Colin's birthday

I feel like I have said this before, but I truly think Colin's birthday falls on one of the hardest days of the year!

Colin was born to us nine years ago, Halloween afternoon. As most families with children would agree, Halloween is a jam-packed day as it is--let alone adding birthday festivities into the mix!

But of course, as usual....we managed!  Lola got costume #1 of the day on, 

and we headed to the boys' school for some lunch and Halloween parties!

Then, that evening, was some trick-or-treating fun with our friends: The Mario Kart Gang!

After that was dinner out. Because this year Halloween fell on a Wednesday night, and Shane, I, and our friends run our Wednesday night children't program at our church, we had to hurry--so we picked Steak N Shake to eat. Then it was off to church, and home for showers and pj's!

The poor kids were exhausted--but Colin was so excited over opening his presents that, even though it was almost 10 p.m., we had to let him do it! His first one was a doozie, for sure!!

Something he'd been asking for for a long time....

....from Grandma 'Nette and Grandpa.....

....a BULLS jersey!!

He beamed as bright as the sun. It was so precious.

He opened several more things: some clothes, some soccer pj pants.....

....and something else he has been wanting....

....his very own real Bible. He has several Bible story books, but has been asking for one he can read himself, on his own and in church. We were happy to oblige!!

We chose the Adventure Bible for him, and he has loved it so far.

(I loved that he wanted to read it right away, and for a moment even forgot about the other presents!)

Some Star Wars legos!

{Being silly and showing me how old they are...Lo didn't quite grasp it LOL}

One last try....got one!

Colin is just such a special boy and a wonderful gift to our family....so grateful for the NINE years we have been blessed with this young man's presence!

Happy (belated) Halloween!

Colin is SIX!

With Colin's birthday being Halloween, we always have the issue of 'the party'.

Should we do one?

Will anyone come, with it being such a busy day?

We've already got a full day of activities....are cake/presents/all-that-commotion just too much?

The answer has been on most years "yes". Including this one.

But, even without 'the party', we still have a great celebration of the day, because that's what birthdays are really all about--not huge parties with too many children overloaded on vast amounts of sugar--but rather, having a special day that honors our special child! And that's what we set out each year to do, and what we try to focus on, official 'party' or not!

We started with a special breakfast, made by Daddy. Shane is the breakfast expert in our house, and cooked Colin and the boys up some of his specialty--chocolate chip banana pancakes (in the shape of Mickey Mouse, no less!) May sound a bit weird, but they are absolutely to die for! Col was one happy guy.

Mommy put the finishing touch on his plate--six birthday candles--so that, at 8:30, we were starting the day off already in celebration mode!

Love that smile--can't believe this guy came into the world six years ago!
(I blogged about his birth story here {day one} and here {day two},
if you would like to read it! Yes, it was a two day adventure to get him here....)

After the candles were lit of course comes the happy birthday song. I sang to Colin, and then looked at Ethan and said, "Say happy birthday to Col, Ethan!" I think he must have thought I said, "SING happy birthday to Col", because he jumped right in singing himself! {Not very clearly, a bit jumbled--as if he wasn't trying all that hard or was embarrassed by the camera or something--but it was Happy Birthday all the same!}

It was so cute to me how E confused the "happy birthday dear Colin" personalized version of the song with our generic church version, "happy birthday, God bless you". He actually sang, "happy birthday God bless Colin!" So, so cute. *grin*

I also loved it when Col said, "I got my own birthday!" "I got my own Mickey Mouse pancakes!" That just made me feel like he felt special, which was our whole goal for the day.

Here's some video....

Then, Colin actually left for a little while to go have some fun
with Grandma Jane, so the littler boys, Daddy, and I did some pumpkin painting!
Cam, starting on "Peanut's Pumpkin"

Ethan LOVED this!

I think what he actually loved was taking the brush, loading up the orange paint, and shoving as much of it as he could inside my belly button. I cleaned and cleaned but....I'm pretty sure that, here in a few weeks when my belly button "pops", there's going to be some orange-y remnants of paint in there....

Daddy and Cam, concentrating hard

Cameron helped a ton by blow drying each layer! Only a couple of *hot, hot!* moments where I had to remind him to keep that blow dryer moving....

The boys, with Peanut's finished 'costume'!

We thought, maybe, that Peanut looked a little scary for a girl....I wanted to go back and add a pink bow or something, but we ran out of time! Maybe we'll do a pink ornament at Christmas...

Then, it was already time for some trick-or-treating!

Dash (the really fast boy from the Incredibles--fits, don't you think?),
a 'fierce' frog, and a lovable lion

In the car, practicing their 'trick-or-treat' smiles!

Begging at doors for candy *grin*

By 6 p.m., this big-fat-momma everyone was pooped. We went around our neighborhood for a little more than an hour and came home with three plastic grocery bags full of candy! (Mommy was ecstatic at the thought of devouring that candy, and hoping and praying that glucose test she would take on Tuesday would come back negative...)

We had dinner, broke out ELF for the first time this season (one of our family favorites!) and had a picnic in the living room with some gourmet frozen pizza. It was a great night, and Colin had a great birthday!

(Colin with "his" pumpkin, painted all by himself at his class' Fall party)

We love you Colin!!
Happy Birthday bud--you are such a special little man,
and we are so thankful God gave you to US six years ago!!

That's MY paci. MINE.

I have wanted to post this particular series of photos forever.

Yet, I never have.

Mostly it's because I'm lazy I didn't want to have to take the pictures out of the frame they are in in my bedroom and scan them to my computer. It always seemed like so much work.

And bending those thingys that keep the backing attached to the wooden frame always hurts my fingers.

However, I overcame all that today and thought, "I'm gonna do it anyway."

It apparently just wasn't meant to be. After bending 12 of those thingys back and tearing my delicate fingers to shreds while I was at it; and please, don't even say to me "Why don't you just go and get a flat head screwdriver to lift those up?" because the screwdriver is all the way in the kitchen drawer, and I'm waaaaaay too lazy to walk all the way down there.... I was finally inside the frame.

I peeled off the backing, went to take the pictures out to scan and, much to my dismay, the top photo was stuck to the glass by some unknown sticky substance. When I tried to pull, the picture was pulling away from the paper backing, and I was starting to downright panic at the thought of destroying one of my favorite series of photos ever just for the sake of putting it on my blog decided that I would just do the old fashioned thing: leave the pictures in the frame, and take a picture of a picture.

The quality's terrible, but I'm trudging forth anyway. They're still the cutest ever. E-ver.

When Colin was a year old, we decided not to carve pumpkins, but rather to paint some, and decorate our porch that way. I did up one for each of us, as you can see below.

{Sorry for the glare--nothing I could do about that.}
Each pumpkin was personalized with one piece other than paint. Shane's had a
Cubs hat; I had a 'bow' in my hair; and Colin's had, in it's mouth, a prized
possession--one of Colin's actual pacifiers.
I sat him down on our front porch bench one afternoon
for what I thought would be a cute photo opportunity.


Daddy Pumpkin, Mommy Pumpkin, and Colin Pumpkin with Colin at almost one-year old

Now, let me say here that Colin was a paci child. He was addicted until just before age two.
Once he noticed what was going on on that bench, the following transpired.

Colin's grin disappeared....he got a funny look on his face....and then....

.....he took back what was rightfully his, leaving Pumpkin Colin pacifier-free.

I wonder how that pacifier tasted to him that day? *blech*

I'm so thankful to this day that I managed to catch something so cute on camera--I still smile every time I look at these pictures, and my mind takes me back to that afternoon on the porch!

(Belated) Happy Halloween!!

From Franklin, a scary "Sharp Tooth" dinosaur, and a very 'jumpy' Frog.

(Belated) Halloween humor

HA! This one was so funny, I had to post it myself. Thanks for the laugh Shelly!

Happy Fall, Y'all

Shane did a super job of carving our pumpkin a couple of weeks ago.

I loved, loved, loved it!

It glowed so cool outside at night

Unfortunately, I know nothing about carving pumpkins....and ours lasted about a week and a half before it rotted and was riddled with fruit flies. I am serious--it was one of the sickest things ever. Ugh. So, now, here are the house pics with all of our fall decorations....

......minus one terribly cool carved pumpkin.

At dusk....

Getting darker....
and darker.....

and darker!

Some of my favorite decorations are

Mr. Bones and Ms. Kitty.

Little candles go behind the faces to make them glow!

And, every year we do pumpkins in varied sizes for the members of our family.

My all-time favorite fall decorations are my Luminaries. I have a total of 10 of them that line my walk and my front three windows.

Oh, how I love fall decorating!