Zoo in spring

Back in blogger land I am for my zero maybe 1 reader left here is some new pic's for you. Yesterday the boys and I went to the zoo it was 75 and gorgeous. Although all of the animals were sleeping in their habitants the monkeys were quite active. We stood and watched them for awhile and just laughed they were quite entertaining.

Here is "Nessie" I believe it was called at Art Prize this fall in her new home at the zoo. Quite amazing it is.
My little Romeo oh that smile will melt a girls heart someday.

My Kaleb posed for many pictures for me that day I just love this kid:)

All my handsome boys even got Lucas in on this one.

Kaleb and Roman playing on the train. I declared Kaleb to old to play on it since it was all preschool/kind. kids. However it cleared out for a bit and Roman was quite delighted that big brother got to play on it with him for a bit.

What would the annual trip to the zoo be without at least one picture of all the kids sitting on John Ball? LOL

4th of July

On the 4th this year we went to a friends house the boys tried water skiing for the first time, they got to go tubing, fishing and swim. Ben waterskied as well and we both tubed, played volleyball and just had an awesome fun relaxing day.

Here is Ben water skiing.

Roman with a sparkler

Roman fishing

Lucas and an awesome hair do

The boys tubing

Lucas water skiing he got up the first time and then couldn't get it again. He can't wait to try again.

Kaleb with the fish he caught this kid is great at catching big fish. I was impressed at least.

Boating

We finally got out our boat last weekend and used it a lot since it's up for sale. We took a nice ride and then anchored for the kids to swim for awhile. Funny thing is I didn't realize how disgusting the water was until I looked at these pic's..yuck..anyway the boys survived and didn't come out with any weird rashes or anything. Although note to self if boat doesn't sell don't take it on that lake again!

Lucas and Kaleb swimming in the lake.

Kaleb swimming they were jumping off the top of the boat into the water same thing we did as kids brought back memories.

Roman just being Roman nuff said :)

Roman driving the boat. Ben let Lucas and Kaleb each drive it by themselves and they both did great. Roman sat on his lap to drive and all were thrilled at the chance to. Since it's technically not legal for them to Ben doesn't usually let them but sometimes rules have to be broken right:)


Such concentration!

Park Day

Oh how could you ever resist those baby blues I just love this picture of Roman!

Roman on the slide all smiles and giggles.


They were so not impressed I wanted one pic of them together..

Kaleb giving little brother an under dog.

Roman fishing we didn't catch anything today it was to windy. But the boys had fun trying still.


Oh the sad woe begone look on a fisherman's face after a days work and not one catch.

Last but not least looking for fossils they found a couple.

A great way to spend the first 70 degree day this spring..

Basketball weekend..

This past weekend we went away for a basketball tournament for Lucas' basketball team. With games on both Friday and Saturday we decided to stay the night in a hotel with four other homeschooling families. It was a two hour drive one way and with a four year old that made the most sense. Anyway we had a great time here are some highlights of the little getaway.

Roman in the car drawing he loves to color and draw so this kept him entertained for awhile.

Roman at the pool he kept trying to "sneak" the boys goggles from them..:)

Little Kaleb we called him the bench warmer this year. He was going to be on the team since Ben was the coach but he technically wasn't old enough. Two other boys joined late so he got bumped Ben let him go to practice a lot and sit on the bench during games. Next year he'll be on it for sure he's very excited! He looks thrilled I took his picture doesn't he?


Lucas is number three in the middle jumping for the ball this was his last game on elementary. Next year he moves up to Jr. High which terrifies me those kids are huge compared to Lucas. I hope he grows a lot this year. He played really good in his games this weekend we were very proud of him.

The team slapping hands we won this game by 30 points which was awesome because we only won 2 out of 24 games this year. The boys were pumped we won and by so much.

Hockey!!

Last night we had a chance to go see our local "pro" hockey team play. We got free tickets from a friend of mine and the seats were awesome. Below is how close we were I didn't take the picture but we were third row up from the floor so awesome!

I didn't know how Roman would do being confined to a chair for two hours so we told the older boys we'd just play it by ear. Well because it was a Wed. game it wasn't so busy nobody was sitting in front of us at all. All the boys moved down to the front row and Roman had plenty of room to wiggle around it was great. The guy behind us Roman made friends with (imagine that :) and he was friends with the ref's. He ended up getting all the boys a game puck from last nights game they were so excited. It was a great family night we all had a really good time. Best part is Wednesday nights are called winning Wednesday's if the Griffins win you can turn your tickets in for new free tickets to the next winning Wed. game. The Griffins won in overtime so we got 5 more free tickets to the next game in March which my friend said we could keep. Yeah I think we'll be going again:) Guess who is playing Hockey Man right now?

More winter fun!

Today the boys and I went downtown to go ice skating. At the bargain price of $1.00/skater it's hard to beat. We had a great time we haven't ever been ice skating before but Lucas and Kaleb did great. They do rollerblade a lot so it wasn't much different. Roman did really good to they have these "things" that kids can hang onto and skate with. He didn't even need my help and was skating alone a little right before we left. I was impressed. It was a very cold 26 degrees so we didn't stay longer than an hour but it's something we'll be doing more of this winter.

At the after Christmas day clearance at Target I bought some gingerbread men to decorate with the kids. I also bought two trains that I'm saving for later this winter. Those look really cool. The boys even said that the cookies tasted good. Really?! I always thought they tasted plastic and fake..yuck..not my thing but we had fun decorating them.

Fun in the snow..

This past week we took the boys to see the move "Madagascar 2" it was so funny we laughed a lot I highly recommend it. After we got home we quickly changed into our snow gear and went sledding. It was a great family day! Ain't my baby cute!!

Lucas and Kaleb were so not impressed with all the pictures I wanted to take:) They did let me get a couple at least.

Roman on the other hand is always full of smiles for the camera.

This kid has it made doesn't he I think he walked up the hill only twice otherwise we got suckered into pulling him up.

Here is a duck that Lucas sculpted out of snow I thought it was really creative and cute. Something different than a snowman. It's kind of hard to see since everything is white but it was awesome! I was impressed.

Sooooo Fun!

Lucas has been saving his money for awhile for this Wii game. We played it in Florida at Ben's cousins house on vacation last winter. Lucas finally had enough saved up so we went to Meijer this morning to buy it. We got an extra 25.00 off of it with gift cards he bought and coupons. We've been having a lot of fun with it so far. We're off to sledding shortly with all this snow we're getting. Have a great weekend.

Enjoying the warm weather!

We've been having some very beautiful spring/summer like weather the past two days. We've been taking advantage of it and doing anything we possibly can outside. We went to the zoo yesterday and walked some trails. We also took a walk to the park close to our house. Today we went golfing and lost lots of balls in the leaves but it was still enjoyable just to be outside in the warm weather. I think today is our last day of this warm weather but I'm sure glad we enjoyed it to it's fullest.
Kaleb posing for a picture at the zoo.

Roman on the train at the zoo.

Lucas pretending to be a castaway on some far off island.

The lion exhibit is new at our zoo this summer we've never seen the lions this close. We studied them for awhile it was cool.

Our friendly octopus Roman's favorite animal to see in the aquarium. Although it never and I mean never is moving around he loves to just stare at it. Yesterday however this octopus was moving all over the place it was quite fascinating to watch. I've never seen one moving around before. It was cool to see it's suction thingy's on the glass as you can see.

Lastly I must note that all pictures were taken by Lucas except the one of him of course. He is becoming my little photographer.

Birthday and fall fun

This past weekend was Lucas' birthday and our friends annual fall fest party. We had celebrated his birthday previously in the week this was just the icing on the cake. It started out with a hayride of which he got tossed and stuffed with hay head to toe. After a few games everyone sang happy birthday to him then came...of course...the birthday spankin's you know 12 now..:) Not real ones mind you but it was fun embarrassing him at any rate not that he was in the least bit he thought it was hilarious.

See 12 birthday spankin's with the pinata stick...perfect:~)

A self portrait of himself and his friend he took this on the hayride. It was a great party thank you Amy again for having it and us over!