Doc's.

playtime with all the Perkins boys!

Ninjas!

3 ninjas!

Boone "played" with Jed's Spiderman figures, and it resulted in this. It was very tragic! Jed was not happy about this!

A date with my three boys

A few weeks ago, while John was out of town, I took the boys to one of our favorite places, Doc's Backyard. We went to play on the playground there, then I decided it would be nice to sit and have a margarita. So, I snagged a table outside and got to drink my drink while hanging out with my three boys. They played, we had dinner and enjoyed the weather and each other. Plus, I got some good pictures. Perfect!

pretty good shot, thanks to my long arm

What we've been up to...

Wow, I haven't posted in a month! We've had a lot going on in May. The boys had activites with school, like track and field day and Mom's day and kindergarten graduation. Meanwhile, Max is the size of a toddler at 7 months old with three, almost 4 teeth and is rolling everywhere, playing with toys and eating like a champ. Eli and Jed are done with school and it's already summertime! My how time flies! I find myself wanting to enjoy every moment with my boys (even when it's loud and chaotic and I'm frustrated) because they really do grow up so fast and I know I'm going to look back and miss this. There's a good reason people say it so much..."enjoy it now because they grow up fast". It's so true!

the one picture I got before my camera died at Ei's kinder graduation

Eli and his teacher, Mrs. Lancaster, on the last day of school

Jed on his last day of school

SVE Track & Field day-funny story: That day, while John ate lunch with Eli's class, he taught them to flex their bicep and point one way when he asked "where's the beach?", so when the class won their tug of war game, John said, "Hey Mrs. Lancaster's class, Where's the beach?", they all pointed on cue with biceps flexed and yelled, "That way!". He got it on video on his phone, but I have no idea how to put it on this compter. It was priceless!

cute Max

Me and Jed at Mom's Day at Jed's school. The kids sing songs, give us gifts that they made (like the crown I'm wearing), and serve us punch and cookies. It's so sweet. Here are a couple videos of one of the many songs the kids sang. Jed was trying not to smile the whole time for some reason.