Ft. Wilderness/Disney Birthday Celebrations

 

This year we decided instead of spending so much money and time with multiple birthday parties that we would take a trip for all of our birthdays! I did some research and with some great recs we decided to stay at Ft. Wilderness Cabins and spend a day at the Magic Kingdom. My parents joined us too and a great time was had by all! Ft. Wilderness is so fun for kids. We enjoyed the Hoop De Doo Revue while we were there...it was so fun and the food was delish. My favorite was the Trails End breakfast buffet. I am still craving it to this day. We enjoyed having a golf cart to get around too...it is definitely a must have at the cabins! I love making memories with our crew...these our the times we will remember most...time spent together!

 

Ethan's 5th birthday Cupcake Party

 

 

We celebrated all the kids birthdays with a fun weekend away at Ft. Wilderness, but I couldn't resist having a little something for each kid on their actual birthdays. So, I gathered up a few of Ethan's closest friends and we celebrated with cupcakes in the park. Most of you that know me well know I love to throw parties and I am theme obsessed! These casual parties are not usually my cup of tea, but it was so nice to have a low stress and low maintenance celebration. You know what I discovered...my kids could careless if I have 1,000 items to go with the theme. They just loved running around with their friends and having a cupcakes and the singing of happy birthday! Thank you to my amazing friend Jaime for capturing these shots for me!

 

 

Happy 7th birthday Gavin!

I can't believe in a matter of weeks by boys went from 6 and 4 to 7 and 5! 

This week it's finally Gavin's turn! The boys countdown to their birthdays each year. Gavin was so excited when I told him this morning that today we got to celebrate him with cupcakes in the park and that tomorrow he would officially be 7! I remember his birthday vividly. Boy was that a difficult time for our family. An emergency c-section followed by a 2 week hospital stay with a mysterious infection not even the infectious disease dr could figure out. I didn't know if I would make it through that time, but here we are seven years later with our bright, creative, funny little guy. Gavin taught me to be a parent and got to be my only child for a whole 23 months. Not only did he teach me to be a mom, but he taught me how powerful the love for your child can be. Gavin hasn't changed a lot over the years. He has always been kind and loving. He is so sweet to his brother and sister and will help me out in a minute. He is a rule follower who strives to please and please he does. I am so very proud of him! His love for his brother runs deep and that makes my heart so happy.

 His patience for Chloe is like no other and I know God meant for him to be the oldest. 

And most important -He loves Legos! I mean really, really loves them! His friend Luke introduced him to the Mixels last year and the boy is obsessed!

Here are a few pics from his cupcake celebration yesterday afterschool with his best buds (and a gal). 

Last night of being a six year old!

 I am certainly am blessed beyond measure to call this blonde haired, blue eyed cutie my son! Happy 7th birthday Gavin Nicolas!

Halloween 2014

Still playing blog catch up here! I am sure I have said this before but I am not a scrapbooker. The thought of scrapbooking completely overwhelmes me, so I blog. I love that my family can look back on these posts one day and read my words and look at our photos and see the fun we have had. Speaking of fun, Halloween this year was so great. I invited many of our neighbors and hosted a little gathering in our driveway before we all went trick or treating. Each year it gets a little bigger! My little spider man didn't make the photos...I was so busy I didn't take many:( Gavin decided he wanted to be a ghost. Chloe wasn't into anything at the time so I just bought her a cute themed outfit. And Ethan was our superhero! Love that my kids are all so different! It was a great Halloween:) 

Easter weekend 2015

We had a fabulous Easter weekend. We usually stay in Orlando and I host some families at our home, but this year we decided to go to my parents for the weekend. With so much loss in our family in such a short time it was nice to spend time with family. It's always a bonus to visit Sebring now that our dear friends, the Julianos, are living there now as well. My friend Alison is one incredible woman...she is fighting cancer and raising five children in a new small town without any family. Her strength amazes me! She invited my whole family over to her house to celebrate together. It was such a great afternoon celebrating our risen Savior with the Juliano's and the Altman's. I love how God orchestrated all of our friendships and love even more that our daughters have each other.