Dancing

Even though Josh is not quite two years older then his little sisters, he utterly adores them!  It's neat to see how he tries to nurture and teach them things.  This morning he was trying to teach Sarah to dance.

"Dance....Emma....dance"

Yes that is right, he is dancing with Sarah and he get's them mixed up 95% of the time, and yet they don't care!

Dance babies! Your mama loves to watch these sweet moments!

Toy Story

For any of you who have ever watched Toy Story, you have to admit that when the loved toys get packed up because Andy is getting too big for them it's a tear jerker.  I recently watched this movie again with Joshua and it hit harder this time around.

As we slowly packed up the toys from the big kids and put them away until Josh was old enough we kinda didn't notice them slowly going. In fact we kinda liked the extra play room but opening those containers now I was hit with a rush of emotions because these toys were their favorites! They were played with for countless hours. They were taken everywhere with us and they even slept in the big boys beds with them. Now they have been sitting there just waiting to be loved again.  I am glad that I get to remember all the joy it brought the older kids while we unpack these toys.

Welcome back Buzz and Woody....you will be loved again to infinity and beyond!

This is Joshie now....

 


And here are some pics from when Buzz and Woody were cool the first time around at our house :)

Rainy Day

Last week we had a few mornings that were kind of yucky....not a crazy amount of rain or anything just the sprinkling where everything is wet.....foggy dreary type mornings.  The kidlets and I made the best of the reading/play time inside.  This particular morning instead of our regular crafts we decided to make another pinterest activity.  Cotton ball race track!  Who could have guessed that a little tape on the floor, a straw and different puff balls could provide so much entertainment.

We tested out the different sizes of puff balls, the boys tried blowing on them in different places (right behind the puff ball, above it, close, far etc) to discover which methods were the quickest and which ones they had the most control with.  There was more learning involved then I had expected!

They finished it off with good old races hahaha!

Oh and I am quite aware that Zachary has an eagle costume on.......josh was dressed as Darth Vader but his costume was going to inhibit his ability so we had to remove it :)

Stricking it rich

While my parents were visiting we went to Fairbanks to check it out.  I was surprised that it was actually quite a big city. By that I mean there is a Costco hahaha.   Our favorite tour while we were there was at Gold Dredge 8.  You embark on a little train and they tour you through the history of the pipeline here in Alaska as well as dredging/panning for gold.

I found it quite interesting that the dredge was actually shipped up here in parts and re-assembled en-route in Seattle to make sure all the parts were there hahaha.  They talked about the weather conditions the workers worked in.  One person's job was to stand outside in the middle of the winter (so -40F) and pound a metal bar down into the ground....talk about a tough job (I don't think I would last more then 20 minutes outside in those temperatures).

I was a little worried taking the baby girls on the outing because we had not taken them on a tour thing before and once you get on the train you have to stick it out for the whole ride there and back.  Thankfully it went great phewff!!

Josh was there too....just on the bench beside me and you can't see him.  Don't worry we counted and made sure they were all on the train hahaha 

At the end of the little train ride you get off and they give you a pouch that you get to sift with for gold.  The kids (and us adults as well) loved it.  Many laughs were had trying to pan for gold.

 

Once you have your little flakes you line up to get hot chocolate/cookies and for them to weigh your gold and tell you how much you panned that day:

Grand Total:
Jason     $ 67.00
Stacey   $ 11.00
Mathew $ 24.00
Zachary $ 12.00
Joshua   $ 18.00
Sarah     $ 18.00
Emma    $ 39.00

Grandma $ 22.00
Papa        $ 11.00

We struck it rich gold panning that day!!

Bike Wash

I have to admit I am addicted to Pinterest.  It just makes life so easy to quickly find neat things that my family will love.  I have actually created a board just for projects that I want Jason to build (lucky him).  On the weekend he decided it was time to build another project for/with the kids.  This time it was the bike wash that Mathew had picked out a few weeks ago.

My father in law and I went to Lowe's and picked up the list of supplies needed.  Let me tell you the lady that we had help us in the PVC section was fantastic and she even cut our 10 foot PVC pipes in half and made sure I had everything that was on my list!

Jason and the boys took to the front yard to start the project.

 It literally took them about 30 minutes total to build (and that includes time to let the glue dry) and at the end they have a fantastic bike wash that has already been used for many hours this weekend.

We put some car wash in a pail of water and they have been scrubbing their bikes/scooter/skateboards etc.  We may have the shiniest bikes in town hahaha.

The boys, parents, kids on the street, adults in the neighborhood etc have all tried it out and had many giggles already!

and the girls.....they supervise the whole operation!

Bear Paw Festival

I know I am so sporadic with my blogging lately but it's just so nice out that I can't resist going out and exploring. I will have time to blog more eventually; for now I keep a list of all the things I want to blog about.  It's kind of like the house to do list. It just keeps getting bigger and bigger but it's nice to get things done!

A few weekends ago was our towns Bear Paw festival.  I have to admit, for a small town festival it's quite good!  Last year we participated in lots of the events but this year we decided to just watch the parade and take the kids to the carnival rides.

On Thursday evening we took all five kids to the carnival and was it ever fun.  They all took turns riding/watching each other ride.  They played a few games and conquered a few new adventures like riding the ferris wheel.

 

 

Joshua was sick on Friday and so was Sarah so we didn't attend any events.  On Saturday morning Sarah still wasn't up to par so Jason stayed home with the two girls and I took the three boys to the parade.

They loved it.  The floats are all homemade, a big portion of the town walks in the parade and it has a very small town feeling that we absolutely love.  They cheer along with the walkers and receive tons of candy (like more than Halloween).  We even received things like pieces of pizza, bottles of water and age appropriate books for each child. That's right - a parade that hands out books!

Helping Out

There are many things to laugh about daily around here.  The boys often volunteer to help with little jobs around the house.  For instance they like to go and get the mail.  When I looked out the window on this particular day, I couldn't help but laugh!  Thanks for the help LITTLE man hahaha!

The challenges of a 7 year old when you have the highest mail slot hahaha!