My Garden's Last Burst of Color

With fall approaching I wanted to capture my flower garden's last burst of color before I had to replant for the winter. This summer was such a good year for our flower garden. We had rain every week at the perfect time and I ended up not having to water one time. Huge thanks to the Big Guy for all that wonderful rain this spring and summer :) It sure did help make my flowers bloom beautifully!

A Trip to Uncle Clare's Pumpkin Patch

Every year Uncle Clare plants lots of pumpkins in his pumpkin patch. We've never helped harvest pumpkins before but this year we did and it was so much fun! This is definitely a tradition we hope we can continue next year. We got to their house and loaded up on the trailer with Zue-Zue, Mammy, and Harley Clare. Then Uncle Clare drove us around to the pumpkin patch where we got right to work harvesting pumpkins. 

Mammy and Uncle Clare's grandson, Brian, met us out there and he decided to search for the biggest pumpkin in the patch. I didn't get a picture of it but he definitely found the biggest one of the day!

Harley Clare wasn't that interested in the pumpkins this year, but I know next year she'll be toddling around trying to keep up with everyone. This year she was pretty content just to be in someone's arms. 

Josh used to help Clare with his pumpkins every year so this was a chance for him to relive the "good ole days." See how excited he looks :)

I thoroughly enjoyed my first pumpkin patch experience and can't wait to do it again!

Look at how many pumpkins we harvested!

The best part was that after we harvested all the pumpkins we got to pick some out so we could put them by our front door. Thanks for this fun experience Uncle Clare!

Hannah's Glowing 6th Birthday Party

Back in September we celebrated Hannah's 6th birthday at the local gymnastics place. Hannah requested a glow birthday party and Diane did a great job pulling that theme together! The kids played for a long time on the trampoline, balance beam, and the mats. Eli had lots of fun and actually showed me that he has really good balance. I was very impressed!

Once the kids had played for a long time, everyone went to the party room for some cake and ice cream. It was really cool looking with all the glow sticks around everything. 

We sang "Happy Birthday" to Hannah and then all the kids enjoyed their cake and ice cream. It's hard to believe that this sweet little girl is already six years old. Time flies by so quickly.

We're so blessed to be a part of this sweet family's life. We love them all so much! I love that our kids get to grow up together. Plus, in the very near future they'll also be our neighbors :) 

The kids played for a little longer after cake and ice cream and then it was time to go home. Eli gave Diane and Hannah "sweet lovies" before we left. They love each other so much :)

It was such a fun birthday party! Our lives are definitely brighter because we get to share life with this special family :)

A Note to Eli on the Eve of Your 6th Birthday

My dear sweet boy, tomorrow you turn 6 years old. It is so hard for me to wrap my mind around the fact that we have had you in our lives for 6 years now. Where did those 6 years go? It truly does feel like yesterday that they placed you in my arms and my heart grew immensely. If the love I feel for you is any indication of the love God feels for all of his children, the only word that comes to mind is "Wow." Eli, you are my heart and my soul. You are my sunshine and my light. I cherish every single moment I have with you and sometimes that isn't even enough. You are the sweetest and most precious little boy in the entire world. You have brought so much joy into our lives and made our lives so much fuller and richer.

Eli, you are so much fun these days. Of course, you've always been fun to me, but now you can do so much more. We talk and discuss everything. You love to know the ins and outs of everything. You ask so many questions on a daily basis and your daddy and I do our best to answer them all. I love how you're always thinking and always wondering. Keep being curious! You are one of the kindest boys I know. You care about others' feelings and go out of your way to make others feel better. You love to help and have started really contributing around the house with chores. I love having an extra pair of hands, too. You are so smart and the way your mind works amazes me somedays. You sat down the other day with a box of Legos, pulled out the directions, and put together the entire set perfectly without any help from us. We were so proud of you! You keep saying that one day you're going to grow up and be a worker man, but maybe that means engineer. You certainly love constructing and building things :)

You are reading so well these days and that makes my teacher heart happy. Your teacher told us last week that you brought one of your Fly Guy books to school and offered to read it to the class all on your own. I was shocked and so proud! I hope that you continue to love reading as much as you do now. It will open up a whole new world to you.

Eli, I could go on and on, but I'm going to do a post of all your favorites as a 6 year old very soon. More than anything I want you to know how much your Daddy and I love you. You are the best gift God has ever and will ever give us. You may be getting older each year, but you'll always be my precious little man :) Don't ever, ever, ever, ever forget how much I love you. I am so proud of you and I am so excited to see what incredible things God is going to do in your life and through your life. I love you, sweet boy!

Love,
Mommy