Reesie's birthday and first day of school

I'm honestly the lamest blogger. It's been almost a month since my last post, and so much has happened. The guilt is kicking in. I need to get myself in gear and catch up. It takes all my energy just to make the event happen let alone blog about it. What do you do with all your picture? Mine just mostly sit on my computer neatly filed away. I don't even print any out. Do you do anything with yours? Print them, display them, flip through them? Overwhelming thought I must say.

Enough about that. Reesie's birthday was on the first day of school this year which I thought was pretty fun. I love birthdays, and somehow they always become a multi-day event. This year was no exception. We started with a fun little lego party the week before his birthday in an attempt to get it over with before school started. He invited several friends from church and school. It was a lot of fun.

Here's the gang. Aidan, Chad Hudson, Hayden, Dawson, Payton, Cameron, Reese, Alec, Jacob, and of course Lukie.

Hunting for hidden legos.

Building their own creations.

Abbie and Emma were the official judges. They made up all the categories (including the most like a banana) and awarded the medals.

The medal ceremony.

Our cute little neighbor Hayden blowing on his ice cube trying the be the first one to melt his lego out of it.

What a cute bunch of little boys.

Opening presents.

And more presents.

Blowing out candles on the lego cakes if you can't tell.

Thursday morning we headed up the the cabin for the weekend, so we gave Reese our gift before we went. Here it is. A little four wheeler. We have a little kid three wheeler up there and we get tons of use out of it. We've been looking for one more for a long time, and ran across this one. It was a repo, and a really great deal, so we bought it. Then we decided we'd surprise Reese with it since his birthday was so close anyway. It's an uncharacteristically large birthday gift compared to the little box of legos he was going to get. We prefaced it with the fact that it was for all the kids. He was so excited! The kids rode it around and around at the cabin for hours literally.

On Labor Day we headed out to Chad's parent's house for the day. The kids swam and played with their cousins. We had a little family party for Reese there. We had cake and pizza.

Here are the kids with their cousins Kalle and Emme.

That evening we headed home and stopped down town for a little taste of 'Pig Out In the Park' which is Reese's birthday tradition. It's always over Labor Day weekend which makes it perfect timing for Reese. For those of you not from around here, it's like a miniature 'Taste of Chicago". We decided to go the dessert route. We let everyone pick their favorite treat and we shared them all.

I don't know why they call it 'Pig Out' in the Park????

Abbie chose this yummy funnel cake with strawberries.

Then this big old rock hard frozen banana caught Reese's eye. We chiseled away at it the whole evening.

Abbie's getting a bite.

Chad picked this delicious caramel apple, his old stand by. I think it might have won the prize. Yummy. I'm definitely making caramel apples this fall.

Luke wasn't picky. He sat in his stroller and thoroughly enjoyed everything that came his way.

And who knows why, but out of all the mouthwatering desserts there, Alec picked this lime slushy. Holy cow was it sour. Especially after all the sugary sweets we just had. Good one Allers.

The fam. Satisfied with an evening well spent. (And right before a major meltdown on the way to the car over someone not getting enough lime slurpy!) Notice the banana in Lukie's little paw, still only halfway eaten.

Tuesday morning was crazy. It was the first day of school and Reese's actual birthday. And on top of it all when Abbie went to kindergarten I started this tradition called the 'back to school fairy'. I just love to get them a fun little gift to send the off the first day. I figured they would wonder why the fairy didn't come to any of their friends houses, so I told them it's just me. It's kind of fun, but also a bit overkill when there's also a birthday involved. But we managed to squeeze everything in and only be a couple minutes late to school.

Yet another birthday gift.

The kids with their "back to school fairy" treats.

Reesie's first day of first grade. I can't believe how big he's getting.

What a couple of cuties. I'm so glad they like school! Abbie's first day of third grade.
Reese has Mrs. Hyslop this year. Here's Abbie trying to ignore me annoyingly taking pictures. I was a bit of a spectacle since we were 15 minutes late by the time we finished with Reese and got to her class. All the other parents were long gone, and I conspicuously hauled in with two little rug rats in tow still in their jammies, a big old stroller, and my camera.
And that was Reese's 7th birthday.
Love you Reesie.