Fletcher's 8th Birthday Party...Jedi Training Academy

Fletcher and his buddy, Joshua, remove the candles from F's favorite: ICE CREAM CAKE! He loves ice cream cake!!

Love this picture of Fletch and his two buddies hard at work at midnight putting a Lego police station together that Fletchie received as a gift.

When asked what his favorite part of the evening was, Fletcher replied, "Building the Lego police car and station with Ryan and John." Interesting.

Star Wars paraphenalia ready to be shot at with Nerf guns from the loft above.

Fletch attempting the challenge to keep all three balloons in play and off the floor with his light saber.

Tommy loved the light saber challenges. His highlight was dueling with all the big boys who would actually battle him with their light sabers. He was just so glad to finally be allowed to battle someone other than the couch and chairs. Big kids to parry with and Mom didn't care!

Creating Jedi battleships was super fun for the guests and our family...

A few of the Lego Jedi battleships...Special 3D glasses made the Star Wars plates, cups, and poster look especially cool!

John with his medal for using the force to destroy enemy ships and help restore order to the galaxy...

Caleb with his medal for a Jedi worthy battleship...

Fun, fun to have eight younglings come to the Command Center for our Jedi Training Academy. It was a night of action, to say the least! Much dueling, wrestling, Lego-ing, light-sabering took place until past 2 a.m. The boys were all finally asleep by 3 a.m. Poor Charlie got the worst stomach virus of his life (although the one in Venezuela was a close second) and had to quarantine himself around midnight to our bedroom for the next 24 hours. The Padwan learners completed a series of challenges in their Jedi training including using the force to knock out enemy battleships while blindfolded, build their own ideal battleship from Legos, battle with lightsabers to pop bubbles and another to keep balloons from touching the floor, obstacle courses while carrying Yoda safely through enemy territory, Nerf gun blasting target training...points for knocking Star Wars toys off the mantle from behind enemy lines in the loft playroom.

One of Sarah's recently completed art pieces

Sarah finished this ballerina in just two or three of her Monart art classes. She is LOVING her weekly class!

Noah turned 5 months old!

Tommy is sporting the classic "Sah-dya's" (Gammy's way of saying Sarah when she was Tommy's age) egg on his forehead from a recent bump. Poor Sarah used to have an egg on her forehead all the time when she was around two. Tommy thought it was funny that it was called an "egg" and his siblings teased that they were gonna eat it. He kept telling me, "Mommy, eat my egg!"

Our precious Noah loves to laugh, smiles easily and eats up the attention of all his siblings. They are quick to ask to hold him and often cart him around the house to have him "join" in the fun they are having! He is being "trained" by the kids to sit up. They count how many seconds he can sit unassisted before toppling backwards on the bed. This seems to be a fun game for all the kids! They get quite proud of him when he breaks one of his sitting records! Sarah has taken it upon herself to do "school" with him as often as she can (most days!) She reads to him and "teaches" him letters, colors, sitting, and other important sister stuff! Noah is edible right now with his wrist, arm and leg rolls. He is so cute and chubby. He loves to be smooched on and laughs when we kiss him playfully on his neck or cheeks. Zerberts on his bare belly (or "sherberts" as we fondly call them after Sarah's little girl word for them) are a favorite way to make him laugh right now.

Fun on the 26th

"Me not Tommy, me SUPERman!!"
Superhero through and through...such a BIG boy wearing "UNDERwear."
Noah's first attempt at rice cereal...he's not a big fan so far. Tommy LOVES that Noah is now eating his FAVORITE food..."see-yull!!!" Tommy asks for see-yull at least twice a day, if not more!

Outside time with Gammy and Popsy by our walking and bike trail.
Paris loves her "Jackie," a polar bear from Poppy. She got the prized mystery gift from him this year!

Gammy and Popsy's Christmas Visit 2010

Five kiddos with their Gammy on Christmas morning.
Girls decked in red on Christmas Eve.
Playing Black Jack and War card games with Popsy on the 24th. Poor Gammy hearing MUCH chaos from the main floor with happy screaming, jumping, banging while she was laid up in the basement guest room with a terrible migraine. Sad! Praise God she got some medicine and was better for Christmas Day!

Paris' Second Riding Lesson

Christmas Week 2010

Gammy and Popsy arrived on Thursday, Dec. 23rd, and we went straight from DIA to Paris' second riding lesson. It was so fun to share the watching experience with Gammy and Popsy. Paris was so pleased.
Mommy with her boys...Tommy LOVES his monkey shirt (a beloved hand-me-down) from Fletcher's kindergarten days in Ashburn. Tommy will get to wear it again next year, too.
Trying to get pictures with all five of them (cheerfully together) was nearly impossible!