Medieval Times

Hear Ye, Hear Ye: The Jones family had another fantastic day filled with food, laughter, and fun.

After Mikie finished reading THE MAGIC TREE HOUSE book #2 titled THE KNIGHT AT DAWN, we spent the following week reading the research guide: Knights and Castles. We learned about castle life, armor and weapons, and the festivals and fairs of the Medieval Time Period. On Friday night, we watched The Sword In The Stone and told Mikie that we had a surprise for him when he woke up on Saturday. While looking on ITT's website for Disneyland tickets, I came across discounted military rate tickets for the Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament in Maryland. PERFECT! Now Mikie could see with his own eyes what we had just learned in the books. And as it turned out, this was indeed the most perfect experience at the most perfect time. As if it couldn't get any better, just 2 days before our scheduled field trip, I was working on my Bible study when the Lord reminded me of Ephesians 6:10-18 The Armor Of God. WOW! This is such a fitting scripture to discuss with my son while we were already studying armor. I can't tell you how long I had goosebumps after feeling the Holy Spirit tap me on the shoulder and place that scripture right in front of me. What an AWESOME God!

Michael & the boys in front of the castle.

As you enter, you are assigned a color, receive a crown of coordinating color, and instructed that you will be cheering for that knight. Go Red & Yellow, Knight!!!!

We had time before the show to view the armor and weapons on display. We saw the shield of faith, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, the shoes of peace, and the sword of the spirit.

We took our Magic Tree House book with us and got the signatures of the dungeon master, the winning knight, and our waiter (the serf). Here's Mikie with the dungeon master after we examined his helmet and compared it to the one in our book. We could have went into the dungeon, but Mikie absolutely refused and I didn't push it because there was a sign out front which warned of graphic displays inside.

The one thing Mikie wanted was a strawberry slushy. I was thrilled that you could buy a non-alcoholic one in a gold ceramic knight mug. However, Mikie was insistent that he wanted to be able to see his pink drink and therefore we ended up with an empty knight mug and his slushy in a clear plastic cup.

Once inside the arena, we were served tomato soup, garlic bread, roasted chicken, spare ribs, a seasoned potato, and an apple strudel for dessert. It was all so very yummy and I was full for the rest of the day. The best part was that they didn't have any silverware so we all ate with our hands. I think Mikie really liked seeing Mommy and Daddy being messy for a change since we are always reminding him to use his fork at home.

Our knight won a lot of the games they played as they practiced their horsemanship skills. After receiving several carnations from the princess, he proceeded to throw them into the audience. Of course, our adorable boys caught his eye so he threw them a red flower.

Zachary really liked smelling the flower and would say "mmm" each time he took a whiff. He also made sure everyone else had a turn to stick their nose in the petals.

"Brubur" it's your turn

At the jousting tournament, we saw all the weapons we learned about in our book: the lance, flail, mace, swords, and battle axes. In the end, the red knight was the winner. Mikie promptly told us that next time we come he is going to be on the red team. I guess we'll be cheering for the red knight in 3-5 years when Zachary is ready for his book #2 field trip.

The boys with their souvenir light up swords. I didn't have any cute clothes for Mikie, but I just happened to have a dragon shirt for Zachary (thanks Mom).

Daddy in his dubbing ceremony performed by King Zach.

We had a wonderful time and both boys were so super good! Mikie liked watching them joust (especially when the lances broke) and Zachary enjoyed all the horses (especially the black horse). Of course my favorite parts were all the teachable moments when the pictures in our book matched the real life objects or events right in front of us. I just love seeing the light bulb click on above Mikie's head and experience these fun things through my child's eyes.

Oh, and as soon as we left the castle I told Mikie that he could now read book #3 MUMMIES IN THE MORNING to which he replied: "And when we're done we can come back here and watch the Mummy show." Well.....no...but we can visit the Egyptian display at the National History Museum in DC.....field trip!

Colin's 4th Birthday Party

Mikie was invited to his friend, Colin's 4th birthday a few weeks ago. Evidently, Colin loves the Disney CARS movie and so that became the theme. Now, I would've, could've, and should've had Mikie watch the movie before going to the party knowing that Colin's mom was a former elementary teacher and fellow party planner extraordinaire. It would have been more meaningful for Mikie, but as it was, he still had a great time and caught on quickly to the character based centers. After decorating their party bags and getting a "crash course" on the character names, the kids were given a checklist of stations that they needed to visit in order to get prizes.

Colin and Mikie.

Mikie makes a shrinky-dink "Lighting McQueen"

Making a tire pizza at Flo's Cafe.

His favorite station was racing with Lightning McQueen on the Wii.

In this video, Mikie has to drive backwards as he pretends to be TowMater the tow truck:

Not pictured:

He got a Tatoo at Guido & Luigi's Tatoo & Tire Shop

He played with shake n' go cars at Mac's station

We had a great time and I really enjoyed that it was just Mikie and I.

Sweet Slumbers

One day after eating lunch, I looked over to find Mikie asleep in his high chair. I just had to snap a picture because even as a toddler I don't think this happened that often.

To nap or not to nap? That is the daily question at our house. Mikie NEEDS a nap everyday, but fights it so hard that it usually ends up being about 50% of the time that he does actually fall asleep. A couple of weeks ago, I went into his room to see if today would be a nap day and this is what I found:

He liked it down there so much, that now...we tuck him in on the floor for naps & bedtime and he has his own little slumber party with his dozens of stuffed animals. Now, all that his bed gets used for is a spring board for jumping off of.

This sweet picture of him sucking his thumb and holding his "bashi" made me realize just how much he has grown and how someday this will all be a memory that I have to get written on paper, so here goes:

My mom made several burp cloths when Mikie was first born. Who knew that a simple 6 x 12 inch rectangle of blue and white gingham material would become as valuable as air itself. I carried them around on my shoulder constantly. At about 2 months, Mikie loved to grab onto them and they quickly became his blankies. My mom added a loop of ribbon to each one that said "Jesus Loves Me". This served a dual purpose: Mikie loved the tags and I used the loop to attach the blankies with boomerings to the stroller or bijorn.

This is one of the very first pictures I have of him sucking his thumb. He is about 3 1/2 months here. He discovered the wonderful appendage while we were visiting my parents' farm in April and began sleeping through the night (for the most part). What follows are a few photos of my favorite thumb sucking pictures:

I was trying to take his 4 month pictures next to Eeyore when the urge to suck just became so overwhelming he simply had to get his fix right away. I love how he his trying to hide behind Eeyore (as if I wouldn't notice!).

THIS ONE IS MY ALL TIME FAVORITE! If you enlarge the picture, you'll notice that he has ahold of my hair with the same hand he's sucking (which has always been his left hand). Mikie would do this a lot if he didn't have a blankie to hold. I LOVED IT! He's 6 months old in this picture.

Here's a picture of our trip across the country on our move to Washington in August 2005. We were planning on driving late into the night so we pulled over to change him into his jammies and read him his bedtime stories.

Mikie's about 9 months old and sleeping soundly in his crib that finally arrived in WA after being in a pack n play for almost 4 months. It was right around this time that I restricted his blankie to his crib and the car seat. Thankfully he would only suck his thumb whenever he had the blankie (or when he was REALLY tired and could grab anything else that was soft: see below:).

We were on a short hike on the Olympic Peninsula in WA and didn't grab his "bashi". As you can see, Daddy's shirt collar works just as well. It was somewhere around 14 months when he started calling his blankie: "Bashi" (pronounced like the Kashi cereal). To this day he still calls it his bashi. At age 3, Bashi wasn't allowed in the car any longer and to our amazement, Mikie didn't fuss about it at all. This year when he turned 4, bashi was banished to the closet during the day and only comes out for nap and bedtime. This has caused an uproar as his little brother still has his and I think it's a constant reminder to Mikie that his is put away.

I'm so dissapointed: I've looked through all my pictures and cannot find any good ones of him with his "bashi" as a little baby. I do have a professional collage that is hanging on my wall of pictures taken when he was 5 months old and there is one of him sucking his thumb holding his bashi.

Zachary

When Zachary was born, my mom made another set of burp cloths that also became Zachary's blankies. His are white with blue stars and light blue ribbons that say "It's a boy". He is attached to his blankies, but has never sucked his thumb; therefore, he has not had as many restrictions put on his blankie time and pretty much gets it whenever/where ever he wants. At about 16 months, he started calling his blankie "Be Be"

Cuddling with his Be Be while watching the fireworks on the weekend before the 4th of July.

Be Be even goes to the beach!

Whenever we lay Zach down in his crib, he scoots himself up into the corner and lays sideways in his bed. He must feel more secure all tucked into the side of his crib with the bumper pads around him. For awhile I did worry about him suffocating against the bumper pads, but couldn't bring myself to take them away because his head would then be squished up against the wooden slats. Now, you can see from the picture below that he still sleeps sideways in his crib even though he has clearly outgrown that position.

So there you have it: A BASHI and a BE BE have become part of our family. They have magical powers that dry up tears, stop loud screaming and fussing, are fun to play peek-a-boo with, are great for wiping noses when you don't have a tissue handy, and make the world a lot less of a scary place when you're separated from mommy and daddy. But most of all, the magical BASHI and BE BE bring my boys comfort, security, happiness, and....................... SLEEP!!!!!!!!!! Someday, when my boys are grown and have moved away, Bashi and Be Be will once again wipe away tears...... mine.

Planes are now departing...

Of course, on the day we have to drive everyone to the airport it decides to snow. Due to the slippery roads, it took us a little extra time to get to Dulles to drop of the Wymans, but I didn't mind the extra minutes of company and conversation. If you've read the previous post (or Amber's & Boagie's blogs) you know that our week was filled with fun activities and a lot of late nights. We truly feel so blessed to have such great friends that they would travel across the country to make Mikie's day so special. Amber, I know the plane rides are long and stressful, the time change can be taxing, and the labor I force on you is grueling, but the week we get to spend with you and your kids is the one that I look forward to all year long! Thank you for agreeing to spend every January with us. (Now don't you hope we get stationed somewhere that will be warm in January of 2011?)

There they go...... Why can't we go with them?

We had a few hours to spend in DC before my mom's plane left at 5:00 so we went to the Air and Space Annex located near Dulles airport. We were practically the only ones there, due to the snowstorm, so I didn't care when the boys ran all over the place or yelled at us to come see this plane and that helicopter.

Boagie & Grandpa gave Mikie this Mikey Mouse camera for his birthday. At first he enjoyed taking pictures of everything and everyone; however, he quickly realized that each time he took a picture the number in the top right hand corner increased. So now, instead of taking pictures of people and things. He just snaps the button to watch the numbers tick away. Of the 1435 pictures on his camera, the majority of them are of his knee or leg while he sits in his car seat, holding it in his lap, watching those numbers get higher and higher as he pushes that bright blue button. And if he's snapping those pictures at night, the drivers in the cars in the next traffic lane must think we have a strobe light in our mini-van and we're listening to disco music.

Thank goodness for digital cameras and the "delete" button!

I realized what a big boy (and I'm not talking about his size) he is becoming when he held Boagie's hand and walked all the way down the spiral staircase of the museum.

All too soon, it was time to take Boagie to the airport and then drive home before the snow turned to ice. I didn't know it at the time, but not only was my mom taking her luggage back to Iowa, she was also taking my sanity! You see, the very next day my boys turned into possessed little creatures who do nothing but fight, whine, cry, scream, and throw tantrums all day long. Now, this couldn't possibly be because I was thrust back into being a mom 24/7 with no other children around as playmates for my boys or other adults to take charge of the declining situations. Nope, it is absolutely the work of some magic spell Super Boagie cast as she bent over and kissed their sleeping heads goodbye at the airport...all because she wanted to make sure I bought her another ticket to come back really soon! (Nice work, mom.....are you free the 1st weekend in March?)

We ALL miss you, Boagie!

Come back soon!!!

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (& boats)

Automobiles: The day before my mom and Amber & kids arrived, we rented a 10 passenger van from ABS vans just 10 minutes from our house. We were thrilled to find a company that had a van left as every major and minor rental car company were completely sold out due to the inauguration.


Planes: On January 20th we loaded the boys in the aforementioned van, popped in a Baby Einstein DVD and prepared ourselves for hours on the road not expecting to actually be at the airport by 10:30 when my mom's plane landed. To every one's amazement we were there right on time! The traffic was the lightest we have ever seen in this area. After picking up my mom, we headed to the Pentagon City Mall and did a little shopping and a lot of walking. We then ate lunch at the California Pizza Kitchen (only a few other customers in there) and then it was back to the mall to kill another 4 hours. We spent almost 90 minutes in the ladies lounge of Nordstroms letting the boys somersault on the floor and throw stuffed Victoria Secret dogs onto the couch to make a "basket" or under dressers to make a "goal." (This mall did not have a children's playland...so we had to make our own...and since Super Boagie was with us....she saved the day and our aching feet). Finally it was time to go back to the airport to pick up Amber, Tate, and Ayden.


Everyone was strapped in and we headed north towards Pennsylvania. A 15minute detour to the Rainforest Cafe actually turned out to be a 30 minute detour to The Cheesecake Factory because the RC went out of business a few weeks before unbeknown to our GPS system. Around 11:00 we finally made it to our hotel for the evening.


Boats: The initial plan was to stay that the Red Caboose Motel in a train car, but since they were closed for 2 months we thought the boys would enjoy staying on a boat. The Fulton Steamboat Inn in Lancaster, PA was a perfect place for the boys (and girl) but I wished we would have been able to go outside and explore the grounds with the pond and playset (maybe we will this spring or summer).

Here are the kids playing on the top bunk around midnight.

January 21, 2009: Mikie turns 4 years old!

7:00 sharp my boys were awake and ready celebrate Mikie's fourth birthday. We ate at the restaurant in the steamboat where they had the most delicious sausages. Mikie is attempting to blow out his birthday candle (again, Super Boagie to the rescue...great idea, Mom!)

Trains: The reason we drove all the way to PA? To visit the train museum, of course! Mikie was so excited to share this with his friend. He even got to go inside one of the trains because it was his birthday, although he wouldn't sit in the engineer's seat.

A video of the difference in the way the boys "take in" the trains:

Tate is as still as a statue while Mikie's feet are never planted for long:

Super Boagie: Stronger than a locomotive

Super Boagie: Able to lift 4 year olds while still sporting fashionable purses.

Super Boagie: Best Grandma in the whole wide world!

Mikie Jones (4 years old), Zachary Jones (18 months),

Mommy Jones (old) & Daddy Jones (older)

Amber, Tate, & Ayden in front of a Doodlebug train.

The boys check out the train from beneath the tracks.

All Aboard!!!

Our 1 year old: Zachary

2 year old: Ayden

3 year old: Tate

Our 4 year old: Mikie

Inside the hands on children's area the boys were working hard delivering cargo.

Lunch Time at Long John Silvers

I think these two corn lovers need to visit my parent's farm in August when the sweet corn is ready to be harvested.

Our intent was to eat a quick bite and then go to The Hands On House children's museum; however, when you have 2 kids with jet lag and the other 2 with sleep deprivation (not to mention the adults battling exhaustion) the best thing to do is just head home.

Only a few short minutes on the road and we achieve tranquility!

Chuckecheese

Once we were back in Fredericksburg, we took the kids to Chuckecheese for a memorable birthday evening. Mikie and Zachary spent most of the evening playing skiball.

He's so little even 12 month pants fall right off of him.

The watergun race.

And now he's officially FOUR!

Abilities Update:

Mikie amazes me everyday with his God given talents. He can count way past 100 (probably to 1000 if I had a long enough attention span to hear him out). He loves adding and subtracting numbers in his head, with his fingers, and especially on his calculator. If he isn't talking about numbers then he is usually writing them. Every paper we have has numbers or addition problems either on the front or on the back of it. We are working on telling time with an analog clock; and I definitely need to start working on identifying money with him. The only thing he does better than manipulate numbers is read. He is currently reading the second chapter book in the Magic Tree House series. I don't know how he does it, but words like "eagerly" and "through" just roll off his tongue with ease. I've never taught him those words, how does he know them? He's been blessed with many gifts, but is very hypersensitive and overly emotional. We've started cutting the red dye out of his diet and are seeing some improvements. I did have an opportunity to watch him during a large group Cubbies song/show and was so very proud of him for sitting and listening to the teachers while there were many kids causing distractions around him. I love watching him grow into a little boy and pray that he will continue seeking The Lord all the days of his life. I love you, Mikie!!!! Happy Birthday!!!!