Some other events in May.

Festivals: I have a special set of skills that involve always locating you.

 I will find you and we will visit you. 

Seriously, how does his guy manage to "drive" a fire truck every single weekend?

Also, bounce houses. 

We did get to spend some time with this precious Baby brother/toddler Levi. He is even cuter than this in person, if that is possible. As the baby of all the babies, he regularly gets extra attention & love, usually in the form of worms shoved in his face or someone not much bigger than him trying to pick him up.

Their childhood in NoniBop's backyard is one of my favorite things. 

Our neighborhood had an "End of School" pizza party at 1:30 on a Thursday afternoon, which is clearly the best time to accommodate all parents. Luckily for me, Nicole came into Knoxville and took Anderson and her girls. Anderson had fun & proved once again that his favorite thing about going to the pool is catching butterflies. 

Because it is possibly Anderson's FAVORITE place in the world, we made another visit to ijams. This one was a little impromptu & I texted Noni asking her if she wanted to go with us...in about 10 minutes. In a move that is no surprise to anyone, she said yes. 

We think she was our good luck charm because we found SO many fun creatures in our 4 hours there! We had a running count that included both adult & baby turtles, salamanders, tadpoles, froglets, frogs and a snake!

In a hilarious twist, we even crashed a wedding set up that was still there since it was a Sunday morning.

 It was a very festive place to have picnic. 

And, in a move that can NEVER be topped, I managed to snag a snake, which would be cool enough in itself, but it happened to be in the process of eating a frog!! Seriously, it was really pretty awesome. In the process of the snake frantically trying to figure out why it was in a net, the frog got out and Anderson was so proud that he rescued him. 

One of our favorite events in May was Jack's sleepover! The boys did a week long camp & Jack came home with us one night. Poor guy-I made him run errands with us!

But, then he got to chase my boys with a shovel, so I think it was a nice trade off. For about a week after this, every time I picked up Max, he asked if Jack was coming with us. He loves a visitor. 

Boys & fire. 

Another day, another festival. 

This one involved Bop doing balloons at a park and, as always, we got to see his celebrity status!

Also, there was a really cool bugs/spider tent and Max was so pumped to hold giant cockroaches & various other icky things. 

Lily even got in on the action with the tarantula!

But, let's be honest, who needs a bug tent when you can find your own roly poly with your cousin?

I looked up & had a little minute of realizing how grown up our kids are when I saw them taking turns pushing each other on the swing. I realize there are many other things that they do to make them have grown up status, but this seems to be exceptionally big to me. 

Overall, one of the BEST parts of May was when Anderson found his spirit animal at the bird exhibit.  He is obsessed with birds and has been for a few years. At the exhibit, he was answering all of the questions about red-tailed hawks and asking a few pretty good ones when the bird guy told us about this female red tailed hawk. Apparently, she was born with cataracts & had to have implant lenses made for her! 

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??

When I told them about Anderson, they were SO nice and asked a bunch of questions about his implant lens/eye and even let him climb under the tape and go into the exhibit to take pictures with her. He was literally over the moon and I was so grateful to this bird for taking one for the team because cataract perks are few & far between.

Our last day of May was spent with our favorite Watts' girls-swimming, playing and, of course, eating!

Max's 3rd birthday party-Ninja Firefighters to the Rescue!

Max had an awesome Firetruck/Ninja Turtle party at our pool house last month.  I think we could also call it a Christmas party based on how the 2 colors go so well together-festive theme choices, Max. 

Also, for fun-check out Anderson's 3rd birthday party, which was a fireman party, as well!!

It was actually pretty low key & we just invited 5 families because it is not that large. But, it is free for our neighborhood residents, so it was obviously a no-brainer. 

Because one thing that I have learned from my mom is "Go big or go home," we had an actual fire truck show up and it was as amazing as you might imagine. 

His face when he saw it sums up why parenting is totally worth it. Pure thrill. 

So many special privileges for the birthday boy. 

Also, this is apparently real life. 

All 3 of my boys....and Jack Brimer!

I will always love this memory. 

One of the firemen said, "We have been to a lot of parties and we have never seen a kid this into it." 

Yes, we can believe that, actually. 

That tape on his fire hat? That is the result of hard core fire fighting for the last 9 months. 

Also, I love when  people ask Max if he wants to be a fireman when he grows up and he sort of stares at them. I have to explain that he already IS a fireman, which explains the confusion. 

A few videos:

Max putting out the fires

Singing Happy Birthday to Max

 Seriously, this girl wins every.single.time. just being so stinking cute, 

sitting by the pool eating cheetos. 

I was there!!! possibly giving orders

 We are so lucky to have so many amazing people to help us celebrate this boy. 

Also, thankful for Bobble Cole's ability to make awesome cupcake toppers, Sams' bakery for supplying the food for my kids' childhood & this awesome guy for being on it at a  party. 

Have I mentioned that we know a balloon man? Also, how cute is Jack here?

We basically took over the pool. 

Noni was such a help, as always. There is nothing like me texting her the day of the party asking for a green tablecloth....

Also, Levi is a toddler; he is official now. 

When your party is outside/not at your house, you have ice cream sundaes with 7 toppings. 

These 2 cuties. Also, how about the fact that they have the same hair color??

GG was so dedicated to the party that she came 2 weekends in a row! Also, eternally grateful for how close Brandon & his mom are-it gives me so much hope for my adult boys. 

Such a fun time! 

In fact, it was so much fun that we stayed there all day/night with the cousins & ordered pizza for dinner. 

My goody bag obsession is a real thing. It is so weird, but I just love making goody bags and clearance shop all year for stuff for them. When I know that we are only going to have a few kids at a party, I can make them even more fun. My goal is less than $1 per bag and I usually am able to keep that amount because of my long term planning. I think I spent about .10 over this year, but wanted to add those NT fruit snacks once we added that as a theme. 

This was Reese's and the boys got Star Wars/Avengers instead of girlie stuff. 

So much detail on the goody bags; thanks for hanging in there.

It was definitely one of the best parties we could have done for Max & we are grateful to everyone who celebrated with us!

Anderson: almost 6 1/2

I like to document the boys' personalities and interests along the way  because I find it interesting to go back & read posts and see that they have not really changed. So, here is a little bit about Anderson:

OBSESSED with outside/nature. 

Every day starts with a sigh and, "Can we please just do something that involves wildlife today?"

Also, Science. "Can we please look at this under the microscope?" 

He rarely actually sits down, but I took this to document what his room looks like. I love an old pic that captures a room, so this is for future Melissa. 

Again, with the exploring/wildlife/nature obsession. 

I thought all boys were equal until we had Max and I now realize that Anderson's endurance for outside/physical activity is actually way more intense than normal. Max also loves being outside and being physical...in a normal way. Anderson would spend 15 hours outside and STILL complain about having to come inside. 

He finished up a season of flag football where he held his own with the 8 and 9 year olds. (There were not enough  6 year olds who signed up, so he had to be bumped up.) 

I love this pic, which captures by 3 boys. Anderson running to Brandon to get football advice & Max just finding something to play on/roll toys on. 

Perhaps is favorite place to be in the backyard at Noni's, just roaming around with Bop doing stuff. 

I didn't get to go on the spring Kindergarten field trip, but Noah's mom kept me updated with pics. 

Also, she sent me a copy of the basketball team pic that I was too cheap to buy.

 Look at that baller in the rec specs. 

When your Noni works at the Y, you get perks like backstage passes to feed the chickens. 

He loves this new GIANT fire truck that GG got for Max. It is pretty cool because it actually shoots out water. 

I did get to attend the "End of Year" party and captured him in all of his intensity-the boy loves a competition.