Owen turns 5

As if I thought Owen couldn't get any sweeter, the moment he turned 5 he has been sweeter than ever!  We had a rough patch right before Owen's birthday where he reverted back to the three year old tantrums.  It had me very worried but luckily I think it was only a phase.  I should know this by now but with my oldest child I seem to take his behaviors so much more seriously thinking they will never end.  He is my trial and error child, sorry Owen but you are helping me learn how to be a mother.  We had a nice long birthday week, celebrating for days on end.

First we had our birthday breakfast (yes we celebrated Grayson's birthday on the same day as Owen's.  I thought it would be confusing to him because their birthdays are so close and everyone was coming in to celebrate that weekend)...

Then we had a visit from Max and Luke.  They were on fall break and came to see us during the week.  As always, we had a great time...

If you didn't know, my birthday is the day after Owen's so we went to a ladies only dinner to celebrate that...

The Majors family had to leave to get back for a weekend of soccer games.  After they left the Drapp family came in for the weekend.  We had so much fun taking them to one of our favorite places...Connor Prairie...

The following day it was time for the big Batman vs. Superman birthday party.  We rented a room at the Monon Center indoor water park.  What was nice about this is that they provided a cakes and an employee who helped move the party along.  I really felt like I didn't have to do too much, which was exactly what I was going for this year...

 It happened to be a busy day in Carmel too, it was the last day of soccer games and the Colts vs. Bears game so we were missing several of our friends but we still had a great turnout....

It was a busy and family filled week, which was so much fun for all of us!  I have to say I was ready for a nap after it was all over.

The next day this little cutie wrote me a note, yes it is written backwards but something I will always cherish.  He loves his mama...

 He leaned over to me at church the Sunday after his birthday and said "I'm going to pray for you mommy because I love you".  I am so thankful for him!

Every year I ask the boys a set of questions (beginning at their third birthday).  Here are the Owen's answers...

1.  What is your favorite color?  - Orange and green 
2.  What is your favorite toy?  - Batman (same as last year)
3.  What is your favorite movie?  - The Lego movie (same as last year)
4.  What is your favorite thing to wear?  - Soccer clothes
5.  What is your favorite animal?  - Tiger and a shark
6.  What is your favorite book?  - Pop up dictionary books
7.  Who are your best friends?  - Carter
8.  What is your favorite snack?  - Oranges
9.  What is your favorite fruit?  - Strawberries (same as last year)
10.  What is your favorite lunch?  - Chicken nuggets and french fries
11.  What do you want to be when you grow up?  - Chef
12.  What do you sleep with at night?  - Knuffle bunny and other baby
13.  What scares you?  - the dark
14.  What makes you proud?  - "That I have golden stuff"
15.  What do you like to do with mommy and daddy?  - Go on a hayride
16.  What do you do really well?  - Play with Grayson
17. What makes you sad?  - When I get hurt
18.  What did you dream about last night?  - "I dreamed mommy ran away from me" - this has been a common dream lately that I am going away or something happens to me
19.  What makes you happy?  - "when my tooth falls out and I put it under my pillow" - not sure where this came from

Here are some interesting facts about our 5 year old...

1.  He loves telling jokes and luckily he has a good memory because he will remember jokes we told him months ago and can recite them perfectly.  This usually makes us laugh, not because of the content but because he told the joke on point.
2.  Owen no longer naps but he does have one hour of quiet time every afternoon while Grayson takes a nap.  
3.  Owen loves to play with legos, he is actually an amazing master builder!  He can follow the directions for any 5-12 year old box of legos without any help and puts it together perfectly.  He will also spend hours in his room taking apart old legos and creating his own lego cities.
4.  Owen goes to preschool three mornings a week.  Although I know he loves it once he is there, he never wants wants to go and requests to just stay home.  He will have a rude awakening next year when he goes to kindergarten all day 5 days a week.
5.  Owen can ride his own bike which he has been able to do since last summer but now he can ride a long distance.  He rode 5 miles round trip one evening.  2.5 miles to go to dinner and 2.5 miles to come home.  We were all shocked and expecting to have to call in back up to come and get him if he couldn't finish it. 

Summer recap

We had quite a summer.  The weather was lovely and the boys were much easier this summer than last.  Nap times don't exist for Owen anymore and Grayson is much more flexible so we took advantage of this and had a lot of fun!

To start off the first weekend of summer, the neighborhood had a movie night...

 The next morning we headed out for the neighborhood bike parade, led by a fire truck...

 Owen and his buddies Lucas, Lily and Stella...

Owen joined the neighborhood swim team...

 Grayson was too young to join but he still loves to swim as long as he is wearing his floaties...

We took lots of bike rides around town...

 We rode to to dinner, breakfast and lunch.  One morning I woke Owen and Max up early to ride down to the donut shop ...

 Two happy boys..

We often see neighbors and friends when we ride downtown and end up riding our bikes home together in a caravan...

Max taught Owen to fish this summer....

The boys got to go on their first hot air balloon ride...

Mommy was a little scared and sat on the ground the entire time.  My palms were sweaty and my stomach was in knots, but I was trying very hard not to let the kids know just how frightened I was...

We stayed up late at the neighborhood playground, playing in our jammies...

The boys joined a summer soccer class...

Brad taught Owen the sport of golf...

We spent a lot of time with our cousins...

Owen had his last t-ball game...

We spent time with our friends, going to parks, playgrounds and splash pads...

We ate a lot of ice cream...

We loved on our grandparents...

We took lots of naps...

We celebrated Daddy's 35th birthday with a Ninja Turtle cake...

My high school friends came to visit and we had our first mommy biker gang outing...

We spent more time at our favorite spot, Connor Prairie...

We rode our bikes most Saturday mornings to the Carmel farmer's market...

We spent a ton of time swimming at the neighborhood pool...

And at the Monon Center...

We enjoyed the annual neighborhood summerfest party...

We spent a lot of time boating this summer.  It was the boys first time riding in a boat and they loved it each and every time.  First we went on a day trip to Kentucky Lake with the Drapp family...

 Then we went to Martinsville and went out on my Aunt Dorena and Uncle Rick's boat...

After that boat trip we went to our neighbor Allie's parent's lake house on Sweetwater Lake.  It is the clearest lake I have ever seen.  You can literally see to the bottom of the lake.  We had so much fun!

To end the summer, we had some visitors from Scottsdale.  My sister Nicole and her three kiddos came to stay with us for 5 nights.  I was a little worried about how the kids would get along for that period of time, but much to our surprise the older kids had so much fun together and were the best of buddies.  The younger two on the other hand, did not get along so well.
First we went to the Martinsville fair...

And of course we made a trip to the Inside Scoop...

We took them to the farmers market...

 And to some of our favorite parks...

To the children's museum of course...

But most of all the kids just loved spending time together...

 It was sad to say goodbye...

Although it is always sad to say goodbye to summer, we are ready for cooler weather, Halloween and school to begin.