My Beautiful 3 Year Old!

 

 

It would be difficult to fully express the amount of joy and delight that Mercy brings to all of our lives.  She's just so stinkin' cute and sweet.  I mean, really, everything she does is adorable.  Okay, there are times when she's whining and crying that are less cute, but still.  :-)  Mercy very easily endears herself to anyone who visits us.  She's always asking anyone who seems available to read a book to her.  And she's very cuddly; she'll just snuggle up next to whoever is reading to her, vehemently sucking her thumb.  She is very loving and affectionate and will often run up to me and hug me and tell me how much she loves me.  Melts my heart, truly.  She loves to be girly, asking almost everyday if she can wear a dress.  I honestly don't know where she got that from, but she just really gets excited about wearing dresses.  And she'll let me fix her hair, which I just love to do.  Her hair is really fine, though, and seems to fall out of whatever hairstyle I put it in.  Any pictures you see of her with it her hair looking super cute is probably because I took the picture right after I fixed it.  With all of her girliness, she can at times seem like a walking contradiction because she handles those brothers with a finesse that only a little sister with 3 big brothers can.  She can turn on some drama when she wants to, but she is not a wimp by any stretch of the imagination.  Since getting knocked over and mildly hurt is a regular occurrence for her, she rolls with it quite easily.  Others often comment to me about how well she deals with her brothers who often get all up in her face.  She's extremely easy-going.  And she really enjoys playing with them.  Without fear, she will jump right in the middle of them and try to do whatever it is they are doing.  If they're playing Ninjago, she is Nya, one of the ninja sisters who is a samurai.  If they're playing Star Wars, she is Princess Leia.  How many 3 year old girls do you know who go around humming The Imperial March?  Mercy does!  Having and enjoying three big brothers is pretty obvious.  More than anyone, she loves to play with Micah.  I mentioned this in the post about Micah, but I just love to see the two of them becoming such good friends.  They amuse each other like no one else can.  This past year it's been really helpful to me that Micah would keep Mercy occupied when I was doing school with her brothers.  Now I'm just glad they get along so well.  :-)  She can be pretty silly with them, letting her brothers dress her up with blankets, coats, hats, their clothes, and a new favorite, Joshua's glasses.  It's so fun to see her being silly with them!  As Mercy is getting bigger, she is becoming more and more helpful.  She'll come in the kitchen with me when I'm cooking and stand on her stool and try to "help" me.  Sometimes she's really helpful, other times, I try to find things that will allow her to be helpful, like setting the table.  She really likes to "help" our house helper wash the dishes also.  Our helper is so patient with her and just adores her.  Of course, Mercy often just hangs around the kitchen hoping she'll get an extra snack because... my girl can eat.  Seriously, she is not picky about her food and sometimes can eat more than her brothers at a meal.  Everyone is always amazed how well she eats.  I remember being quite a picky eater when I was a kid, so I'm glad that at least so far she's not taken after me in that regard.  Since she's so active playing with her brothers and seems to run just about everywhere she wants to go, you certainly can't tell that she's such a big eater.  Recently Mercy has really started getting into watching "her" movies, which is basically any one of the many pre-school DVD's that we have.  Since the boys don't really want to watch any of them anymore, they're all referred to as "Mercy's movies" now.  I'm still always amazed how much the kids can learn from watching Sesame Street and Little Einsteins, etc.  Mercy has learned her ABC's and will gladly sing them for you.  She enjoys singing with gusto,  whatever the song is.  After our church meetings on Sundays, you might hear her singing one of the songs from that morning.  One of her current favorites is Chris Tomlin's Thank You, God, for Saving Me.  She also really likes Onward Christian Soldiers.  :-)  It's so sweet to hear her sing.  I sing and pray with her before her afternoon nap and before she goes to sleep each night. Our Mercy is a joy to each one of us in so many ways.  We're so thankful for our sweet, beautiful, silly, helpful, fun cutie!

This year Mercy's 3rd birthday was quite exciting for her because it's the first time the college students we had for the summer were still here to celebrate with her.  The past 2 years they would have already left by July 19th.  All summer she just kept talking about how the "summer friends" would be there for her birthday.  It was a big deal for her.  Her party theme was butterflies, so we had them everywhere.  Her cake was decorated again by the "summer friends", and she loved it.  Here are some pictures from her big day with a few extras of Mercy for good measure.  :-)  Enjoy!

Borrowing meal ideas from all her brothers, Mercy requested birthday doughnuts that morning, breakfast burritos for lunch, and fried rice for supper.  I did not complain because they're all simple meals to prepare.  :-)

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa for the great Minnie Mouse backpack!  Mercy loves anything with Minnie Mouse.

Mercy enjoys "riding on Dad's head" whenever he'll let her.

The summer friends gave her the Minnie Mouse umbrella and Mom and Dad gave her the new butterfly dress.

The summer friends did a great job on the butterfly cake!

Grandmother and Grandfather always make sure Mercy has a Red Sox shirt to fit our growing girl. 

 In celebration of Micah and Mercy's birthday, we took the kids to a local swimming pool. So much fun!
 

I just think this is such a sweet picture. 

This is Joshua's shirt and shorts. 

And this is Joshua's swimsuit.  She's almost always willing to do silly things to get a laugh out of her brothers.

Her Princess Leia look.  One of those times we had to snap the picture quickly before her hair came undone.  Notice the pink light saber, a prized possession.

Another of her favorite dresses.  We love our pretty girl!  Happy Birthday, Mercy!

Micah Boy is 5!

 

My sweet Micah Boy recently had his 5th birthday.  I can't believe he's getting ready to start kindergarten in just one week!  And he's beside himself with excitement about being so big and finally getting to start school.  He's been anxious to join his brothers in the ranks of official school for a while now.  My boy decided almost a year ago that he was tired of waiting for people to read to him and started reading on his own.  I was not trying to teach him at all, he just began sounding things out and asking how to read every word he couldn't figure out himself.  It won't be long before he's reading on the same level with his two big brothers, which, I'm sure, would thoroughly delight him.  :-)  Micah is a super fun little brother, a great accomplice to have in any game, but he's also a great big brother.  He and Mercy have become quite the chums in the past year, playing together for hours almost every day.  He loves to make her and everyone else laugh, sometimes just doing silly stuff to illicit giggles.  It never ceases to make me smile when I hear Micah and Mercy in another room just laughing and giggling their hearts out.  So fun!  Micah is comfortable in his place in our family, being the big and little brother.  He can hold his own with most activities he does with Luke and Joshua, but if there's something they want to do that he just can't yet, he's perfectly okay with doing his own thing.  One thing that he enjoys even more than the others is playing chess.  Joshua taught him how and then Micah was the one who taught me!  He's the only boy who has beat both his father and me.  He's an aggressive little player, so don't underestimate him because of his age!  Recently he had the chance to go to the local swimming pool with his daddy and practice his swimming skills, which he caught on to with surprising speed.  Daddy says Micah is probably going to be our best swimmer!  He's such a fast learner, no matter what it is he's trying to pick up.  Drawing is another skill that Micah has developed very quickly, drawing very involved and detailed pictures for us.  With everything he learns from his big brothers, he can do many things better at this age than they they did when they were this age.  Our Micah is also very much a quality time guy.  He loves and flourishes with undivided attention.  He's always asking us to play a game with him just to spend time with him.  Maybe that's why he and Mercy get along so well.  Mercy just adores her affectionate big brother!  Another thing that's really cute about Micah is his food hum.  :-)  When he's enjoying eating something, he hums.  So, every morning when he's eating cereal, he's always humming.  I don't think he knows he's doing it, and the others didn't do that, but it's almost like a purring sound.  So cute!  His contagious grin, enthusiastic chatter, playful giggle, and affectionate hugs brighten our world everyday.  I so love my sweet Micah Boy!  

Micah's 5th birthday was a Ninjago (Lego Ninja) birthday, and everyone greatly enjoyed all the ninja activities. We had a team of 7 college students spending the summer here doing a cultural exchange.  Three of the guys came over the night before Micah's birthday and helped us decorate and come up with all sorts of fun ninja games/obstacle courses.  One of the guys spent a long time creating a Ninjago design on a plastic cup so Micah would have his own birthday cup.  The next day that same guy and one of the girls decorated the coolest ninja cake ever!  Check out the fun pictures below...

This is the boy's room, when they woke up the morning of Micah's birthday they had their first ninja strength test.  :-)

Finding Ninjago decorations was quite challenging, but it was what Micah wanted, so we had to use our imaginations a little bit.  I was able to order these great Ninjago eye stickers and put them on everything: balloons, plates, cups, etc.  It automatically turned everything into a ninja!  Thanks for the great idea, Mindy!

The special birthday chair was very cool.

Micah's birthday menu:  birthday doughnuts started our day, breakfast burritos for lunch and Papa John's pizza for supper.  Great choices, Micah!  Notice the cool cup...

All three boys got new ninja t-shirts for the occasion. 

   

He's been wanting this Lego Joker forever to go with the Batman one that he got for his birthday last year.  He was pretty excited to complete his set. 

Micah had the coolest Ninjago birthday cake ever!

Part of the ninja obstacle course... be careful that you don't touch any of the laser beams!

Due to his fantastic reading ability and desire to do anything his brothers can do, Micah got his first real Bible at age 5. 

I just love the look on his face.  This is when he opened his Green Ninja suit.  Can you tell he's excited about it? 

Happy Birthday to my favorite 5 year old!  I'm so proud you're my son, and I love you so very much!

Another Year for Joshua

Ah, where to start with my firstborn...  There's no one quite like my Joshua.  The boy has a way with words that is quite unmatched.  :-)  Of course, his uniqueness doesn't stop there, but it certainly is a defining characteristic.  It's hard to believe that Joshua is already 9 years old and going into the 4th grade.  His 3rd grade curriculum was focused on studying countries and cultures of the world, so it was really fun for all of us.  He just soaks up information as he reads it, remembering things with a clarity that I only wish I possessed.  As a special "challenge" during his 3rd grade year, I asked him to not only learn where every country of the world is, but to also learn the capitals.  Um, wow.  He didn't exactly learn all of the countries and their capitals, but he did learn a ton of them, certainly more than his mother knows.  And his memory is such that you can quiz him and he still knows most of it.  Since encyclopedias, picture dictionaries, and informational books are among his favorites, the facts and figures going around in that boy's head is mind boggling and constantly impressive to me.  Thankfully, he doesn't really come across as a know-it-all, even when he does know so much on any given topic.  He just loves to discover everything he can about whatever he's into at that moment.  He's all in, totally immersed, very thorough, and extremely enthusiastic about whatever it is he's into, sharing with anyone who will listen every detail he can recall (which, as I've stated, is a lot).  As a home-schooled kid living in a second culture, he comfortably interacts with most adults and everyone sees him as a delight to talk to.  He's a good big brother, too, sometimes showing a maturity beyond his years.  His local language learning has improved greatly in the last year and he's able to communicate so much more with people, specifically with our house helper.  Because of Joshua's language abilities we've felt more confident to leave our helper at the house with the kids so that we can go out.  (Nice, huh?)  But she always tells me how Joshua is the one who takes care of everyone when we're gone.  He makes sure everyone follows the house rules and helps Mercy with the things that we usually help her with.  You can imagine how proud I am of him when our helper brags on him like that.  :-)  Joshua has just become more and more aware of what's going on around him and ways he can help others, I'm so grateful when I can count on him.  He's become more independent, and I can send him to the store that's close to us where he can purchase fruits and veggies for us.  He can also be a great help to me in the kitchen as he still enjoys baking.  For the 3rd grade country units, we made a meal from the country we were studying, and he always helped me make the meal.  He's also gotten to the point where I can say, "Joshua, please go make the muffins," and he can do it.  That's a huge help to me since we have muffins every Saturday morning.  :-)  But Joshua is not just good at reading and baking, he's actually a really fast runner and can get around both his dad and me with soccer ball.  I really think he could pick up a sport if someone could teach him.  Our coaching skills are pretty limited, but we're trying to at least expose him to different sports to see what he's interested in.  Another interest is playing the recorder.  It's still a mild interest, but someone taught him how, and he picked it up really fast.  He basically taught himself how to play chess after reading about it in a book.  We got him a Chess for Kids book and now he can be quite the challenge to actually beat.  He likes to draw pictures and play tons of role playing games.  Everyone in our family is a always a character in whatever the role playing or drawing is, whether we're all Ninjago or Star Wars characters or something else.  He can be very imaginative. How I love my brilliant, dramatic, affectionate, verbose, helpful, loving Joshua. 

Joshua is a people person.  He loves to have people over and wants to make sure that everyone gets invited.  This is always evidenced by his birthday party, where everyone he knows gets invited.  It's always a huge affair, the biggest in our family, and it's just what he wants.  His birthday this year was an Angry Birds Space theme and it was a lot of fun to plan.  In the end it was kind of a conglomeration of Angry Birds, Space, and Star Wars, but we made it all work together.

Took the kids to this fantastic fun place in honor of Joshua's birthday. 

One of his birthday gifts was this cool tent that just pops open.

Though all of the other kids opted for birthday doughnuts for their special breakfast, Joshua likes to be different and asked for apple cinnamon pancakes.  We topped it with this amazing apple cinnamon syrup that I made.  Yum!  Great choice, J!  Breakfast burritos for lunch and delicious homemade fried rice rounded out the birthday meal selections. 

Joshua is a part of the Master Builder Academy on Lego.com.  This is kits 2 and 3.

Luke, Micah, and Mercy decided to get light sabers for Joshua for his birthday gift.  There were 3 in all so that all 3 boys could play together.  His new pajamas are Star Wars Angry Birds.  He loves them!

In their Angry Birds gift bags (for each kid who attended the party) they got these cool tattoos.  The boys had fun putting them on and they seemed to last forever!

Joshua's cake was quite the invention that friends helped put together.  We bought this Star Wars Angry Birds AT-AT walker set where you could actually launch Angry Birds in the form of Luke, Leia, Obi-Wan, Han Solo, and Chewbacca.  The goal of the game is to knock down the piggie Darth Vader and storm troopers.  The game was definitely a favorite!

All-in-all Joshua's 9th birthday party was a lot of fun for everyone.  The Angry Birds themed games were a big hit among everyone who came to join in the fun.  Happy Birthday, my big guy!

Luke is 7!

Another year of birthdays has passed us by, and all the kids have turned odd-number ages.  My sweet, crazy, active, passionate Luke is already 7 years old.  He sped through first grade with flying colors.  But then, Luke does everything either speeding or flying.  :-)  Due to his highly inquisitive nature, he really likes to learn and has been a joy to teach.  He's very observant and catches on to things really fast.  He has established himself in our family as a music, movie, and Bible trivia guy.  He loves to be challenged to figure out what song you're humming or which movie the line was in or answer some obscure question from the Bible.  He's a quick thinker, usually the first to answer any question we propose to the kids. His quick thinking often leads to witty quips that keep us all laughing.  I love Luke's sense of humor!  He also has a very vivid memory, clearly and quickly remembering things that he's seen, heard, or experienced.  He can be super gentle with little kids and then turn right around and be super energetic with bigger kids.  He's very affectionate and freely gives hugs and kisses to his sister and parents (brothers don't appreciate those things quite as much).  If you need someone to wrestle with, he's your go-to man, as he often has pent-up energy that needs to be released.  Luke doesn't always know what to do with said energy, but he's learning healthy ways to handle it (and probably will be learning that for the rest of his life).  :-)  With his fantastic imagination he can be very creative when making up stories and coming up with new ideas.  His voracious appetite for reading accounts for much of this, I think.  He usually has several books that he's working through at the same time.  I'm often boggled to fathom how he can read as fast as he does, but he can almost always answer any question you ask him about a book he's read.  Just another thing that Luke does on super speed.  Though he sometimes laments not being as good at some things as his big brother, Luke is his own man--a unique, talented, intelligent, sensitive, energetic guy, whose loving nature blesses me greatly.  I love my Luke!

His 7th birthday was a day to remember by all.  He wanted a "Toy Story 3" birthday theme with an emphasis on Woody, his current favorite character.  Complete with decorations, a sheriff badge shaped cake, friends who came over to play games, and lots of presents, Luke had a super fun day.  

In honor of Luke's birthday, a couple of days before the big day we took the kids to the fun place/ropes course at a local mall.

Luke's meal choices for the day were doughnuts for breakfast, chicken & dumplings for lunch, and pizza for supper. 

Pin the tail on Bullseye!

We hid pictures of the Toy Story characters all over the room then the kids had to come find a picture of each character.  They always enjoy hiding/seeking games like this one.

It was definitely a "Woody" theme as he got the Woody badge, hat, doll, shirt, and blanket.  :-)  What a fun day!  Happy Birthday, my sweet Luke!

Well...

I know it's a little unbelievable that I've been MIA for a year on here, but well, I have.  However, I am determined to, at the very least, write the yearly birthday blogs.  So, hang in there with me and I'll do my best to get some new pictures and posts very soon!  Before I finish this post, though, I have to tell you a great Joshua story from last night.  Daddy likes to use big words with the kids just for fun, so last he was admonishing Joshua to finish reading his book before he needed to "extinguish the illumination".  Here is the conversation that ensued...

Joshua: Huh?  What does that mean?
Daddy: What do you think it means?
Joshua: Well, extinguish is what you do to a fire, so that must mean put out.  And I know that bio-luminescence means to have your own light, so illumination must be related to light.  Therefore, extinguish the illumination must mean that you're going to turn off the light.

There are some things that only Joshua can say.