Paul is FIVE!

My baby boy turned 5 last Tuesday, can you believe it?! I can't believe how much he's changed in 5 years, he's becoming such a "grown-up" or as my dad use to refer to himself as a kid a "junior adult", somedays you'd think he's 15 the way he talks and goes into detail about things. We sure do love that kid. This post is very picture heavy, some pictures are from his actual birthday and the mini-celebration with just our family and the others are from his Surprise Birthday party. Yes, you read that correctly, surprise party for a five year old. That was Paul's request! About we returned home from Brainerd after my aunt's funeral, we were discussing his birthday and what he wanted to do for it and he said he wanted a surprise party. Gene told him the only surprise would be if we didn't have a party for him. I told my mom about this and she said we had to make it work. I lined up for Grandma Mary to take him Friday night, Papa Ron was gone golfing in Missouri so Paul thought he was going to take care of Grandma while Papa was gone. It all worked out well and I think he was truly surprised!

Patiently  waiting for his birthday cupcakes after his steak dinner.

Blowing out his candle.

Good cupcakes!

Even Stella enjoyed the cupcakes. Her and I split one but she stole most of mine too!

Not sure what she's doing!

Sleepy Amelia.

Opening his gift from Uncle Gene

Super excited

Ben 10 "watch"

Surprise! Met at the door by all the kids

Trying to figure out what's going on.

Still not sure why all the kids are here.

All the kids (except Hazel and Jilly) in their Halloween Costumes

Our adorable niece Jilly and her daddy Brandon.

Transformers cupcake cake!

Grandma Carrie's Guitar Rice Krispy Bars

Time for Gifts!

Thank you everyone who helped to make Pauly's birthday special!

clouds

I snapped this picture on my cell phone this morning out of my dining room window, hence why you see the reflection of the dining room light. I thought the clouds were just beautiful and couldn't resist snapping a picture, but they were gone before I could grab my camera to get a decent shot outside, so the cell phone picture will have to do. I thought they almost looked like angel wings.

Trick or Treat...

We did Halloween a day early here in Mayberry. There was a party put on my the parks and rec committee, the kid had fun at that playing games and winning prizes. They even took us on a hayride which the kids enjoyed! After the costume contest, we took the kids out trick or treating, we only did a small portion of town, it was cold and kind of drizzling, so we didn't stay out too long. Our friends Ryan and Katie and their kiddos walked around with us too. Adeline really got into the trick or treating this year, last year she just rode in the stroller and obviously last year Stella was too small. Stella hung out in the stroller while the big kids ran to the doors and got candy, but she didn't seem to mind!

It's nearly impossible getting a decent picture of the 4 of them...

Halloween Party

Our neighbor Britny and one of the kids' favorite babysitters! 

Amelia said they were twins since they were both nurses!

The kids event talked Mom and Dad into dressing up. Kevin dressed up as a doctor and I dressed up as a "princess" I wore an old bridesmaid dress, my white long gloves and a tiara. One of my daycare kids got a kick out of it. My batteries went dead in my camera before I was able to get a picture of the 6 of us together!

Jumping in the leaves...

About a week ago, Kevin finally got a chance to sweep up the leaves in our yard and he made a huge pile for the kids to jump in, with the intention of eventually burning them in the firepit, but there has a been a burning ban so we haven't been able to have a bon fire yet. So the kids took full advantage of jumping in the leaves. Even Stella got in on the action and had a ball!

Make-up artist

Paul decided to take on the title of make-up artist a couple of weeks ago. He gave the girls "make-overs" with Amelia's Barbie make-up. Crazy cat! The girls didn't seem to mind however! I don't think he'll have a career as a make-up artist though!