I know, I know, I am becoming a "special occasion" blogger and not even a good one at that given that I just passed right over Thanksgiving and Christmas!  Hopefully one of these days I will get my act together and post all of the pictures and videos from the holidays but since I am motivated TODAY to post about Jacob's awesome birthday party, I don't want to pass up this opportunity to blog about it!

Today we celebrated Jacob's soon-to-be 6th birthday with MANY friends.  The amazing part is that they are friends from so many different aspects of our lives...friends from playgroup, friends from school, friends from childhood friends...I love seeing everyone come together to celebrate our little man's big day.  If only our families lived closer so that they could have been there too.  YOU WERE THERE with us in spirit!!

We decided to try a new party place called Daly City Party Playhouse that was a bit further north of us since we've been to (or had) so many birthday parties in our area.  We checked it out about a month ago for open play and Jacob and Maddie had a blast so Jacob decided he wanted to have his party there.  There were 30 (yes THIRTY) kids invited and 22 of them were able to make it so we had a great group!  Jacob said numerous times throughout the day "this is the best birthday EVER!"  They had so much fun running and climbing through the huge play structure, playing video games and redeeming tickets for prizes and of course pizza and cake!  Seeing the smiles on that little boy's face all day made every ounce of effort (and cost) worth IT!

Jacob officially turns 6 on Wednesday but he has been insisting that he is 6 already since all of his birthday cards say he's 6 (you can't argue with a birthday card wishing you a happy 6th birthday).  So, a little bit about Jacob now that he's *six*:

• HE IS READING!  Like full-blown reading.  He can pick up a level 2 book and read the whole darn thing without any help.  When he began Kindergarten, he could not read anything but a few sight words and color words.  Now he can read or try to read almost anything!!  When I was reading with him the other night and he finished TWO level 2 books without a lick of help, I almost walked out in tears.  PROUD tears.  My baby is NOT a baby anymore TEARS.  (note to self: start censoring my text messages on my phone since he is READING).
• He LOVES Kindergarten.  I've spent quite a bit of time in the classroom and watched how he interacts with the other kids, how he behaves during lessons, etc.  I am proud to say that he is an amazing listener and is respectful to his teacher.  And you can tell he just has an awesome love of learning.  He gets excited to "work" and learn.
• He is Maddie's best friend.  They have their moments (and oh there are SOME moments) but he loves her endlessly and I can already foresee a protective relationship forming.  Although, she is so spunky, she's likely to back him up equally in the future.  They're going to make a great team.
• He is loving sports.  With the Giants winning the world series and the 49ers going to the Superbowl, a sports fan has been born in this house (and unfortunately, Mark has lost his Chicago fan in Jacob -- as there is just too much to get excited about in San Francisco right now!)  He just started playing basketball and really enjoys it.  I'm anxious to see what sport he gravitates to as he gets older.  It's hard to tell what he'll fall in love with at this point.  But it's obvious he will love all kinds of sports!
• He and Maddie are in swimming lessons (same time, different class) and he is really getting the hang of it.  We went to Owen's swim party last night and it was so fun to see him confident in the water, swimming and playing with his friends.

Happy, Happy BOY

Ellie and Annabel in the hot dog car!
 

Jaxxon and Annie

Giving tickets to Daddy

Me and my friend Stephanie (Ty's mom from school).  We had to take a  photo since we were wearing IDENTICAL outfits.  What you don't see in this picture is that we are both wearing black legging/pants with brown tall boots over them.  Our purses even matched!  So funny!!  (Stephanie is obviously pregnant expecting her third child, a girl! She has 2 boys already).

Babies!  Lindsay is feeding one of Millie's twins, Oliver, and Rachel is holding 11 week old Violet.

Excited about picking out his prizes

Violet is only 11 weeks and is seriously one of the cutest babies I've ever seen.  This picture doesn't do her bright blue eyes justice.  I can't wait to watch her grow up!!

He literally looked like this the entire party.  Just pure excitement.

The loot!  We are so blessed to have such amazing friends!

The party room

Of course he had to sit next to his BFF Owen

He opted for a Scooby Doo cake this year.  This cake was MASSIVE.  I made the mistake of ordering a "double cake" which was basically 2 cakes on top of each other.  Needless to say, we have a LOT of cake left over.

Aren't we all so blessed?!  Thanks to all of our amazing friends who came out to celebrate with us.  I just know Jacob will remember this for a long, long time.  Thank you!!!

Our BIG girl turns THREE!

I'm a month late in posting this, but our baby girl is 3!  She has more sass in that 3 year old body than most 13 year olds and I sadly have to admit that karma is rearing it's ugly head at me (Sorry Mom!  Sorry Dad!)  At the same time, she is the sweetest little girl on the planet and so incredibly full of love.  The sibling rivalry is also at an all time high, something I never expected given that my brothers were so much older than me (I wasn't around them enough when I was younger to fight with them like this -- or, I just don't remember it) but as I type, Jacob is downstairs cuddled with Maddie in her bed reading her books before her nap time.  Their love for each other is undeniable, but when they get into a shouting match, you don't want to be anywhere near it (and for the record, Maddie usually wins).

THREE.  Our BABY is THREE.  I really can't imagine where the time is gone and I know I'm starting to sound like a broken record when I say that.  My heart hurts sometimes to think about how big (and how fast) they are both growing.

I took Maddie in for her 3 year check up and was shocked by her stats.  I love comparing her and Jacob's growth charts since their growth has been so similar.  I wasn't expecting that given that Jacob was always so big (and a boy). Maddie was 37.2 lbs which was 90th percentile in weight (Jacob was 39 lbs at his 3 year check up).  Maddie was 39 inches which was 99% in height (Jacob was 38.5 inches at his 3 year check up).  At this rate, this "little" girl is going to grow up to be 6 feet tall (and likely taller than her big brother!)  Where did we get these tall genes?!

A little bit about Maddie at 3:

• She HATES dresses.  Hates them.  Refuses to wear them unless a serious bribe is involved.  Her outfit of choice everyday is jeans or shorts with a t-shirt and tennis shoes -- she will wear skirts as long as they have the little shorts underneath (aka, skorts)
• She refuses to wear anything in her hair but one little small clip that pulls her hair off to the side.  No braids, no pony tails, etc.
• If we are in the company of boys and girls, she always chooses to play with the boys (the OLDER boys).
• She loves all kinds of sports -- soccer, baseball, volleyball.  She'd much rather be outside playing with a ball then inside playing with a doll.
• When she gets nervous or anxious or is just unsure about something, she sticks her fingers in her mouth.  I always know when she's uncomfortable, because in the mouth they go.
• She LOVES school.  She asks me everyday if she's going to school and when it's not a school day, she's deeply disappointed.  The Director, Miss Lauri, pulled me aside shortly after she started preschool and said to me "Angela, I don't know why I was ever worried about her age.  She is a model student."  Consequently, I almost started shedding my tears of pride right then and there (The back story being that because she didn't technically meet the cut off for preschool, I still fought to get them to accept her this year -- I'm so glad I did!)
• She is still very much Daddy's girl.  She goes in phases where her obsession with Daddy ebbs and flows (it's always there, mind you, but at times it's stronger than others).  Right now, we are in an over-the-top-obsession-with-Daddy phase and Mommy is feeling a little slighted.  Just a little :)
• She has to know what we are doing every second of the day.  From the moment we wake up, she's asking me "Mommy, what are we doing today?" and when I tell her the first thing, she says "and what do we do after that?  and "what do we do after that?"  It doesn't matter how many things I mutter off to her, there is always a "what's after that"? I eventually end it with "then we go to bed and start all over again tomorrow". 

We celebrated Maddie's birthday at Safari Run.  I really want to be one of those Moms that can throw a super cute, creative, themed party at the house but I get a headache every time I think about doing it so we always opt for the ease of a birthday party hosted at a play space where they manage 20 kids, feed them and then deal with the clean up!  That alone is worth all the money in the world!  Rest assured, one of these days I WILL plan that super fun, creative party at home but I just haven't had it in me yet.  She LOVES Safari Run and so do the other kids so they had a blast!

Happy Birthday sweet girl.  You are one of the most beautiful, kind, loving, smart and strong little girls I know -- I couldn't be more proud of the person you are becoming.  We love you so much Maddie!

Her BFF, Nathan!

Her friend, Annie, and her attacking Daddy

The big boys, Jaxxon, Owen and Jacob

Her friend Emily getting her groove on to play freeze dance.

There they are -- the fingers in the mouth.  She wasn't so sure about playing freeze dance!

Coming out of the fast slide with Benjamin's Daddy, Jeremy (Benjamin was the little boy of the family we shared a nanny with.  Now that Benj and Maddie are both in preschool, they don't see each other as much anymore but they still LOVE each other!)

The whole gang!  (Warner, Owen, Luke, Cameron, Samantha, Annie, Maddie, Jacob, Griffon, Ellie, Annabel, Emma, Matthew, Jaxxon, Emily, Olivia, and Nathan)

I have not had great luck with Maddie's birthday cakes.  She really wanted an ice cream cake and this one was from Baskin Robbins.  Even though Safari Run assured me it wouldn't melt in their refrigerator, it was melting by the time we served it (not the right hand side collapsing!)  It was still delish.

While singing her happy birthday, she was a little anxious (note the hands in the mouth!)

But she expertly blew out her candles

 At home ready to open her wonderful presents!

Every time we went to Target, Maddie begged me for this Incredible Hulk hands.  Good thing Jaemie, Matt, Owen and Nathan knew she loved them!  It was their gift to her!  She was so excited!

Happy Birthday Maddie!

Boo!

It's funny to me that I was never a huge fan of Halloween until I had kids.  These days, I count down the days until I get to see them dressed up, grinning from ear-to-ear with excitement about this holiday.  And yes, we get excited about dressing up too. :)

This year, we decided to all go as super heroes.  Since Mark was affectionately called Captain America when he was in high school, we knew that would be a fitting costume for him!  Jacob had a few super hero costumes and seemed to rotate equally between his Batman and Superman outfits.  I found a Spidergirl costume at a consignment sale for Maddie and she was in LOVE with it.  It's been worn so many times, I'm not certain I could even donate/sell it in the future!

Happy Halloween everyone -- we hope your night was as fun as ours!

This girl has so much sass it's not even funny.

Our annual tradition is to go to the Carlmont Shopping Center (in Belmont) on Halloween afternoon to do some trick or treating at the store fronts and then we head to our friends Tyler and Sydney's house for some Halloween party fun and group trick-or-treating around San Carlos!

The host, Derrick was stylin!

All the kiddos ready to go trick-or-treating!

We found a gorilla and Mark convinced Maddie to give him a high five.

And then Beetlejuice opened one of the doors and Maddie thought he was HILARIOUS!

Of course we had to take breaks to enjoy some candy along the way

All the kids checking out their loot at Tyler/Sydney's house

Last week, Notre Dame high school hosted a Halloween party filled with trick-or-treating, face painting, musical chairs, crafts, a bouncy house and more!  Jacob and Maddie were in Halloween heaven. 

Practicing for Halloween at home

This was a game at the Halloween party.  I was DYING watching Jacob try to grab the donut with his mouth!

My adorable little man :)