"We are going to be MEN"

...is what Trey told me as Dad drove off with him and Taatjes for their camping trip. The boys completed their charts earning them their highly anticipated camp out! Each time they received their smiley face they would say, "yes, I am getting closer to go camping w/daddy"!

So, last weekend Dad packed up the car - bikes, fishing poles, flash lights, marshmellows, etc. They had a blast! They came back beaming with stories and feeling quite manly:) Lots of pictures...Completed charts.










Highlights - Smore's. Catching fish. 2 mile bike ride. Stories at night in the tent by flash light. Hunting for deer in the woods. Each boy had their own coffee in the morning just like men do!!! Best one, night time raccoon raid. (He opened their cooler and ate most of their breakfast.)

Daddy's home put on his birthday hair!

The boys and I picked out a few things for dad's birthday party. Their big concern was having party hats, a belgiano favorite! So we wanted dad's to be special:) The boys loved the colored hair and settled on the red color. They all laughed so hard when he put it on and were thrilled that he wore it for dinner and cake. As you see everyone had a turn with it! We also brought our birthday whoopee cushion back out for the birthday boy to have a seat on! (Since dad started this tradition w/me) Dad played along fabulously pretending he didn't see it and plopping down on it so surprised:) The 3 of them were rolling with laughter, we love a good whoopee explosion! Cake, dance party, and lots of hugs and kisses...what more could a dad want on his birthday. He loved it!

Daddy

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!

WE LOVE YOU!

Oh...

...I guess he can open a bag of candy. On the bike ride home from the store with Dad he decided to go for it, why not! Dad did not think he would open the Swedish fish that he had purchased for me:) Oh well, Teague was happy!

What is that?

I don't even want to know how shaving cream made it up to the top of the bathroom window. Probably not a Dad mistake though.

In need of a diet plan?

If you want to lose a little weight I have a new great plan for you! Get yourself a pair of little boys:) Just before you are about to take a bite into the delicious dinner you have prepared one of them is bound to tell you a lovely disgusting tale. Most of the time it happens to be about a previous bathroom experience. Much like yesterday......(For those with a weak stomach do not read on. Or if you have proper edict.) Mom I just filled up the toilet with my poop! It is to much to make it down the toilet! Oh yes this is always an exciting feat, unfortunately for me:( I kept trying to flush it but it just kept going around and around and getting stuck!?! WHY! Please I have told you no potty stories before dinner!!!!! You have just ruined my appetite.
Really they are for rent during the dinner hours:)

Ode to Kelly and Brayden

The boys always love your silly pics so, here are some inspired by you 2!

Out of the mind of Taatjes...

" I will only love you for the next 2 hours!"
Dad: "Would you like a piece of cheese?"
Taatjes: "Is that cheese aged?"
"You know what I never chew my breakfast I just swallow it." (he says as he chews away.)
"I can ride my bike with no hands!" (crash, bang, aaaahhh! Instantly falls of the bike)
Taatjes we love the way you think and do things:)

Happy Independence Day

e

4th of July Parade! Any parade that passes out candy is worth it to the boys. They will sit through a number of politicians, real estate agents, store promoters, etc. for candy. (Speaking of which, what has happened to parades now a days. The shameless promotions and free advertisements are unreal and incredibly boring. They should require that if you want to walk in a parade you must build a float! Nobody wants to see the local real estate agent walk through the parade putting magnets in the kids candy bags. Boo to you, that is sooo boring.) Well, the fire trucks, motorcycles, bands, dance groups, and classic cars, were a hit!
Being new to the area we happened to drive buy the parade route the night before the parade to see people laying down blankets and chairs along the curbs. So we stopped and placed our blanket we had in the car down along the curb, crossing our fingers that it would be there the next day. The next morning we went to our spot and there it was amongst a sea of blankets. There was not one open spot along the parade route. We would not have found a place to sit had we not done this. Apparently the whole city knows the parade rules that we happened to stumble upon. Yeah for us! Great seats!

"Summer, Summer, Summer Time!"

This is our typical summer day...bike ride, park, naps (except Trey), and then we swim until everyone is purple:)

"I want to do that!"

Of course what boy wouldn't be begging to saw a tree down! What grown man wouldn't beg to do that! (Ok before you get all "green" on me it was sick and they put in a new one.)

What a great afternoon treat it was to watch some guys saw, pull, and hack up a tree. "I want to do that!" Both Trey and Taatjes wanted to follow these guys to the next tree they had to cut down, uh no.

Sleepy

Oh sure now you're sleepy.

Blame it on the molars! I hate 2 year molars! He was awake for 2 hours crying last night with his hand in his mouth (on me). All of the boys had the worst time with these molars. Just when you think you've paid your dues with sleep deprivation the molars come along. At least he gets to take a nap:(

Rocker

Taatjes a rocker? Apparently he thinks so! This was taken at a party we went to last week. The teenagers were playing Rock Band in the living room and we found Taatjes right in there with them:) He went to the basement and got the keyboard to play along. All the kids his age were outside playing on the swing set, not Taatjes. He also had a cool grove with his piano playing. Justin found him like this and took the pic with his phone, it was so funny. Rock On!

Brothers

Spectacle Bears and Black Panthers...Watch Out!

Thank You Children's Museum for providing a paint your own face "hands on station"! What a hit for the kids. What a mess for the moms. Oh well, it is supposed to be about the kids. My boys loved it. Trey is a self made black panther and Taatjes is a self made spectacle bear "from Dora". This is better than when Taatjes finds a pen laying around and makes him self a tiger! At least this paint washes off:)

Happy Father's Day Hee-Haw

The boys made the sign for you, or some of it and told me what to draw on the rest of it:)

"We love you Hee-Haw"

Happy Father's Day Papa Doc

The boys made the sign for you:) "We love you Papa Doc"

Crack me up!

Dinner time often brings a few chuckles but tonight's dinner got us going.
Trey was reading the underside of his dinner plate carefully informing me that his dish should not go in the oven or the microwave. (Thanks Trey what would I do with out you:) So Taatjes taking note of his brothers information sharing lifts up his plate. Trey asks him what his says. Taatjes then blurts out very emphatically; "don't take your kitty out to eat doughnuts with you"!
We all burst into laughter! Taatjes was sooo pleased that he had cracked us all up. How random the mind of a 3 year old.

Later that evening...
We were headed out to the old Home Depot to look at some floor rugs. We had been to Lowe's the night before and could not find one we liked. Justin and I are talking about what a pain it is to go and look at all the rugs, blah, blah, blah. Leave it to Trey to chime in with a good solution.
Trey: "hey guys I know an easy way to look at carpets!"
Us: "really?"
Trey: "Yeah. We just need to call Empire and they can bring over all their carpets for us to look at. It's easy they come to us!" (This is a flooring/carpet company that runs loads of commercials on TV.)
Us: "Ah Ha, Ah Ha, did not even think you were listening, but, good advice."
Sponge! Apparently Animal Planet viewers buy a lot of carpet:)

18 months

I love this boy! 18 months is a fun age, everything is new and exciting. I love watching this age all over again from a new perspective. We often refer to Teague as 1 going on 5. He is everywhere his brothers are. He is doing everything his brothers do. He dribbles a soccer ball around and kicks it to the goal no problem! He refuses to let me feed him because his brothers are not fed by me. (This has been for a while now and I wish this was not the case, very very messy. But he will not eat anything if I try and will eat everything if he does it himself.) He is our wild boy. I think he will be riding a bike by the end of the summer. The boy has no problem shoving his brothers to the side to make sure he is in on the action. i.e. picking up spiders, wrestling, tree climbing (luckily his little legs can not span the branches necessary to climb a tree), and especially hugs from dad! We all love Teague! Although his ear piercing screaming has got to go. (A common symptom for those 3rd on the totem pole.)

Shiner

Taatjes' face meets rod iron chair = instant shiner:( He is at that perfect age where his perceived ability has not caught up to his actual abilities. So, to swing with your arms between 2 rod iron chairs like your on the parallel bars is never going to end well. He is our tough guy though. A little cry, some ice, and he was off playing again as if it never happened.

Roley Polie Season

Roley Polie hunting is a daily event for the Belg boys. Each and every morning when we venture out the door every single brick and stone is turned over in hot pursuit of Roley polies! Finding one is the thrill and letting one crawl all over you is the real test of bravery for these boys:) So Teague, of course, is ready and willing to join in for the season.

Shout Out

A little shout out to all the Noyes Family! Dad I thought you would love this:) Maybe this is the street I am supposed to live on some day? Saw it on our way home from Lake Michigan and we had to pull over and get a pic.

Schaffer Family Visit!!!!

5 boys 5 and under and one baby in the belly (not mine Jamie's:) We had so much fun with the Schaffer family. Thank you for coming to spend your Memorial weekend with us!!! We all ventured over to Lake Michigan for the day and as you can see all 7 boys had a blast. The dads dug holes, buried boys, and ran through the waves while the moms covered all the lets make sure we are raising our kids the right way topics! We loved being with you guys! We are mirror image families! Well, we will have to see what baby #3 is going to be. Just some of the photos we got of everyone playing. Our boys are still asking when will we get to go see Will and Cal:)

Tooth Down

Trey lost his first tooth:) He was so excited to join the ranks of those missing teeth in his class. When I dropped him off at school he ran up to his friends and just opened his mouth! This is a big deal in the 5 year old world.

Soccer Mom

I am officially in my demographic! Here are a few pics of the Trey and Taatjes playing soccer. Taatjes' is in an intro class and Trey is on a team with real games.

Imagination At Work

Taatjes: "Have you ever seen a purple giant?"
Mom and Dad: "No we have not. Have you?"
Taatjes: (smug look on his face) "Oh ya I have seen a purple giant!"
Mom and Dad: "Where?"
Taatjes: "Here!"
Mom and Dad: "Oh my goodness, really..."
Taatjes: "Don't worry he is nicer than the purple monster."

Transtion

Life is crazy right now! We are moving from our temporary housing to our new home. I will not have many posts for a little while.
Some posts to come of the boys with their soccer teams soon! I love, love being an official soccer mom!!!!

No more T's

So all of our boys have T names that I get mixed up every now and then. They promptly correct me when the offense occurs. 3 is hard enough to keep strait. So just when I pause and think which T boy am I talking to; one more has been added to the mix (not my own:). Tavish! Tavish is the boys new friend who lives next door to us! He and his family moved in here (our temporary housing) when we did. So when we met him and he said "my name is Tavish" I just laughed. Oh my goodness another T name to remember and keep strait when they are all running around the house. He comes over nearly everyday to play so he enters into the mass confusion of wrong name calling. He is used to it now and just laughs at me when I get it wrong and tells me how silly I am. We love making new friends but I am crossing my fingers that there are no more T's!

Day to Day Adventures w/the Belg Boys

It was Trey's turn for a bath and it was supposed to be alone. I told the other 2 they could bring him a few toys to play with. Teague as you can see was dressed in his jammie's since he had already had is bath. Well clearly he decided that his bath was not over. He climbed in all by himself! Doesn't he just look sooo happy:)

Lip gloss frenzy! Taatjes got some lip gloss from a birthday goody bag and his lips in turn got a nice moisture application. A little more to the left Taatjes:)

Why (arms up in air)!!! Taatjes what were you thinking!!! Here is what I know Taatjes was thinking. My brother wants a drink of my water bottle - um no! My brother is grabbing at my water bottle to take a drink - I am screaming no at him! My brother is still coming at me for this water bottle so I will launch my water bottle in an upward direction as far away from him as possible to insure that he will absolutely not get a drink from my water bottle! Oh (cover my mouth) looks like that candle got in the way of my water bottle landing nicely on the counter and shattered into tiny tiny pieces! Look at my mom, look at the floor, give her the look that I have no idea how that happened!

This is why I hate cooking. Really I love to cook and I especially love to bake. But my kids go crazy and make it hard for me to not burn things or over bake my perfectly timed confections. Um yeah, chicken in my pan hold on don't burn while I clean up the tiny glass all over the kitchen floor and feel around to make sure I didn't miss any. Dry crispy chicken anyone?

Mattress or Bouncy Slide?

Latest invention while mom is vacuuming!

I thought I heard a lot of laughter.

"Mom it's our new bouncy slide!"

Yo-Yo's = Danger

Trey has a yo-yo or "had" a yo-yo.

One of Trey's friends had this great yo-yo that came right back to you when you released it, you did not need to have skill to use it. Well, Trey thought it was awesome so did mom and thus he received one. What was I thinking! This ordinary little yo-yo soon became a weapon of destruction. It has whacked many a head in this family, mostly the yo-yo player occasionally a passer byer. For this reason alone I should have thrown it away. But no I just stashed it away in a draw thinking it will be fun later when he is older. Well it made a recent appearance and nothing bad happened and so I ignored it, all was well. Until today...2 down for naps, Trey is quietly playing with the yo-yo. I am reading a new book and very in to it. Out of no where fire trucks come racing sirens blaring up to the complex we are living in! I am watching out the windows and wondering what is going on. Is there a fire, someone is injured? (It was a false alarm) I turn around to tell Trey to come to the window and watch the fire trucks with me. Right there in front of me is Trey with his yo-yo wrapped completely around his neck turning his face blue!!! I grabbed him, ran to the kitchen, grabbed the scissors, and cut the string! Yeah I saved the day! Mom to the resuce! Trey bursts into tears and am holding him because I am thinking how scared he must be. Well...NO! He bursts into tears yelling mom you broke my yo-yo!!!!!! How could you cut it and break it I am sooo mad at you! WHAT, I throw my arms up in disbelief. I have nothing to say except, "deal with it". And, I stressed the point that any time I see anything around his neck I will break it, just remeber that!

The Field Museum

These pics are from Trey's b-day weekend. We took everyone to the Field Museum, Trey's choice of course:) The Field Museum is mostly full of every kind of animal, bird, dinosaur etc. Seeing the man-eating lions and the huge silver back gorilla were 2 favorites. Of course all massive dinosaur bone replicas left each boy with his mouth completely open in awe. As a result the boys have been playing silver back gorillas vs. lions vs. cheetahs ever since(cheetahs must be involved because as Trey and Taatjes tell me several times each day cheetahs can run 70 miles per hour and I can not). Oh how they love finding any piece of information that can beat mom or dad. Anyways here are a few pics of us!

Watch out for the ferocious lions.

The real Man-Eating Lion!!!

Teague's picture face again.

I love it:)

Yesterday Trey asked me; "Mom can we go visit Humpty Dumpty?"
Me: "Why do you want to do that?"
Trey: "I want to see if he really has a crack in his shell."
Me: "Well I am not sure how to find Humpty Dumpty to go visit him." (I am trying to keep the conversation going)
Trey: (mom you are gonna love this) "Well if we can go find Mary Poppins she will know where to find Humpty Dumpty. She can take us to any Nursery Rhyme we want."
In my head: "Well of course that makes perfect sense! Onward to Mary Poppins!"
Believe me there are days even I dream of Mary Poppins swooping in to entertain my kids:)
Unfortunately I had to tell him I have no idea where Mary Poppins lives, somewhere in England!?! Trey is not one to be stopped when his mind is set on something. He calmly explains to me that if we write her a letter she will come to us. I then told him it has to be written by him only (just like the kids the movie). His response was a large scowl face and off he went. Probably to rethink his plans.
I can't get enough of conversations like this.