Birthdays!

We had some pretty special birthdays this year.  Addy and Marcus turned 6 in September!  They are pretty awesome kids.  They are loving school and doing really well.  After putting it off for a while Addy mastered the bike without training wheel.  They are both reading like pros.  They do everything together, and usually don't fight unless Addy is torturing Marcus (during which he whines and she laughs).  Addy is wild and has a very dramatic personality.  Marcus is still shy in new situations and worries about people laughing at him, but once he is comfortable life is good.  They are both very kind and are often found helping others.

Since their birthday fell on a school day, and Mark couldn't get home early, we celebrated their birthday before school.  Waffles for breakfast and presents are a great way to start the day.

Katie gave Marcus her old skates-he was pretty excited

Katie made Addy a doll house out of a box complete with furniture, blankets, rugs and dolls.

Addy and Katie in some of the dress-up clothes Grandma gave Addy.

Jax and I brought cookies to Addy and Marcus' classrooms to help celebrate

To make dinner extra special the kids and I (and Celeb) ventured to our favorite restaurant.  The kids meals are huge pizzas complete with desert.  The staff brought brought the desert with sparkling candles and sang 'Happy Birthday'.

It was a great birthday!

I don't do birthday parties every year but it was their year to have a party, and since riding bikes was our favorite activity this summer, we decided to have a bike party in the church parking lot.

Marcus and his besties, Dylan and Pranav

We made license plates for the bikes and scooters as a craft at the party.

Since they share a birthday, I let Addy and Marcus pick their own cake/cupcakes.  This year Marcus wanted a strawberry cake and and Addy wanted vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting.

Then in October we had another really special birthday.  Jaxon turned 2!  How does this happen!  For someone who was the perfect baby he has turned into the craziest toddler.  I spend my days following him around making sure he doesn't die. I cannot leave him alone.  This child has no fear.  He lets himself out the front door and runs straight for the road.  He has colored on almost every wall in the house (something that only Addy did, ONCE).  I take him swimming and he tells me he is a fish and pushes me away to (try to) swim by himself, unassisted by a floatation device.  Luckily, amidst the craziness he takes a few minutes to be my baby and snuggle with me.

2 yr old photo shoot...

Jaxon showing us how old he is with his fingers, obviously he is really good at it.

 For his birthday I took Jax to the Bronx Zoo, just the two of us.  It was a great day.  It was a really different experience then when I take all four kids.  I let him pick everything we did.  I forgot what life was like when you are revolving it around a 2 year old.  He wanted to see snakes and turtles.  We spent a really long time looking at both.

He found a dinosaur in the gift shop to spend birthday money from Grandma on.

He found lambs that reminded him of Katie and asked me to take a picture for him.

We had cupcakes that night after Mark got home from work.  Jax was pretty excited that we were singing to him this time around.

Now he can be one of the big kids!