Happy Birthday Tanner and Reid!

This might be picture overload, but you have to understand that ever since Tanner and Reid's 4th birthday, they have lay in bed each night and talked, dreamed, and planned their 5th birthday.  Talk about high expectations!  In the last month of a pregnancy, I felt a little overwhelmed about pulling off everything they dreamed of, or at least coming close.  Now that all is said and done, I think all would agree that it was a perfect birthday!  It started early in the morning opening family gifts, they were SO excited!

 The sweetest gift came from Andrew!  He used $4 of his own money to buy the boys a gallon of their very own chocolate milk!  Andrew felt so proud of his gift and his card and the boys were so excited to have their own gallon of chocolate milk with free reign of when they could indulge.

 A couple of years ago grandma and grandpa gave these boys an aquarium night light.  It was dropped and was beyond repair.  They were so excited to receive a replacement night light from mom and dad!  It's providing great entertainment for everyone!

 That evening, they requested lasagna for dinner and then we had birthday cake.  They each got a couple of games for their birthday and so we spent the evening eating cake and playing Stratego, Mousetrap, and UNO.

 Saturday was the long-awaited birthday party.  Once again, I planned and Mike executed and the party was a hit!  First, they each made their Ninja headband.  Then, we worked on striking a ninja pose.

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 Next we colored ninja stars for our star toss.  I was impressed with how long these kids colored their stars.

 On to the ninja training course.  It was the most perfect and beautiful Fall day to be trained in the ninja way!

 After being trained, each ninja received their sword.

We finished up with a few more games and opening presents and Tanner and Reid were thrilled! It was a great day and a great party!

I can't believe these boys are five years old!  It seems like they are growing up so fast, I just want to freeze time, yet we're having a fifth child, so I guess it's good they're growing up.

The boys are loving school!  They are in the same class and are having a great time riding the bus and meeting new friends.  They eat lunch at school and then I pick them up at 12:30.  I love picking them up!  They walk down the hall with their big backpacks on and big smiles on their faces.  We then drive home and they tell me everything they did that morning-- who they saw in the hall, the funny stories from the lunchroom, what they did in their centers, etc.  I love it!  Tanner is a bit of challenge to get out the door in the morning, but he's working on focusing on getting ready rather than playing with toys.  He missed the bus last week and was pretty devastated.  Reid has loved learning new songs at school and comes home singing "Oh hey, oh hi, hello..." over and over.

Tanner loves working on Legos and is really good at it!  The other day he assembled a Ninjago Lego set meant for 8-12 year olds and only asked a couple of questions.  He likes to think things through and figure things out.  Tanner also loves to play games right now.  He asks multiple times a day if I'll play games with him.  He's also become a more avid wrestler.  He used to sit back a little, but now he gets in there full force, both with dad and with his brothers.  His big blue eyes and adorable voice/articulation still melts my heart, and endears complete strangers.  He still gives me special fish kisses, which I love!  He also comes to snuggle occasionally in the middle of the night.  When I ask if he is cold or scared, he just says he wants to snuggle for a bit.

Reid has such a big and sweet heart!  He loves his siblings, especially his little sister.  Most days he comes home from school and asks Amelia if she wants to swing with him, play army, or play babies.  They usually start with the swinging and I love looking out my kitchen window to see him pushing Amelia in a swing.  Reid is still a passionate guy and can go from 0-60 as soon as someone takes his seat at the table, but that same passion is fun to see when he plays sports or tries to learn something new.  Reid loves to have me standing on the driveway when the bus picks him up in the morning.  He always gives a big hug and tells me to have a good day and waves until I can't see him anymore.  Reid still gives me nose, nose, nose, kiss, kiss, kiss and loves when I ask him his favorite part of his day.  Mike's been putting the kids to bed recently because I'm so huge and tired, but Reid will often come find me (laying on the couch) so I can ask him his favorite part of his day.  Cute boy!

These two have such a fun relationship!  I love seeing the way they work together and help each other out.  When they go to bed, they laugh and talk and  I have a hard time telling them to go to sleep.  I have such fun memories of doing the same thing with my sisters.  We love these boys!  They are good and they want to be good!  Happy birthday Tanner and Reid!