Three little letters: W-O-W

Andy turned four years old yesterday. He was very focused from the get-go, as demonstrated by his fantastic stirring skills.
Cake decorating is not my thing, but he was very grateful for my efforts and admired his Thomas cake several times throughout the day. He blew the candles out all by himself this year.

I just love this picture. Every other word out of his mouth was "WOW!"

He just got progressively louder with each tear of the paper, too.

I think he gets extra bonus points for tolerating his extremely helpful older brother's assistance.

Say it with me: "WOW!"

Because we didn't have enough McQueens, Macks and Maters living with us already.

Happy Birthday, Andy man!

They Keep Us Hoppin'

One thing I know for sure: three of the five bees aren't showing any signs of fatigue. Which is in sharp contrast to the queen bee, who can't seem to catch her breath. Where do these boys find all of their energy? I read a story in the paper recently about using the power generated by a stationary bike to run small appliances. I laughed at first, but now I'm starting to think that's a brilliant idea. What if I could harness the energy generated by three little boys? We could probably power a small country. This picture of Eli makes me laugh. He won't do a traditional crawl but he has the commando and a full body wiggle and roll method that gets him around the room. He is fascinated by our chairs. He goes under there and just giggles!
This makes me giggle. Andy and Luke are showing more interest in playing together. That's what happens when you move, I guess. You need your brother for entertainment purposes. This was tonight's pre-bedtime fun. Please note that no Disney characters were harmed in the creation of this photograph. Those are just foam guns.

Trying out the sippy cup. He figured it out right away but hasn't shown any interest since.

Steve likes to take the boys to a local park where they can rent a boat. This was last Saturday's adventure.

The last day at the pool

(Until we find an indoor place to swim)

There you have it: a few snapshots of how we spend our time. I have officially run out of steam as well as pithy captions for my photos, so that's all for now.

Cuter Than a Bug's Ear

Grandma Nancy often says this boy is "cuter than a bug's ear". While I'm not familiar with bugs' ears (and I kinda like it that way), I think she might be right on with the cute part.
He likes to kick his legs as hard as he can and push with his hands to get where he needs to be. I often find him in the family "library", just hanging out. We like to keep our books in moving boxes, by the way. It's the latest trend in home decor.

Speaking of cute...I'm supposed to be photographing the Lego bomber he's holding. But I got distracted by that face. He's probably going to ask for chocolate next. And I'll probably give it to him, 'cuz he can have anything when he tilts his head and smiles like that.

Luke wants no part of a Blog post that mentions cute more than once. So, no photos of Luke, just photos of his latest creation. I think it's a rebel base. It lives on the kitchen table, along with approximately 1/3 of the rest of his Legos.

In all seriousness, this week was a little better than the previous one. The exhaustion is passing, we are settling into the school routine, the weather is cooling off, more boxes are empty. We saw some familiar faces: old friends from our previous life in Wilmington and also our extended family that lives in the area. It's all still very surreal, like we are living in a foreign land. The boys have adjusted surprisingly well, which makes everything easier.