Peony Season

It's peony season in Michigan!

One of our favorite places on Earth is the Peony Garden at Nichols Arboretum.  Matt and I had a picnic lunch on the grass, surrounded by peonies in full bloom on June 15, 1997.  It was a celebration of Matt's birthday and our engagement.  He asked me to marry him at midnight on the first minute of his birthday!

We had fun bring the boys to the Peony Garden last week, and they were amazed by the huge blooms.  My mom also has some beautiful peonies blooming, and the first two pictures are her blooms!

Making a Splash

The weather here in Michigan is occasionally getting into the mid to high 70's, and that is the perfect weather for filling up the little swimming pool.  The boys have had so much fun finding different ways to jump into the pool to make the biggest splashes.  They take long running starts and then jump in with all their might.  It's hilarious to watch!

Field of Glory

The boys are having so much fun playing in Grammy and Yaya's alfalfa field.  The grass is just about as tall as Isaac's head, and he loves the feeling of walking in the tall grass and disappearing!

Kite Flyer

It's usually windy at Grammy and Yaya's house, and Matt found great kites for the boys to fly.  But, as soon as the kites arrived the wind has virtually stopped.  Noah has been absolutely determined to fly his kite, so he has learned to launch his kite and run as fast as he can to create his own wind.

A boy + a beautiful summer day + a kite = happiness.

Furniture Factory

We had one of those parenting moments when we just had to sit back and watch what was happening.  It turns out that Noah can assemble Ikea furniture.  By himself.

We've trained him well.  He started being Daddy's helper for assembling furniture when he was 2, so he has had 3 good years of practice, since we're loyal Ikea customers.

We bought a new kitchen table and four chairs last weekend.  Noah took charge of the instructions, organized the parts, and assembled a chair by himself.  Matt only had to help stabilize the parts once in a while.

Isaac was quite the helper too.  2 more years for him, and he can build his own furniture.

It's solid!

It works!

The next day, the boys got to work assembling another chair.

Noah helped with the second chair, then he was done.

Really, the fun stops after the first one anyway.

A Very Happy 6th Birthday

Noah had a great birthday!  He had spent a long time - many months - thinking about what gifts he would like.  He asked for two specific lego sets that have hundreds of parts and take hours to build.  He also decided that he didn't want to open his presents before he went to school on his birthday because if he did, he thought he would be so excited that he wouldn't be able to hear his teacher speaking to him.  So, in an act of unbelievable self-control, he only opened a few small gifts before he went to school in the morning.

The day after his birthday was a homestudy day, but Noah also decided that he didn't want to do any schoolwork the day after his birthday, so that he would have lots of time to build the lego sets.  So, he worked ahead of schedule by his own design and completed all his assignments.  One assignment was to write (on the computer) an instruction book that detailed the process he went through to make a butterfly piñata.  Noah documented every step and wrote a 41-page book (one sentence on each page)!  He didn't leave out a single step, and anyone could follow it and make a piñata.  So, he was able to play for the entire day after his birthday because of his time-management skills.  We couldn't be prouder of him!

At Noah's school, the whole school sings Happy Birthday to every birthday kid, then the whole school prays for the birthday kid, with the prayer being led by a friend.  Here's a video of Noah's Happy Birthday song, and his friend Matthew prays for Noah at the end.  It's so very sweet.

Here's a video of Noah dancing on stage during Praise and Worship.  He gets lost behind some other students at times, and my camerawork is not the best, but it's a fun video to watch anyway!  They're dancing to "Jesus You're My Superhero"

Now, on to some birthday pictures!

 

 

 

 

  

Birthday Boy and Half-Birthday Boy

It's celebration time at our house today!  It's Noah's 6th birthday, and we're also celebrating Isaac's 3 1/2 birthday.

I snapped these quick pictures of the boys yesterday

Isaac at 3 1/2

Noah on his last day of being 5 years old

More birthday pictures to come soon!