Asher's Lego Projects

 Still WAY behind on blog posts but it will all come in time!  It's how I operate apparently.  Asher got a couple of new sets of legos for his birthday (in August) and he and Cedric built them together.  He was pretty proud when he was done!  

Eden Playing

 I find Eden playing with her toys quietly by herself pretty frequently.  A lot of times I will sit down and play with her so that she has another girl to play with.  This time, sometime just after her birthday, I had to snap a few pics first.  

 Yes, she is three years old and we still let her have her paci.  Don't judge us, you don't live our lives.  Eden is fine and dandy and no child has ever died from having a paci at three years old.  I get comments from people sometimes.  Like they don't do things with their kids that I wouldn't do with mine but, I try keep my mouth shut because what they do with their children isn't MY business. 

Although she gives it to us whenever we ask.  And we are going to try to have it gone before Baby # 7 makes his/her appearance.  It's not ideal for her to have it but, all will be okay. 

 Isn't she freaking adorable?!?!

She loves her Minnie Mouse Bowtique toys.  

Cedric's Lego Lighter

 I have about a gazillion pictures of all the cool stuff that my boys come up with to make out of their legos.  They are so dang clever it blows my mind sometimes.  I don't post them all but, I should.  This night Cedric brought me a zippo lighter he had made. 

Cool, huh?

Pool Noodle Lightsabers

These are the lightsabers I made for the kids out of POOL NOODLES!  Everyone loves them....including Jeremy!!  In the video he asks me to make him a double one!!  haha!

The New Swing Set

Jeremy got the swing set done last weekend!!!  It is AWESOME!  He did a GREAT job!  And thanks to Josh for helping out too!  The kids were really excited to play on it when they first saw it all together.  It was neat.  And they kept making comments like, "Thank you, Dad!", "You're the best Dad ever, Dad!", and "You a good Daddy." 

I can't believe this is our first swing set after 13 years of having kids!  Better late than never, right??  We still have to put sand in the sandbox part and do the landscaping around it but the play portion is ready for action!!

Lego Enthusiasts

 My kids...especially Liam, Cedric, and Asher are OBSESSED with Legos.  Which is fine with me as it can teach them a plethora of ideas and concepts.  The fourteen million legos are one of the things that they get to keep in the great minimalist change that we are trying to implement as a family.  Back on track though, these are some pics that the boys asked me to take of them and their legos.  Cedric had read the blog apparently (did NOT know that the boys read the blog, doh!) and said he didn't see any of him with HIS legos....so here ya go, Ced!!  But, this is Liam in the top pic, oops! Bahahahaha!

 This is the end product of the Malevolence that was his BIG present.  He wanted this set for his birthday but got it for Christmas instead!

 Cedric got a big set of the Monsters series for Christmas....one of many!

 As you can all ses, I am still working on figuring my new camera out.  One of these days......

I love how creative and full of purpose they are when they build.  Next week Cedric will be starting on his new endeavor at school....Lego Robotics Club.  I think he may actually stick with this one.  :)  Pretty sure it is right up his alley!!!  Can't wait!

Froo Froo and the Choo Choo

The princess playing with the trains.  Well, she calls them choo-choos.  I never knew before I started having kids that my life would be forever changed with the fact that I would be surrounded by trains for the next 13 years and counting.  Who knew kids loved trains so much!?!?  I sure didn't.  And I don't recall ever being fascinated by a train when I was a kid either.  I mean, it's a train.  Oh well, as long as they are happy, right? 

Cullen's Birthday Party

 We had Cullen's birthday party over the weekend on Saturday evening.  It was really chilly out.  Sunny, just really chilly! the kids all played really well together and had fun though.  I made some red velvet cupcakes filled with cream cheese filling, cream cheese frosting and dipped in crushed oreos.  Jeremy said they were really good.  I didn't do much in the food department.  I'm just trying to simplify my life lately.  It is all about being stress free and happy.  That is what I want to focus on.  

Funny story....Cullen says No to everything the first time you ask him.  Or Never.  But, we were driving down the road one day and I said "Cullen we are having a birthday party for you on Saturday!!"  He looks at me and screams: "NO!  I HATE SATURDAY!"  Bahahahaha!  

Then I said: "But, we will have balloons!"

He says: "Never, I hate balloons!"

He is a riot!!

 

 Trisha and Josh made it over too with baby Milo!  I have to give them props for showing up after just getting out of the hospital the day before.  Bringing a new baby is always a big new adjustment and of course the mom is always tired and achy.  It was nice to have almost the whole Kelley family there (no Tyson) though.  And of course it was nice to get my baby snuggles in too! 

 Note to self: Remember that stick balloons only cause problems!!!

 We sang Happy Birthday to Cullen and let him blow out the candles....twice, because he blew them out before we even started singing! lol!

 He got lots of fun new toys too!  And he has played with them all and loved them all!

I can't believe my Cully Micheal is four years old.  He is still my baby boy.  I hope he stays that way.  He's so sweet and snuggly.

Cinderella's Castle

 Eden got this cute little Cinderella's Castle Lego set from Grandma and Grandpa Kelley for her birthday.  I asked Liam to help her put it together because he loves to help with legos!  They sat together and just played with it when they were all done putting it together too.

 What's cute is watching Eden's reactions to girly toys!! I love it and it is so much fun!! But, what I didn't expect was how much the boys would enjoy seeing her toys too....they are learning all about girl toys too! haha!  I think having a sister is a good thing for boys.....I'm hoping it will help them understand women better and have a desire to defend girls like they would their sister.  I know I have seen softer sides of them since Eden came into the mix....and I think it is wonderful!

The finished castle complete with Cinderella and Prince Charming!

Cedric's "Friend" Party

 It took what seemed like 42 days to get these pictures to load onto here!  Good Grief!  Anyway, these are the pics from Cedric's "friend" party to Scotties fun Spot in Quincy.  I was a little bit skeptical of taking 8 boys to a place like this but we ended up having a GREAT time!  Cedric's friends are AWESOME!   Well-behaved, thoughtful, polite, terrific!  On Thursday we picked everyone up from school (they had an early out at 12:05).  We left for Quincy. 

 One of the things we did there was Ball-o-city.  It is basically a big jungle gym type area with slides, tunnels, bouncy things, etc.  Also, there are air powered guns and blow tubes and such for the foam balls that are blowing around everywhere!!  They had a blast!

 We also did Laser Tag!  They separated into two teams of 4 and had a battle in the dark!  The pictures turned out kinds poopey but ya get the jest of it right???

 They had spin zone bumper cars too!  Air powered and when you bumped someone in their "spin zone" it made them spin in circles for a bit!! Funny stuff!  Asher was hilarious!

 Praying to the ball god! lol!

 Jackson and Joshua

 Liam and Cedric driving motorcycles!

 Jackson at the Wack-a-mole station!

 Cedric's friends got together secretly and pooled most of their tickets to get Cedric this gun (with lights ans sounds!) from the prize area!  I thought it was so sweet!  It cost them 600 tickets!! And they still a little left over to get themselves some small trinkets.  What good boys!!

 Cedric and Donovan

 Skee-ball!!

 Me and Asher at the top of a slide!  Isn't he the cutest thing ever!?!?

 Cedric and his buddies!

 Lego Hero Factory.....

It was a super day and all the boys loved it!  We ended up leaving at about 6:00pm.  It is something I definitely wouldn't mind doing again!  Cedric said it was the best day ever!  woot!  Can't ask for much more than that!