Gavin is 5!

 I can't believe it's been 5 years since I met this incredible guy for the first time! He's grown a lot in the last year: learning to ride his bike without training wheels, learning to READ, discovering his love of hiking, and so much more! He's continued to take swim lessons and excels at that. His favorite color is still blue, and he loves teaching his sister everything he knows. We love how often he makes us laugh, and we love the wonderful person he is. Happy birthday to Gavin!

5th birthday party

 We had Gavin's birthday party today at the YMCA, and it was lots of fun. This is his facial expression when he saw the bicycle cake for the first time.

Here he's being sung to, deep in contemplation of those 5 candles.

I tried to simulate tire tread with sprinkles...

After cake, it was pinata time; Gavin and his friends loved it. 

(Baby sister took a few swings too.)

After the cake and pinata, we hit the pool. It may be the only time in his life he'll have a pool party for his (November) birthday. They even turned the slide on, and all of us enjoyed that.

If you're a Star Wars fan...

We're not particular fans of the Star Wars franchise, but there's a specific strain of marketing directed at Gavin's demographic. And he thinks he's a fan. He got this Star Wars ABC book from the library and had it memorized the same night. Here are a couple of excerpts.

Halloween 2015

Halloween 2015 was lots of fun for our family. Gavin was Leonardo - the ninja turtle, not the artist (nor the actor).

Sophie was Amelia Earhart.

We had some fun events this week leading up to Halloween, including the church trunk-or-treat, trick-or-treating at the library, Gavin's school Halloween party and program, and trick-or-treating at Kroger.

posing in the Kroger photo booth

trunk-or-treating with cousins

We also carved pumpkins as a family for the first time, and the kids loved it. The designs were both Gavin's. 

Trick-or-treating Saturday night was lots of fun, especially because we were with friends. Sophie only lasted about 10 houses and then threw a tantrum in someone's driveway because she wanted to be eating the candy in her bucket, not gathering more.

loving her facial expression here

The below video showcases Sophie's expanding, Halloween-themed vocabulary. But if I'm being honest, I just staged the vocab video so I could capture her saying "witch." 

(cue my cackle)