Zachariah's 10th Birthday...!!!! Wow....

My Little Guy is getting BIG.. Zach turned 10 today... He is such a special, creative, fun, loving, caring, sensitive young guy.. He makes our household soooo interesting and alive.. No doubt God gave him a unique and warm personality.. There are so many qualities to be admired about him.. He is very giving, sensitive to correction by Mom and Dad, and God. He makes everything silly or puts his work to a song...

Here he is with Milkshake, she looks thrilled huh.....

Another quality about Zack is how he makes up his mind and KNOWS EXACTLY what he wants..Here he saw this flipping through one of my magazine, cut it out and asked that on his birthday, I make him this for breakfast.. An egg star made with toast and sausages.. It was very cute, the other two boys got planets, but he was the Star of the day...

Did I say he knows exactly what he wants, sometimes, I can deliver, sometimes he doesn't know what he's asking.. He wanted angel food cake from cub with white frosting for his birthday.. Easy enough, no cake decorating and just candles.. Wow. I got lucky on that one...

This was a Lego Birthday party we are about to have in a few days, since his birthday fell on Thanksgiving weekend as it always does.. We got him a star wars lego set and he built it in one day.. Zach said, " I wish they would make lego sets harder" I'm thinking with the amount I just paid for that , I agree.....

This cake if for the birthday party that we had on the 30th of November for his "Lego Party". We had 9 little boys running around playing games and high on Sugar.. Again, Zack wanted Angel food cake with white frosting, I added the edible legos to it.. He even picked out the candy letters.. He is so easy to please... (atleast as far as cakes go)

Did I say that Zack knows exactly what he wants, he planned this party with me and get this, he even hand picked the candy and prized for the goody bags.. He said, "Mom, I don't want all the boys to get the same thing, I want to pick out each gift for each boy" so we went to party store and he spent an hour picking out what each friend would want.. I think he is really saying he wants his own identity and not always get what Josh and Nick have.. I picked up on that little comment as a mom..Proud of myself.. Here the boys are about the dive into a 1000 legos and more filled with candy..A sort of "scavenger lego candy hunt "

Here the boys played lego candy walk.. I would play music, stopped the music and whoever landed on the number I picked out of got to reach into the prize basket and pick a prize..

Here they had a pile of lego given to them and had a limited amount of time to build something creative, whoever made the biggest, most creative, most unique etc. won a prize. .they all made wonderful creations and won something...

The last game we played was pin the lego man on the red brick on the wall.. This is Nick trying.. just a little bit off huh...=)

Here you can see several boys were NOT so close...They had a blast at Zach's party.. The night flew and at the end, it still makes me cry.. Mom, " I am sad the night went by so fast and now it's over for another year.." Not so, we have Nick's in two weeks. Not the same mom.." All the boys talked about how fun it was, and all the little boys were sad when their mom's came to pick them up, this is all because Zach is so creative and fun..

Opening Gifts..

Josh Leslie on the left.. He really enjoys the boys and they enjoy him.. They enjoyed all their friends that night..

Our Trip to Cable, Wisconsin and Lake Superior

Here is a cabin up north in Wisconsin that our friends let us borrow, it was an amazing cabin, tucked deep into the wood, on a wonderfully , quiet lake.... Thank God for the Saldins and their kindness to let us use it..

There was no TV and so the whole weekend, we had to be creative and play music and board games, it's what I imagined the Colonial people dealt with , aside from the fact, that we had some electricity, but primitive for us..

This is the loft upstairs where the boys slept, they climbed a very high and skinny ladder to get up there, but they loved being upstairs..

Here is Nick one day rowing a kayak by himself, he was very good and a natural at it..He really enjoyed going way out in the middle of the lake with his brother.

Here Zack and Nick were playing "Guess Who" and thoroughly enjoying it.. It is 7:00 am ;)

All weekend, we looked for signs that captured our names, we found only a few.. this one is Zack's middle name and he was sooooooooooo excited to find it. It is not a common name..

Here is the restaurant and lake area, we rented a boat from them for the day and toodled around and saw loons, eagles and all sorts of fun wildlife...

Josh was in his glory on the boat.. I think this was one of the highlights of his trip.. he LOVED being on the boat and going as fast as it could,, mommy was not so thrilled....=)

Here we were that close to an Eagle, my camera does not do it justice.. We got even closer, but I cannot find the closeup we took.. VERY cool..

Zack enjoying the boat ride...

Nick was so excited to be on the boat ride as well. He enjoyed putting his hand in the water as the boat was going fast and seeing what he could catch in the water along with Zack..

Josh got to drive the boat, the highlight of his trip...

Here Chris is relaxing while the boys dive into the 50 degree water and search for rocks...This is the lake we were off of, within a 100 feet or so from the cabin, very cool, very relaxing..
Mommy and Zack kayaking... Yes, I did it..PROOF... I did it..

Zack kayaking and enjoying somewhat the lake and all the beauty...

Dad, hanging out and enjoying the peace.. We were not dressed for Kayaks, as we had NO idea that the cabin had them at our disposal, OH well, we still enjoyed them, and had the lake to ourselves
Here Nick and Zack are playing CandyLand first thing in the morning, like I said "No TV"It was weird to be back in Nicolet County where my dad was a Forest Ranger..
On a GeoCache, we found this huge boulder, amongst a very busy road of hunters.. it was a bit unerving..

The boys at Lake superior on a freeeeeeeezing day, they didn't care, all they wanted was to wade in the water and play.....burrrr

Josh heading out along the walkway with food to feed the seagulls, he just fell in and got wet.=)

Here again, the boys are playing in Lake Superior on a cold day, but they don't care, it was fun..

A veiw from the Hotel that Chris surprised us with on the last night of our trip. I had no idea that he was off for Columbus Day and so we stayed in Ashland, WI for the night, right on Lake Superior, it was so quite and the waves were so relaxing... Oh to be there now...

The View behing us off our balcony at the Hotel in Ashland..Pictures do not give it justice...

Nick on the way home, all snuggled in amidst all the sleeping bags..

Zack in a fishing picture at a fish hatchery on Lake Superior..

Josh...

Nick in the same shot..

Here we found a restaurant that had Nick's Name, we are still in search for the rest of the family, maybe next vacation, we will find all our names....

Nick, Oh Nick....

I just have to blog how Nicholas William Burow has been renamed Nicholas Trouble Burow.. wherever he goes, there is trouble.. I just have to tell of two very cute stories that have happened recently, I don't have pictures but I think if you knew Nick, this would warm your heart.. First there is a game that is played at most events called "How far can you kick your shoe (which by the way , I won the adult contest) but the kids thought it would be fun to play this at church, and since we rent from a high school, we are there a short time on Sunday, but the kids played the game and whose shoe should land on top of the roof of the High School , yes Nick and by the way they were BRAND NEW shoes, 3 days old. Chris did get a ladder and climb up and get "that brand new not buying another pair for you to lose" shoe.........

A few days later, we are at a graduation party, very nice meticulous back yard and pool, well it was not a pool party, the kids sat around dabbling their feet.. Daddy was right there keeping his eye on everyone along with the other dads... but with 50 kids who should be the one to accidently fall in.................yes.... Nicholas "TROUBLE FOLLOWS ME WHEREVER I GO" Burow.......

Welcome to CAMP SHAMINEAU !!!!!

Look at my nice bright and cheery morning rising camper..It is alot of fun to be in the camper altogether, altho you do want to be the first one asleep, that way you hear no critters and can avoid the snoring....

Josh was getting ready for Bible...

His first time on a trail ride by himself and without mommy.. He has a BLAST...

Christopher enjoying a little down time, often the boys would go to open gym which was within a hearing, walking and seeing distance and the boys would play for HOURS on end, and we would just sit in front of our camper and veg or talk with the other friends we went with, and they also were within hearing, seeing and jumping distance...=)

This older gentleman took an interest in Josh and helped him make a belt, they were not suppose to but he let us, only cost 10.00 for a genuine stamped by Josh himself belt..Josh did an awesome job on it with him name engraved like branding a cow..

Think camp is wearing him out, this is late in the evening down at the mess hall they had load a pizza for 5 bucks night..

can you say OPEN GYM MEANS TIRED BOYS!!!!! they spent all day wanting to go play ball games, rock climbing, basketball but this one particular game they just wanted to play nonstop..

This is during chapel times, all the kids sat in fun bleachers in the very back and watched the funny skits and worship, then they went to their own age appropriate classes while the parents heard a message each morning...

Zack is playing with some kids after his chapel class..

Nick the "Craft Man" When he wasn't in the gym, he could be found at the local craft spots that were manned by some college girls and they really took an interest in helping them, he made so many neat things...

Last but not least, the potato race or spudcar, they gave you each a potato, four wheels and four nails, you had to make a car and they would line up to race their cars...There was some really well made fancy spuds...