Happy 5th Birthday Mac

Mac today you turn 5 years old. We are so proud of you and the boy are becoming. You are no longer a baby, but a big boy. You love to hang out with John Lawrence and his friends, but you are wanting to have your own friends too. You run to the beat of your own drum and we love that about you.

Right now you are big into clothes and having your own style. Things you like to wear are an under armour sleeveless shirt (no matter if it is cold outside), jeans, belts, a chain from the front of your jeans to the back. You are going to play basketball this winter and you knew you wanted high top basketball shoes, so that is what you asked for your birthday. 

You love school and seem to do well. You are starting to want to work on your letters more and trying to make words. JL is trying to teach you how to add and multiply. Nothing like some good brotherly competition to get you motivated.

You love to ride your bike, jump on the trampoline, hang out in the treehouse and play with friends. We forget you are little most of the time, until it is late and you come to either me or Daddy and ask if we will cuddle with you. It melts us every time.

You are an absolute joy and  we love your little spirit. You know what you want and will stop at nothing until you get it. You keep our family on our toes and we would not have it any other way.

We love you Mac Attack!

Mac's Thanksgiving Feast

Last week Mac's school had a Thanksgiving Feast and Performance. He loved it! He had to learn 4 songs with hand motions and a couple of verses and a prayer. He was a great pilgrim! We ate lunch at school and it was actually pretty good.

Their trees

The boys both have their own Christmas trees for their rooms. They take pride in setting them up all by themselves and getting to decide where the ornaments will hang. They turn them on throughout the month without me even having to remind them. Our family loves Christmas and you can see it being passed down through the boys as well.

I will admit I got some of our inside Christmas decorations out before Thanksgiving, so the boy's trees have been up for about 2 weeks. During the first week of the time change (always hard on mom-they are early risers) Mason went to give the boys a kiss before he went to work at 6:15am and JL had already turned on his tree and he and Mac were in bed singing Jingle Bells. That is what it is all about. This week the boys are getting back to their 7-7:30am wake up time. Thank Goodness!

Operation Chirstmas Child

This week is National Collection week for Operation Christmas Child and we turned in our shoes boxes yesterday. This was our first year to fill a shoebox and I must say it was such a good experience! We chose to fill two boxes that were for boys the same age as JL and Mac. The boys went shopping with me to pick out all of the items to put in the boxes.

JL truly got the concept and really wanted to give his boy great stuff for Christmas. Mac on the other hand, got the concept, but was still torn about parting with all the great candy and toys. We also included some basic items such as a toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, washcloth, socks and then some fun stuff like markers, crayons, paper, toys, candy, flashlight, batteries.

We took the boxes to a local church and we were amazed at the amount of shoe boxes that were already colected. It was such a great learning experience for the boys and it is something we will definitely do again.

We  filled out some information online and this will enable us to track our boxes and see where they end up. That will be the exciting part!

Mac's Room

This is what Mac's room looks like everyday. He is back to changing some part of his outfit about 5 times a day. It makes me crazy!!!!!

Disney World -Day 5 Magic Kingdom

This was a our final day in the park, so we decided to go back to Magic Kingdom. We rode all of our favorite rides again and again. The boys even got me on Splash Mountain! The hit of the day again was Space Mountain of course.

We had an absolute ball and could not have asked for a better trip! The boys never complained about being tired or all of the walking. We actually were trying to keep up with them! It was awesome having Pop and GranJan with us on the trip. They were fun and the kids loved having them there. It was a trip of a lifetime and we will definitely go back in a couple of years.

Disney World -Day 4 Animal Kingdom

We got to Animal Kingdom when it opened and this day was supposed to be filled with rain. It rained as we were making our way to the park and rained for the first 15 minutes we were there. It then did not rain again until about 5:00pm and it was a light rain. It turned out to be an overcast day, which was perfect for Animal Kingdom. We really had a good time at this park. We thought we may only stay here for a couple of hours, but ended up here till about 5:30pm. It was a great day and a wonderful park.

Favorite Rides:
Expedition Everest: Roller coaster, of course the boys favorite ride
Kilimanjaro Safaris: Everyone loved the safaris
Kali River Rapids: We wore our ponchos, so we did not get so wet.
Boneyard Playground
Festival of the Lion King: Great show, We all loved it!

We ate dinner at the Rain Forest Cafe in Downtown Disney. I included some pictures. The food was just ok, but the decor was amazing. There was a thunderstorm inside every 30 minutes, which the boys thought was super cool.

Rainforest Cafe

Rainforest Cafe

Rainforest Cafe

Rainforest Cafe