"All Done!"

To quote my little girl: "I'm all done, Mommy! I ate all my vegetables!" Upon inspection of her plate, this is what I found. If you can't tell from the picture, she put her grilled cheese on top of her vegetables. Nice try, Sis!


Side note: Grace is pronouncing the word "music" as "newsnick." It's so funny to hear her say it!

Helping Hands

Dan spent his morning replacing our leaking kitchen faucet. The kids were sure they could help him. They brought their tool box and flashlights into the kitchen, sat down next to Daddy, and got to work. At one point Grace wanted in the cabinet with Dan. She kept saying, "Excuse me, Daddy. Excuse me," trying to get him to move out of her way. I know that they are in his way and slowing him down, but their enthusiasm for helping their Daddy is so cute.

Puzzle

The Nuxoll's gave Gabriel this puzzle for his birthday. It's 24 pieces and a picture of the Cars characters. Gabriel worked this puzzle 4 times tonight.

My little photo bomber . . .
The first two times, I gave him a little help --- strategies for how to work a puzzle. The last two times, he had ZERO help. He put every piece together by himself. I was so impressed with his patience and determination to complete the puzzle.

The really cool thing about this puzzle is that it's 3-D. Here is Gabriel wearing the 3-D glasses and taking a look at his finished product.

Chuck E. Cheese Celebration

Uncle Brian, Grandma, and Papaw met the kids and me at Chuck E. Cheese to celebrate Gabriel's birthday. Chuck E. Cheese was crazy, but we had a fun evening.

We started out with some games and rides.

Grace was a little surprised by this ride when it started to take her up. She was saying, "Up, up, up . . . Down, down, down."

Gabriel really enjoyed riding this roller coaster.

Grace tried to catch "apples" in her bucket.

Gabriel played another game before our pizza came.

Grandma brought Gabriel a gift. It's a picture frame that plays the Happy Birthday song.

How can I get one of these kid cages at home?

This is my favorite picture of the evening. Gabriel and Uncle Brian played a racing game together. I love their sincere grins.

Chuck E. himself came out to greet the kids. He was kind enough to pose for a pic with our birthday boy.

Uncle Brian hit it big on the Wheel of Fortune game. Grace thought it was so cool to wave the tickets around.

You have to be 10% smarter than the machine, Papaw and Uncle Brian. Hehe!

Grace really liked riding the horse.

Grandma tried to have her picture taken with Gabriel. They ended up with something that looked a little crazy though. Ha!

Before we ended our evening of fun, we sang Happy Birthday to Gabriel one more time. We ate cake left over from his party, and he opened a couple more gifts. You know, he didn't get nearly enough gifts Sunday. Haha!

We love you, Gabriel! You are smart and witty. You make us laugh with your jokes, and you touch our hearts with your kindness. Happy Birthday!

Gabriel's 4th Birthday Par-tay

We celebrated Gabriel's 4th birthday Sunday with family, friends, and his best buddies. Before the party started, Dan and I gave Gabriel his big gift from us --- a Cars couch.

Grampy and Pawpaw enjoyed the calm of the living room versus the chaos of the kitchen or basement.

Uncle Brian and Erin

Sam, Kristy, and Zack

Papaw, Daniel, and Jake

The kiddos painted race car sun catchers as part of our Cars theme. Gabriel and Evan were excited about painting.

Daddies and Daughters: Damon & Darbi and Billy & Abby

Guess who had my camera? Haha! Thanks a MILLION, Alicia, for taking pictures with my camera. Otherwise, I would have had no pictures and been really disappointed.

Miss Abby held her own in the basement with the big boys.

Grace attacked a piece of birthday cake.

Party-goers sang Happy Birthday to Gabriel.

After singing Happy Birthday, the kiddos decorated cupcakes. Abby, Grace, and Gabriel enjoyed becoming a sugar mess.

Thanks, Everyone, who came to Gabriel's party. He had a great day. You are all so special to him and us.

Family Game Night

We went to the McAfee's house last night for Family Game Night. The first kid game we played was hot potato.

Once Round 1 of Hot Potato was over, some of the boys got a hold of the potato, and the game became a contact sport. Not sure how that happened . . . Ha ha!

Next, some of the kids played Ele-Fun. It was a very cute game of catching little "butterflies" with nets.

The next game was called Penguine Pat's. It required the kids to follow the directions the penguine gave. It was a very cute game too.

The final game was one of our games that is just perfect for Grace's age group. Grace was very excited to play. It started out as just Grace playing, but eventually Gabriel, Aiden, and Aaron joined us. It was fun to see all of the kids playing games together.

After a while the chaos level became a little too high. Daniel turned a movie on for the kids so the adults could play some games, and the chaos level came down slightly. Ha!

We had a great evening of friends, food (Did I forget to mention the yummy snacks?), and fun! Thanks, McAfees!

Bed Head!

Poor Gabriel is always cursed with the worst cases of bed head. This one was Saturday morning's.

Cookies and Milk

After dinner tonight, the kids enjoyed a chocolate chip cookie.

Gabriel suggested they dip their cookies in milk. Grace really liked that idea.

Snow Day Playdate

Wednesday we went to the McAfee's house for a playdate. I think all of the teacher-moms were a little stir-crazy and in need of some adult conversation.

The Noble's brought a parachute. The kids had so much fun running underneath the parachute as it floated up and down.

Jake was so funny. He was sitting in the floor playing with Gabriel and Sam P. Every time I pointed the camera, he stood up and said, "Chee!"

Here's my pretty baby Grace!

Daniel came home on his lunch break and organized a little wind sprint relay. It was so funny to see all of the kiddos running from one end of the basement to the other. They laughed as they ran.

The benefit to mommies was nice, quiet nap times later in the afternoon. Thanks, Daniel!

Darbi (18 mo), Jake (16 mo), Grace (2 yrs), Sam (4 yrs), Sam (3 yrs), Gabriel (4 yrs), Jackson (3 yrs soon), Braden (3 yrs)
Sound like chaos?

Gabriel and Sam had such a good time racing shake-and-go cars.

Alicia served the kids a yummy lunch of hot dogs, banana, and cheese puffs with a cookie for dessert. They were so cute having their picnic together on the floor.

After lunch Sam helped Grace use the computer. He was so good at helping her, and she was pretty good at accepting help too.

Thanks, Alicia, for planning a playdate! We had such a good time, and it was such a nice change from our snow day routines.