A Bowling Avengers 5th Birthday Party

Tomorrow my guy turns 5! We had his party a few weeks back since that is what worked best with our schedules. Sometimes having a birthday right next to Thanksgiving gets messy- so we just roll with the punches! It took some thought and many mind changes, but he finally settled on an Avenger's Theme for his 5 year old party. The party took place at the bowling alley with 6 of his buddies from school. They bowled for an hour, ate cupcakes, and opened gifts. He had a blast and was so excited. The only bummer was that it was a long 18 days to wait until the real birthday. Talk about stretching this one out!

He "helped" me with the cupcakes and was all set for the day with his new Avenger shirt.

Big Brother even got to skip the afternoon at school to celebrate his big day!

Here he is with his "best friend". And, even the Littlest Brother was sporting his super hero gear!

I'm expecting him to be up early and all ready to get the party started tomorrow. Off to rest before he wakes up the family to start celebrating!

Guess Who?

Guess who....

• is 4 months old?
• can roll over (both ways)?
• loves his feet and grabs them any chance he gets?
• laughs and smiles all the time?
• grabs at everything to put it in his mouth?
• sucks his thumb until it is chapped and raw?
• is 26 inches long (85th %) and 14lb 13 oz (50th %)?
• is still sleeping like a champ?

Did you guess this sweet little one?

Moments Between Brothers

In my day to day life, I see the clutter- paper, toys, half eaten tomatoes and avacadoes on the counter, but when I slow down to see how our family has transformed that all fades to the background of what is truly important. There really is nothing sweeter than the moments shared between these brothers. 

The Longest Halloween Post Ever In November...

 Due to the overload of photos, I'll keep it short on words! Halloween is a favorite around here and it didn't disappoint this year. Fun was had carving pumpkins, at school parties and parades, and trick-or-treating with our neighbor friends. Even the littlest brother had a fun night. (If you call being carried around the neighborhood by mom to stay asleep while your big brothers trick or treat for 2 hours!)

October Days

 October brought some fun days at school: For Big Brother they had a special day for parents to come and visit during centers. He happened to be the "Calendar Helper" for the day, so I got to see him in action. School is the highlight of his day- a far cry from the tears of last year having to say good-bye each day. I love that he loves school!

Biggest Brother had a field trip to a nearby farm. He came home with this ginormus carrot- we cooked it up in some stir fry. Yum!

And, Baby Brother is finding his thumb like crazy!!! He hasn't quite learned what to do with the other fingers, so we have to keep those nails pretty short!

Fall has been beautiful here- beautiful colors, beautiful temperatures and lots of fun outdoors...

3 Months Old

He's 3 months old!

He loves his thumb.

He started sleeping through the night. (About 10pm-7am, then a snack and another nap until 10am!)

He started sleeping through the night at 11 weeks old and hasn't missed a night since. I think it's because he loves his thumb!

He rolled over on his 3 month birthday (back to tummy).

He started laughing and smiles at us all the time.

He's an amazing little baby. I can't get enough of him!

Color Me Rad

Back in September, Biggest Brother and Kevin ran in the Color Me Rad 5K. We had great intentions of helping him train to run his very first 5K, but they fell a bit flat. I think we got him out 2 or 3 times for a jog. That's the great thing about being a kid, though- you don't really have to train- you just go for it! I didn't run. Instead, I stayed with the younger two and watched for them near the finish line. Kevin said they ran most of the way with only a  couple walking breaks. They completed the race in around 40 minutes or so. Not bad for an 8 year old's first 5K run!

Once we spotted them, I grabbed a couple of photos and sent Big Brother on his way to join them for the last section of the course. He is in the LOVE shirt in the photo below next to Kevin.

In this race, you get color bombed about 4 times throughout the course. They throw colored cornstarch and sprayed them down with insect sprayers with some color concoction. The result is a pretty fun time and pretty messy car ride home!