Arabelle is 8 years old!

It is so hard to believe Arabelle is 8 years old! Arabelle is such a fun, silly girl who is competitive, generous, and loving. She is such a great big sister to all three of her siblings!

We started celebrating a few days before her birthday since Jared would be gone on her actual birthday. We grilled hamburgers and hotdogs for supper and let her open a small gift. Here's a video of her opening the gift (bracelet making kit).

Last day as a SEVEN year old! 

Silly and seven! While Jared was out of town, I let each kid (well, not Zeke) sleep with me one night. Arabelle wanted to wake up on her birthday in my bed, so she slept with me the night before her birthday. She was a *little* excited.

Still dark outside, but too excited! Birthday pancakes and presents on her birthday, September 20th!

Zeke was up too. :)

I had planned a girls day out for Arabelle and I. Our sitters came at 10:30 and Arabelle spent the morning counting down the time. :)

First she got a hair cut and her nails painted.

Then we picked up her birthday donuts (what she chose instead of cake). She wanted caramel donuts for herself and we got some glazed and chocolate too.

We looked around a Belks some and tried on their fashion jewelry, then went to a local restaurant to eat lunch. She thought it was so fancy!

We had so much fun on our outing!

After the little kids napped, we picked up a milk shake before she had swim, then we met Papaw and Mamaw at Johnny's Pizza for ANOTHER celebration.

 Donuts and candles one more time. :)

I can't believe how quickly the last 8 years have gone by. She's half way to driving!

Bo is 6 years old!!

I can't believe Bo is SIX years old!! We have been counting down the days until his birthday for a long while now, so he was pretty excited. :)

On Friday, the day before his birthday, we celebrated with a pizza lunch (his choice). He was just a *little* excited. 

Four kids at a busy restaurant on Friday at lunch....whew!

Arabelle helped me pick out this Hot Wheels set for him. He was pumped! Here's Bo opening his gift.

Silly Mae. This was after she licked the top of the parmesan cheese shaker.

Bo wanted a plain white cake so he could decorate it with Hot Wheels. :)

I love how excited everyone gets for a family member's birthday.

Here's a bonus video of Mae and Zeke just being cute and eating cake.

Bo loved all the cards he received in the mail!

Here he is going to bed as a 5 year old for the last time!!

Yes, he sleeps in clothes instead of PJs (Mae does sometimes too). It's a battle I don't fight and I don't have to make him get dressed in the mornings, so it works out. Ha! 

I guess he was SO excited about his birthday that he couldn't sleep. He came down to our room at 4:30 am to say he couldn't sleep. He laid with us a few minutes and went back up stairs. At 5:00, I heard him over the baby monitor talking to Zeke and Zeke was squealing back. Ughhhhh!!! I went up and he had his closet light on and the closet door open and was giving Zeke toys. I sent Bo down to my bed and tried to get Zeke back to sleep, but wasn't successful. I'll be honest....I was MAD!! I gave up at 5:45 and took Zeke down and we started making the birthday pancakes. 

I always make the birthday kid a pancake in the shape of their birthday number. He was excited to get a "6" pancake. 

We left the house at 7:30 to meet Mamaw so she could take Zeke and the rest of us went to Wild Adventures! Mae has never been to a theme park and the big kids haven't been since last August, so everyone was excited!! I spent the ride trying to not be a tired grump and getting myself into a better mood. :-p

Bo always with the silly faces.....

The first ride! It was a little one that Arabelle was too tall to ride and Bo was BORED. Ha! Mae was unsure, but then LOVED all the little rides so much. She rode this one at least 5 times. Here's the video. 

My ride buddy. I loved it!

We all rode a small roller coaster and Mae DID NOT like it at all! Arabelle and Bo loved it and rode it several more times that day.

Mae and I went down the big pink slide together, then Arabelle and Bo went together. They were supposed to wait for a thumbs up to slide, then race down, but Bo went first. Arabelle wasn't happy. Ha! Here's their video. 
Queen of the train! She rode it a lot too. Here is a video of Mae on the train.

Bumper cars for the big kids and daddy! Here is a video of the ride.

Free ice cream sandwich!!

This ride was so funny to watch. I remembered riding it with Bo the summer he turned 2 and he didn't like it AT ALL. He LOVED it this time! Here is a video of the ride.  He rode it three times in a row!

Back in August 2012! 

He was so excited all day!! We split up some and Jared took the big kids on roller coasters and I took Mae to the little climbing play area and on some of her smaller rides, so I don't have any pictures of them on the BIG rides.

This was after Arabelle rode the biggest ride they have and nearly got sick. Oops!

Big roller coaster with Daddy!

After the rides, we went to water slides. It was pretty crowded, but the kids had a blast! We spent a couple hours on water slides, the lazy river, and the wave pool, then had some ice cream and rode a few more rides before heading out to the car.

Mae got some cool new sunglasses, which she ALWAYS wears upside down.

We go home at 6:30 and were wiped out!!

Mamaw and Papaw brought Zeke home a little later and we were all asleep by 9:00.

One of the first times holding Bo and now:

We loved celebrating our newly SIX year old Bo!