Top 5 of turning 5!

We Celebrated another Birthday here this week. 

My little buddy turned 5. 

He is my quiet, cuddle bug. He has a great imagination. He keeps me laughing. He can pest with the best (just ask his brothers!) He's totally got the "Prince Charming" thing covered. He's kind and sensitive. He's sure he can keep up with his 11 year old brother. He's super excited about learning his letters. (I'm secretly thrilled that he missed K this year and he's sticking around with me another year!) He'd rather go hungry than taste an unfamiliar veggie. He's Daddy's little sidekick. He's growing up WAY to fast!

 AND NOW....

5. Getting a REAL letter in the mail!

4. Having cousins over to help celebrate.

3. A new truck. (almost like Daddy's)

 2. A toolbox cake.

1. Blowin' out the candles.

 

and there you have it.

5 Reason Why turning 5 is so much Fun!

(and a couple extra shots, just for fun!  this little guy is so much fun to photograph. he eats up the attention, turns on the charm and "click" we're both happy.)

 Happy 5th Birthday Reagan!

Eleven-Eleven-Eleven

The perfect day for an ELEVENTH birthday!!!

I really thought there must be a way to plan a party for 11:11 a.m. but since he invited the other 11 boys from his class at school, it seemed as though there might be an obvious hole in the class if we tried that.

So we settled for an after school party.

Only about half of the 11 invited were able to come but that doesn't mean they only had half as much fun.

Football.

Treasure Hunt
(with 11 clues, of course!)

No pictures--I couldn't keep up!

Oh.My.Word. did we have energy or what?? 

Hot Dog Roast

(interpreted by boys as "playing with fire" -- interpreted by mothers as
"make your own dinner," everybody's happy =)

And then several hours of  "Kick the Can" in the dark.

They LOVED it. We tried several times to put the game on hold long enough to 

roast marshmallows and make smores but they were not to be convinced.

Did I mention LOTS of energy??

Since there seemed to be enough chaos in the barn already without the addition of lit candles, we opted to save his cake for Saturday, when we had his birthday dinner as a family. Tradition in our house is to choose a favorite meal for your birthday. 

Hamburgers, French Fries and Salad. Mmm!

 He wanted a sports theme for his birthday and I knew when I found this cake online that it was just what we needed. It was by far one of the simplest birthday cakes I've made! A simple 9x13 sheet cake cut in the shape of home plate. Add some crushed graham crackers for the "dirt." The directions  were to use a special Wilton dish/pan to bake 2 halves of the ball and then put icing between, blah, blah, blah......Way to much trouble and expense for this girl. I used my previous cake pop experience and made one GIANT cake bite (using the extra cake I trimmed off the base) for the ball. It took three coats of white chocolate to cover the cake and get a nice even look but it was still soooo much easier than trying to get icing smooth and neat! Add a little store bought writing gel from the bottom of the drawer since who knows when and WAH- LA!

 If it has a red
"P" on it, it makes the boy happy!

Then of course there was a gift or 2.

I think he likes it!!
You can read the story of the jersey here, but please don't tell the boy.
It'll be our little secret. k?
Not that he would really care....it has a red "P" on it!

No birthday (and certainly not a Golden Birthday) would be complete without a photo shoot.

 And so we
CELEBRATED

 a special boy.

on a special day.

with special food.

and special friends.

and MEMORIES were made!

Outside Projects

When I realized on Thursday what a beautiful weekend the forecast predicted I (with very little faith) suggested to my husband that maybe we could reschedule our work day. Reality check. The chances of it suiting 4 teenagers on the same Saturday with less than 48 hours notice, not good. But after the hubs and I had made an already daunting "to do" list the call came to confirm, "we'll be there at 9."

 Remember This?

 Now it looks like THIS! 

(yeah! happy dance! =)

We had "bought" these guys at our youth fundraising "slave auction." They came with power tools and energy to spare!

 The hubs and I were impressed and quite pleased with how much they got done!

I tried to make sure I fed them well. They deserved it!

 We threw the brush on an pile and burned it. Since it was still fresh they were having a little trouble getting it started so they decided to throw on the trash from our can, including (unknown to them) the empty spray paint can I threw out early in the week. BOOM! yeah, that kept things exciting for a bunch of young guys!

Food. Fire. Explosions.

(yes, there were 2. the hairspray can wasn't near as impressive though.)

Everything you need to keep boys happy!

 BEFORE.

 AFTER.

 BEFORE.

AFTER.

Feels WONDERFUL to have that project done before winter! It would have taken us weeks/months to do it on our own. Thanks Guys!

A few weeks ago Garry also rented a skid loader to make a bigger parking area so he can park his truck and trailer here at the house.

While the skid loader was here I asked if he could quickly pull out the U.G.L.Y. half dead bushes that were blocking the sidewalk along the side of the house.

"Sure! that won't take long," he said. He was right. Took about 5 minutes to get them out and haul them down to the burn pile.

Getting the skid loader back up to the top of the hill, that was a little more time consuming!
(to the tune of 2 hours)
More than once, I had the Durango floored, in 4 wheel drive and he was still pulling ME backwards.
Sometimes things just don't go as planned.

This is what I found when I came in from that little adventure.
I think someone might have been watching out the window.
They make me smile! =)

This project is still waiting for someone who knows which things stay and which get pulled.
And there are about half a dozen trees that we'd like to cut down.
But we're making progress and progress is GOOD!

My Day in Numbers

 (i've seen this creative format here and there around 'bloggy-land' and always enjoyed it. somehow it seemed to fit my day. so here we go.)

22.  number of fresh baked cappuccino muffins I delivered to school this morning for Grandparents day.

8. number of stores I was in and out of with my never ending list.

2. number of small children I got in and out.....buckled and unbuckled...... at every single one of those stores.

89. number of snacks I pulled magically from the bottom of my purse, scattered generously on the carts and floor, and distributed to sticky little hands..... in order to make it peacefully through a few more aisles . (I may have lost count on this one!)

 1. number of temper tantrums my daughter had when I tried a shoe on her in the store and then took it back off again. seriously girlie you're only 14 months old must we start  such drama already?? and over a pair of shoes.....

4. number of  "fall"  six inch pillar candles I bought on clearance  for .79 each. they'll match my  freshly painted "cherry cobbler" bedroom quite nicely, thank you very much.

 3. number of minutes I was home before the school bus arrived with my son. whew! yeah, I little too close for comfort there.

2. number of motrin I needed for my aching head after all that.

4. number of loads of laundry that shall wait till tomorrow to be folded because blogging is more fun.

69. number of extremely beautiful degrees it was outside this afternoon.

3. number of days I have left to plan and prepare for a monumental occasion coming up in our house this week. more on that later.

One Snowy October Day....

We had big plans for our Saturday.

 plans to do away with this.

 plans to bushwhack that.

plans to clean up this.

We had "bought" several youth "slaves" at their fundraiser auction and our small group had volunteered to pitch in too. We were dreaming of how nice things would look around here after all that 

muscle attacked it.

But things don't always go as planned!

 4-6 inches of  S.N.O.W.

was sent our way instead.

 (yes, in October and No, I don't live Alaska.)

 The small people in our house were FAR more excited about this then the adults!

(the minute the rain drops began to turn to white flakes the mittens came out and they were just waiting for it to be deep enough to play in)

passing the time with a game of good ol' candyland.

it was a very, very, wet snow....great for packing! =)

  

isn't he a cute little doughboy? =)

Plan B.

I decided to break out the paintbrushes and move my work project indoors. Daddy volunteered to be in charge of boots, hats, gloves, coats, hats and snow pants so I could make some serious tracks!

The gray is actually just a primer, the final coat is "cherry cobbler" red. 

Can't wait to post before and after pictures but it needs some more "finishing touches" first.

 

 In

the

mean

time,

I'm

back 

to

enjoying

a 

little

more

FALL.