Arlo turns four!

Well, well, well, we blinked and Darlin' Arlo turned four...sad face. We just want to freeze him at this age with the hilarious things he says, his facial expressions & very selfishly I want to keep him this age because he adores me, haha! He was delighted to have four birthday balloons in his hand & jokingly acted like he was going to let them fly away.

Grammy & Grandpa came to celebrate with us & arrived just in time for a last round of pictures before we headed inside for dinner. It is rare that we get a picture of everyone smiling AND looking at the camera at the same time, woo hoo!

Then sneaky Arlo tricked Grammy & Grandpa by saying, "Let's do silly faces!" but didn't do one himslef.

G Gran never misses a good party & came bearing gifts! Arlo received a Curious George stuffed animal carrying a backpack with $4 plus a set of books about that curious little monkey. For months we have checked out Curious George and the Chocolate Factory from the library. There have been moments of great sadness when another monkey obsessed child had happily taken the book home & we had to wait for it to be returned. He was bright eyed & excited to sit down & read.  You can't quite see his shirt but he got the hookup with a replacement tee that says "Garbage day is my favorite day of the week." For quite awhile he wore it every Tuesday & Friday as he stood outside to wave hello to his heroes. 

He requested a monster truck cake & I was inspired and excited to be old Lauren for a day & go all out for the first time in awhile. 2020 is going to be the year of comebacks....I can feel it ; ) I will admit, it was really enjoyable to make & seeing that he absolutely loved it made me smile. 

Not only was it cute but it was tasty too! 

Everyone was mad that I didn't let anyone help with the baking. He was a serious little guy! 

Birthday morning is always our favorite. We worked together to make the perfectly decorated table with everything from the boys' closet to the crafty cabinet. The four big kids personalized it with pictures & names. They drew one where flames were coming out of the back of the car & someone wrote "toot" just to get me to roll my eyes...I admit that it was clever & funny. I love that at the top of the picture on the right you can see "oh my goodness" in Charlotte's handwriting. They LOVE him!

The Fab Five ready to party!

Sausage balls & cinnamon rolls were served to this smiling boy who was quite pleased with the monster trucks everywhere!

He is fully convinced by no convincing of our own that Daddy's Jeep is called a Jeeper Beeper, so of course I had to make him a shirt to go with his new cap. 

The classic game of Hi-Ho Cherry-O was played a million times throughout the day thanks to Uncle Scott & Uncle Kyle. I referred to the cherries as apples EVERY time I talked about it. Arlo liked correcting me....just like the rest of my little students ; ) 

 I am not sure how an entire birthday goes by with multiple cameras & we don't get a picture of us with the birthday boy on his special day! Here are a couple recent snapshots....

Remember how I said he adores me? I am rejoicing that it is mistletoe season & he wants to smooch me multiple times throughout the day. He loves his Daddy too : ) In fact today he came inside SO grumpy & said in his mean voice "When is Daddy coming home from stupid work!" When stupid work ended for the day, he was a happy & giggly four year old. He is just the sweetest caboose for the Valentine Train. Happiest of Birthdays Darling Arlo. 

Turning SIX times two

Wow, those twinkies had a great time ringing in being SIX year olds! Sad to say but they had never had a birthday party with friends so this was a big deal.  They are easy to please unless we are at the dinner table ; ) We invited a bunch of boys & a couple big sisters over for the big bash. 

Delcious donuts + a dinosaur craft + an obstacle course = happy boys

Arlo the explorer did the inspection of the yummy treats...

You know you have big sisters when you request a craft at your birthday celebration. I suggested this fantastic Pinterest idea & it met their approval & our bank account's approval too! Lots of dried pasta, black construction paper, glue & chalk.  With a few examples the kids went to town designing their own....

Next up, obstacle course time. We set it up first thing that morning, tested it multiple times & were ready to roll by the time the contestants arrived! On your mark, get set, GO!

Action shot of the O-Meister!

He stuck close by his mama....

We kept a stopwatch going & recorded each race. They had SO much fun & were great at cheering for each other, especially when the 3 year old brothers had their turns.

When I say "we" kept the time, I mean the 4 big sisters, Charlotte, Eloise, Daphne & Hera. They kept those boys under their command. I saw so much of myself at 9 years old as I was observing that role. The runners & jumpers never voiced a complaint against the judges so I just went with it!

Every minute was full of playing & noise, just as it should be!

and the whole bunch... for such a crew, it was easy peasy!

We enjoyed our morning & evening celebrating with our family too. The girls & I worked on some homemade dinosaur décor & it was mostly great minus table bumping & knocking down trees. 

The video of the candle blowing is so hilarious. A few of us have asthma & we joke that due to that condition, our lungs don't work as well as they should & it takes twice as long to blow out candles. Poor Owen, he was quite the source of laughter that morning! 

 Silly siblings.

Some gifts they received were walkie talkies, fidget cubes, Battleship & Uno. There were more but my memory is lacking and I am about to fall asleep while typing.

Wouldn't it be fun to have another picture like that when they turn 66? Just 60 more years : )

It was a busy day with lots of visitors. Paw Paw came then Auntie Deb joined him. Our beloved babysitter Alison stopped by with a mini Bop-it game for each of them. They were quickly hi-jacked first by siblings then by parents where we worked hard to blow any record out of the water. Thanks Alison!

 Speaking of BELOVED, GGran stopped by as well. 

Grandpa & Grammy were happy to play a game of Battleship, Uno & of course offer a cozy lap to sit in.

We had to squeeze in a hug at the end of dinner. We just love those birthday bubbies to the moon & back. Six has been a great year & seven is just around the corner come 2020! 

Gobble Gobble in the forest

Over the course of 14 years of marriage, we had never spent Thanksgiving in Kingwood until last year & boy were we missing out! That Gaga & Paw Paw are gracious hosts welcoming the crazy that our family brings & faithfully filled our bellies with all things delicious : ) Here's the whole crew.

It is funny to be so delayed (like almost a year behind on writing posts) and notice how much the kids have grown! It makes me a little sad!

Arlo & Paw Paw played a lot of Slapjack which Arlo never quite fully grasped but he liked to win. It was basically like slap any card or cards you put down & if Paw Paw slaps it, take it anyway. It's fun to be three. Owen is there in the background enjoying the train track he convinced Paw Paw to get out. It is the track that wraps around the Christmas tree every year but it looked just as lovely around the entertainment center ; ) They LOVE it! 

Thanksgiving morning we mixed & rolled about a billion sausage balls. It's great to have capable helpers these days to speed the process along so we could enjoy some of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Here's Arlo with one of his silly faces. We peeled sweet potatoes together. He has on the trash truck jammies he got for his birthday. He wore them so much that the knees were ripped up. Just a few weeks ago, I mentioned throwing them away but he couldn't bear to part with them & wanted me to cut them into shorts. The holes were big & he now wears daisy dukes at bedtime. Glad the real trash guys don't ; )

Those twinkies love their uncles. I can list a million reasons why because I feel the same way.

Sometimes they smile at the same time!

A bunch of baseball gloves & balls were pulled out of the closet & everyone was hooked! Last summer in Lake City, my favorite things was playing baseball right behind the house where we stayed. Both sets of grandparents, uncles & our crew in the beautiful mountains having a ball.

We attempted a family picture & the live photo looks like Arlo is doing crab pinchers over & over with a funny little giggle. He is pretty much cute whatever he is doing. Lucky guy....siblings might be jealous.

Anson said he wanted to sit next to Aunt Sharon so they could eat rolls together. It's the little things that forge strong relationships right?

I tried to get a shot of the table....tried & failed I guess, ha! It is proof that at least half of Robby was there!

These three made a pumpkin pie & a chocolate pie that both tasted delicious.

The kids were responsible for making place cards with each persons name along with some fall décor to hang from the chandelier. I love that my mom encouraged that rather than being fancy. Our family doesn't do fancy real well right now ; ) I saved all the place cards & will smile year to year at the precious handwriting. 

Before we loaded up to head back to Big D, we took a walk down to the park to burn off some energy. My dad calls us Big Momma & Little Momma. She is the best momma.