6th Birthday Party!

Caleb had his birthday party today (his actual birthday is Tuesday).  We had it at "Pump It Up" again this year.  I just love this place.  It is perfect for birthday parties, especially when your birthday is in August making an outdoor party impossible, unless you want all of your guests to have a heat stroke.  Plus the staff does just about everything for you so it takes the pressure off of me....for the most part.

Here are the invitations I made for the party.

They came out pretty cute.  They weren't terribly hard to make once I figured out the pattern for them.

Caleb had so much fun in all the different bounce houses.  He requires a good bit of help to get up the really big bounce houses, so thankfully daddy and Grandpa Joel were there to make sure he got to do every single bounce house.

Benjamin chose to walk around with Gammy's purse for most of the party.  I managed to get him to go down one slide with me but that was all this kid would do.  He wanted no part of the crazy bounce house fun.  He enjoyed Gammy's purse though.

By some miracle we managed to get a decent group picture.  It's not easy to get 15 kids to sit still, look at a camera, and smile.  So I was very pleased we managed to get this photo at all.

After plenty of bouncing it was time for CAKE and PRESENTS!

I asked Caleb if he wanted a #6 candle OR 6 candles and he said "both!".  So he had a #6 candle with 6 candles around it!  I loved watching him open gifts because with each gift the other kids would get closer and closer to him.  They were all dying to see what he got and they had to get their hands on it too.  It was so cute.  Pretty soon there were so many kids around Caleb that I couldn't even get a picture of him, he was totally surrounded.  And as usual, Caleb made out like a bandit!  Everyone was so generous and gave some really great gifts.  Caleb was so excited about every thing he got.  And Benjamin has enjoyed playing with all of bubba's new toys too (especially the rc monster truck).  All-in-all a great party for our big boy.

One of Caleb's buddies, Nathan, hurt his foot recently so he couldn't come to the party....so we went to see him yesterday instead.  Nathan got Caleb a present for his birthday.

Nathan was so cute, as soon as Caleb opened the game he was ready to play!

Swimming with Jacob

Caleb had a swimming play date with his buddy Jacob from school the other day.  It's like a million degrees here in Texas so swimming always sounds like a good idea.  Benjamin and Caleb were so excited.

Here's Jacob chillin' in the pool.  Caleb and Jacob have known each other about 3 years now.

I had Caleb covered almost head to toe.  I let him swim in his AFO's so that he would be able to walk around the sides of the pool if he wanted to plus I figured it would keep his feet safe.  I forgot about protecting his knees though and I was worried that he would scratch them all up without knowing it.  Luckily his knees made it through unharmed.

I love these puddle jumper floaties.  It allows Caleb to "swim" without me holding on to him the whole time.  He can kinda do his own thing with these on.

 Boys having fun.

Benjamin had some fun of his own.

So silly.  Love this little booger.

Oh, and just for fun....this is Benjamin's reaction to spilling his cheerios on the ground.

It must be so hard to be 2 years old.  Poor guy was devastated.

All those yummy cheerios gone to waste.  So sad.

One Weekend. 2 Birthday Parties.

Caleb was Mr. Popular this weekend and had two birthday parties to go to.  His buddy Bryce's party was on Saturday.  The theme was Indiana Jones.  Too cute.

Caleb had a lot of fun at Bryce's party.

There was a water gun fight.

Caleb, Bryce and Nathan just sat there shooting each other with water guns.  It was too funny.

Little stinker trying to shoot his mom with a water gun.  Maybe he is tired of me taking his picture??

There was a silly string fight.

I think this was Caleb's first silly string fight...he loved it.

In case you are wondering, silly string is really hard to get off of walkers.

There is silly string all in his glasses and hair.  Look at that smile, I think someone is having a good time.

Where is Benjamin you ask?  Well, he was having his own fun.

Picking up piles of leaves and throwing them is always a fun activity for Benjamin.

Oh, and getting to eat a blue lollipop is pretty fun too.

The lollipop matches his eyes.  He's so cute.

There was a small playground for the kids to play on.  Caleb decided to try out his new skills and attempt to climb the equipment by himself.  Totally his idea.

So proud of himself!  And you know what?  I'm proud too.

And just for fun here are some of Bryce's past birthday parties.  It's fun to see how much our kiddos have grown.

2010

2008 

2007

And then on Sunday, Caleb went to a birthday party at a local petting zoo.  It was super hot and all us adults were absolutely melting but the kids had so much fun.  It's like the heat just doesn't phase kids at all!

We saw the goats first.  And the goats loved Caleb.

 The goats just surrounded him.  Maybe they have never seen a wheelchair before or something.  They did like to munch on his braces for some reason.

This black goat kept trying to head butt Caleb's chair.  Glenn had to keep pushing the goat back.  It was a bit comical.

Benjamin preferred to keep a safe distance.  He was more interested in playing in the dirt and if you had been there you would have heard me say (several times): "Benjamin get off the ground, that's not dirt!"  Goats poop.  A lot.

I just liked this picture.

The boys got to ride a pony.  Benjamin loved this!  I was holding him to make sure he didn't fall off the pony so I wasn't able to get any pictures of him, but trust me, Benjamin loved it!  He sees his bubba ride a horse every week so I think he was excited to finally get to ride a horse himself.

Checkin' out the tractor.

These are our attempts at getting a picture of the family.  It's not easy to hold the camera out far enough to get a picture.  And it is really hard to hold the camera out to get a picture while you are on a hay ride!

That is one good-lookin' family right there folks!  The cute boys make Glenn and I look good. :)

Benjamin turns 2 and Caleb's Christmas Party/Playdate!

Yesterday Benjamin officially turned 2 years old.  My baby isn't a baby anymore!!  Oh good grief, it goes by so fast.  We had Benjamin's birthday party a couple of weekends ago but I still wanted to recognize his actually birthday with a gift.

We got him some Thomas the Train stuff.  He is really into trains right now.  Doesn't he look so grown up?

Most of you are probably familiar with Benjamin's dramatic arrival into the world but if your not, take a minute to read about his birth.

For our Advent Adventure Activity today, Caleb had a Christmas Party/Playdate with his buddies.

I didn't tell Caleb about it until he opened the door and we read the note.  He was very excited about having his friends over.

The boys ate pizza and I made some Christmas cut-out cookies for them to decorate.  That was a lot of fun...and really messy!  Nathan was my favorite, he took the cookie decorating very seriously.  Caleb just slopped his icing on and devoured it!

I made a special #2 cookies for Benjamin to decorate.

We also did a small gift exchange for the boys. It was really cute seeing them sitting by the tree, ripping open their presents. 

My favorite picture is of all 4 of our boys sitting together in the front yard.  We were trying to recreate a picture we took almost 4 years ago.

It was such a blessing to get our boys together...we don't do it near enough. It's so fun watching them talk to each other and play together.  I know these friendships are going to be a very valuable part of their lives.

Here is the picture we were trying to recreate:

 This was taken before we knew Nathan.  Our boys were about a year and a half here.

All 4 boys together for the very first time!

Playdate with Ethan

Caleb got to see his buddy Ethan this morning.  I've been wanting to get the boys together for awhile now but it's hard to have playdates with Caleb in Kindergarten.  

 Ethan had a big surgery about 3 months ago on his left hip.  He spend about 9 weeks in a crazy cast that pretty much prevented him from moving at all.  The cast is off now but he still can't get up and walk around for a couple more weeks.  Ethan is a kid that is always on the move so I know these past couple of months have been really hard for him.  He is such a trooper though, make sure you check out his blog.

 Ethan LOVES Star Wars!  His mom used the word "obsessed".  He gave Caleb a quick lesson on how to use a light saber.  It was so cute.  Ethan takes his Star Wars very seriously.  The boy knows his stuff.

 Shooting darts with Star Wars guns.

Playing with a cash register.

We have known Ethan for a long time, our boys have had many a playdate over the years.  It is so fun to watch our boys grow.  It's fun to watch them actually play together and talk to each other.  The older they get, the more fun it is to watch.  We had a lot of fun over at Ethan's today.  It was nice to visit with his mom and watch our boys have fun together.

Hanging out with Bryce

Caleb had a long overdue play date with his buddy Bryce this morning.  Bryce had surgery on his spine this summer and spent 4 long weeks in the hospital.  We went to visit Bryce in the hospital a couple of times but it is much more fun getting to hang out with him at his house.  The boys had a good time playing with playdough.

Caleb is in love with Bryce's dog, "Girl".  He got to feed her some treats and he thought that was the coolest thing ever!

Benjamin had a great time getting into EVERYTHING!  I could barely have a conversation with Angela because I was constantly having to keep Benjamin from killing himself on something or choking on some small object he decided to put into his mouth.  And I don't want to tell you about all the sand he poured all over Angela's carpet (sorry about that).

Oh well, the boys had fun.

I took this picture several weeks ago when we took Caleb to see Bryce in the hospital.