Thursday, November 17, 2011

Colin's 8th birthday . . . continued

The day after Colin's birthday, most of us in the house started passing around a case of the yuckies. Some had this, and some had that....and it was over a week before we were all feeling back to normal! As soon as we were, though, it was time for the rest of Colin's birthday celebration!

Ethan and Cameron each wrapped their present to Colin, purchased with their very own money. My family and I are the janitors of our church, so for several months now, the boys have each been earning a couple of dollars a week helping us clean. It has been a wonderful learning process, showing them how far (and how not-so-far!) a dollar goes.

 You can believe that shelling out $3.50 for these CARS cars was both joyful and difficult. 
They realize now just how long it takes to earn that money!

Ethan clearly gets his wrapping prowess from his mother. 

{Just crumple it all up, buddy. It's still just as fun to open!}

Colin chose Pizza Hut (shudder) so that's where we went for the birthday feast.

Lo was apparently getting really hungry waiting on that pizza....

Colin snuck Grandma Jane's glasses! *giggle*
{I think they make him look like me....}

Ethan, as shy as usual

And, of course....Mr. Cutler.

Colin was so excited to open and find two new CARS cars!
The boys had so much fun giving them to him, too!


The big surprise came a few moments later. Colin has been saving and saving his cleaning money for an mp3 player. It has been all he has talked about for weeks now.  At the last minute, Shane found a really inexpensive used one, and were able to get it for Colin. He was overjoyed!!

After supper, Shane took the boys over to the steal-your-money crane machine....

....helped them figure out how to do the controls....

...and lo and behold, a few minutes later, we were taking home a new Illini football player and a weird skull-ghost-biker man.

The story behind this picture warms my heart, too....Colin tried once, then again, then again, and was not able to get anything from the crane. Cameron, on his first try, pulled two out. This caused a few tears, of course--but Colin's tears didn't last long, because his brother promptly handed over one of the prizes. 

Love my little tender-hearted Cameron.

We had a great time celebrating Colin! 
We all love him so much, and are enjoying each day, watching the man that he is becoming.

We love you Col! Happy 8th birthday!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Lola the vampire

I came down the hall looking for Lola today, and found her snooping in her brothers' room....when she turned around, she looked like this:


I've said it before, and I'll say it again--you just can't make this stuff up! Love this girl!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Celebrating Colin's eighth birthday

Colin's birthday is always such a busy, exciting day.

My entire pregnancy with Colin, I prayed and asked God for one thing: "Please, please, please....don't let this baby come on Halloween. Any other day but that one."

God knew best. :)  I went into labor the day before, but Colin took a whopping 25 hours to get here--so a Halloween birthday it was!

Before he left for school, he paused a minute to show me how old he is!

Every time I take a picture of Col these days, I marvel at how big he is getting. 
Something about those giant grown up teeth make him look so big!

After we got Col and Cam off to school, Ethan helped me bake and decorate some cupcakes. Between Cameron's birthday, the Fall party at school, and Colin's birthday, he's becoming quite proficient at it!
It being Halloween and all, we figured it'd be okay to wear costumes for our errands.


Lola was so excited when we got in the car and I told her we were going to see Colin!





We stopped by Daddy's job and had lunch with him....

....and one of Daddy's co workers thought E's costume was so good that he deserved some early candy!

Then, it was off to school. As soon as Colin saw us, he was all about showing Lola and E off to his class!
She stood in the front of the room with him while the class sang, "Happy Birthday"....

....and Ethan sat next to him and shared a few giggles during cupcake time.

Scratch that. LOTS of giggles.


These two could barely eat their cupcakes, they were laughing so hard!

Lola made her self right at home in Colin's chair.

When it was time to leave, I grabbed my camera and snapped a couple 
shots of Lo out in front of the school.

Running from Mommy...she did not want to get back in the car! *giggle*

Miss Sassy--love her expression here, and how her hair almost glows in the sun!

*cutest leopard ever*

When the boys got home, it was time to get changed and head out for Trick-or-Treating! 
Lola ended up with two costumes this year--so we did one during the day and one at night!

We were so fortunate to have our very good friends come with us this year for the candy grab. We had quite the crew--a Ninja (please don't miss the blood dripping down his sword--Shane was proud of that one), Wolverine, a little lady bug, Buzz Lightyear, Cinderella, and Iron Man!

Lola could not wait to go! I love the blurry picture....you can really see how fast she was moving!

She was always a few steps behind...but didn't seem to mind.

Every single one in the party fell at one time or another. 
It's rough trying to move around in those costumes.

Love this one of me and my little love bug.

All in all, it was a wonderful day. We still have the big birthday "bash" (tomorrow night) so there is more celebrating to come! A great Halloween, great friends, a great birthday....can't ask for more!