Here is our birthday boy with some of his gifts! The containers on the couch are bionicles, he's wearing a cape that his big sister made him, and his "ice gun" is on the back of the couch.

It was a good morning! Especially with no school!

There was a snow day yesterday and the older kids were home. They played well together. They did all the things on their to-do-lists. They watched both discs of the Two Towers. They played in the snow.

After the second disc of the Two Towers there were three orcs rolling around on the basement floor. At the same time, there was a mom fighting with a computer program. Pretty soon, the orcs were ordered to clean up the messy basement (which they did) and to go upstairs and play quietly (which they also did).

They made a whole bunch of perler bead creations--pictured here are three that got made during this morning's two hour delay.

We had a moment of extra craziness the other day:

stair sledding with pillows!

The kids used to do this frequently...back when they were younger than Elena is now. Funny how it doesn't work quite as well now that they are all bigger!

It was still a fun event!