June and Elijah's 3rd Birthday

 I thought I better get the photos from Elijah's birthday posted here before the month of June is over. The weeks just fly by so fast - it seems we only just started the month! I guess most people feel that way about time, but it seems to move even faster with 6 young children! :-)

Blowing out his candles - with Fergus keeping a close eye on him! ;-)

Opening presents

A present from Clement! :-)

A toy rocket. WOW brand toys are great because they don't require any batteries!

A big cuddly soft Barney was much appreciated! :-)

And balloons - especially orange ones - are always fun.

Blasting off his rocket

Lego Duplo airport set - he loves things that fly.

A new jigsaw - something else he spends a lot of time doing.

Fergus loves that his brother enjoys sharing his new birthday presents with him.

The cake - a rocket seemed the obvious choice for a little boy who dreams of blasting off into space and visiting the planets! lol

Fergus *loved* eating the birthday cake - I think he's got a real sweet tooth! He gets very excited when he gets anything sweet, and begs for more!

Yep, asking for more cake! :-)

Counting the stars on his cake

Abigail is really growing up - hard to believe she'll be 10 in November. That will feel a bit scary to have a child with a double digit age! But it's also wonderful to see her becoming a young lady.

Deborah begged me to let her bake a banana cake this week! I'm rather bad about letting the kids in the kitchen - I prefer to limit the mess and chaos and just do it myself. But I do need to remind myself that they can only learn cooking and baking if I teach them! ;-) It was a book Deborah bought in a charity shop last week (some "annual") which included a recipe, so she just had to try it out. They did a really good job (with plenty of help) and they all enjoyed eating it too.

This photo is actually from a month or more ago - when Fergus first started moving about the house. Yes, backwards to start with - just like Abigail as a baby!

Pleased with himself too!

He *still* isn't properly crawling at speed (though today he's been up on all fours and rocking back and forth like he's going to really take off one of these times!). But as you can see in this photo here from a few days ago, he's left his play area on the rug behind, and headed off to explore the world! :-) He's pulling himself forward, and going round in circles, and whatever it takes to get places. He's very pleased with his new freedom too!

Elijah has been having fun with clocks lately. He's used the educational website called Starfall (primarily developed to teach phonics and reading but which has lots of maths now) and he's worked out how to tell time on the hour. He's not worked out any of the minutes, but anything o'clock, and he can tell you the time. He worked through one worksheet all by himself and begged for several more.

This is what the floor looks like with two little boys playing together - Duplo and wooden train track pieces everywhere. But I love to see how much they enjoy each others company - such special times to see the early bonding of brothers. And Elijah is soooo patient with Fergus when he destroys his various creations.

Such love! :-)

And another day - yep, these boys are always together.

We've had such a cold month of June - just crazy weather! So when there's the odd day with a bit of sunshine, the kids like to make the most of it! The nice days are just so rare, that we don't want to miss them! :-) One such day we decided to go outside while I read their history lesson to them. It was still blowing quite a breeze, so the wood shed made a good wind block, and meant you got the warmth of the sun, but kept their papers from blowing away.

Fergus enjoyed being outside - but would have been even happier if I had let him eat the book! ;-)

And after Elijah had done clock worksheets the previous day (his own choice!), it was nice that he was happy to just be a little boy and play with cars and trucks outside! :-) There are plenty of years to come for schooling - when you're just 3, it's good to be a child!

A picnic in the garden is always exciting for them. Just shows that you don't have to spend lots of money, nor do you need to go far (not always essential to leave the house!), to make memories. It's often the simple things that children love.

The wood shed (simply made of old pallets) which is filled with logs in the winter, becomes all sorts of things in the summer. It's really one of their favourite places to play outside. It made a great outdoor school room one day, and here in this photo, it was a pirate ship! :-)

I *love* how I've captured Elijah in the air in this photo! lol He's really full of bounce!

Deborah looking up to her big sister! ;-)

Fergus will go to great lengths and any efforts to find a book. Oh yes, books are THE best! Especially for eating!

Lunch time the other day - carrot & courgette soup is sooo good, you really need 2 spoons to enjoy it! It's quite fun to see how much Fergus *loves* to eat! You really can't eat anything in front of him without him smacking his lips and making sounds with his tongue, and really acting like he feels left out if you don't share it with him! :-) A few of my children were really *not* interested in starting solids when they were a baby, so it's lovely to see how excited he is!