Spring Break and Weston's Birthday!

Spring break was a great week!  We decided to just stay in town and really it ended up being a good thing.  Lucy got her new carseat.  I thought she'd just love it....well not yet.  I thought she'd love facing the front but she just screams when she drops stuff.  I guess it was all piled in her seat all the time before and now it just falls right off her lap.  Anyways....we're definitely still getting used to it!

Logan had a guy's night with our SS class.  They went to the gym at our church and played dodgeball.  He had a blast.  They realized they are all old and could barely move the next morning :)

Monday......we got out of the house for a little while even though it was a bit wet and cold and went to this really cool park in Aledo.  I thought it would be packed but NO one was there!!!  We played for awhile and then Amanda and her boys joined us too.  They brought chickfila so that of course was  a hit!

Then before we were ready to go Tyson thought he would face plant in the mud :)

So he got to ride home in his undies.....does it look like it's bothering him???

Weston got to open some birthday presents that came in the mail from his Mimi.  He got a microscope and loves it.  I just think it's hilarious that he loves a microscope!

For his actual birthday on Wednesday we got a sitter for the younger 2 and took the older 2 to the Fort Worth Science museum.  We had a really good time and it was nice to be able to just concentrate on two for a little while!

in the 3D theater.....

In the hurricane......

After the museum we went to the Omni and saw South Pacific.  It was cute and the boys loved the Omni theater....or well at least they loved the popcorn.

And if we hadn't already spent enough $$ that day on all the above we told him he could pick the restaurant for dinner.  He chose Cracker Barrel.  Funny kid but he just loves pancakes and waffles.  His other pick was Waffle House.  So we made a scene as usual and got a table for 6 :).  I will say most of what eats at that restaurant are old people.  They aren't afraid to just come up to your table and act like they know you when you have a bunch of kids.  It was pretty funny.  If only I had a $1 for every time I heard someone say, "Wow....you've really got your hands full!"

On Thursday we met some sweet Boerne friends (Nichols!!!) that had been in Dallas for Spring Break at Chickfila.  They have 2 boys Tyson and Caleb's ages so it was pure craziness and sadly I didn't even get a picture of them all. So after we left Chickfila we went to a cool park in Benbrook.  The weather was gorgeous and we had a really good time. 

We packed a picnic and stayed several hours.  Fun day!!

The boys found this turtle next to the pond and were cracking me up bc they were scared to get too close to it.  They kept daring each other to touch it.  

If you zoom in really close you can see the older 2 holding hands.  This NEVER happens so I had to take a picture of it. 

On Friday I got my helper to make some cookies with me.  

Friday morning we put on our rubber boots and went "exploring" down behind our house.  There is a creek that runs behind it and since it's been so wet lately it actually has a decent amount of water in it.  The boys love playing down there and are normally wet and muddy by the time they come in.

Lucy came too....no boots but she didn't care.  She loves just being where her brothers are.

Aunt Mel's present came a few days later too and Weston had fun playing with his sinking submarine.

Baseball oh baseball.  It has begun :).  He had his first practice game last weekend and did great!  He got 2 hits and scored one run!  This is him running to home.

Logan loves strategy games and sorry but a game that can last 4 hours just doesn't sound that fun to me.  So he's been talking to Weston about this war strategy game (Axis and Allies) for awhile.  One night they even got it down and got it all organized....which that in itself took about an hour!!!  So finally the day came and all the other kids were napping so the 2 of them spent about 3+ hours playing it.  And here's the crazy thing.....my just turned 7 year old was totally into it.  Logan said he learned what to do really quick and loved it.  So now Logan has a buddy to play games with :)

Since Weston's birthday was over spring break we got to celebrate it at school on Monday.  I brought up cupcakes and his class sang to him.  It was a bit wild and crazy but he loved every bit of the attention!

I am so thankful and grateful for Weston.  I can't believe he is 7 years old!!!  He is growing and changing a lot.  We are really starting to see his interests come through.  His little brain amazes me sometimes and he is always so curious about how things work.  It doesn't matter if its cooking food or building a house.  He tells us he is going to be a scientist one day.  He is strong as an ox and always wanting to pick up anyone around him.  He has a big heart and is a great friend and big brother.  He can out laugh most anyone :).  We can see he has some areas where I know the Lord is going to have to do some work but I am just praying those areas and weaknesses will help him see his need for the Lord and draw his little heart to Him.    

Lucy and Caleb went with me.  Lucy just cracked me up.  There were kids and noise everywhere and it didn't phase her a bit!  She was walking all over the classroom and just laughing at them.  All his classmates loved her and were all over her.  I guess she is just used to the chaos already because sadly she is around it ALL the time :)

We've been riding bikes and playing outside a lot lately.  Caleb has mastered the "no training" wheels now and thinks he is pretty big stuff.  Well pretty big stuff until he crashes and screams so that literally the entire neighborhood can hear.  But oh well that is just my Caleb.  It's pretty fun to see the older 2 riding bikes together with #3 riding his little tricycle or training wheeled bike as fast as he can behind them trying to catch up :).  And I know Lucy won't be far behind them.  

Lucy loves Stormy....she is always trying to find her and walking over to wherever she is at.  I don't know if the feelings are quite mutual between Stormy and Lucy though ;)

Weston's Science Party!!!

Several weeks ago I asked Weston what kind of birthday party he wanted and he immediately said a Science Party.  This kid loves everything to do with Science so it just fit!  On etsy they now sell entire digital party packages that you just modify with your info.  It was super cheap and super easy.  So that's where we found the invites.....

Then here's my little "mad" scientist.  Of course his cake was amazing thanks to my sister.  Only request on the cake from Weston was that it was vanilla.  I don't know whose kid he is since he doesn't pick chocolate!!!!!

Catherine and her mom and all her boys were in town seeing us on their way up to IL for Spring Break.  So it timed perfectly and they got to stay for most of the party.  I LOVED having her here of course.  Sadly we didn't even get a picture together :( however we did stay up till like 3 in the morning talking.  How does that happen?!?!  It's called not seeing your besty in like forever.  So here is a LOT of boys......

I got the banner from that digital file too.  Weston saw green (he still loves everything green!) jello in the store when we were getting some last minute stuff so we made some in small cups and put those out on the table too.  

I made each kid a folder with a copy of all the experiments that we did and a few extras.  Hopefully it made them go home and try a few more :).  I also got big white t-shirts and cut them down the middle for our lab coats.  I ordered some safety goggles off amazon and all the kids were able to wear them for the party.  And it was probably a good thing as you'll see later on......

One of the best parts was dry ice.  We got some to put in the lemonade and who knew it would be such a hit.  Later on it was used for a few other things ;)

Yes, Logan was the "mad" scientist with an awesome fro wig and tight lab coat :).  He was great and made the party so much more fun than me trying to lead everything.  

The first experiment was a bar of ivory soap in the microwave for 2 minutes.  If you've never tried it you should!

Then we sorta had one fail....I've done it before but I guess it was in a different order.  But all the kids had a plate of milk and they put food coloring in it.  Then we put a drop of dawn dish soap in it and it was supposed to spread color everywhere but it didn't turn out that great.  Oh well...the kids thought it was great.

Then the best was a 2 liter of diet coke with a package of mentos.  It exploded up pretty high and was pretty fun.

Then we made elephant toothpaste and then we let them all make their own slime.  They got to take this one home!

Then time for yummy cake and ice-cream!!!

And then it got a bit crazy.....the combo of my husband and my brother in law and blowing things up was a bit dangerous.  They basically used the leftover dry ice and made it explode in a 2 liter bottle.  The problem was how much and how long it took differed with each one.  The first one went relatively quick and very LOUD.  But the second one kept expanding but wouldn't ever explode.   

So then they thought they needed to "help" it explode.  First they tried a BB gun??!?!  It sounded like it was hitting steel!  That didn't work so next they tried throwing a baseball at it.  

Basically the only thing that happened was large holes in the backstop (aka wheelbarrow).  Finally Logan got the hoe and dropped it on it and I mean it exploded.  It was so loud I was sure the cops were coming soon.  I'm sure we completely terrified the kids that came.  They probably all got lectures on the way home about how they aren't allowed to play at the Cross's house ever again!!!!  But I will say it was a party to remember.  We all had a blast and I definitely think our little 7 year old won't forget this one.  When Logan was putting him to bed that night he asked him what his favorite part of the party was.  He said "when you blew up stuff!"  In Logan's mind that was a successful party!!