Quinten's 6th Birthday

Quinten was SOOOO excited for his 6th birthday this year! He had everything all planned out that he wanted for his special day, only he decided to wait and inform me all about it as he was getting on the bus that morning! So, in four hours, I threw together a very impromptu birthday party including a Death Star Cake (yep....had to google what the heck a Death Star was), a Darth Vader pinata, and party favors! This is what my Death Star cake turned out to be...

Thank heavens I have an awesome neighbor next door that told me to bake my cake in a bowl to make it round...life saver!

Nice Gav...

I'm so glad we have a neighborhood where we could just run around and grab friends for his birthday party even though it was totally last minute :)

We went out to Josh's parents house for Round #2 of birthday fun!

Gavin had an awesome time helping his brother open presents...and I'm pretty sure he stole a few in the process!

Quinten's cake Grandma Teena make him...

We (and by we, I mean everyone else while I stood around and took pictures) picked apples from Teena's awesome apple tree...

The boys loved taking out the new weapons for a test run...

Then they played around on the tramp...

We also took a couple of family pictures...

Then Grandma and Papa watched the kiddos while the rest of us hiked up to a waterfall that comes right out of the side of the mountain....

Uncle Shane decided he needed to cool off in the water and discovered that not only was it VERY cold but also very shallow in some spots :)

Gavin's 1st Day of Preschool

Well....this little guys wasn't as excited as Quinten was to start his first day of school! I was dreading that this was going to be a long year of having to drag him to school every day, but minus a few stubborn meltdowns (like not wanting to go on the field trip bus to the movie Puss & Boots!) he actually did really good. It was probably mainly due to the fact that his teacher is the best preschool teacher ever! Both of my boys have LOVED Mrs. Carter, and I'm so bummed this is our last year with her :(

Sitting at his table before school starts...

Quinten and me waiting for his class to get done :)

Gavin's look of... "Mom, do you really have to take ANOTHER picture of me today!"

Quinten's 1st Day of Kindergarten

He is OBSESSED with these frogs! They are from the game Flippin Frogs, and they are seriously my kids' favorite toys ever! I have to check his pant pockets every morning just to make sure he isn't trying to sneak them off to school.
I love how Quinten was only gone to school for 4 hours and Gavin acts like he has been gone for years...too cute!

Fishing

This past fall we took the boys on a little fishing trip with my dad and sister. We bought the boys new poles and decided it was time for them to do some real fishing...

I love how Gavin is giving me the look like... "Mom, why do you always have to take pictures of me like this?"

Grandpa catching grasshoppers with his hat for the boys to use as bait...

Gavin more or less just wanted to play with the poor things...

My sis and Wes

I pretty much packed around the munchkin and the camera the whole time :)

Quinten caught his first fish all by himself! Josh thought he was totally joking until he started reeling it in.

We also did a little rock throwing just to make sure we scared all the fish away.

Gavin also caught his first fish all by himself!

He also caught dad...

Then we roasted hot dogs over the fire...

The boys loved their first real fishing trip (minus one major meltdown when they got seriously stuck in the mud...we're talking lost boots and everything). And somehow they managed to walk away with the only two fish from the whole day :)