Elizabeth’s 5th birthday

I’m blogging this from a hotel room in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  We’re on our big road trip to Chicago, and while Daniel and the boys are at a baseball game and the little kids are asleep, I thought I’d finish up Lizza’s birthday post that I started before we left.

Her birthday was on June 15th, but she pretty much celebrated all month.  She’d been asking almost every day for the last 6 months how long it would be till her birthday, so as soon as we got to June she couldn’t contain her excitement.  She would request special favors all the time, because she was the “birthday girl.”  It was funny.

The other kids all played along, and made her special presents every day.  Here she is wearing a fancy (paper) jewelry set from one of them.

Finally we got to the morning of her actual birthday.  Just to explain these next pictures, the four oldest kids have been sleeping all together in a fort in the playroom since school got out.  They built it as the beginning of June, and asked if they could sleep in it.  I said sure, why not, thinking that it would be a one-night thing, but then they asked if they could keep sleeping in it, and I decided it would be fun to let them.  They really love it.  But really, they’re just sleeping on the floor on blankets, so it’s funny.  Anyway, that’s why there are all the random pillows and blankets up in our playroom in these pictures.

They were all sleeping there, and we brought up just the presents from the other kids for her to open (Daniel was in a meeting, so we were waiting till he was done to do the rest).  Each of the kids had spent a few dollars of their own money to pick her out some presents, along with making her a few homemade gifts.  They were so proud and excited to give them to her.

 

Homemade coloring books from Rachel:

Homemade duct-tape jewelry from Tristan:

Henry didn’t give her anything, but he loved to pose next to her, pretending he had:

Watching a new birthday movie upstairs while Daniel finished his meeting:

When they came downstairs, everyone was excited for the easy job assignments posted on the fridge:

Working on her new puzzle from Oliver:

More presents:

Fancy new swimsuit:         

Birthday breakfast of choice – pancakes with strawberries and whipped cream:

Pizza party at the pool with our friends:

Rainbow birthday cake (she saw a picture of one on my friend’s blog, and has wanted one ever since.  Thanks, Jen – it was actually pretty fun to make):

 

Back to sleep in the fort.

Thanks for being such a good girl, Lizza.  You love everyone, and everyone loves you. 

May 2011

Here is what May looked like at the Mott house.

Lizza set up this fancy “playground” for Cynthia. 

We discovered that not only does Henry look just like Oliver, but he has his same skills in catching animals – he caught this little lizard all by himself.

Tristan with a medal he won at a math competition.

Rachel’s soccer party:

Mother’s Day:

Scooter rides:

Rabbit hunts in the rain:

Dinosaur puzzles:

Lego building:

Baseball games:

Oliver’s baseball party:

Cindy learned to sit:

Oliver started spending more and more time down at the pond near our house.  He is always bringing home fun creatures, like this turtle.

Everyone was finding sticks to put in its mouth to test out its powerful jaws.  This is after Ollie tested them out with his finger.  This kid is fearless when it comes to animals – he explained that he just wanted to see what it would feel like.  Afterwards he informed me that it hurt worse than any other bite he’s had.  The turtle clamped on and wouldn’t let go, so Oliver was dragging the turtle along by his finger.  He said this so calmly – not like, “oh, that hurt really bad and now I’m so sad that I did that”, but more like, “Hmm, that was an interesting experiment.” 

Henry kept telling Oliver to let the turtle go so that he could catch it himself.  Any time we see an animal (in person, in a book, on TV), Henry shouts out, “OOh, I would like to catch that animal!” or “Mom, mom, mom, mom, I would like to ride on that animal!”  One of his goals in life is to be able to catch a rabbit – he has tried several times, but they are always too quick for him.  Whenever he is brave enough to eat vegetables, he tells me he is only doing it so that someday he will be big enough to catch a rabbit. 

 

Tristan’s baseball party.  We were in charge of this one since Daniel was the coach, so we just did it at our neighborhood pool.  I love having such a great pool so close.

Cynthia turned 7 months old!  I should probably write an update on her at some point, instead of just always pointing out how much I like her.  With my older kids I was always writing journal entries (this was before blogs) about all the things they were doing.  With my younger ones, I just take lots of pictures and hope I remember the cute stuff. 

Let’s see.  She is a great sleeper – she goes to bed around 7:30, wakes up around 7, and takes 2 naps.  She is very cheerful and smiley – she always has a big grin for anyone who looks at her.  She loves Daniel.  He taught her how to do kisses, and she is always trying to kiss him.  When she gets excited about something (like if Daniel walks into the room) she does a wild pat-pat thing with her arm, over and over again.  She loves eating.  She can crawl, but if she really wants to get somewhere fast, she scoots along and pulls herself with her arms.  She loves her older siblings.  They play with her all the time.  She loves baths.  AND we really love her. 

More puzzles.  Here’s Henry with his morning stack:

Rachel finally lost her first tooth!  Adding to her special toothless look is her black eye, courtesy of a stick thrown by one of her brothers. 

I never know what kind of science experiment I’m going to find when I open up the freezer.  They usually involve lego people who have died various icy deaths.

Cindy stealing Lizza’s corn on the cob.  No boring baby food for her. 

Cindy with wild hair.  She frequently wakes up from naps sporting this look:

More science experiments. The boys went through a “how many things can we set on fire with a magnifying glass” stage.

Memorial Day at Zilker Park.  This is a great park down in Austin.  We’ve been there before, but this time we made an afternoon of it – we played on the playground, rode the train, and went swimming in the Barton Springs Pool for the first time.

At the playground:

I don’t know what I’m doing with my arm here.

The train.  This was the highlight of the day for a few of the kids:

Barton Springs Pool.  The water is always 68 degrees.  It was cold, but felt good.

Daniel took the older kids over to wait in line for the diving board.

It is hard to tell, but this is Tristan doing a flip off the diving board.  Look for an upside-down kid in a white shirt and navy shorts.  He is a little bit to the right of the white ladder.  I had no idea he knew how to do flips, so I was a little bit surprised when he pulled this one off.  It makes me happy when my kids are braver than I am.

Here is Rachel jumping in (no flips for her):

Oliver also jumped a few times, but he was too quick for me, and all I got on camera were the splashes.  So just imagine a great picture of Ollie jumping.

That was it for May.  Also, the kids got out of school on May 27th, so summer officially began for us.  Hooray, hooray.