Birthday Boy!

Our house now has a 6 year old! Eli had a birthday last month & now he thinks he is big man on campus. 

Of course, when didn't he think that?

 I wasn't even sure I was going to have a party this year. I wanted to keep it simple. But then he ramdomly said 2 weeks before his big day, that he wanted a Spiderman party. 

WHAT?! We own no spiderman movies or toys. Where did this come from?! 

But, being the mama that I am. I obliged. 

I got to work downloading a Spiderman font so that I could make some tags & such & stumbled onto some spiderman stuff in Michael's clearance section. Score! I guess it was meant to be.  So then I freezer paper stenciled a spiderman shirt for both him & Jackson for the party. Done.

But, really, this was the lowest of the low key possible. We literally had popcorn & cupcakes at the park. Period. No games, no activities. Just ate & played. But he was surrounded by his cousins to play with so all was good!

  I really can't believe how fast my kids grow up. I know that I say it with every passing year & that it is so cliche to say. But it is true. Life is so fast!

 

 Eli is playing soccer again this fall & I have to say that maybe 6 is the magic year for that! He is SERIOUS about his "game" this year. All business out on the field!

And he has scored several goals each game.  Here he is WAY ahead of everyone, kicking the ball in the net! (no goalie in this age group!) Score!

What a cutie this kid is!

EIGHT.

Yep, you guessed it. This guy:

Yes, my quiet, sweet, little Jackson is turning EIGHT today.

This seriously seems too soon. The age of 8 is old. Too old to be a kid of mine, right? Hmmm. I guess it will take some getting used to. Seems like just yesterday we were rushing BACK to the hospital for him to come barreling out (well, not quite) within 45 minutes of arrival!

What a sweet little thing he was but as we were discussing in the last day or so... He came out with a foreshadowing of what was to come. He was immediately tenacious, stubborn, & predictable (well maybe the walking at 8 months old wasn't so predictable!) And he was also the cutest, chubbiest, thing I have ever laid eyes on. I had no idea how much my heart could really hold until that day 8 years ago!

In honor of his big day, I have compiled a list of his top 10 favorite things right now. (And that might also be because I am going on a scrap retreat in a few weeks & want to do a page about that! Planning ahead!)

These are in no specific order... just whenever they came to mind!

1-Harry Potter - anything & everything HP is a big deal around here these days!
2- chewing gum - he chews 2-3 pieces at a time if we don't stop him first!
3- football - he will kick/throw a football for hours at a time & right by himself
4- paper airplanes- oh, the paper & the staples, & the tape he uses to get them just right!
5- legos- these are still among the most played with toys around our house.
6- reading nonfiction- Jackson always checks out books from the school library that are on real subjects - like the army & wildlife & weapons. One of his favorite things to do at night is read a Children's Dictionary Nanny got him last year!
7-computers- Jackson has become a computer whiz lately & knows how to maneuver around to the sites he is allowed to go to! And he is teaching his little brother, too! He specifically loves Google Maps! :)
8-Popcorn- he asks for it everyday for an afternoon snack, pops it in the microwave & "cooks" it all by himself. (And makes a huge mess while eating it!)
9- Camouflage- these days anything camo is cool to him.
10-Bow & arrow- He got a bow & arrow after Christmas so he could shoot with his Daddy & yeah, he pretty much thinks he's the coolest kid in town, now! He loves to shoot it!

Jackson,

We are so proud of the strong-willed, smart, creative & kind hearted kid that you are. I love our little chats (when you finally decide to open up!) and love hearing all about the things you love to read about... from insects & civil war weapons, to the capitol of Paris (which is France, you told me one random day!). You are so bright & I can't wait to see what this next year has in store for us while we watch you grow even more. Happy Birthday!!

Love,

Mama

My boy is 5!

Today is my little guy's fifth birthday. Five is such a milestone to me. It sounds so much older than four! To say it flew by would be a gross understatement! I am sure I say that with each passing birthday for my kids, but it is true! I don't think I ever realized how fast time went by until I had kids of my own. I still think of Eli as my baby but really, he is no baby at all. He loves to be "babied", though, but we are working hard on that! :)

Eli, we love you more than we could ever put into words! The Lord blessed our family so much when he gave us you! Thanks for always providing us with a good laugh & lots of cozy cuddles! xoxo!

We are having a little birthday party for him tonight at the park, so more pictures will be forthcoming. In the meantime... enjoy these pictures I took of him today while waiting for the bus to drop Jackson off. He was playing with his cars in the grass. He still has such an imagination!

Jackson is SEVEN!

A few weeks ago, on the 3rd of February, Jackson turned 7. I can't wrap my brain around the fact that he has grown into a 7 year old already. I know I say that with each passing birthday, but seriously? Can't time just slow down a bit??

We had just a "small" family birthday celebration. Of course, small is a relative term when you are talking about this family- that included 6 grandparents, 1 great grandparent, 4 aunts & uncles, 8 cousins & of course the 4 of us! It was a cramped house for sure, but now you understand why sometimes we just have to keep it family. Where would we put anyone else?

I barely even attempted to make a theme this year, trying to keep it really simple for my sanity (it's been a super busy month!) but i decided that a simple baseball cake & some baseball favors wouldn't be too difficult. So that is what we did! I did however, make a special surprise inside the cake: I started with bowls of batter... adding food coloring..

Then got this- pretty layers! So I layered them up & iced the cake like a baseball.
This was Jackson's first look at the cake. He had no idea that I was making him a baseball cake! But the best surprise was the inside! A rainbow cake!

It turned out so great! I was proud of myself because i can NOT ice a cake (which is why i always go with cupcakes!). Thankfully, my sister came over to offer moral support & to be there in case i needed any help!

For Jackson's birthday, we got a Wii! Sounds crazy, I know. We never do extravagant gifts like that but for Christmas he really wanted a Nintendo Dsi, which was going to be about $150. Yikes! To compound that, Eli really wanted one too & I just couldn't go there! So we asked Jackson if he could wait until his birthday & that if he wanted one, he could save his birthday money & pay for part of it with that & we would supply the rest of the cash. Then, we got to thinking that if he got a Wii instead, then the whole family could enjoy it instead of the boys fighting over the one Dsi. So we asked Jackson if he'd rather have a Wii instead. He decided finally that he would, so I got to checking Craigslist & found a steal! I got the Wii system plus 2 remotes, 2 nunchuks, a Wii balance board, with the Wii Fit game, plus Guitar Hero with 2 guitars & a microphone, and Wii Sports, Wii Play, & Wolverine games all for just $165. Seriously- steal of the century! And Jackson contributed some of his birthday money to that as well! So it ended up costing less than getting a Dsi anyway. Yay!

The entire day of the party, the Wii was played from about 10am until about 9pm. It was craziness, but we haven't played it non stop like that since. We just let the boys splurge on their media time since it was new & they were both very excited. Plus, Aunt Becca brought the girls over (& their games & remotes, etc) and they girls joined in. Then when the party started, everyone took turns playing. It was so much fun!

So Happy Birthday, Jackson! We love you so much & we can't imagine our lives without you. God blessed our family by giving us you! You are such a sweet boy & bring us so much joy & laughter!

And here's a few more pictures from the party!

My Birthday Boy!

I know that I say this with each birthday that rolls around with each child of mine... BUT, I seriously can't believe Jackson is already 7 years old. SEVEN???? Is it already time for 7?? I don't think he has ever been so excited about a birthday, either. He has been hyped up for over a week waiting for his big day, so I tried to make it special for him in little ways since his "family birthday party" isn't until this weekend.

It was a busy day too, because he had school and it was his night for basketball too. Sooo, I worked my little hiney off trying to get everything done! For breakfast, I made him a bagel with Nutella & sprinkles. It is so funny to me how simple, little things can bring a smile to his face. I love that.

I rearranged my work day just a bit so that I was able to bring cupcakes into his classroom at afternoon snack time. This was my way of sharing his day with his friends since we weren't inviting any of them to our little party. And as an added bonus, I went ahead & checked him out of school a little early. Snack was over at 3:10 & I wasn't about to go get in the carpool line right after that!

Then it was home to get started on dinner! Jackson's favorite meal is pizza, so pizza it was going to be! I had to make a pizza crust though and give it time to rise for 2 hours! Which meant dinner wasn't going to happen until after basketball. (Eli was traumatized, for real!) While the dough was rising, I started working on the cake for his party on Saturday. (More on that in a following post, but let's just say that it involved food coloring & 6 layers!) However, the pizza turned out yummy & I made him his very own pizza (in a heart shape!) while the rest of us ate slices off of a bigger pizza. His pizza also had heart shaped pepperoni's! See? I told you that it was the little things! :) He refused to let me cut it up for him, because he wanted to eat it like this:
And eat it he did! Every last morsel....
But before he finished it off, he asked me to take a picture of this last heart shaped pepperoni!
Happy Birthday to my biggest little man! I hope seven is a great year! And i hope he enjoys his party on Saturday! (Shhhh... he's getting a Wii!!)

Birthday in the Park...

Because we had a lot of variables to work with (like a possible Hurricane bringing rain our way, and Aunt Becca's impending delivery at any moment), we weren't sure what we were going to do about Eli's Birthday. He wanted a bike (& from a previous post, you saw that he got one!), & I thought going to the park for a little party could be fun. We did this when Jackson turned 4 & got a bike & it was great fun. So we decided we would do it! We called our local friends & family & asked them last minute to come join us at the park, bringing their bikes & helmets with them to the party. I spent the day leading up to the party making these super cute goodies....
You just take pretzel rods, break them in half, & dip the ends in colored chocolate.....
Then you wrap the crayon labels around them (i found them online in lots of places.....) & tape them to secure. Then i placed them in a cellophane bag & added a cute little topper that i printed myself... and Voila! You have party favors!
Anyway...back to the actual party! We had little ones....
and older ones..... and some in between....

but together they made Eli's day special!
We got some pizzas & brought some cupcakes & called it a day!Eli got to open his presents which were all a huge hit!

And then they all got on their bikes & made a trip out in the walking/riding trail.Thanks to everyone for making it out last minute! And thanks to Hurricane Earl for skipping us all together. And thanks to Sara Beth for delaying her entrance to this world another day or so (Sorry, Becca!!) We love you all!