Some of You Asked For It!

I tweeted a week or so ago that I had been up "late" because I was helping Josh get ready for Round Two of the Middle Earth Lego Olympics or MELOs.  Interest in some pictures was expressed, so I am now, finally, getting around to sharing it all with you.  (It's been a long, crazy week since I've last been here.)

 

First, let me say that Josh's Lego'ing has not been limited to only Lord of the Rings builds.  He also created this "masterpiece" a few weeks ago:

 

Second, let me add that all of the things you're going to see at the following link are creations from his own brain.  They aren't pre-made sets with directions and all that.  These are things he built with his own Legos and ideas.  I know.

 

Once Josh's mild case of Lego mania became full blown he found a neat little Lego community site and joined it.  Here is the link to Josh's "page" I guess you'd call it.  (He really should be the one writing this post, but he's traveling and I'm supporting.)

 

http://www.mocpages.com/home.php/98766

 

From this page you can see his entries for the MELOs.  As well as more pictures of his house on the cliff and a few of his "earlier works", or as they're called, his Lego vignettes.

 

Third, his mania has not been kept to just building with Legos, but has spread to buying Legos.  He's been on ebay trying to find "rare" Legos, he found a site where you can order Legos brick by brick so you can get 3 of this one, and 7 of that one, you know, whatever you need, and he's been scouring the stores and amazon and other sites for sets that might have "cool" pieces that he'll "need".

 

Fourthly, Josh's Lego mania has spread to our oldest offspring.  Now, that's not to say the other 2 don't enjoy Lego'ing, because they do, but Zeke has a fever and the only cure is more cowbell!  Or Legos.  Zeke is really great at going through the ones with directions on his own, and he's even gone ahead and built a few things by himself as well.  My favorite is that he built this little space ship, I think he was calling it a dragonfly, and then he drew and colored a picture of his ship, cut it out, drew a guy to sit on it, cut him out, then glued him to the ship.  It's hanging on my fridge.

 

Isn't it adorable?!

 

So, that's where we're at right now.  Lego'ing like a gang (herd? pride? mob? bevy?) of maniacs.  I will say this though, if another LotR Lego set enters this house, I might just find myself online ordering some new shoes.

A Sweet Party For My Sweet Boy

This past Saturday we had a "little" family gathering to celebrate Zeke's 7th birthday. 

 

See? Small. If you click on the picture it should make it bigger so you can read who everyone is...if you're so inclined.

 

Also there was Grandpa Bob.

 

 

This was pretty funny.  The two bigger boys were pushing against my dad, so he'd yell, "Come on, Finn! Help me push!"  Then Finn would run over to my dad, slam his head into my dad's butt and "push".

 

Family started showing up around 3 or so.  At 4 we had dinner, homemade lasagna with bread and salad.  Once dinner was cleaned up it was time for the usual birthday fare, cake and presents.

 

(You'll want to enlarge the cake picture - Deacon's face is fantastic.  Zeke's is pretty good too).  In order to ensure that his brothers did not "ruin" his birthday fun by "helping" him blow out his candles, Zeke took a deep breath and blew those things out before the rest of us finished singing the song.  It was like, "Happy Birthday dear Ezekiel.  Happy Birthday to-" POOF! Classic.

 

Of course, it wouldn't be a birthday here without some cookies made by my friend Heather.  This time the birthday boy requested Lego Star Wars cookies, and boy did she ever deliver.

 

 

All in all, it was a great afternoon. The birthday boy was so excited to celebrate his special day with his family, and I'm sure his family was happy to celebrate his day with him.  Thank you to everyone who came and spoiled him!

Happy Happy!

First, Happy New Year everyone!  Can you even believe it's 2013? I can't.

 

Second, Happy Birthday Ezekiel! Can you even believe he's SEVEN?! I can't.

 

 

Yesterday was Zeke's birthday and what a day he had.  He wore his new favorite t-shirt and his old favorite long sleeve shirt to school.  At school his birthday was announced over the loud speaker and he got to have a little "celebration" in his classroom.  You see, the kids aren't allowed to bring in food treats and have little parties, but what Zeke's teacher does in lieu of that is she allows a parent to come in and read a book to the class, then the birthday kid can hand out a non-food treat/goody bag type of thing.  The neatest thing is that she gives the option of either reading one of the books already in the classroom, or if you'd like, you can buy a book to donate to the class.  Then, not only does the parent read that book to the class, but you put the birthday kid's picture and name inside the book for future classes to look at.  Pretty cool.  But when I asked Zeke who he'd like to have come in he immediately answered, "Daddy!" so in Daddy went, and some serious fun was had by all (especially since he went in uniform and impressed all the kids by being a soldier).
 

After school (and after homework) Thomas came over the boys all played.  For dinner we had chicken nuggests per Zeke's request, followed by Zeke's choice of cake (chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting).
 

 

After cake it was time to open presents.  He got some new Skylanders and a new LEGO Ninjago set to put together.  To say he was SUPER pumped at all he got would be putting it mildly.
 

 

A little while later Thomas went home, and the birthday boy got to try out his new Skylanders (it's a video game for those unfamiliar - a very COOL video game).  Then it was time for bed.  As I was putting Zeke into bed he said to me, "I'm going to sleep until 7:30 tomorrow because my birthday made me very tired."  He's such a sweet boy.  A sweet SEVEN (what?!?) year old boy.