Happy Birthday, Boys!!!!

On September 19th my boys turned 8 years old and 5 years old... and how old does that make me???  I guess old enough to have an 8 year old and a 5 year old!  ...enough said...  My boys are growing up way to fast!  I remember rocking Nicholas in the rocking chair upstairs in his room at our home in Washington, Iowa... I would rock him and think, "I can't even imagine my baby being so big that his feet would touch the arms of the chair!"  But sure enough, he grew and his feet touched the arms of the chair!  Then I remember staying home with him as a toddler and thinking, "I can't even imagine my baby being old enough to go to Kindergarten!"  But sure enough, he went!  And now he's in 2nd grade!!!  And then there's Tyler... my sweet baby Tyler!  Although he's still in preschool, it seems like all the baby is gone and all that's left is big boy... The other day he told his brother that he knew how to spell "Nicholas".  Of course, Nicholas challenged him by saying, "No you can't!"  And then Tyler blew us all away by spouting out, "N-I-C-H-O-L-A-S... see?  I told you!"  My own jaw dropped!  Tyler will always be my baby, though... a mama's boy through and through!  Such a sweet pumpkin! 
My boys are so different from each other... like oil and water most days!  But when they don't know that mom's watching, they're nice to each other!  They really do love each other!  And their differences will be such an asset to each other some day! 

This was on the boys' birthday!

Nick's first day of school... and yes, we go by "Nick" now!

Tyler's first day of school... and yes, he LOVES to pretend to read chapter books like his big bro!

So... today we had Nick's birthday party with his friends!  It's always an experience when you have 10 boys and 2 girls with only 2 adults to keep the peace!  With that being said, these kids are really awesome!  I'm so blessed that Nick has such an amazing group of friends!  Of course they were all loud and wild, but what 2nd grader isn't?!?  I think they all had a really fun time celebrating Nick's birthday, and that's what matters most!  I always love to sit back and watch Nick with his friends... I made an interesting discovery today... there are a whole lot of leaders and not too many followers in this group of friends!  These kiddos are going somewhere!  They're going to make something of themselves... become successful adults someday!  So, for now, even though it's somewhat difficult for them to strike up a football game or soccer game because they're all the "First Captains", I'm not worried about them!  They're going places!  Thanks to all our friends for coming to the party!  And thanks to all their parents who are obviously doing something right!

This is our crew, minus Devyn, who was hanging like a monkey on the playground equipment and said he was too tired to get down!  LOL!  If I was hanging like a monkey... wait I'm too tired to hang like a monkey!  LOL!