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.

JJ's Big Catch...

A couple of days after Zeke's big catch, came JJ's big catch. This time it was a 28" Northern Pike.

We took it back to Grandma and Grandpa's house and Grandpa helped clean it up. The boys decided that this was a very smelly job.

Mommy and Daddy have a date...

As the week wound down a little bit, Chad and I did take some time for each other. Chad's Mom watched the boys a couple of days so that we could get out.

Our first date included The Olive Garden for lunch, a little shopping and bowling. During this bowling trip, Chad and I both had record setting scores. For the first time we broke 300 in one game (both scores included), Chad had his all time high of 187 and I had my all time high of 182. Not bad considering that we hadn't gone bowling in a long time.

The second opportunity we had to get out came right before we were heading home. Our initial plans were to head home on Friday, January 2nd, but instead we decided to let Grandma play with the boys a little longer and take another day away. We drove up to Wausau and played at the indoor waterpark all day. We also had lunch at Tony Roma's.

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!