Andrew's Birthday Week

Thursday afternoon we celebrated Andrew's Birthday with his pre-school. We sang, ate cupcakes and had a great time!

Saturday Andrew wanted to go to Red Robin so he could get some birthday ice cream!  He was so excited, he ate it all himself.

After lunch, we went home and Andrew opened his presents from the family.  Jacob had bought him a monkey from Build-a-Bear.  Emily made the monkey some fun clothes.

Andrew enjoyed all the fun gifts he got from his grandparents.

He is so cute with his monkey.

After opening presents, we ate some cupcakes, and Andrew blew out his 5 candles.

Making a wish. . . and blowing out the candles.

The next Saturday, we had Andrew's party with his friends.

Whenever we asked Andrew what he wanted the theme of his party to be, he said he wanted a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle party.  He wanted to invite his three best friends, and the four of them could each be one of the turtles.

We started the party by watching a vintage episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles while the boys ate pizza
(the favorite food of the turtles).

We gave each of the boys a party pack with the mask and weapons of one of the turtles.  

Of course Andrew wanted a pinata', so Kelly made a paper mache' pinata' decorated to look like the head of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.  

The boys used their turtle weapons to break open the pinata'.

Then we opened presents.The boys all had a lot of fun.  It was a great party.

We love Andrew and we're glad he's in our family.  It was a fun week celebrating his birthday. --emily

Remlinger farm

Field trip to Remlinger Farm with Andrew's school.

Andrew loved feeding the goats

 

and the giant jumping hay pit,

with lots of jumping!

 

He enjoyed crushing corn between two rocks 

like in the olden days. 

Andrew and his friend Wyatt picking out the perfect pumpkin!

It was a fun day in the sun. --Emily

Pumpkin Patch

One of our favorite fall traditions is going to the pumpkin patch.  

The patch has an old rickety maze made of hay bales.  The boys enjoyed playing tag and running through the bales.

There were lots of great pumpkins to choose from.  The hardest part of the day was getting the boys to sit still long enough to take a picture.

 Look mom I found my pumpkin! What a jokester.

We each picked out a pumpkin to take home. Kelly chose a big one.  Andrew and I chose medium ones.  Jacob wanted a cute little one.

One of the best things about the pumpkin patch are the cinnamonie, surgery goodness of fresh hot doughnuts they sell at the patch.  

It was a fun and cold day with a titch of rain. --emily

Walk-a-thon

Jacob participated in his school's annual walk-a-thon. Each grade has its own color, and the kids were encouraged to wear the color of their grade.  Jacob is in first grade, and their color is red.  He wore his red school shirt, but we thought it would be fun to take it to the next level by spraying some red color in his hair. Jacob completed 33 laps, and had a lot of fun hanging out with his friends in the process. --Emily

Jacob's Birthday Extravaganza

For Jacob's 7th birthday party, he wanted to have a pool party.  

We held the party at the local indoor pool  We invited several of Jacob's friends.

I made some sponge balls for the kids to play with in the pool.  They were a big hit. At first the kids were playing catch with them, then tag. Then they played a game where they would stand on the edge of the pool, then as they jumped in, Kelly would throw a sponge ball at them and they would try to catch it while in the air.

After we got out of the pool, we had some yummy shark-themed cupcakes and other goodies.

Then we went outside for some party games.  The weather was perfect.

We started with a pinata, which has become an annual tradition.

No, these aren't party hats.  They're parts of the pinata.

Next, we played Balloon-Pop Survivor.

Then Kelly taught the kids how to make paper airplanes and we had a contest to see whose airplane would  fly the farthest.

I made cloth goody bags for each of the kids filled with treats and a squirt gun.

The kids all seemed to have a great time.  We're glad Jacob has so many good friends.

After the party, we came home and continued the party with just our family.

We sang Happy Birthday to Jacob again and he opened his gifts.

Andrew got Jacob a LEGO Star Wars set.  I don't know who liked it more--Jacob or Andrew.

It was a fun day full of birthday celebrations.  We love Jacob and are glad he's part of our family.  --emily

Andrew's 1st Day of School

Andrew started his second year of pre-school and is super excited to be with some of his same friends from last year. We are lucky to have such a great pre-school so near to our home. --emily

Jacob's 1st Day of School

Jacob is in first grade now.  He's growing up so fast.  He was excited for his first day of school.  We all walked with him together as a family to drop him off at the back gate. We are so lucky to live in walking distance to school. 

P.S. It has been a few months since school has started and he is loving his teacher and he has made lots of new friends. 

Labor day not camping

We had planned on going camping with some friends over Labor Day, but we all decided to cancel the trip because we were all just too busy with school starting and everything else going on.

So instead of camping, we all met at our friend's house for a nice pot-luck dinner and some marshmallow roasting over a fire pit.  It was the best of both worlds.  We had fun with our friends and made yummy s'mores, but we got to sleep in our own comfortable beds.  We had a great time.  It was a good way to end the summer. --emily