"Mom, I'm so bored!"

I'll teach my kids not to say that.  This is what happens when lots of kids are "SO BORED!" And "There's NOTHING to do!"  They were all grumpy and whiney.  As I sat there looking at all of them complain, I tried to distract myself from the whining and noticed their beautiful eyes. I got the idea to compare eye color to see whose eyes are darker/lighter, etc.  Yes, I'm weird!  But it cured the boredom.  Soon they all left and found something to do so that mom would quit taking pictures of them.  Total mom win!

The Brown-Eyed Kids

(Except Lydia, who was somewhere else in the house at this point.)

 The Blue Eyes

 Lydia joined the Brown-Eyed Group and by that time, things were crazy.  Everyone was laughing so hard that they couldn't open their eyes enough to see the color.

 So Anna tried to help Caleb by prying his eyes open. 

 That just made him laugh.  And you can't see a single eye color here.

I didn't think to take a picture of Katie (who was playing happily in her room).  She's the Lone Green-Eyed Kid.  So I took a picture of her later.  She was being too silly to show off her pretty green eyes.  I told her to hold her eyes open wide and I got this:

And another cute/silly one:

  We also took a few Sister pictures.

 These pictures are from another day, but I thought I'd share anyway.  Lydia bought wigs with her birthday money from Grandma and Grandpa.  Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!!

Black braids

 Blonde curls

Birthdays

Happy Birthday Lydia and Michael!  Lydia on the 19th and Michael on the 22nd.

  They both decided they wanted to see How To Train Your Dragon 2 for their birthday.  Only they didn't decide this at the same time.  So I took Lydia and her friend on a Thursday.  And then the following Monday, I took Michael and all the kids.  Michael's best friend is currently in Germany, so he decided he wanted to take all his siblings.  It was really fun.  (And way too expensive if you ask me!)

Lydia and her BFF.  We went to cupcakes after the movie.

 We also went to the grocery store for milk on the way home.  I forgot to take a picture of them at the movies.  So when we found a HTTYD 2 display, I made them pose in front of it.  This picture reminds me of me with my high school BFF.  Janelle, what do you think?  Brother... Seminary Teacher (forgot his name) would probably ask Lydia "where's your twin?" while holding his hand higher than her head.  Or the other way around for Missy.  I remember that so well - it always made me laugh.  Lydia is short like her mom!

 Birthday girl

Lydia picked a marble cake and I let her frost/decorate it herself.  She loved that!

I keep (purposely) forgetting to buy candles because I don't like them.  They scare me.  We found a candle app and used that.  MUCH better if you ask me!  Here is Lydia "blowing out her candles".  And it really works - they go out when you blow on the phone!

Kids of the... "two thousand teen generation"!  (Is there a name for them yet?)

I told her to put the app over the cake so it looked like a candle.  You can't really tell in this picture.  It mostly just looks like she's holding a phone over her cake.

Michael wanted donuts for his cake.  He doesn't like cake much, but LOVES donuts.  Here's the "line for donuts".  

All the kids at the movie theater.

Piano Lessons for Elizabeth

Elizabeth has been BEGGING to take piano lessons.  She's so excited she finally gets to start learning how to play piano!  She has an amazing teacher.  I'm excited to see her progress.