Little Bear turns the big F.I.V.E!!!

 I love this little bear. He is my mini me, my little boy and makes me laugh every day!!!

1st birthday

He is a ham and LOVES the spotlight. He will do anything for a laugh, even if it's not very appropriate.

 He's always....ALWAYS been a snuggler. and LOVES his blanket!

He has always been a climber. (kind of like someone else I know).

 He can also be a little destructive, rarely on purpose. But he's a rough kid, and when you're a bit rough, things get broken.

He likes to feel "cool". He's my rock and roll kid.

 He rolls with his own style. He knows what he wants and he doesn't care what other people think of it (or at least he doesn't want you to know he cares)

 There is no happy medium. He's either loud and crazy, or calm and almost asleep...those are the moments I love the best. When he just wants to snuggle and love.

 He is my protector. He wants nothing more than to keep his momma safe. At all costs. I hope this never changes.

 I love this little boy of mine. He holds a special place in my heart. His heart is full of love and he wants nothing more than for everyone to be happy with him.

He's very creative!! No matter what it is, he will find something creative to do with it. He loves to draw, and color, and paint, and create. No matter the tool, no matter the canvas.

And now he's 5.
5
My little Bear is 5!!!
He's five and will be starting pre-school in just 7 weeks!!

Greg took him out to breakfast at 5am (no. that has nothing to do with the age he is turning. when one has to leave for work at 7:30, and a certain birthday boy comes into your room at 4:30 and has ZERO intention of falling asleep, there is nothing else to do but go out with your dad for a Birthday breakfast). We made him a shirt the day before and at 5am they headed off to breakfast!!!

 We made the puffy paint, so as the day went on, it chipped off. but it still looked pretty cool!!




Monday night we had a nice little family celebration where he got his cake and his big gift from his family.

Real baseballs

A REAL wooden bat

 Nothing is better to this little boy than a game of baseball. Baseball is is love and his life!
It makes me a bit sad that we are turning in blankets and binkys for baseball bats and mitts. But I love that he's found something he's passionate about and wants to do.

A throw back net

 He loves to be in the backyard practicing. He loves playing catch with anyone who will play with him.
If you've never heard of a throwback net, no fear. I hadn't either, so when Greg said that's what he wanted to get him I trusted him and we went with it.
That thing is AWESOME!!!!!!!

Pitching

NOTHING smells better than a new baseball

 He has quite an arm on him. When you play catch with him and he tells you to get a mitt, he's not kidding!! That kid can throw a ball! Someday we're going to get a hold of a radar gun to see how fast he can throw them.

A little cake and baseball while Daddy sets up the Throw-back net!














The more you help the faster it gets set up!

It took him about 10 mins to get the hang of it, but after he did, he LOVES it and uses it every day.

We have been very impressed with the dedication he has when it comes to baseball and practicing.

I can't wait until we can get him into little league!!

However, it's all fun and games until someone get's knocked in the nose. 

so while Gary was being consoled, Isaac decided to try is hand at the net and had so much fun!!!

 Meanwhile, Gary learned why it's important to put his mitt in front of his face, instead of always having it in "grounder" position.

Did he fix his mistake?!
Not right away,

But he can now confidently catch a ball that's coming right for his nose.

I typically go all out decoration wise for his birthday, I stay up late and start after they've gone to sleep. This year Greg had the GENIUS idea of just hanging balloons from the ceiling with streamers rather than string the streamers from one corner of the room to the other (like I normally do)
It was WAY better!!!!
When Gary got up he said it look like "raindrops not falling"

sidenote:
we got caught. while hanging streamers from his door he woke up and came out, he saw what we were doing, smiled the biggest smile, said "it's ok that I saw what you were doing because I haven't seen the rest of it yet!" and then went right back to bed!

 

 Isaac really wanted to make something for Gary for his birthday. So I found this tutorial by Martha Stewart and decided to give it a try on the white pillow case for Gary's long pillow..

Just so you know. You really do need the 90+% Isopropyl alcohol. Ours was only 70% and it didn't work that great...still looked coole enough for my little boys, just now what I was hoping for.

For his birthday PARTY, we apparently planned it on one of the busiest weekends, so only Greg's parents could attend, so we decided to take them and go bowling, another favorite activity of Gary's.

Gary did a really good job

Isaac got a little excited at times,
but also did a really good job!

Ashley had fun being passed around and held by everyone, or just sitting in the big chairs!

Call me crazy, but I think bowling shoes, especially little kid bowling shoes are the coolest shoes EVER!!!

Greg tried the whole game to get his m.p.h over 20. He finally did it at 21.07mph!!!

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  At the end of the day, Isaac won both games when it came to the kids.

1st game - Isaac 72 -- Gary 53

Greg 117 -- Sonya 99 

(I rarely break 100. Bowling is not my strong suit, but it's one of my favorite things to do)

2nd Game - Isaac 79 -- Gary 54

Greg 135 -- Sonya 112
Grandma and Grandpa smoked us all BOTH games.
It's like they were playing a completely different game!!!!!
I think it's because of the bumpers we got for the "kids"

I was very happy the bowling ally we went to allowed us to bring cupcakes.

He was treated with Funfetti cupcakes with Nutella frosting.

Ashely patiently waiting.

She was so good the whole day!!

He loved his pillow case!

 Grandma and Grandpa got Gary some new bases

and his very own "NEW MARINERS SHIRT!!"

And his very own "Mariners BALL!!"

 All in all it was a very successful Birthday!!

And now he's five.
And big.
But he still wants to sit on my lap and snuggle at the end of the day. So, I Guess, until he's done snuggling with his momma he's not big just yet. He's just getting there.