Sammy's Sixth Birthday!

For Sammy's birthday party we invited eight of his friends over to celebrate with us (yes, we had 10 boys in total at our house all afternoon. Many many thanks to Mo and her daughters for caring for baby Jack during the party. It was much more fun - and possible to handle 10 energetic boys! - without a baby around).

Despite the heavy first snow fall of the season we had a very bright colorful party!

Sammy wore a clown tie and nose, and is showing off the Spongebob wristband covered lollipop from the favor bag. He and Freddie also wore matching "party shirts" as they call them.

As the kids arrived Jacob led them in a Rock Band contest to the Beatles' Birthday, then once everyone was here Oscar the Clown arrived.


(Please excuse the support pole in the way. And the blurry pictures. It's hard to take good pictures of active children in a basement!)

Everyone was falling over with laughter. Really.


Sammy got to be the helper. He also chose a few of his friends to help out, too.


Oscar had the kids cracking up.

It was almost as fun to watch the kids watching Oscar. Sammy's friend, Drew, in particular was adorable. He could barely sit up right. And Calvin kept falling off the back of the couch (I think on purpose, though!). That's Drew in the bottom right of the photo. And I think Cal was actually behind the couch in this picture!

Sammy and the hilarious Oscar at cake time.


The cake!


The cookies!


Quiet kiddos eating cake and donuts and cookies! (yep, that's right. Jacob even gave some of the kids seconds of cake.)

Clockwise from top left: Sammy, Brian, Calvin, Zander, Gus, Aleksander


Clockwise from left: Drew, Freddie, Will, Henry

After cake, we went downstairs and Sammy opened presents.

After presents the kids had about 20ish minutes to play. I furiously built a Hot Wheels set with a rotation of five or so boys breathing down my neck. Surprisingly no pieces were missing and it was put together for them to play with for a little bit, too. Whew!

Happy Birthday, Sammy! We love you so much!

xo, Mom and Dad

Yesterday was a day of much celebration.

Cake, pre-assembly., originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

More pictures to come!

Click here for a few more pictures of the [edible] sweet stuff. :)

Brett Farve by Sammy

Brett Farve by Sammy, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

Gold standard of soakers.

Long time no cloth diapering post, huh?

Have I mentioned how much I love Wild Child Woolies soakers? There aren't many things that I've saved and loved over the span of three kids but these are top of the list. They are made out of the softest, thickest (well, the double-layer) and stretchiest interlock wool. They fit for a loooong time and they contort to fit baby's ever-changing shape. They cover even the most generously cut (ie notoriously large and equally wonderful) Motherease One-Size and are uber trim over a snappied prefold.

Now, to convince you with cuteness, here's Jack Jack.


SO soft on the World's Chubbiest Legs.


As you can see it covers the badonkadonk very well.


Convince you?

Splurge on these soakers. You won't be sorry!

Baby in the bunk.

hehe look who's in your bed when you are at school, Freddie :D

Thank you, Mother Nature for blowing down my neighbor's fence.

Here is Mr. Glowing Blue Eyes looking Super Cute

In addition to the gaping hole (we'll get to that), did you notice the sockless, coatless - no - hoodieless state of Babycakes? I love seeing his nibbleable (word? should be) toes. It's been a very mild fall here in Minneapolis! (except for that incredibly gusty day that took out the fence)

Now you can turn your attention to the fallen fence behind my lovely child. That's right, I used my children as a cover to photograph my neighbor's destroyed and fallen fence. A fence that didn't have long for this world a good two years ago when he TIED [part of] IT TO HIS FREAKIN' HOUSE to keep it from falling down on my children.



So, I thank you, Mother Nature, for taking down part of that fence and for depositing it in his yard. Downside is that now we have to interact MORE with said neighbor and his FREAKIN' DOG is now depositing our backyard. The other downside is that our mild fall is coming to an abrupt end this weekend and the ground may freeze before a new privacy fence is installed.

Can you believe this?

Neither can we.

"I love him back."

Me to Freddie: "Jack loves you so much." (Me, not said: 'almost as much as a pair of baby nail clippers')



Freddie, very matter-of-factly: "I love him back."

Happy Halloween!

Here is Jacob's handiwork, 2010.

A spider, a "6" and a cat.

Officer Sammy

In his "corn" stache (obviously he misheard what Jacob was calling their 'staches).
And trying on Freddie's


Firefighter Freddie

Looking a lot like his namesake Freddie Mercury in his 'stache.


Ready for trick-or-treating!


And here's El Tigre from yesterday.


The lighting wasn't great at the Big Bunny but here's the little Tiger.

(Thanks again to Tami for the hand-me-down. It was perfect and adorable!)

Happy Halloween, Blogger friends!

Along for the ride.

Pumpkin Pickin'

At Peter's Pumpkins in Shakopee, Minnesota. What a great farm!

Six months old!

Baby Jack Jack (seems nearly everyone calls him this now, may as well refer to him this way :) turned six months old last Friday. Here he is in all his blue-eyed beauty, as captured by Tami Tripp.

Jack has two bottom teeth, one about 3/4 of the way up, the other just came through this week. He is going through the world mouth-first, trying to find anything to gnaw on and relieve the gums. He's eaten a piece of paper already (the Target shopping list).

He is eating "solids" or gruel as Jacob calls it. Watery rice cereal, sometimes with a mashed banana, avocado (although feeding him this makes me queasy. allergic. to. avocados.), sweet potatoes and prunes. He loves the sweet potatoes and cereal.

He can roll and kick and grab his feet (and other things worth grabbing). He can babble very articulately. He weighs 20.5 pounds and is 28 inches long, putting him in the 90-97 percentile (Freddie was nearly always over 100 in case anyone was wondering). He is constantly loved on by his brothers and all of their friends. He endures it ;)

And that's our baby guy!

Tami Tripp Photography Fall Photo Shoot!

My uber-talented photographer friend Tami took pictures of the boys last Friday, while the weather was still agreeable in Minnesota. Here is a sneak peek that I am posting today in honor of my stepfather's 60th birthday. We love and miss you, James! Love you, too, Tami! Thank you so much for sharing your gift with our family.

Winter hat preview:

Sammy's Spirit Hat, Jack's Helmet and Freddie's Cluck.

The "big" guys. Sammy is not yet 6 and Freddie is a few days shy of 3.5.

I know, their size belies their ages. In the future I hope this will work to their advantage, right now it can be tricky, as people expect them to act differently because they look older than they are. It's easy to forget how little they still are. They are both so full of laughter and silliness and *energy*!! I hope they never out grow of their sense of humor.

Happy 60th Birthday, Ba!

We wish we could be there in person to celebrate with you (but you may be relieved that we are not ;)! Sending lots of electronic and energetic birthday hugs your way!

Iz in yer fone

txting u



My bad. I droolz on yer fone.



**Baby spoof of Lolcatz ** In case the humor here was lost on some of you.

More from Boo at the Zoo

Our little civil servants.


Jack, who wasn't quite dressed up (slacker mom) but luckily was wearing black sweatpants and an orange UT hoodie. And a Halloween bib that our neighbor, Henry, gave him last week that says, "I love my Mummy." :)

Wearing expression #2: Bewilderment. (thanks, Cody :)

The boys really liked the bean bag toss. They were both tossing with their left hands at first because they wouldn't put down their candy bags. Once Sammy switched hands he made all three!


Stop!


Officer Sammy


And just because I like it, a Jack-o-lantern pizza.

We may have to hit Papa Murphy's because this is too cute.

Boo at the Zoo

Boo at the Zoo, originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

We traveled to Duluth this past weekend to visit Cody and Ashley and attend Boo at the Zoo. Trick-or-Treating and animals. The kids loved it. It was a good excuse to wear their Halloween costumes more and practice for Halloween :)

Freddie is a Fire Fighter and Sammy is a Police Officer. Just in case you couldn't tell by the picture.

Fantastic Freddie!

Freddie was in a weekly Super Hero preschool class in September and his super hero name was Fantastic Freddie.


Freddie has really grown so much since Sammy's started school. He is so articulate and smart, funny and sweet, and all that has really come to the surface now that he's not second in command. He is in preschool activities three mornings a week and thriving there, but still cool with hanging around the house with mom and Baby Jack.

He really enjoys working on puzzles. He'll put one together and then take it apart, bit by bit, just to put the pieces back. He loves to count. He'll count things as we are waiting in line at the store, he'll count the slices of bread for sandwiches, he'll just count to count. He has a very good memory. He can remember names and songs after hearing them once. He pays enormous attention to detail.

He is silly and adventures (he loves to jump off the arms of the couch like a Super Hero, much to his mother's horror), and very methodical. Not OCD methodical, just in the sense that you can hear the wheels turning when he is working on certain things. These sounds were there before, but they weren't "heard" as well with Sammy bellowing in the background ;) Freddie more often then not has to complete the task at hand, or has to have things go just the way he thinks they should go, which I think is a very good quality, as annoying as it is at times as the parent.

And he is an incredible big brother. He is still totally in love with Baby Jack. He always wants to hug him, hold him, help with feeding and check on him. Jack, in turn, has a lot of smiles and squawks for both of his big brothers.



Oh, and Freddie is going to be a Fire Fighter for Halloween!

A helmet for the well-chinned one.

I made an Aviatrix hat for Jack. Thanks to his multiple chins it fits more like a helmet (according to Jacob). But that's cool. The wool will absorb the drool rolling out of his mouth. Doesn't matter - he'd look adorable no matter what he's wearing. Actually, he is especially adorable nekkid.

At the bus stop.

Just a few shots of our morning madness. I mean, routine. Of course, these are all laid-back, after we've raced to the bus stop pictures.

Sammy sporting his new School Spirit hat. Hot off the needles.

It's blue and yellow, difficult to see in the morning sunshine.

I made this specifically for him to wear during the Walk-A-Thon:

Sammy is pledging to walk around Lake Nokomis and is seeking your financial pledges to mark this milestone. Proceeds will help the school PTA.

Don't be shy. If you'd like to pledge and we haven't hit you up for money let us know!


Freddie always sees Sammy off.

And jumps for joy when the bus returns Sammy in the afternoon.

Then, after we walk home Freddie always tries to lock me out of the gate.


And through this Jack Jack naps. (Sometimes.)

Yeah, 'bye Daddy.

Yeah, 'bye Daddy., originally uploaded by sweetietooth.

Jacob is leaving for a recruiting trip this week (like, alllll week) and since his flight is late this morning he was able to go to the bus stop with us. This was Sammy's speedy goodbye to Jacob as the bus arrived.

(Jacob was on a work conference call.)