Jonathan's Birthday Lunch!

Rich started a special tradition with our children.  Each year on their birthday he takes them out for a special birthday lunch.  (and they get to choose the restaurant!)  It is a much anticipated event ... I often hear conversations between the children about which restaurant they will choose when it's their turn!!
Jonathan was so excited to go out for his lunch he could hardly stand it!  He chose to eat at a mexican restaurant.  I took this picture of the two of them before they left for their special outing!
I still can't believe my boy is 5!

Our trip to Hillridge Farms

Last week I took the children to Hillridge Farms.  We go to Hillridge Farms every year.  This tradition started when Martin was only 2 years old!  They started by running through the maze!

Then we headed for the corn house!

Then we headed up the giant hill to slide down the giant slide!

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Rosalie LOVED it.  She slid down with me ... and a little later went down with big brother Martin!

Next we headed to the duck races!  So much fun!

We stopped for a quick picture at the Indian Tent!

Then we went on the hayride!

Posing for a picture in the field of pumpkins!

Next we went to jump on the huge jumping pillow!  They absolutely LOVED doing this.  It was new to Hillridge Farms this year and a total hit!

Rosalie loved it too!

We went for a ride on the train.

Then we spent a ton more time back in the corn house. 

Soup anyone?

Then we headed back to the slide ... and at this point, Martin took over for me and started sliding down with Rosalie.  He loved taking care of her on the slide and didn't want to slide by himself anymore after that!

He's such a sweet big brother!

...and of course, we had to ride the train again ... this time on the caboose!

We also jumped in the jump house, jumped a few more times on the jumping pillow, and we did the gemstone panning.  I wish that I had gotten a picture of them finding their gems ... but I was too busy helping Rosalie.  This was the first year they went panning for gems, and they all LOVED it and kept saying thank you over and over again for letting them do it!  We usually go each year with my Mom, and she wasn't able to come this year.  We are looking forward to our visit next year when my Mom will be able to join us.  The one thing that was different for us this year, was that we didn't have to rush off for anyone to take a nap.  So, we got to the farm at 10:00 AM and we didn't leave until 4:00 PM.  It was so much fun to spend most of the day there!  We also went on a day that wasn't very crowded, so we didn't have to wait in any lines. 

Zoo Trip

A couple of weeks ago (or so), we went to the zoo with our dear friends, the Dew family!
It's hard to believe there are 8 children among our two families!

I tried to get a shot of them looking at the camera, but it didn't quite work out.  I like how it turned out anyway!
I especially love Nathan's sweet smile in this picture!

My carefree girl!

What is she thinking?

Love this sweet picture of Aaron!

Monkey see ... Monkey do!

Martin was helping this fellow to read a map!

Rosalie is patting Samantha!!  LOVE this!

I love this sweet picture of Rosalie, Natalie, Jonathan, and Nathan holding hands!

Ta-da!

I love this shot of Rosalie and Natalie trying their hardest to keep up with the boys!

Aaron with his favorite animal!!
We had a wonderful time checking out all the animals at the zoo while also spending some time with our friends!  We stayed a little bit longer than our friends did ... and took the children to the play area ...

Having a little fun in the playground area at the zoo!

Rosalie loves having her picture taken!

Can ya tell?

My boys are caught in a spider web!

Hanging on a bug's leg!

Weeeeee!!

Jonathan's Birthday

Oh, how I love to take a look back at how my babies have grown! Here is my special boy a few days after he was born in '06.

This is the first group shot after Jonathan was born!

Look how little they all were! Aaron was not even 2 yet...Martin was only 4 1/2!

Here he is on his 1st birthday!!

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

And now he's 5!!!

Happy Birthday, my sweet Jonathan. As I am typing this, I hear your loud, shouting play voice trying to keep up (or be louder than) your brothers. I love your enthusiasm and energy. I love how you are so playful all the time! I love how hard you work and hard you play. I love that you would spend entire days outside if I'd let you! You are an amazing blessing to our family! I know that one day, no matter what you do, you will be the best you can be at it!

We love you, Jonathan and are so thankful for you!