Happy Birthday Andrew!

This might seem like a funny picture to post for Andrew's birthday, but this man is awesome! Andrew wanted a Jedi training birthday party and Mike and I agreed that I would buy all supplies and get everything organized and he would run the party. I was too cheap to buy the $22 pinata from the party store, so Mike decided to make one. I came home from GNO to find Mike blow drying the pinata to speed along the process.
We let Andrew open presents before going to school. He was so excited to get a Nike half zip shirt like mom and dad have. He also loves his new big bike.
I went to Andrew's school to be there for his birthday celebration. He was excited to finally get to receive Chicka Chicka Boom Boom from Mrs. Niewoonder. She gives this book to each student on their birthday. After returning home, I added another layer to the pinata, then later in the day the boys painted it black- we were going for the Death Star look.


The excited little padawans! Mike is so awesome at running birthday parties. Yet another time he proves to be the "cool" parent.
And Amelia proves to be the "cool" sister!
We had some light saber training, working on precision and concentrating on using the force.
Pulled this game out of the Christensen reunion handbook, Wack-a-Padawan!




This picture makes me laugh! I love this kid!

Andrew is such a great kid! It was so fun to celebrate his birthday and reflect on what a fun and happy kid he is. Andrew loves his brothers and sister. He is always quick to put together some kind of game or pretend to lead his siblings in play. Today, it was a restaurant they were making in our basement. Everyone had an apron and hat and a job to do.

Andrew loves to walk into the pantry, turn on the lights, and close the door. He feels so cool looking at the food and picking what he wants to eat. Then, he walks out with this smug look on his face (this is usually when he comes out with a bag of chocolate chips) and walks through the kitchen hoping not to be caught and hoping to be seen all at the same time.

Andrew loves to tie knots. This last summer, we were driving to the beach and he found my swimsuit in a bag and tied it to the back of my seat. Not just tied it, but knot after knot after knot! If there's rope, Andrew's tying it, creating something with it, building, etc. Speaking of building, Andrew will disappear and build all sorts of Lego speeders and puts together battles with Star Wars guys, lizards, frogs, etc.

Andrew still loves to snuggle and hug. If I'm still in bed when he wakes, he crawls into bed with me and snuggles up and says, "Mom, I love you!" Often, he'll say it over and over. I love that he still does this. He's done it for years, ever since he was moved out of his crib. He's such a sweet little guy. He'll take and give a kiss on the cheek, but won't go for the lips anymore.

We love Andrew! He has a desire to be good, he wants to do what's right. Sometime he's the enforcer of what's right, but he usually has good intentions. Happy 6th birthday, big guy, we love you!

Finishing Christmas Break

I'm finally getting around to finishing my Christmas break post. It's been fun to look at these pics and relive our blissful time with Mike home for a week and a half! The kids have really wanted to take Mike to the Air Zoo and we were finally able to make their dreams come true. We had a fun day on rides and learning about outer space.

Seconds after this picture was taken, I dropped the camera and it completely broke! This is our third camera in a year! I was embarrassed that I was responsible for the break, the other two incidents involved children. So, I pulled out our very old digital camera from our BC years to get by until I could figure out what to buy. Because of this, I don't have many pics from the break, bummer.
Whenever we told people we were moving to Michigan, they'd always comment about how much snow Michigan gets. I think my boys expected TONS of snow, but we've actually had a very mild winter. All Christmas break they kept asking where the snow was. Instead of sledding, we were riding scooters around the loop! Finally, on the last day of the break, it started to snow, and we got about ten inches of snow. Love the pic above, the boys were actually helpful in shoveling the driveway.


Mike loves the snow just as much (maybe more) as the kids! He spent hours outside making an igloo, sledding, etc.

Not pictured:

Playing endless rounds of the Ladybug game

Root beer floats every evening

Mike actually reading a book

Playing with new toys

Mike getting beat in Rumikub night after night

Watching movies

Snuggling up on the couch

Eating cinnamon rolls, and much more!

Ok, one picture

She thought she was so funny sitting in my tub shooting me while I got ready.

Updating

I know I have plenty of updating to do, but my camera is broken. Mike claims that all people want are pictures, so I apologize. Unfortunately, we've had a bad run with cameras. Three cameras have given up the ghost, or should I say had it dropped out of them, in the last year or so. No worries, Amazon will be delivering a new camera this week. In the meantime, we're using our ancient Olympus and the pics look ancient as well.

I do have some pics, but I have a few things I want to record, pics to come later.

Last week, I opened the refrigerator to find our Little People Noah's Ark on the bottom shelf. At first I thought Amelia had put it there, seeing as how it was next to her baby's bottle it only made sense. Andrew, however, had stashed a peeled orange inside the ark and was saving it for later! Funny kid.

Also last week, I was up in T&R's room and stepped in a puddle. Yes, a puddle. I called the boys in to ask why there was a puddle in their room, they were confused? There wasn't a puddle, just a basket full of water. This is where they learned that baskets aren't water tight and mom doesn't like wet carpet.

At Halloween time we love to "Boo" our neighbors. It's so much fun that often the boys will "Boo" each other and leave something outside each other's bedroom door. Well, we had had a warm spell and had been outside riding bikes and scooters. I was on the front porch on the phone with my SIL and had heard the boys "Boo" each other at the front door over and over, but it wasn't until I walked in the front door and saw a bike, a scooter, a lawn chair, dump truck, soccer ball, and a bucket of water in my front entry that I realized how involved the game had become. They were so excited!

Lastly, Amelia is a crack up! Tonight while I was making dinner she'd bring me one pistachio at a time and say, "cak, elp". While I would crack open her pistachio, she'd sing and gallop around the island one time, returning to pick up her pistachio. "Anks, see yu ater" and off she'd gallop to find another pistachio. She did this over and over for 30 minutes, all while wearing an Incredible Hulk costume, complete with built in muscles. Love this girl!

Andrew had a great birthday, I had a great birthday, we've been enjoying the snow, more pics and updates will come.