Big TRUCKS! Found this in the parking lot today.

“Look at the Monster Truck, Mom!!!” Hooray for little boys and their big loves.

Every fifth week we take a week off from school.  We call it our “Free Week”.  We do only what the kids want to do on those weeks.  Sometimes all they want to do is play with LEGOS.  And this last week they did spend almost three whole days working on their LEGO contest entries.   The contest is to build a city vehicle that LEGO doesn’t already have.  Cade is still working on his, but Reagan’s is a power company truck.

On Thursday it was so warm and beautiful we went to the zoo!

The Hymas family circus at the zoo. 

Then on the way home we found a park with a wonderful hill to run and roll down.  They were in heaven.

It was so fun to watch them run up and down the hill free as little birds.  Wide open spaces are good for these kids.  Here is a testament to that fact; we went on a nature walk today to learn about birds at a nearby nature preserve and when I told the boys that’s what we were doing for science Reagan said, “YES! Nature is my favorite subject!”

This week we learned about Robin Hood and the crusades.  Reagan, who is always hyper aware of injustice in any form, was so enamored of this historical hero that he has already decided to be Robin Hood for Halloween-seven months from now. 

To go along with our study I finally bought a real bow and arrow for the kids.  We’ve had a few over the years.  From the time they were tiny the boys would walk around in the back yard shooting an imaginary bow and arrow or finding sticks they could use to make one.  The first non stick bow we had was from the dollar store that Reagan bought as his first purchase EVER.  He was four.  It broke before we got home from the store.  Not a happy moment.  The second bow was a sturdier one Levi earned for potty training that lasted a few months.  This one is the real deal and the boys were in heaven! 

As we were shooting, who should appear, but Grandpa Hymas who was here in NJ on business!  He came out and gave us some pointers (no pun intended!!!).

By this time our fingers were frozen and the boys couldn’t hold the bow anymore, so we went in and played a good rousing game of Chutes and Ladders and Candyland with the kids.

Liberty warmed right up to Grandpa this time around.  Glad we got to spend some time with him this weekend!

Today we learned about Polar bears.  Wow!  We had no idea how big they really are until we did this project!  We measured and drew a life size , though admittedly skinny, Polar bear and put him up on the wall in our family room (which happens to have a vaulted ceiling).

They are actually 10 feet tall when they stand on their hind legs.  That is REALLY BIG!  Especially when compared to our family’s heights.  That’s what the boys are pointing to.  We found that a Polar bear is twice as tall as Mom, and five times the size of Liberty.

Reagan drew the head all by himself.

This was one of those projects that was totally spur of the moment.  It just grew out of their excitement and we went with it.  The trick is being open to those moments! 

Today was a record setting day for us.

1. Levi decided he did not like the taste of the sacrament bread and so he SPIT it back into the tray and picked another one instead. In horror I grabbed both of the pieces he touched from the tray as fast as I could, passed the tray on to Rock, and then reprimanded Levi for such an act. Whereupon he started to cry very loudly and had to be taken out of sacrament meeting. I was feeling bad for coming down so hard on him about it, (though, can you blame me? I was only thinking of the very unlucky person behind us who would have gotten a soggy piece of pre-chewed bread!) until I found that the reason he was crying was not a. because he felt bad, or b. that I was too hard in my reprimand, but because c. he hadn’t gotten any bread.
Record #1 set today: First child of ours to actually spit out the sacrament bread back into the tray. If this isn’t the biggest case of “Don’t eat the dandelions!” I don’t’ know what is!

2. Liberty was fussy and had to be taken out. When she calmed down we came back in and continued listening to the meeting. All of a sudden we heard a loud BAM! and then a wail and I turned to find that Liberty had launched herself in a nose dive back into the next pew and was now laying on the floor screaming. For a split second I looked at Rock in utter shock that he had missed this and he looked back at me in shock that I had missed it and then we both looked at the parent in the pew behind us in shock that HE too had missed this. Then, I half replicated her nose dive over the pew just to get her off the floor and ran from the room with her hugged tight to me as she continued her wailing. Luckily, she was not injured, just frightened. Favorite comment from a bystander: “Wow, your kid sure doesn’t bounce does she?”
Record #2 set today: First one of our children to fly over the back of the pew head first into someone else’s pew.

3. Liberty was fussy two more times during the meeting and had to be taken out. Rock brought her back in for the closing song figuring that she would be able to last that long. Nope.
Record #3 set today: Most times in one sacrament meeting that one of our children had to be taken out.

4. Ok, this is a good one. Reagan gave a talk today in primary that he wrote all by himself about choosing the right. It refers to something he did for me a few weeks ago that I already posted on here, but it’s infinitely better in his own words! Here it is, spelling mistakes and wording exactly as he wrote it:

I’m going to tell you that besides dad I sleep the most! So one morning mom woke me up way after all my brothers (as usual) and I could seriously tell she was not haveing a verey good morning. So I did my jobs trying to be as good as possible and after I finished I started drawing. Mean while Mom was frustrated with my brothers and trying to make fudge. then she realized she had forgotten the vanilla! She got out the blender and sure enough right after she turned it on, Liberty, my baby sister started screaming. Then the blenders broke. Now imagin you sitting in the livingroom drawing while your Mom is having a HORROR morning!!! I didn’t feel verey good abaut that. So I snuk into Libys room. She stared at me like I was a maniac, but I didn’t care. I changed her diaper, got her dressed, and did her hair. Mom loved this and I was happy for the rest of the day. When you do something good Heavenly Father blesses you or makes you happy. in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.
Record #4 set today: First child of ours to write his very own talk! The oohs and awes in the primary room from all the other moms over his diaper changing ability AND writing his own talk and the fact that the kids laughed at the right spots expanded Reagan’s head size by quite a bit. He was flying high when he stepped down from the little primary podium today. And I have to admit, so was his mom.

To finish up our study on knights, we went to Medieval Times!  For those who don’t know, it’s dinner theater in a castle where you watch knights joust and sword fight all while you eat a medieval dinner!  Here’s the link to a video that shows you what it’s like.  http://www.medievaltimes.com/lyndhurst/abouttheshow.aspx
This was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done!  And it was SO fun to take my super excited boys to it.  We sat at tables surrounding an arena and watched the King and Knights of the Realm act out a real tournament.  The stage fighting was so awesome Reagan was worried someone was really going to get hurt.  They even had a falconer there and he let his Peregrine falcon fly up and around over our heads!  That was definitely the highlight for Cade. 
Before we went, I let the boys play the games on the website.  Try em out, their lots of fun and pretty fast!
http://www.medievaltimes.com/lyndhurst/crush-the-castle.aspx
http://www.medievaltimes.com/lyndhurst/dragonshot.aspx

Speechless with awe.

The restrooms

We sat in the yellow knight’s section.  He didn’t win the tournament and was actually “killed” in a sword fight, but he was fun to root for.

The boys have been anxiously awaiting our study of medieval knights and castles all year and we just spent the last two weeks learning about everything from weaponry and jousting (the highlight) to chivalry and the feudal system. We learned about many of the famous knights and what it actually took to become one. We also included the Armor of God in our study.
The boys designed their own coat of arms.

The Cheetah (of course)

Cade’s new favorite color is yellow.

They designed their own castle.



They can now tell you about all the different parts of a castle. Do any of you know what a garderobe is? How about a bailey?

They also made their own catapults.

We have been wanting to take the boys to one of these for a while now and decided upon last weekend to do it.  Being the novices that we were, we thought it rather odd that people were selling earplugs outside the parking garage.  “C’mon I thought, how loud can it be?”  The closer we got to our seats, the more little kids I saw with ear protection and adults with ear plugs.  That’s when I started to worry.  And sure enough, as the trucks started up their thunderous engines we were all deafened.  I have never EVER heard anything so loud!  Poor Levi tried to be brave but started to cry and I had to rush him out the door (no easy feat in a stadium) and stand in a really long line to buy $20.00 (!) ear protectors.  I was kicking myself because of course we had a 50 pack at home that cost only $2.00.  If only I’d known!!!!  The other boys suffered through ok and we managed to have a good time.  Needless to say when we were done, our ears and arms hurt.


Yes, we looked ridiculous, but it was so painfully loud I did not care!
 

Here’s a video of one of the races.

Levi has been sick the past few days, but not quite sick enough to need a nap… or so I thought.   During quiet time he was in the basement playing. When I opened the door to check on him, I found him like this:

Totally out with the lights on.  This may be common in your households, but not mine!

That sure sounds really old. (At first, I wrote “hideously old” but I’ll save that title for Forty). On my birthday the boys made me breakfast in bed, sort of. Rock woke up to find them all in Liberty’s room with her naked on the changing table having been waked up way before she was ready to get up. They were trying to change her diaper and get her dressed. He quickly and somehow magically put her back to bed and she actually went back to sleep. He then shooed the boys downstairs to prepare their breakfast downstairs.

When I came downstairs Reagan said to me, “We tried to make your birthday exciting since you are getting older.” Gee thanks!
They took me to dinner at our favorite restaurant that night. The next day Rock took me to see Lion King on Broadway! Sorry for the bad pictures. All we had was my cellphone….

And here are a couple random funnies for ya.  The other day we were busy moving all the furniture around to make a better home office for Rock.  When I came down to check on Libby, I found her like this:

Later that night after we had moved the three boys in together to make Rock’s office, Levi came up to me and said, “Mom, can I sleep with Libby in her room cause she’s my favorite person in this house.”

I think she’s everyone’s favorite, Levi!