Mustache

Maddeck was wearing a sun butter (his form of peanut butter) mustache after lunch today.  I asked him to look in the mirror and then use a wipe to clean his face.  He came back a moment later with a clean face.  I asked him what he used to wipe his face and he said the curtains in my bedroom.  Sure enough, sun butter was smeared all over the white curtains.  Nice.  

Miles Sleeping

Bowling Party Photos

ABC Craft

Maddeck cut out objects from A to Z.  He pasted them and wrote the letter each on starts with on construction paper.  We ran out of time as Miles woke up from his nap so the end was a rush to finish.  He wanted to find a picture of a box or a fox for the letter X.  Instead he just found the letter X and used that.  Y and Z are yellow zucchini.  It cracks me up that he found pink underwear for U.  He didn't need any help with his letters and is constantly trying to read and spell things on his own.

Tub Tunes

Keri and Adam got these whistles for playing tub tunes.  Can you believe how much energy these little boys have?  You would think a bath would calm them before bedtime. 

Closet Picnic

The joys.

Puzzles

The older boys are really enjoying puzzles.  They will spend hours doing puzzles.  Evan just started doing 48 piece puzzles without any help.  As soon as he is finished, he takes it apart and does it all over again.  The other day when Maddeck was at school Evan did the same puzzle over and over again for 45 minutes.  

 

 Ev and Maddo working on 100 piece puzzles.

Maddeck finished his puzzle. Evan abandoned his hard puzzle and moved on to a collection of easier puzzles.   

New Word

Maddeck's new adjective is bold.
"Look at these bright and bold golden coins."
"I like how bold the colors are."
"This lego is a bold yellow color."

He also loves to use the words "amazing" and "impressed".   My personal favorite is his made up word, "wrapages".  It is a combo of the words 'package' and 'wrapper'.  He was retelling the story of Lazarus and how he came out of the tomb, after being raised from the dead, and they took of his wrapages.  

Bear Habitat

 The black fuzzy pom poms are a Mom and Baby bear.

 This is a Dad bear climbing a tree and a tiny baby bear.

 The foil is a pond and the cup is the bear den.

 The coffee is the dirt.

The white cotton balls are snow.

Tatoos

Look at those bulging biceps!

Walking

Bike Riding Video

Story Making

The craft this week was Crayola Story Studio.  If you buy a box of specially marked crayons there is a code inside the box for free access to making personalized books and coloring pages on their website.  Maddeck made a story book about a pirate named Maddo.  We uploaded a photo of Maddeck and it turned his face into a cartoon.  He chose his own hairstyle to look like his Uncle Jordan (his hero).  When we finished the book we saved and printed it.  Evan was taking a nap so we didn't make one for him.  He is still too young to color a six page book though so it worked out.  You can also turn photos into coloring pages.  Crayola makes it easy, although you can use regular photo editing programs to take color out of photos too. 

 This is a photo we turned into a coloring page. I want to color it.  I think it would look cute framed.

Biking

I took Maddeck's training wheels off yesterday (they came on his new bike but we hadn't had a chance to take them off yet).  I helped him on to his bike and he started riding it.  That was the easiest thing ever.  Thanks to the balance bike he already knew how to ride.  He needs a little help getting started and he is figuring out how to stop on his own.  I will post a video after I take one.  I was holding Miles, teaching Evan on the balance bike, and making sure Maddeck wasn't going to crash so I wasn't able to shoot a video.  Evan is rocking his balance bike already too.  He crashed several times in the driveway and would get back up on his own and try again.  I think balance bikes are the coolest invention.  At this rate, Evan will be riding a bicycle before his 3rd birthday.  Although, he will probably be happy enough on the balance bike for a long time like Maddeck was.  Way to go boys!!!  Miles isn't ready for a bike yet, but he can walk across the room and walks all over the house holding on to objects for balance.  I look forward to seeing him run after his brothers outside this summer. 

"Ma Ma Ma"

Miles said it.  Miles said "Ma Ma Ma" when I asked him to say Mom.  Yippee!  (Now I will probably hear it a million more times, but I can get used to it).

First Ride

We took the boys out for a couple of minutes last night so Maddeck could try out his new bike.  We have had snow almost everyday and we have been sick so there hasn't been opportunity.  Thankfully, the days are getting longer and we were able to go outside after dinner last night for a bit. 

Maddeck's 5th Birthday

Some people say they look alike ; )

 

Maddeck is 5!

Kyle decided to leave work and stop by The River Academy to celebrate with Maddeck at school.  It was a surprise and such fun to have him in the classroom.  The kids are doing a unit on bears and are building their very own bear habitats.  They are SOOOO cool.  I will post some pictures when Maddo's habitat is finished.  We were talking about habitats the other day and Maddeck asked if God's habitat is heaven?  It was a great moment to talk about heaven with him and also to show him how perfect God's creation in is providing a habitat on earth for every living thing.  It was also a teachable time in explaining to him that our citizenship is in heaven. "God's habitat", as Maddeck put it, will also be our habitat as we know from scripture that God is preparing a place for us in heaven.  

In the morning the whole school sang happy birthday to Maddeck and his classmate Grace.  I wasn't expecting it, so I wasn't able to span the hallway to show all the kids on the video.  It was pretty special.  I think there were probably close to 200 students, teachers, and parents in the hall singing.  (Every Friday morning the school assembles in the hallway and sings psalms before starting class). 

At the end of class we had cupcakes and sang to Grace and Maddeck in his classroom.  Grace's mom brought a balloon for each kinder-prepper to bring home. 

We went to my parent's house for dinner and to celebrate Maddo's birthday with the family.  My sister came over from Seattle with her family as well as Kyle's Mom.  We skyped with Jesica and Steve, as Maddeck opened presents and got his awesome new bike.  Thanks everyone for going in on the bike purchase.  He LOVES it (even though there is too much snow to ride it).  The rest of Maddeck's birthday was a bust as our entire family came down with the worst stomach flu.  By 10 PM Maddeck and I were sick.  By 1 AM Kyle and Evan were sick.  In the next 24 hours Miles, Mimi, Papa, GG, Jordan, Sarah, and Grady were all sick.  We had to cancel Maddeck's bowling party with his friends for Saturday.  We will reschedule in a couple weeks.  Grandma Cindi stayed with us for most of the day on Saturday and took care of us and stocked our kitchen with everything we may need to feel better.  It was such a gift to have her here.  I told her to get out of town and save herself from the flu but she insisted on staying.  She didn't get the flu.  She has a superman immune system or something. 

We are so blessed to be Maddeck's parents.  We pray that Maddeck continues to grow and mature into a young boy with conviction and a desire to serve Jesus Christ.  We thank the Lord for the fruit we see in his life and for 5 years of protection and growth for our son.  We love you Maddeck Kyle!!

Coloring & Drawing

Maddeck's name got cut off when I copied this.  With my help he is able to sound out and spell our names.  Evan is an easy one to sound out for him.  Maddeck has a mask on in his drawing because he is a super hero.

Practicing writing numbers.

I always find random words on his artwork.  This has 'flag', the number '10', and 'fork'.  I think he copied the words out of a spelling book he had been working on.