Basketball...

Since the beginning of January, Zeke has been involved in a basketball league at the YMCA. He plays for the Bulls. As you can tell from his answers to his Zeke at 7... post, he loves sports. Zeke takes the time to know the teams, the players and the scores. He is enjoying his basketball season and (since the Y doesn't keep score at his age level) he keeps a running score in his head. I am proud of his dribbling skills. You can tell that this is something he has worked on. He doesn't travel much and knows how to pass the ball to his teammates.
We have a good time watching him play each week!

Zeke at 7...

A friend of mine posted the following questions with answers from her kids on her blog. I decided to give Zeke a chance to answer them in honor of his 7th birthday. I will hopefully get a chance to ask all the boys throughout the year, but decided it would be a fun birthday tradition, so for the other boys you will have to wait a few months...

Here is a glimpse into the mind of Zeke at 7-years-old...

If you could do three things, what would they be?
1.Football 2. Swim 3. Basketball

What's the most fun you ever had?
Playing Sports and having Birthdays

What's your favorite meal?
Cheeseburgers

What's one thing you do well?
Football

What's one thing you want to get better at?

Even better at Football

What makes you angry?
When Noah messes with the stuff on my side of the room.

What's something you would like to see?
Disneyland

What do you want to be when you grow up?
Football player...

Well, there you have it a glimpse of Zeke at 7!

Zeke turns 7...

On January 8th, Zeke turned 7! It is hard for me to believe at times how quickly he is growing up. At 7 years old his favorite thing is still sports. He is homeschooled and in 1st Grade. His favorite subjects in school are Math and Bible. He also enjoys science when we are learning about animals. He is learning to read and enjoys the level 1 readers that we check out at the library. Reading is not his favorite thing right now, but he is excited to learn so he can get his first real Bible when he starts 2nd Grade Sunday School next year.

This year Zeke asked for a cross shaped cake. I decorated it with all of his favorite things.

Each Birthday we light their Baptism candle in place of putting regular candles on the Birthday cake. This is to remind them that God has chosen them in their baptism to be His children and that they are now to share the light of the world (Jesus) with all that they meet.

We also have a Birthday bag that is filled with Birthday presents. For his Birthday this year, Zeke recieved a carrier for his matchbox cars, several packs of Baseball cards and a toy monster truck.

Zeke's Second Birthday Celebration.

Birthdays in our home are seldom a one day affair. Our family tradition includes a trip to Chuck E. Cheese (though for recent birthdays we have offered other places, this seems to be the place they always choose). Zeke's Birthday trip to Chuck E. Cheese happened the day before his birthday.

Zeke invited his friend Harvey to join us... Hiding behind all the boys somewhere is Harvey's sister, Catherine.

After supper, it was time to hit the games. Zeke's favorite game is a hunting game. He plays it every time we go there and he plays it several times while we are there.

Back at home...

After over two weeks in Wisconsin, we arrived back home on January 4th. On January 5th the boys had a chance to open a few presents that we had recieved from some friends at church.

Then we unloaded the Christmas presents from the car and the boys set to playing with their new toys in the toy room. Our toy room is overflowing with new toys! The boys recieved several sets of K-nex toys which Zeke is playing with here. They also recieved other building toys and a new set to add to their train box.

Zeke's Big Catch

Grandpa Potts likes to ice fish and when we are visiting them in the winter, we usually get to head out to the ice at least once. This is a fun family activity for all of us. Grandma likes to jig fish with the boys... We weren't catching much here though.

That is Noah under the mask there...

While waiting for some action from the tip-ups, there is usually a little time for football or wrestling on the ice. Somewhere at the bottom of this pile is Uncle Sherman.

Zeke did have some excitement as he caught his first big fish. The tip-up went up and the fish started running. Chad taught Zeke how to yank on the fish to hook it and then carefully pull it in so it wouldn't get away. The fish was 25" long! Not quite long enough to keep for this lake, but Zeke was still pretty excited!

Zeke's First Birthday Celebration...

No, we haven't gone back in time... Due to our time in Wisconsin close to Zeke's Birthday, we had a 7th Birthday celebration while there with Grandma and Grandpa.

There were presents for the Birthday boy and of course the brothers looked on!His favorite present from Grandma and Grandpa was a Lightnig McQueen wall clock shaped like a big watch. When we got home, he had us hang it up right away. Later that day there was ice cream with our dinner!

Snow Flakes...

There hasn't been much snow on the ground in Indiana yet... (I hear there is a possibility of a few inches tonight). The boys, however, are always getting out their scissors and cutting things out. Today I got them started on a project that is sure to leave more little clippings all over our house for months to come! We opened up a package of Coffee filters and the boys began folding and cutting.

JJ, in typical JJ fashion, was very careful and artistic.

This was one of his first attempts, and his favorite because it has little hearts in it. He also created several that he thought looked like flowers and butterflies!

Noah is rarely able to concentrate on anything without sticking his tongue out... Which is why this picture is so odd!

He was thrilled with his creations!

Zeke tried a variety of different techniques of cutting.

He was always excited to unfold the new snowflake!

Seth got really good at cutting out the center.

His snowflakes all had various size holes for him to look through!

Balancing Act

Science Central, our local kids museum, hosts Homeschool afternoons where they offer a science class for homeschooled children in the area. Today we headed out the door for Zeke's "The Math is Right" class. We got there a little early, so we grabbed one of their adventure back packs to learn a little bit about the physics of balancing.


The first explorer bag had two dolls and the boys had to balance them on their heads and feet. Then they were to discuss why they could or couldn't get the doll to stand up.

It was discovered that the doll with the heavier head would stand on her head and the doll with the heavier feet would stand on her feet.

The next bag gave them the task of balancing 10 nails on the head of a nail. After several unsuccessful attempts we looked at the answer and Zeke successfully balanced the nails by hooking them together.

When we returned to our table and pulled out our last bag, the task was to balance a popsicle stick on the end of their finger. The boys all immediately knew that this would not work and thought it was a silly request, but they tried it anyway. But of course this was not the end of the lesson. The next set of instructions were to create a set of counter weights to enable them to balance the popsicle stick on the end of their finger. After a few minutes of attaching pipecleaners and paperclips to their toothpicks they were all able to successfully balance their popsicle sticks.

Flag Football Season Ends

The season for flag football ended on a cold fall day. We were making up a game that was rained out earlier in the season. Between the blustery wind and the upper 40 degree temperatures there were a lot of cold boys and girls on the field.

JJ and Noah played first and kept a positive attitude throughout the game despite the cold temps. After the game they were awarded a participation medal!

Zeke played next and did his best. Cold fingers caused a dropped pass or two. He was also awarded a participation medal. He wanted to show off both of his medals (the other one is from baseball this summer).

Seth, of course, wanted his picture taken too! He can't wait to play football next year!

Grandma and Grandpa at Flag Football

On October 18th, Grandma and Grandpa Breeden came to visit. Zeke, JJ and Noah had a chance to show off their football skills!

Zeke's game started bright and early at 8:30. He had a great game and his team won their first game this year.

Zeke helped out on defense by pulling a couple of flags.

After the game, Grandma, Grandpa and Zeke posed for a picture.

We had a half hour break and Noah and JJ's games started at 10:00. JJ had a great run that lead to a touchdown!

Noah got the ball and ran in the right direction!After the game we got Noah and JJ together for a picture with Grandma and Grandpa too!

It was a beautiful fall day and after the games we went to Cabella's for lunch!