September days.

We had lots of fun the month of September!  Here is a quick review of our September days!

My sister and her girls came to visit - we took them to the Splash Pad and the kids all had tons of fun!  We had fun going to look by the river too.  

My friend LeAnna and I wrapped up our garage sale - we did it at the beginning of summer and the end -- check out our full sheet of sales!  (This sheet was just one of probably 8 for the weekend!) We made a little money, but more importantly got rid of a lot of STUFF.  I'm already looking forward to our spring sale -- less is so much better!  I won't lie, there were a few tears shed as we watched all the baby boy clothes go -- 

Our friend Erika celebrated her 7th birthday a few days after Isaiah's and we went to celebrate at KT's Inflatable Park.  Lots of fun and energy burned! 

We had lots of trips to the park -- Titus is just as brave as his brothers and was all over the place!  

We had fun with Grandma and Great Aunt Sharon.  Here they are playing Candy Land!

We had a few different fires with friends -- so this may not have been the safest choice, but check out the fire our friend Kyle made! 

Sweet Levi being a cute little boy.  (Honestly I can't remember what this picture is about!)

We had lots and lots of after school playtime.  Lots of days we'd spend a good hour or more playing on the playground before heading home from picking Isaiah up from school.  They love to go on the 2nd/3rd grade play ground.  It's so close to the K/1 play ground but it is forbidden during school so it's a huge treat for Isaiah to play on the big kids park!  Here is Isaiah and his good friend Vivi on the 2/3 playground.

Titus (and the other boys) loved driving around our friends' new John Deere Gator! 

and we had lots of days on the trampoline (at our house and as pictured below at Evelyn's house)

As a family we went to jump at Thorp Family Fun.  The boys loved the big, big jumpers -- and we all loved that Mark and I could jump too!

Levi, Titus and I went off to find something fun to do while Mark and Isaiah had laser tag league.  Pretty sure we end up at Hy Vee almost every time (it's across the street -- and with 3 growing boys we go through lots of food - I can't even begin to think about our grocery bill when they are teenagers) he loves to pick out a snack, sneak a cookie from the pharmacy (shhh don't tell) and this time check out the ATV.

Grandma Michele and Great Grandma Mary sent a back-to-school package - the boys were super excited about all the new school supplies - Isaiah wanted all the Angry Birds and Levi the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle stuff!  Thanks Grandmas!

We spend lots of time in our big driveway - the boys love to ride their bikes, scooters and other outside toys.  It seems like this fall we had the wagon out more too - the big boys had a few rides, but also had fun pulling Titus around.

Isaiah's Bday!

Isaiah's birthday was a Wednesday this week - other than a weekend day, you couldn't ask for a better day -- early out day!  He was excited to go to school and see his friends (dressed in his birthday shirt he'd gotten at his party a few days before!) 

 After a short day at school, Isaiah got to come home to our surprise birthday present for him...Mark was explaining it to him as it was too big to wrap.

 Super excited to open his bedroom door!

 His very own desk and chair!  Mark set it up and had some of his things organized for him!

 He was so excited about it!  He had been really, really wanting a desk and we thought he was ready for it!

 Later we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house so they could wish Isaiah a happy birthday and give him a gift - a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles turtle shell and the red turtle's sai swords.  He'd been asking for the red turtles swords since Levi's birthday when he got the blue and purple turtle's swords!

 Isaiah's birthday dinner request was McDonald's so we brought it home and had a picnic in the back yard.  

 Wednesdays are AWANA night at church and Isaiah decided that he did want to go on his birthday.  We almost forgot to get a picture of him and the birthday sign at school so we stopped on the way to church.  

 While Isaiah and Levi were at church, Mark, Titus and I took a walk down by the river.  What a gorgeous night!

 After AWANA we came home to a birthday cake - nothing fancy, but you can't have a birthday without a cake! 

 Then one last sword fight before bed - Isaiah in all of his new Ralphael gear - the mask he had gotten at his birthday party.  The nerf sword is what he picked out with his birthday money.  Grandma Michele and Great Grandma Mary sent Isaiah and Levi birthday money and we went to Toys R Us to let them spend it after Isaiah's card came in the mail.  (Levi is so much more easy going that he didn't even mind waiting an entire month to go shopping with his birthday money!)  After searching every single aisle over and over again, each boy chose to come home with just one sword and lots of money left over! 

 Levi's sword was the "Max Steel" sword (whatever that is!) he thought it was so awesome.  It was a really fun sword -- too bad Levi is so rough -- unfortunately it cracked and broke about a month later.  Mark and I were suprised it made it that long! 

It's so hard to believe that our baby boy is 7 years old already!  Where does the time go?

Isaiah's 7th birthday party!

Isaiah turned 7 in September!   His birthday happened to fall on a Wednesday this year and he had decided he wanted to invite several friends to play laser tag.  Rather than hoping to make a school night work, we had our first birthday party before the actual day.  He was super excited about (another) laser tag party and insisted that he wanted his theme to be GI Joe Ninjas (which I still have no idea what this really is -- and he has never seen the movie/cartoon or whatever it is) but he was sure so I went with it.  (He was the black GI Joe Ninja for Halloween last year too :).  

After lots of thought and online searching I just could not come up with a good cake idea so at the last minute I had a sugar sheet made for this cake.  (I literally had this made on a whim from an extra invitation that I happened to have in my purse - had I known that HyVee can do this kind of thing I would have changed a few things, but he loved the cake and that's all that matters!)

As we were waiting for his friends to arrive, Isaiah was so excited and jumped for joy each time someone showed up! 

Once (just about) everyone had arrived we had the kids sit down together so we could go over some rules

And then the laser tag began! 

I'm pretty sure they were all super excited about it! 

Even Titus got to join in the game!  He is just one of the big boys!

Coming up with a strategy! 

Titus quickly got tired of the laser tag so we hung out up front - a few of the younger kids came to join us after about an hour - we had our own little games of duck, duck goose and musical chairs. 

The whole party! 

Back Row: Devin, Mark, Derek

Middle Row: Drew, Liam, Keegan, Fletcher, Kyle, Vivi, Cooper, Caiden

Front Row: Owyn, Jayda, Isaiah, Jonah, Levi

After the laser tag it was time for cake!  

Then on to presents!  

What a great way for Isaiah to celebrate his birthday.  He is blessed with lots and lots of fun friends!