Eight is Great!

Our sweet, sweet Asher is 8! He's so tall and (usually) so mature that sometimes he seems older, but I can't believe how fast time has gone! Eight years since I became a mother- and wow, has it changed me! In many good (and a few not so good) ways. But this post isn't about me- its about how amazing and wonderful this kid is!  He is very friendly and makes friends where ever he goes. Whether we are at the park for 15 minutes or with people we see all the time, Asher has lots of friends and thrives on social interaction. He is a very caring and responsible big brother, although like any 8 year old, he can forget what he is supposed to be doing when he is wrapped up in one of his hobbies. He loves Legos, Minecraft, riding his bike, running around with friends, snuggling his baby sister, wrestling, jumping, or anything active.

We kept with our birthday tradition of having chocolate waffles with whipped cream and strawberries. We also went raspberry-picking (the third year in a row) for one of Asher's birthday activities.

Once Austin got home from work and after dinner, we met some friends at an ice cream parlor to have ice cream cones then walked to a nearby park. It was so hot and humid, we were all just about melting by the end- especially Asher who started dragging behind and not interacting with anyone (not at all like him!) Luckily there is splash pad near the ice cream store (its a skating rink in the winter), so the kids ran in and got soaked, cooling them off very nicely. The parents only put our feet in, but we should have just rolled in the water with how wet we soon became when a HUGE thunderstorm started up. I didn't get any pictures of the splash pad or thunderstorm, but it was incredibly memorable and I think Asher will long remember his 8th birthday, when Lake Ontario poured from the sky ;)  Austin called it his pre-baptism baptism.

And this blog isn't about Heidi, but what a cute picture :)

 Who is your favorite person? Natalie

What is your favorite color? Blue

What is your favorite thing to watch on TV? Minions

What is your favorite outfit? Under Armour T-shirt, Under Armour shorts, Under Armour socks (can you tell its his favorite brand?)

What song do you like the best? How Great Thou Art

What is your favorite cereal? Crepes (not a cereal, but a breakfast food)

Who is your best friend? Leif and Natalie

What do you want to do when your grow up? Be an architect

What is your favorite book? Lego Book (he recently checked it out from the library and it gives lots of ideas for building things with bricks you already have)

What are you really good at? Building Legos

Where do you wish you could go on vacation? New Zealand with Mom

What would you buy if you had a lot of money? Lots of Legos and Minecratft things

What is your favorite dinner? Pot pie

If you could have a wish, what would it be? To live in Minecraft world

What is your favorite flavor of ice cream? Cookie Dough and Mint Chocolate Chip (exactly what he had on his cone)

Who do you want to be like? Mom

What do you like to do with your friends? Play tag, race on our bikes, jump on the trampoline

What do you hope you'll get to do before your next birthday? Go to Lego Land

What is your favorite thing to do? Playing Minecraft, riding my bike, building with Legos, and playing with Bruder trucks

What are you proud of? I taught myself how to swim and ride my bike after awhile, even when it was hard for me

What are you afraid of? Monsters

What is Mom's favorite thing to do? Play with us

How strong is Dad? Really strong

What does Dad do best? Work and look at his phone

What does Mom do best? Snuggle

What do you like best about Dad? He's silly

What do you like best about Mom? She's takes us raspberry and pea picking

Pea-picking fun

I took the kids to a local pick-your-own farm yesterday with the intention of picking strawberries; however, the strawberry patch was closed for ripening, so we had to buy some pre-picked  strawberries instead, but they were delicious! The pea patch was open, so we decided to pick a few just for the fun of it. 

Can you tell Heidi put her headband on herself? :)

The farm also had a little pen of sheep, goats, and a pony for kids to see. My other kids have been to farms and seen these animals before, but Trevor was interested (and also a little frightened) by them.

A wonderland of farm-themed playground structures drew all the older kids away and Trevor was soon sucked in too. They all ran from thing to thing for about an hour before Trevor decided he was hungry and wanted to go home to eat. I was pretty impressed with the playground and animals, and it was free! (The peas and strawberries weren't of course).

There are also raspberries at this farm and Asher wants to go raspberry-picking again for his birthday. (It has become a tradition since we moved to Canada). So, we might skip the place we've gone for the last couple years and go here this year so the kids can run around and play as well.

Front row seats to construction

The boys had a dream come true this morning when a construction team started ripping up the sidewalk right in front of our house. They either sat on the porch on the spare room bed staring out the window for quite awhile. By the time I got around to taking these photos, Leif had found something else to do, but Heidi had decided to join them.

They were then inspired to go out and do some of their own digging. Again, Leif was playing with them, but didn't want to be in a picture.

5 Months

 This girl is a little slice of heaven! She's almost always happy, goes along with anything, and is adorable cute with the softest baby skin. I'm almost mourning the fact that she's now five months old, although it is a delight to watch her grow and come into her own sweet personality. She is so loved by all her siblings (and anyone else who sees her!) The teenage girls at church begged me to let them take her to Sunday School last Sunday. Since I had to fill in for the teacher of Heidi's class, I let them, telling their teacher to bring her back to me if she was at all a distraction (which I know she was just because they would rather play with her than participate in the lesson).
Natalie is growing like a weed (85th percentile for weight and higher for height), quickly growing out of all her cute clothes I spent months gathering, loves to giggle, coo, and squeal, and is such a snuggle bug. We just love this little girl!

Natalie often takes an afternoon nap with me in our bed (I can just nurse her to sleep while I'm resting). This is a photo that Austin took of her after I had gotten up. She usually sleeps a couple hours longer than I do, so I have a little time to get things done with the other kids and get dinner started.
 

 I tried to get some photos of her in our usual place on the love sack, but she wasn't having it, as you can see these are the best I got.

 I put her down for her morning nap, and once she woke up she was much more smiley:

Swimming Fun

We have a nearby friend with a back yard swimming pool who has invited us to use it whenever we want! I really can't take five little people swimming all by myself, so we really can only go when she and her kids have time to swim with us, but we are excited for swimming this year! Actually, one of her daughters and a friend are going to to do swimming lessons for the kids this year since I didn't want to drive back down to our old house for the swimming lessons I had originally booked. The kids just love swimming- although Heidi is a a little too daring and thinks she is a much better swimmer than she actually is ;)