After a little coaxing we decided on a Knight-themed party. The shields were ready to be decorated. 
The goblets were ready to be fancified.
The catapults were ready to be fired.
The dragon was ready for beheading.
The party guests arrived and got straight to work on their shields. 
They all did a great job! 
Once they were done decorating, Willie taught them how to properly use their weaponry.
After they had demonstrated skillful shield motions, each knight was given a sword. Watch out! I was on glue-gun patrol to fix busted shield handles.
Once hand-to-hand combat was completed, it was marshmallow catapult time. The goblets were ready to be fancified.The catapults were ready to be fired.The dragon was ready for beheading.The party guests arrived and got straight to work on their shields. They all did a great job! Once they were done decorating, Willie taught them how to properly use their weaponry.
Inside they tried to aim for the shield cutouts. (Isn't my Nene getting big? He'll be 4 on Friday!)
Outside they tried to aim for Willie, I mean practice distance.
The pinata was demolished once it fell to the ground and was beat with the bat. 
Why are they always so hard to get open?
(Baseball season is firing up...and these two brothers are on the same team!)
It was all worth it in the end!
We royally feasted on cake and ice cream. 
(Petey ate the tail! This was no Pete's Dragon...)
Jacob's favorite part (so he says) was the opening of the gifts. 
Here he is opening his new underwear! He sarcastically said, "Thanks, just what I always wanted." Everybody thought Jake's underwear was cool. Especially his brothers!
I can't believe my baby is eight. My boys are all growing up too fast. It makes me feel old to have an eight-year-old but I am pleased with the choices he is making. I am grateful he has such a good group of friends and we are all anxiously awaiting May 7th...when he'll be baptized.
It was his first time playing and he improved A LOT throughout the season. He was actually a pretty consistent hitter. At one point in the season his coach pulled me aside and told me he led the team in hits, which made me smile. I guess his one-man hitting practices out in the backyard paid off.
He played outfield most of the time ...
but took his turn at catcher every once in awhile too. 
He was great to watch. So new at the game, so much to learn.
One night after a game he told me that when I cheered for him so loud (yeah, I'm one of those moms) it made him nervous. He asked me if I would stop yelling his name when he got up to bat.
I was feeling a little sad thinking that my boy was already embarrassed by me at the tender age of 7. I was relieved when Jake suggested, "Maybe you could sing 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' instead!" 
So the next game when Jacob got up to bat, I sang 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame' to the best of my ability. Sure everyone probably thought I was drunk - but Jake enjoyed it. He asked me to sing louder next time. Later in the season he asked if I could get a trumpet and play "Da da da dadada...CHARGE!" That's my boy.
Over the summer we decided to play this game where we would keep track of how many times we could throw the baseball back and forth without dropping it. We named the game "record." Record was one of the chores on his summer chore list. 
The first time we played, our record was SIX. We threw the ball back and forth for a good hour and the highest we could get to was SIX! We practiced every day this summer and our current standing record is 103. There's lots of room to improve when you're learning something new!
Best of all. He got a trophy at the end. 
Jacob is already looking forward to next season. I think Josh will get to be on the same team as Jake...and we'll get to learn baseball all over again.
Joshua has started kindergarten. His teacher is so nice (and so little)! I know he is going to learn a lot and have fun this year. 
So far he's sung "Who let the letters out? Who, who, who, who?" Get it? Letters instead of dogs? And then he goes through each of the alphabet letters and their sounds. It's a catchy little ditty.
I've never seen a child so excited to start school. He's been anxiously awaiting the day and he claimed he wasn't nervous at all. He even told Willie he didn't need a father's blessing because he wasn't scared. Surprisingly, he wasn't (but he got a blessing anyhow). 
He gave us all hugs (little brother hug pictured below) and happily bounced into class. I missed him all day and teared up a bit, but I tried my hardest to focus on the exciting part of going to school.
Just like anything new, kindergarten will take some adjusting. Today (as in second day of school) his teacher told me he made "angry eyes" at her. It was all I could do to not laugh outloud. I know that look oh-so-well. If you've ever crossed Joshua, you know the look I'm talking about. We're working on that.
I love my Joshua. He is a smart, hard-working, and talented boy. He will do well in school...even if he does have "angry eyes" every now and then.
Where oh where does the time go?! 
His teacher seems very nice and although he had the first-day jitters, I know he's got a great year ahead of him. 
We've moved over to a different school this year that's closer to our house. It's hard to be at a new place but lucky for Jake, he already has a buddy. His friend Sam (they actually went to preschool together back in the day) is in the same class. 
One last look good-bye as he ventured into the building. I managed to steal a quick kiss but I'm proud of myself that I didn't cry this year. I'm excited that he's excited about learning.
I guess it's hard for me to believe Jake is in second grade because I remember being in second grade. (Here I am in my jean skirt on my first day of 2nd grade.) I kind of jokingly told Will we need to start being nicer to our kids because they're going to start remembering things...
Joshua has his kinder pretest this week and then he'll be starting kindergarten next Monday. We are going to miss him greatly while he's away. I'm glad it's only for half the day.
What will I do when it's just me and these two little fellas at home?
So here I am, 30 years old, wearing my jean skirt today (minus the Cabbage Patch Kid lunchbox) to celebrate having a second grader of my own. Hooray for second grade!!
The boys love anything Willie loves. They were particularly looking forward to marshmallows and fire.
I love being able to stay at home and spend time with this little fella! 
It is unreal how quiet our house is right now. Petey and I got to spend some quality time together tonight and I'm really living it up by 
