Cousins!

 

My mom watched my sister’s boys while she was on a trip with her husband.  On their way home, mom and the boys stopped out to visit and celebrate Mr. W’s 4th birthday with cousins! 

He was hilarious!!   He insisted that he couldn’t blow out the candles until we’d sung Happy Birthday.  He has this birthday routine down pat.

Marcus and Mr. C had fun playing together.  Well, maybe beside each other!   At least they aren’t at the stage where they both want the same toy and grab for it.

Grandma Golden Acres loves the babies.

Mr. C has such a cute little nose.  It reminds me of my sister when she was little.

Proof of Living

 

Oh, you thought my house was always clean and organized?  Not so.  I do manage to usually clean up the toys, but…not always.  They’ll just be taken out the next day, right?  It’s just proof that we actually live in our house.  All day, every day, for every hour!

A cool raccoon book for Louis from Grandma Green Acres.  He so serious sitting here!  He’s almost never still.

Graham above, working on handwriting…and Zeke below, doing the same thing.  Both absolutely love handwriting (dripping with sarcasm right now).

Grandma & Grandpa Green Acres with all the kids.  They were over for Greg’s birthday yesterday.

The Birthday ‘Party’

It’s hectic, especially this time of year, so we just had Grandma & Grandpa Green Acres over for supper and birthday cake.  It was last minute because we weren’t sure we’d be home in time – or if G&G were home!  But we called, and they were able to come over.  I can be spontaneous and this is proof!!  Here are a few pics from our evening…

Sixteen

My oldest celebrates his sixteenth birthday today.  SIXTEEN.  The years have gone incredibly fast when I take the time to pause and remember.

Happy 16th Birthday!

Dash…who is Greg (short for Gregory) in real life..is pretty much man-sized.  Over six foot tall and wearing size 13 shoes, Dash doesn’t really fit anymore.  It was super cute when I started blogging, but he’s old enough to go by his own name.

A favorite picture of Greg when he was about 9 months old:

And here he is on the ski trip earlier this year…it’s hard to find perspective when he’s all covered up.

This is his ‘first day of school in 2012’ photo.

To celebrate his birthday, we are headed to town to take family photos.  We’ll have treats at the ice cream shop afterwards (it’s called bribery!), then head home for pizza and ice cream and cake.  It may just be an ice cream cake…certainly don’t have to worry about it melting on the way home, we’ll just strap it to the roof and it’ll keep better than if we carry it home in the car.  Thanks to our fine frigid ND weather.

** I am reminded that I was so very thankful to be a NE resident in the year of his birth because ND experienced the a very memorable major flood in the Spring of 1997.  Many homes were flooded throughout the southeastern and northeastern parts of the state due to overland flooding.  Then an icy snowstorm hit the southeastern part of the state and brought power outages. Recovery took months.

Happy 10th Birthday!

 

Happy 10th Birthday, Zeke!!

With Grandma & Grandpa Green Acres, who came over to share a meal and cake ‘n’ ice cream with the Birthday Boy.

Since the eager Birthday Boy couldn’t wait to blow out his candles the first time…here is our redo just for mom!  These might possibly be the best pics I’ve ever taken of the birthday candles being blown out.  He drew it out nice and long so that I could get as many as I wanted!

And he’s now a decade old!  On to the next one.

Happy Birthday, Louis!

 

Happy Birthday to a Special Boy!

Louis is THREE today!

So easy to please…when asked what kind of cake…he just said, “A tractor cake!”  Well, that I can do.  No problem.

Big boy can blow out his own candles!  Yes, there are four flames, but he’s only three.  That one on the right was a really cool candle …can’t remember what it ‘did’, but it was cool.

Below, opening a gift from Tante Lori later in the month.