Frank is FIVE!

I cannot believe that my baby boy turned five years old yesterday.  It really is amazing how fast time flies.  Lately, I really feel like Frank is becoming a boy, a little man, and it is so amazing to watch him grow.  There are so many times when I look at him and feel like I am looking at myself.  Not just because he physically looks like me (which, he obviously does), but because so much of him and his personality comes from me.  My parents always told me I was a "difficult" child.  And I am now a stubborn, strong-willed, argumentative adult.  I have no doubt that he will be too.  But I was also creative, ambitious, hard working, and extremely intelligent - and I am proud that Frank shares those traits with me too.  He is going to be a leader, and he is going to do amazing things.

We celebrated Frank's birthday week with donuts at school on Monday and then pizza, cake, and presents last night.  It was great to spend some time at Frank's school with his class.  He was so happy to show us around his classroom.  We got to watch their morning circle time, and Frank was the leader, so he got to stand at the front of the class and help the teacher.  He held the flag while the class said the pledge of allegiance, and he got to call on other friends to answer questions.  Auntie Allison and Rylie came over last night for dinner and birthday cake.  Frank loved getting to spend some time with them, and he loved his gifts (a great improvement over last year).  We got him a tent, a big lego set, and a shark book.

I love my little boy so much, and I am thankful every day that God chose me to be his mom.  Even though he can drive me crazy, I hope he always knows how much I love him.  I never want to forget his contagious laughter when we tickle him, or how he always wants to tickle my armpits because he knows that will make me laugh.  I never want to forget that he always wants to be the first one to see Lily when she wakes up in the morning, and he bursts into her room and says "I'm coming to the rescue Sis!"  I never want to forget that he still prays for Shiny every night.  I never want to forget that he loves sharks, hates pants, and loves Halloween.  I never want to forget nights lying in his bed, telling him stories about the jungle, the ocean, and Central Africa.  I remember dancing with him when he was a baby, and reading him books and rocking him to sleep like it was yesterday.

Pumpkin patches, Halloween, Silver Dragons, and Great Wolf Lodge birthday celebration!

October was a very busy month, both for work and for family fun!  I found out the results of my big trial this month, and we lost.  It was very disappointing.  I put my heart and soul into that case for several months, and to get a bad result was heartbreaking.  But, I am trying to keep my head up and learn from it.  You cannot win them all!

This month I took the kids to the Flower Mound pumpkin patch with my sister and Rylie, instead of going to the Arboretum as we usually do.  It was great!  We picked out two giant pumpkins and two little ones, and the kids loved the bouncy houses, playground, maze, etc.  A few weeks later, the whole family went out to a different pumpkin patch in McKinney with the Manktelow family.  This one had horses, and Lily was SO EXCITED to ride a pony!  We had a wonderful family day.

Frankie has been playing baseball, and we are loving it.  He is….not hating it, so it is huge step up from soccer.  But I wouldn't say he loves it.  He has two friends on his team, and I know he likes going to practice and games, but he is not asking us to play constantly or anything like that.  He does great batting, but he gets bored and distracted out in the field.  I am hoping he will grow to love it, because we are really enjoying watching his team play!  He was awarded the game ball in his second game, and we were all so excited and proud of him!

A few weeks ago we spent the weekend at Great Wolf Lodge with the Davis family to celebrate Frank and Bennett turning 5!  The kids had a blast.  The boys and their dads arrived on Saturday around 1:00 p.m. and played their hearts out in the water park.  We met up with them around 4 after the little ones' naps, and then we all ate pizza and cupcakes together in our room and watched the Aggie game.  Our room had a "wolf den" area with bunk beds and a TV for the kids, and they loved it!  Although our family got no sleep --Lily refused to sleep in the bunk bed, and she woke up several times at night crying and having a really hard time going back to sleep.  We were all very exhausted the next day, but thank goodness for the Starbucks inside the hotel!  We spent the next morning at the water park again, and then decided to head home for lunch and naps.  The kids slept so hard, but we woke them up around 5 and headed back up to the hotel for more water park, dinner, and ice cream.  We ended up staying until 9:00 p.m., and we caught story time with the wolves, which both kids loved.  The hotel was pricey, but it was a really fun little stay cation for the kids and it was great to spend some time with the Davis family.

This last weekend was Halloween!  My parents came in town, and it was great to spend some time with them.  They manned our house while Frank and I took Frankie and Lily trick-or-treating with Allison and Rylie.  Frankie dressed up as a firefighter and Lily was Elsa.  They both were so cute running up to the houses and yelling "trick or treat!"  Our neighborhood does not get many trick or treaters, so most of the houses handed out huge handfuls of candy to our kids.  Several of the houses gave out full size candy, and a couple even gave out large bags with tons of candy inside.  It was nuts!  We also bought way too much candy, so now we are stuck with enough candy to last us for at least a year.