Grayson is 5

Grayson turned five nearly two weeks ago. He was so excited to be five years old. We had a big party that was super easy. We had no theme. I ordered Little Caesar's and served a couple of salads. Grayson doesn't like cake, so we got Mike's Italian Ice instead. It was delicious. I was going to play games, but the children seemed to entertain themselves in the backyard so I didn't bother.
Grayson invited his friends and family and we just visited and enjoyed one another. It was kind of perfect. Everyone was so generous. I was very grateful for everyone making Grayson feel so special on his birthday.

Grayson received some really fun gifts. Thanks again to all our friends and family for their generosity.

Serving up Mike's Italian Ice. It really is delicious. If you live nearby, you should go to their shop and enjoy a yummy treat.

Grayson even celebrated his birthday at school. His teacher, Mrs. Fisher, gave him two books and a fire truck craft. I'm pretty sure Grayson felt special all day which makes me very happy.

Grayson learned to ride his bike without training wheels earlier in the year. Gigi and Papa took him to pick out a bigger bike and helmet for his birthday. I gotta say, he picked a good one. The TMNT helmet has a fabric bandanna that blows in the wind as he flies down the street on his cool bike.

Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving! It is the best holiday ever. We were able to enjoy Thanksgiving with my family in St. Augustine this year. Thanksgiving day also happened to be my brother's 30th birthday so we celebrated him as well. If I'm being honest, the day didn't go exactly as I'd planned. I just felt so tired and worn out. Unfortunately, sweet Miriam became sick over night and I was literally up all night with her. We were both a little cranky. Regardless, dinner was delicious and I was so happy to be with the people I love the most.

My little brood enjoying story time with Daddy. These are my biggest blessings.

Girls have to stick together. Miriam and her cousin, Lyla. Two beauties inside and out.

18 weeks in and feel so much better. Especially grateful this year for our newest addition.

Even got to spend some fun time with cousins while we were in St. Augustine! Cousins are the best. I really should blog about how awesome my cousins are. 

Miriam's Photo Shoot

The boys found the camera and had a photo shoot with Miriam. Here are some of their best shots. She was really cheesing it up. We love her so much!

Green Meadows Farm

This is a photo heavy post! We went on a field trip with Grayson's class to Green Meadows Farm. We went a couple of years ago with Ethan's class. It was just as fun this time around. It is a great place and if you're close by, you should try to get over there. I should mention that Grayson insisted on wearing his overalls. He sounded incredulous when I asked why. Of course, farmers wear overalls! So, I quickly called Aunt Stacey to get back the overalls I had already purged from the dresser.  I think Grayson now wants to farm professionally.

Duckling!

The farmer and his piglet!

Pony ride.

Old tractors everywhere on property. Grayson was ecstatic.

Baby goat.

Hungry goat.

Chasing and catching chickens was hilarious. Poor chickens. Although some of them seemed used to it and just stood there and let the children pick them up.

Piglets! My personal favorite.

Growing pig.

Baby chicks! This is Grayson's friend from class. I think he has a crush on her. He tells me that they play house every day and he is the dad and she is the mom. He also chose her as his wife when he was the farmer during "Farmer in the Dell." 

The whole gang waiting to milk a cow.

Milking a cow. This was Grayson's favorite!

2 Photos

Ethan works so hard at school He is a great student and loves to learn. Apparently there is a list of 1000 sight words (words readers should know by sight in order to become successful readers). This list was made by finding the words used most frequently in writing. It starts out with words like "my, like, when, etc" and works up to words like "various, decimal, Japanese, etc". Ethan started out the year knowing nearly 400 sight words! I found out at Open House that this was definitely impressive, as all but one other student was hovering between 50 and 100. Mrs. Rivera (Ethan's teacher) said that once a student reached 1000, he or she would receive a trophy. I felt confident Ethan would earn that trophy by the end of the year. I was blown away that he earned it before Thanksgiving! So proud of this hard-working boy of mine. Here he is with his star reader trophy. 

Just a little girls bedhead! She is big enough to eat with us at the table now and is really trying to manage that spoon. She's so big.

Fun with Grayson

For my individual outing with Grayson, we were able to go to Universal Studios and Universal's Islands of Adventure. He was the perfect boy to take there because of his true love of Harry Potter. Here are some photos from our big day.

Left Kings Cross Station for Hogsmeade on the Hogwarts Express. It was amazing and it felt so real. Seriously, it was the most magical thing ever. We felt like real wizards on a real train. Jared was so jealous.

Not a great shot, but this is Diagon Alley. It was packed, so we didn't go too far inside. We ate lunch in Hogsmeade at the Three Broomsticks. Grayson didn't care for the butterbear, but he devoured his chicken legs and french fries. We had a blast! We even secured a wand for Grayson's birthday present. He looked at every single wand before choosing the replica of Severus Snape. I must say, it is pretty awesome.

Hanging with Millhouse while we ate our popcorn. 

Playing with Curious George. This was one of the highlights. We had so much fun in this interactive part of the park. The sign warned we'd get wet, but we naively thought we'd be fine. We ran up to shoot some water cannons and as soon as we arrived a bell rung out and dumped gallons of water right on top of us. It was hilarious. We both freaked out and laughed so hard. It was awesome.

Hanging out in Fievel's playground. This was so fun for me. I love the American Tale movies.

Minion Glasses! 

Grayson and I had a great day. He probably gets the least amount of one on one time with me and this trip was past due. I love this boy!

I have a 7 year old!

People, I have a 7 year old and it is freaking me out! I honestly, remember Ethan being born and being brand new like it was yesterday. And now, I have a 7 year old who can read and write and score soccer goals and who is kind and thoughtful and amazing. I am truly blessed to be his mom and grateful Ethan made me a mom.
Jared has pointed out how important birthdays are in large families because sometimes having so many children it is really hard to put individual focus on each one. I've tried to combine birthday parties for the children and he always asks me not to so that individual attention can be given.
Ethan's birthday was on a Wednesday, so Landon and I met him at school for lunch and brought cookies for his class.

There's this gator out front and Landon insisted on a photo with him.

Lunch time with these cool kids.

After school, we waited for Jared to come home so we could carve our pumpkin! I also let Ethan choose the night's menu and we had breakfast for dinner. Here's everyone carving the pumpkin. Grayson would have you know that he extracted the most "guts" from the pumpkin.

Ethan had a birthday party the weekend after his birthday, but I prefer to give our gifts on the actual birthday so we didn't wait for Saturday. Ethan was very excited for his party. One morning in September, I woke up to find a list he'd written with three things he wanted for his birthday: Skateboard, Helicopter, and Chima Legos. With the help of Gigi and Grandma, this list was totally doable. He also insisted his Aunt Stacey make his cake and drew a pretty detailed drawing of the cake for her to follow. It was amazing.

Don't worry, he will wear a helmet! I just couldn't cover up that face for this picture.

At his party, Ethan was humbled to see the gifts people brought him. He said in a tiny whisper, "All those are for me?" He is so sweet. 

Here's the drawing Ethan gave Aunt Stacey to design his cake.

And here's the finished product. We asked him what his inspiration was and he said, "I wanted to design a cake no one has seen before. I wanted something unique." Well, I think he did a swell job.

Happy birthday, Ethan!