Happy Birthday to Alex

Alex has been counting down to his big day for months now. To every one's relief March 20th finally came. We had a very small party on Friday, and gave Alex his gift; a rocket ship. The real fun was on Saturday when friends came over for a Mad Science party. We made exploding volcano's, slime and then lemon juice rockets. I made a lovely volcano cake, which I'm sure I couldn't make again if I tried. While we ate cake and ice cream Jeremy did the experiment where you put Mento's in diet coke. For those of you who haven't seen this before, if you put Mento's in Diet Coke it explodes 30 ft. into the air. We were lucky to have a nice day and had the party outside. Alex got several Bokugan balls (I'm still not sure what they do or how to play with them, but it's all the rage around here). Last night Jeremy took Alex to the store with some of his birthday money from grandparents. He's had his eye on a new light saber that automatically extends when you push a button. We already have several light sabers but this one is clearly superior to the others. Now Micah wants one......a few more months until his birthday though.

I can't believe Alex is 7 already! He's such a good kid with a quick smile. He's easy to please and still gives me good hugs. He's always been very smart and amazingly coordinated, strong and agile. I love you Alex!

Still working on the tile back splash.

Sunshine on My Sholders

This is attempt #2 at this post. I had it just about done last week and then Jeremy accidentally closed it without saving. So here goes again....

It is finally feeling like spring most days here in Chicago. We are actually playing outside!!! Whahooo! Gray had a blast jumping in puddles. That kid can really jump! And the big kids had a snow ball fight with the last bits of snow on the ground. I've had a chance to run outside a few times and it's all so refreshing.

Savannah sold almost 100 boxes of girl scout cookies! Way to go Savannah! I think I've eaten a few (boxes) too many; hence the running outside.




Jeremy and I decided to start a home improvement project last weekend. I'd like to know from everyone else; Is it just me, or does every project have to have some unexpected problem? We decided to put up a tile back splash in the kitchen. Simple enough, right? We pulled of the old Formica board back splash and found a giant gap between the counter and the wall. So we came up with different ideas to try to get around the problem, but in the end we just put a bunch of mortar down the hole and let it dry. Because of the set back, we didn't get to finish our project, but hopefully this coming Saturday after Alex's birthday party we'll get it done. So here are the before pictures and I'll get the afters up later.




On St Patrick's Day, the kids were very disappointed when they woke up and found that a leprechaun had not come to mess up the house while they were asleep. Wen they got home from School and went out to jump on the trampoline, they found confetti and a pot of chocolate gold coins. They were ecstatic and all is well in their world!