A Rainy Day in May

A few pictures of Rye waiting for the bus to bring his brothers home...

Spring Break

We went to the Outer Banks for Spring Break last week.  It was a wonderful trip for our family despite the cold and windy weather.  Here are the pictures in chronological order.

Drampa and Rye have a quiet moment together

The older boys also enjoyed some time with my dad

Rye got to spend some time with his Papa

The construction zone

Checking out some pine cones on the way to the beach

Rye is trying out the pink socks we bought for Ben many years ago. Neither of them like sand on their feet.

The water was a little cold (notice Drew's expression)

The water in the hot tube was just right.

As a last minute thought I grabbed our bin of play dough...so glad I did.  This was one of my favorite moments at the beach.

Loved spending time being creative with some of my favorite people

These two mice are under attack!

Lucky for them they only had to deal with the small snake...

The big snake stuck to the other side of the table :)

While Drew stuck to his spot on the sofa

This smart little guy was supposed to be a frog and ended up as a bunny.  I just couldn't make the right shape for the frog, so I took creative license and made a bunny instead.

One of the cold and windy days was spent at a Putt Putt golf course

We got to ride a train to the top of the course

Rye's first putt

Putting on their pirate faces

Is it going in?

Rye enjoyed dropping his ball in the hole.  Sorry Opa, he's not much of a golfer yet.

Ben is patiently waiting for his little brother to get off the green.

Posing for mom in front of the pirate ship

Another bad weather day saw the oldest boys heading to the aquarium

They came home talking excitedly about the huge sharks.

Here are some pictures of a warmer day.  Everyone is wearing shorts!

The boys saved their rougher moments for the beach. :)

Noah built a sand castle every day we went out on the beach.

We enjoyed celebrating Ben's birthday with the Tongens.

Ben chose pizza for his birthday dinner.

and coconut cake with strawberry ice cream

Paul, Micah, Ben, Noah and Sam (Rye is in his highchair)

The end of a perfect day on vacation

Some nice quiet time before bed with the two youngest boys are already asleep

Noah is testing out the strength of Micah's construction

Rye and Sam

Noah and Micah's village, they named it "Nocah".

4 months worth of pictures...sorry

decorating gingerbread houses

It's Superbaby!

Stadium seating for movie marathon during Christmas Break

Waiting for the Tongens to arrive

Ready to decorate...

Micah

Noah

Paul

Sam

The final product

Dressed up for Christmas Eve service

Christmas Eve dinner at the McCoy's

Christmas Day...Ben playing tricks

...it's magic

Rye enjoyed helping me open my stocking...

he helped himself to some of the contents (not really)

The boys trying out their new spy gear

some down time at Grandma's showing off their new haircuts

Bowling in NoVa with family

Rye and GiGi

the boys and GiGi

GiGi is not taking any of the boys antics :)

being silly with GiGi

more silliness

our Christmas Break project

All the kids in our supper club (grownups eat later while the kids watch a movie)

A new game in the yard...climb up...

...and slide down...I'm just glad it is on this roof

my little cutie

more of my cutie

and more

and then two cuties

Yes, it did snow this winter

Noah's birthday snack for his class at school

We had some friends spend a weekend with us

5 small boys in one room was very exciting

Breakfast was fun too.  We even made it to church on time.

More fun with boys at the Miller home

Ben spends a quiet Saturday making food for all his friends

Resting up after cleaning out the shed

the night before hernia surgery (taking it easy)

 A few silly hat pictures...

Noah

Rye

Ben

more Ben

and Rye

...and Drew recovering from surgery (with a hat as well)