Samuel's 5th Birthday

Samuel chose to go miniature golfing for his 5th birthday.  He has been asking and asking to go "kids bowling" so I had a bowling trip all planned out for him, thinking he'd be totally for that!  When I told him this morning that we were going bowling, he asked if we could go miniature golfing instead!  He's a good little golfer, too!  He golfed a 66 and even got a hole in one on the 5th hole!  Grandpa and Grandma joined us, as well as Uncle Ben and Aunt Anna and Grace.  It was Hope's and Aliyah's first time miniature golfing.  Hope lasted all of one hole.  Aliyah was a little more interested - she got bored during the middle of the course but then wanted to play again towards the end.  After golfing we headed over to Culvers for ice cream.  It was a beautiful night - a nice night for miniature golfing (instead of bowling)!

Grace and Karys having a chat while their parents golfed

Always an orange ball :)

Karys sat in her stroller for 16 of the 18 holes.  None of my other kids would have sat in a stroller for that long!

So funny to watch her play golf!! :)

I told her to smile, and this is what I got.  How old are we again? ;)

Our matching Tigers shirts!

My big 5 year old boy!

Opening his present from Uncle Ben and Aunt Anna and Grace, a valance for his new "sports themed" bedroom!

Samuel Jack: 5 years old

I can't believe I have a big 5 year old boy!  You are my favorite 5 year old in the whole world.  I love you SO much.  You are growing and changing so quickly.  I wish I could write everything down but I just don't have that kind of time (or memory!).  So, here are the things that I do have time for and the things that I do remember.  And more than anything, Mommy's desire is for you to grow up to love Jesus and be a man after His own heart!

• You are wearing size 5 . . . although I noticed while we were camping last week that your pants were getting a little short on you!!  Some of your shirts are already 6's but they are a little big.
• Your shoe size is 12/13
• You are right around 50lbs
• You are a true firstborn and have a true firstborn personality.  You love getting things "just right" and you get frustrated quickly if things aren't perfectly and exactly the way that you want them to be.  My little perfectionist. :)
• You love to play games, your favorites right now are mancala (not many people can beat you at this!) and monopoly junior.
• Your favorite TV shows are Curious George, Caillou, Daniel Tiger, Dora, Bubble Guppies, and Tom and Jerry.  We recently introduced you to Tom and Jerry and you giggle through the whole thing!
• You asked for rice for your birthday supper so we had rice (with brown sugar, of course!), applesauce, and vegetables.  Your favorite foods are muffins, zucchini bread, apples, bananas, applesauce, cucumbers, pancakes, rice, "smashed" potatoes, pb and j sandwiches, tacos, marshmallows, s'mores, chocolate chips, and ice cream.  You don't like green beans, milk, and you still aren't too crazy about meats.
• Your laughter is contagious.  Never stop laughing, buddy!
• You are very excited to start school at home this year.  You are advanced in math and love anything to do with numbers.  You look for all of the speed limit signs, you love clocks and telling time (digital and analog), and you count anything and everything that can be counted.  You know your odd and even numbers and you can count by 2's, 3's, 4's, and 10's.  You love addition.  You are starting to get really good at writing your name and a lot of your numbers.  You are starting to show interest in the sounds that letters make.
• Today, on your 5th Birthday, you stopped saying "va-linna" instead of vanilla.  When I asked you what kind of cake you wanted, you shouted out "vanilla!"  Your Dad and I looked at each other with sad looks on our faces - our little boy is growing up!  You still say "hanger-burg" for hamburger . . . we'll see how much longer that lasts.
• We gave you the option to either go bowling tonight or miniature golfing.  You chose miniature golfing.  Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Ben, Aunt Anna, and Grace all came with us. You golfed a 66 . . . Mommy golfed a 54.  Pretty soon you'll be golfing better than Mommy! On the 5th hole (on your 5th birthday!) you got a hole in one!

Karys Alexandra: 4 months

• You are in size 6 month clothes and you are finishing up the size 2 diapers that we have so that you can be moved into size 3.  
• You usually take a good morning nap (2-3 hours) and then a shorter (1-2 hours) afternoon nap with sometimes a quick evening nap squeezed in too.  You are the best sleeper out of all of my kids at this age.  You sleep at night from 9 or 10pm until around 7 or 7:30 the next morning.
• You nurse 4 times a day.  Sometimes 5, but usually 4.
• You grab and hit toys.  If you can get them into your hands, they go right to your mouth.  You love to hold onto cloth - clothes, blankets, burp rags - and sometimes suck on them too!
• You love to suck on your fist.  You have gotten your thumb a couple of times but more frequently you get two fingers into your mouth to suck on. 
• You are a squealing, "talking", screeching, raspberry blowing maniac!  You are a noisy noisy baby but 98% of your noise is happy.  And you are loud.  Your squealing and screeching happy talk can be heard from a long ways away!  When we were camping this past week we could hear you from down the road or in the bathroom whenever you were "talking" (which was the majority of the time!).
• Your hair is starting to come in - lots of little fuzzy hair on the top of your head that is sticking straight up :)

Straits State Park Labor Day Weekend - Day 11

And that's a wrap! We are headed home!

(And yes, we do always have at least one child that refuses to cooperate for pictures. Today it was Samuel. Aliyah was a close second.)

Straits State Park Labor Day Weekend - Day 10 {Labor Day}

We all got up early this morning and did the Bridge Walk. It was a cold morning and a cold day. But we are glad that we did it! It was a good way to try and keep warm. The rest of the day was spent close by a campfire and eating warm food! We had to move one campsite over for our last night (we knew we would have to do this) because our site was reserved by someone else starting today. 

Straits State Park Labor Day Weekend - Day 9

Happy 5th Birthday, Samuel! Even though his birthday will be a couple days after Labor Day this year, he is convinced that we have to celebrate his birthday while we are camping. We used my Uncle Dave and Aunt Val's oven in their trailer to bake his cake . . . and we had a great evening celebrating our almost 5 year old!