Family Night at Mobius

We earned some free tickets for the children's museum here in Spokane. After school on a Monday night we decided to take the kids (you know, before the FREE tickets expired. LOL). Mobius is very small, but we ended up being the only people there. When we first got to Mobius, there were a few other kids, but they all departed within a 1/2 hour leaving the Snook family to roam the place alone. The kids had a blast! I think the little cars were the biggest hit, even for the biggest kid out there.

After our time at Mobius, we walked across the street and enjoyed a rare treat of dinner at Red Robin. That means that Jim and I actually braved a Restaurant with 6 kids. Actually the kids were great. Of course we got plenty of stares and finger points. Seems we are an oddity going out in public with so many kids, but I am getting more and more used to that. (especially when the stares are because they are amazed the kids are being good and not for the opposite reasons. LOL).

At Red Robin of course they ask if the kids can have balloons. I am not a big fan of latex balloons mainly because of the fights that they tend to cause, but also for the choking hazards with the little kids. I know, spoil sport mommy. I decided since it is a special night of rare treats, why not give in for this one as well. Of course, just because they got the balloon doesnt mean they got to keep them. After dinner we walked over to the park and gave our balloons to Jesus. The kids enjoy letting their balloons go and watching them fly up into the sky. It is a fun thing for them to do and keeps me sane by not actually keeping the balloons.

Anyway, it was a very fun night. Here are some pics to share with you!

Woodland Park Zoo

We took a fun drive down I-90 a few weeks ago and spent the day at the Zoo. We went over to the Seattle area to take some baby clothes, toys, pay pen etc to my brother who is having a baby in just a few short weeks. I thought since we were over that way we would make a day of it and have some fun at the zoo and boy did we have fun.

The kids enjoyed looking at all of the animals and sites. Here is a slide show of the pics from the day.

The elephant featured in the above slide show was doing a dance. It was so cute to watch. Here is a video that Tyler shot of the 'dancing elephant.' One of the zoo workers said that she was taken to anothe zoo to 'mate' and while in the big truck traveling she started doing this dance and has ever since. I guess it is a stress thing, which is sad to think about, but the dance itself if very cute to watch.

Anyway, it was a very fun day. The kids had a blast and it was well worth the 4 hour drive to get there. We will definitely have to make the trip again.

I am still here, I promise

Well, life has been very VERY busy for us all lately and I have not been able to post any blogs in a very long time. I apologize for this. The kids have started school, I have started working full time, I am attending school full time, and James is working full time as well. The bottom half of the kids (Abby, Daniel, and Jameson) are in KinderCare every day and are loving it. Abby loves "school" and making more friends. She is learning so much faster now, so she definitely will be ready for kindergarten next year.

Daniel has taken a while to get used to his school, but he does enjoy it after the initial shock of Daddy leaving him passes every morning. By the time I pick him up in the afternoon, he is smiles and gigles and doesnt want to go home.

Here is a picture of the boys first day of school.

Such handsome young men. Tyler is a 6th grader this year. OMG! he is getting so old. I cant believe it. Jacob is in 3rd grade and Noah is in 1st grade. Everyone is loving school and learning lots. Noah is a beginning reader and enjoys his Geronimo Stilton books every night before bed. Jacob is on Book 4 of Harry Potter and also enjoys reading. His teacher says that she is amazed at how much he enjoys reading and sharing the stories to his class.

The boys are in their routine of going to school and walking home together after school. They are home for no more than an hour alone after school while I get off work and go pick up the babies from daycare. It has been a rough transition, but I think we are doing well with it. This leaves just a few hours to cook dinner, clean house, get homework done, and get everyone ready for bed before the morning comes again. We are so busy right now, but we are happy, healthy, and having fun.

Anyway, just an update on how things have been going for us. We have had some fun adventures over the summer and in the recent few weeks. A trip to the lake, a trip to Seattle and the zoo, and a fun time at the Children's museum. If I can find a few extra minutes here and there, I will try and blog some more and get pictures up.

Our Toofwess NOAH

It is so much fun to go through each stage with all of these kids. I remember the front tooth stage of both Jacob and Tyler and it is finally Noah's turn.

I think this look is the cutest look in the whole world! They are just adorable. I love the lisp while the teeth are gone. Everything seems to have just an added whisp sound to it. It is so cute and so fun. I tend to ask Noah to repeat himself, just so I can hear his cute little articulations one more time.

He was so excited to have both teeth fall out at once and was even more excited to go to school to show off his new smile to all his friends and his teacher. I love all these stages and watching this little man grow up.

Tyler

Well, our soccer season has come to an end. We are sad to see it go, but also very releived. It added quite a bit of caos to our little world taking 3 boys to different fields for practices 4 nights during the week and then 3 soccer games, usually at different fields ALL day on Saturdays. It was a busy time so I am glad that is over and we can get back to normalcy. But, I will miss seeing the boys in action. They had a wonderful time and it was fun to "get out of the house" for some exercise and sun.

All 3 boys participated in the Wendle Tournament last weekend, but Tyler's age group competed for championship. It was a rough first few games for Tyler's team, but towards the end of the season they really started coming together as a team and it showed during the tournament.

Their first game was on Saturday morning. They led most of the game 2-1, but ended up giving up a few undeserved goals in the last few minutes, mostly due to tired boys. They lost 4-3, but fought very hard to stay alive in that game. Their next game was Saturday evening and they slammed that team 9-1. The last game was on Sunday, which we did not participate in, but apparently they won this game as well putting them into the championship game. They were playing for 1st or 2nd place. Tyler's coach called after the game and said that they tied 7-7 so they had to go into a tie-breaker shootout, which they ended up loosing by 1 point. That means that Tyler's team got 2nd place overall for his age group. WooHoo. Way to go Tyler. They had a medal for Tyler, which we picked up a few days later. It sounds like it was a fun game to watch and the boys did an excellent job. They should all be proud of themselves.

Here is Tyler with his medal and a trophy that his coach got for the team. What a great soccer season. I am so proud of the hard work Tyler put into learning this new skill and the success he achieved with such hard work and determination. Way to go Tyler, your are AWESOME!

Our Park adventures.

We enjoyed an evening at the Park with some nice weather last night during Jacob's soccer practice. It is always a fun time for the kids since the practice is right next to Shadle Park with lots of fun toys. It is fun to see all the kids have a great time. Abby made good friends with another little sister of the soccer players and they were running around the whole time playing some game. Of course she had her purse with her with all of her most important things.

Daniel had a great time being chased by Tyler and Jameson. They went up and down the slides I don't know how many times. Jameson just had a ball exploring all over the place. He is just not afraid of anything and had so much fun trying all the new things.

This is video of Jameson going up the stairs to the slide.

And this is video of him going down the slide.

He is just too brave for his own good. He had a lot of fun doing this over and over again. Tyler helped out a lot and took him down some of the other slides. If he was not climbing stairs, playing with Tyler, or going down slides, then he was just wondering around taking it all in.

And here is some video of our little Noah. He has recently learned how to swing himself and he spent 90% of the time just swinging and swinging. I am so proud of him and all the growing he has done over these last 6 months or so. He is a totally different child and it is so fun to see him out there interacting and learning and growing and most important of all finally acting like a kid and having fun.

The video clips are from my phone, so they are not the best...

Overall, it was a fun night while Jacob was at soccer practice. It is so nice that we can finally go outside and enjoy ourselves. We have been trying to spend more time outside being active and less time sitting and watching TV or playing Wii. It is great to finally have the opportunity to burn off all this energy these kids keep building up. I hope the weather continues and we can have more and more fun outdoors.

Mani-Pedi

The Easter Bunny brought Abby some fun new fingernail polish in her Easter Basket this year. She really wanted me to paint her nails, so I did her fingernails before church. She really wanted her toenails done as well, but I had already put her tights on for church, so I promised after church we could paint her toenails. She decided that since she got her fingernails and toenails painted, then I needed mine done as well. Here she is doing my fingernails

And now for my toes. She had so much fun. She wanted to do Grammy's as well, but Grammy declined the offer, saying maybe next time. For some reason, the boys wouldn't let her do theirs, hhhmmm I wonder why? She even begged Daddy to do his as well.

She had a blast and I am sure that she will be doing more nails before long, maybe even a few of Daddy's. he tends to be a bit of a sucker when it comes to what Abby wants. LOL. It is so fun having a little girl and getting to do all these little girly things. Cant wait till she is older and we can enjoy real "big girl" spa days together full of shopping, mani-pedis, and lunch dates out.