Happy Birthday, Jackson!

Jackson has been so excited for his bowling birthday party!  He asked me to do a count down link chain, about 2 months before his birthday!  I waited for awhile, and we finally made it at the beginning of October.  He was one happy birthday boy!  I'm totally bummed I didn't get a group picture of all the kids - I didn't even think about it (which is totally odd for me.)  Regardless, here are my bowling boys.  :)

 Jackson was so excited for his Hulk birthday cake!  He was very picky about his cakes this year, actually.  He wanted Power Ranger cupcakes for school, Hulk for his party, and a cookie cake for home.  He got most of his wishes - the store was out of Power Ranger rings, so we did Hulk cupcakes for school.  

  One lucky birthday boy!  He's making it rain money!

Here's his cookie cake!  Happy Birthday little man - I can't believe he's 5!

Pumpkin Patch!

The boys always have so much fun at Stuckmeyer's Pumpkin Patch.  Here's my crew, ready to work!  (including Scott!)

It's very difficult to get all three to sit still and look at the camera, at the same time.  I'm calling this one a success!

Trevor was running all over the place.  He loved the slide and the maze the best!  (Hate the thumb habit, love how sweet he looks when he is sucking his thumb though)

  Jackson found a couple friends from school and they had so much fun together.  It was so fun to see him interact with his own friends.  Usually, he's running around with Dylan and Dylan's friends (luckily Dylan still lets him).  This time is was the other way around - Dylan was jealous of Jackson's friends!

Monkey Dylan just hanging on the monkey bars.

Happy Birthday Scott!

I surprised Scott with a STL brewery tour (with 16+ of our closest friends!) for his birthday this year.  We had a lot of fun!  We did it through Brewery Tours of St. Louis, and I highly recommend it.  They have a party bus that takes you to 4 breweries in the area.  Scott's really into fancy beer, so it was a great way to try out different beers on his birthday!  It was an awesome night, and we're so thankful to have such amazing friends!  Here's the group at Alpha Brewery.

 Scott's parents, and his brother, Dave, were able to meet us out at a couple of the breweries.  Scott's mom brought the birthday hat, and Scott happily wore it - at least for the picture!

  Sept was able to sneak out and meet us for a few samples too!  Yay!

The boys had fun celebrating with Dad the next day!

  Happy Birthday Scott!

Eckerts!

 We had so much fun picking apples this year!  Dylan and Jackson get so into it, it makes me smile.

 I can't quite pick Dylan up to reach the high ones anymore, but he was content with the piggy back ride.  For a few minutes, anyways.  :)

 My boys.  :)

 I just can't get enough of this guy!  What an emotional age!

  We did a few of the games/rides after we picked our apples.  They had a cute, colorful train.  Although it doesn't quite look like it in this picture, the boys actually enjoyed the train ride...it almost put Trevor to sleep!

The had some mini golf too - Jackson was cracking me up, trying to get his ball into the hole!

Happy Labor Day!

We had such a great weekend at the lake!  It was finally hot enough that even I wanted to go swimming!  I don't think Dylan got out of the water!  I had three tired fish on the way home!  Jackson tried all weekend to catch some fish, but they weren't really biting.  He finally caught a couple and was content.  Here he is with Buddy, waiting very patiently.

 Dylan asked me to take this picture!   

 Evelyn and Jackson were having fun on one of the floaty things we got out. 

 The boat rides always seem to put my littlest ones to sleep.  I love the cuddle time.

 Trevor loved swimming in the water! 

However, he did NOT love his first ride on the wave runner.  :(

His new favorite song is "Itsy Bitsy Spider"  He would start singing and then point to someone until they sang it with him.  He was so funny.  Who knew a 16 month old could have 6 grown adults singing "Itsy Bitsy!"

He was having a blast!

 

Trevor and Owen have grown so much over the summer.  They sit at the big kid table now!

Magic House!

I have a love hate relationship with this place.  I love it because the boys always have the best time.  They don't even know they are learning!  I hate it though, because it is so easy to lose sight of these crazy kids!  Rockwood's Early Childhood Education program had an evening at the Magic house, so we decided to go.  I figured it wouldn't be quite as busy as when it was open to the public.  It was still pretty busy, but not crazy busy.  :)  The boys had a blast.  Dylan was working on his balancing skills.

 Super Smiles!

 This is the first time that Jackson climbed all the way up to the top of the beanstalk!  He's getting so brave!  He makes a cute football player too.  (I'm sure all the guys want their mom's to say they are 'cute' football players, right?  LOL)

 Trevor was in little boy heaven!  Who knew there were so many activities you could do with balls!  Trevor is obsessed with balls, and had an absolute blast! 

 

First day of school!

Jackson started his last year of preschool at Bowles.  This year he is doing morning preschool at Bowles, with some extra speech help (woo hoo!) and then heading to daycare for the afternoon.  He's so excited for a new year, and to see Ms. Jo Anne!  He's so lucky to have had such a great teacher for 3 years now!

 Dylan is starting 2nd grade - How is that possible?  He said he wasn't nervous because it's just like kindergarten and 1st grade, but with a different teacher.  I think I was more nervous than he was!  I'm so proud of the young man he is becoming! 

And yet, he is still so silly!