Matthew's 8th Birthday

On November 9th, our biggest boy turned 8.  EIGHT!  He is super big and mature beyond his years.  He proves he is still a boy though with his New Year's resolution to not get any yogurt on his shirt.  Not surprisingly, all Matt wanted for his birthday was Lego.  He was quite thrilled to receive the town center Lego kit and began building it immediately.

The boys were very interested in helping me adorn the birthday cake with M&Ms.  Matt and his signature pouty face that he does now for photos.

We decided to do something different for Matt's birthday party this year.  I was all done having a large number of rowdy boys in my backyard trampling over each other in a bounce house.  Instead, we picked up 4 of his school friends, Ava, and met 2 of his church friends at Austin's Park & Pizza.  We recruited Uncle Tim for extra chaperoning.  We had a lot of fun.  It was busy there that day, so the kids didn't get to ride the go-karts as many times as they wanted to because the lines were super long, but it was still a fun time.

They waited nearly an hour to ride the go-karts.  And they all loved it.  They were trying to pass each other, and each one of them had such a serious face as they whizzed by.

Mini-golf was a hit.  It started off pretty organized--Steven laid down the rules.

Everyone was focused.  These boys are so competitive with one another.

Will's look of determination.

Oopsie.  Lost one.

Handsome birthday boy.

After golf we played laser-tag inside, and it was so much fun!!  I did pretty well I must say.  It was fun getting to do fun activities with Matt alongside his buddies and to watch his interactions with all of them.  They ate lots of pizza and kept stopping by the buffet to grab a slice or a cookie or a drink.

After that fun we hauled everyone back to our house for some cake and backyard soccer playing.  Will was right in the thick of it, loving every second.  Those kids are a crazy bunch and sang the loudest rendition of the Happy Birthday song ever.  Poor Ava was plugging her ears.

The next day after church we had our family and close friends over to eat BBQ, enjoy cake and celebrate Matthew one more time.  He is one lovable boy.  I love his vocabulary, I love the one-on-one time we get, I love how he watches the Weather channel online, I love how we've looked through the Lego book 100 times and he still wants to know what my favorite is on each page, I love how he looks forward to my cooking, I love how he lets Johnny crawl all over him & tackle him, I love how he lets Will snuggle up next to him after school, I love getting the giggles watching him clumsily get dressed and 99% of the time end up with a twisted waistband, and I love how he still just wants to be in the same room with me.  Matthew is growing up fast.  We are so proud of him and still so in love.

Halloween

We are well into the new year and I am still talking about Halloween.  Yes!  It's no secret I'm behind.  Please excuse me while I catch up!

I got super lazy with the costumes this year, you guys.  Will's Superman costume still fit him quite nicely and he was still excited to wear it, so that's what we went with.  Johnny wore the hand-me-down tiger costume that Will wore when he was 2.  Matt opted for the Flash, and I found that on Amazon.  Steven & I decided it would be fun to dress up too, so he went as Kyle Busch and I was Wonder Woman.  Mine was homemade, and I spent the most time covering my boots in duck tape.  Steven and Matt's costumes arrived in the mail and so everyone had to put them on and pose in the mirror.

The weekend before Halloween we drove to the Woodlands to visit Poppi & Grann.  We had such a great time!  The night we arrived their neighbors were having a Halloween party complete with a bouncy house in their backyard, so the kids got a few minutes of jumping in before bedtime.

Dad & Ann took us to a cute little farm nearby where the kids got to run around and enjoy all kinds of fun, fall activities.  Johnathan especially enjoyed the goats, donkeys and rabbits.

The boys played mini-golf, basketball, soccer, raced some razor scooters, but I think the hands-down favorite was the little zip line.  They did it countless times, and even I tried it!  It was pretty fun I must admit.

Johnny enjoyed getting to push around a whole fleet of cozy coupes.

That afternoon while Johnathan was taking a nap the big boys got to play in Poppi & Grann's pool.  They were dying to get in.  Poppi heated it up for them, and they had a grand time.

Then we all got dressed up and attended a Halloween festival.  Dad & Ann put on those awesome Superman costumes and played along with us.  I love it!  We certainly got our fair share of attention from onlookers.  We were the SuperFamily!

I will never be able to stop giggling at that wig on Dad.  That steely look from Steven is good too.  We had a wonderful time with Dad & Ann--well, it was all great and fun until little J got sick all over the kitchen floor the last night we were there.  Dad & Ann didn't even blink and jumped in immediately to help.  Thankfully we made it home to Austin before Mr. J got sick again.  Thank you Lord.

We got ourselves a nice little pumpkin to carve.  The boys were excited, and everyone got their hands slimy trying to scoop out all the seeds.

Johnny has to say "Cheeeeeeeeeese!!!!" super loud and enthusiastically any time we whip out our phone or camera and aim it his way.  Hilarious.

And finally it was Halloween!!!  We stopped by Nicole's first for a little treat before heading to the Rener's.

Super cute kids.  Johnny didn't stick around too long for that group shot.  Neither did little Britta.

Henry & Will were as glued to each other as one would expect Superman and Batman to be.  They ran to every house and excitedly shared with each other what candy they got.

Y'all, I got sass for days.  Thanks, Tim, for pushing that stroller with all the junk in it.  Little John wanted to walk of course.

Johnny had a great time.  It was his first Halloween to actually participate in trick-or-treating, and he loved it.  He marched right up to those doors and grabbed handfuls of candy.  No one could resist the adorable tiger.

Matthew sure did run like the Flash.  Couldn't hardly keep up with him.  Toward the end of the night he admitted that he had enough candy and didn't need to go to any more houses.  Shocking!

Mr. Will ran hard too and ran out of steam at the end.  He declared more than a few times that he was done, but would run up to a house or two more.

So by the end of the evening we had 2 plastic pumpkins full of candy!  I took the Jr. Mints immediately.  :)

Here's our jack-o-lantern.  Matt couldn't quite decide on a name...something like Mr. Scary Limebreaker; but he was never satisfied with it.  I mentioned lil' Pumpy just to be silly, and wouldn't you know it, it stuck?  Lil' Pumpy looked super scary all lit up.  3 months later and we are still working our way through all that candy!