I can't believe our little turkey is 7

WOW, last year just flew by (not to mention the 6 before that). I can't believe Caden is already 7. Evidently he feels differently about it. Cade woke-up the morning of his birthday and the first thing he said is, "Am I FINALLY 7?" I guess he'll spend the next year patiently waiting to turn 8. He wanted a turkey birthday cake this year (I think it's because he went to a Halloween themed birthday in Oct so he decided he'd need to do a Thanksgiving theme). It is probably the first ever turkey birthday cake, one of kind just like the birthday boy. He had a blast at his party. It was complete chaos from my viewpoint but we survived and everyone had fun. It was very hard for him to limit the number of guests and I was pleasantly surprised that he stuck pretty close to the limit I had set. He made the invitations and delivered them by himself (Mister Independent, as usual) so I was expecting most of the neighborhood. He loved all of the gifts. As he opened the gift card from Grandpa John and Grandma Patsy, his eyes got wide and he exclaimed, "They sent me a credit card. Now I can buy anything I want and not pay for it until later". Between the gift card and the cash Lindsay sent, Caden thought he was the riches 7 year old in the world. Of course, he went shopping immediately and was very pleased with the Stormtrooper helmet he picked-out. Always wanting to keep-up with big brother, Ethan is currently planning his 7th Birthday. I'm trying to convience him to just focus on being 4. Caden got to read a book to his class on his birthday and the kids and I went to listen. Caden had Ethan come sit up front on his chair with him. Ethan was so proud, he was in absolute Heaven. He doesn't see any reason why he shouldn't just skip the rest of pre-school and Kindergarden and go to school with Caden right now. They are all growing-up so fast.

Caden's Birthday

A day at the Zoo

Halloween

We had such a fun Halloween!! We had perfect trick-or-treating weather (normally we freeze while we're out) the kids didn't even need coats. We all had a good time walking around the neighborhood. We would have been done a lot faster if we'd let Caden and Ethan set the pace. They were sprinting from house to house and quite frankly, Justin, the girls and I were holding them back. I was surprised at how quickly Manoucheca got over her shyness when she realized there was candy at stake. The hardest part for her was to not stop and eat each piece. Vanessa was having a hard time walking in her Minnie Mouse feet so she was content to sit in the wagon and have Dad pull her around while Caden brought her share of the candy to her. She was quite the little diva. Towards the end, all four kids plus a family friend managed to climb aboard the wagon and let Justin tow them. I estimate that he was pulling about 190 lbs and not even complaining. He's such a good sport. Caden would have hit every house in the valley if we would have been willing. He doesn't even like candy that much but he loves to trick-or-treat. He is such a social kid. Ethan was really proud of his costume and was excited that Caden and he were BOTH power rangers. He looks-up to his big brother a lot. So, it meant a lot to him that Caden thought Ethan's costume was cool enough that he wanted to be a ranger too.

We had waited until the Tuesday before Halloween to carve pumpkins and I'm glad we did. They were already getting mushy by Saturday. The kids had fun carving (or making mom carve) the pumpkins they picked out. Caden did his entirely by himself. Ethan wanted his to look like "Big Green Monster" his favorite book so he had me carve it. I'll tell you, scraggely hair is hard to carve. I wouldn't let the girls play with knives so they just told me how they wanted the eyes, etc.. I did allow them to clean-out most of the seeds however. They didn't enjoy that slimy part, especially Vanessa. Not surprisingly, Ethan didn't mind playing in the slime one bit.

BOO!!