Mason's 6!

I can't believe it happened... Mason turned 6 years old yesterday.  He's getting to be such a grown up. 

I have to admit.. Having him turn 6 was hard for me.  It's too old for him!  He's still my little Mason baby.  The other hard thing for me was to have his birthday share Mother's day again.  Last time that happened he was being born.  It sounds like the best thing to have happen to a mother on Mother's Day but it was a pretty traumatic day for both of us.

He loved his presents and his brothers playing with him.  His best pal, 'Reg' (his grandma) gave him an interactive teddy.  He's pretty smitten with it.

Ezra was pretty interested in everything going on too.

Here's Mason playing with his new teddy.

Every year to celebrate Mason's birthday we get together at a local park and play with cousins and friends.  Mason seems to like it.  This year the crowd was sparse, but we loved everyone that could make it to celebrate our 6 year old. 

He got all sorts of money and he's thinking of replacing his ipod shuffle that got lost.  He misses his portable 'High School Musical' fix.  I always make him a cake.  This year seemed much lazier than others..  Mason didn't mind.

He was so happy when everyone sang to him.  I think that's the best part of his birthday.

Some of the birthday crowd..

More of the birthday crowd...

My kids adore thier cousins 'the Crabby's'.  They have all helped me with babysitting all 3 of my boys and we live close enough that they see each other a lot.  What would we do without the Crabby's!?

My kids also love their great Granny Olsen.  She never misses anything!  She is always so happy and darling with all of the kids. 

Mason was all ready to dig into his cake, but decided that he'd rather not.  (The gagging and choking when we tried made his decision for him!)

Ethan was probably more excited for the birthday than Mason was.  That's just what big brother's are for!

Alligator Video from the Everglades~

This is the small video I got of the Alligator we saw on our air boat ride in the everglades...

Our Day in the Everglades~

The one thing I really wanted to was to take an air boat tour of the everglades.  It was a bit of a drive to get there but completely worth it!

Our 'captain' was a funny and strange man.  He made no promises of spotting alligators but had a lot of fun facts about how many ways we could die in the everglades.

And luckily we did come across an alligator.  It was unreal how close that thing got to us.  It was following us around and would come right up to the boat and touch it with it's nose.  I was FREAKING out...

After our tour we went into the little preserve area they have for all the 'nuisance' alligators they have caught from people's yards....  yikes!  There was a guy that was doing a little 'alligator wrestling' show.  That was pretty amazing to see too.

Spen was so excited for this... I passed pretty quick.

The Jupiter Lighthouse~

Finally after finishing up with work Spen and I had one morning to see as many sights as we could fit in!  (Not a ton, but oh well!)

This was the closest I ever got to a beach...  It was pretty and nice, but cold.  I still loved it!

We went on the tour of the Jupiter lighthouse.

The idea here was to photoshop our pictures together...  I must have forgotten that I don't know how to do that!

We had a tour guide that gave us all sorts of historical facts.  It was fun.  We got in trouble here for not keeping up with the group.  We have always been trouble makers I guess.

This was the view from the lookout tiny deck of the lighthouse.  They couldn't really back up to get a better shot, but it gives you an idea..  Fun day.

Fun trip to Florida~

I think the only benefit of Spencer traveling for work so much are the few occasional trips we or I have been able to tag along for.  About a month or so ago my mom said she would watch my 3 kids so that I could join Spencer in Florida!  I was so excited and got all ready to spend a few days alone on the beach...  No such luck.  It was FREEZING!  Not like home, but I had to wear every long sleeved thing I took just to keep warm.  That also meant I had to get creative with planning my days while Spen was working.  Lucky for me it was spring training.  I went to a Cardnials vs. Mets game. 

My seat was so amazing. The only downside was it was in the shade. When it's already freezing outside and you aren't really prepared for that the shade isn't the way to go.  The person sitting next to me was a season ticket holder.  She and her husband never miss spring training for the Cardinals.  They were prepared.  She sat and watched me shiver for a while and then she wrapped me up in her big blanket that she and her husband were using.  I know, it's darling imagery... Me and a little old couple bundled up in the same blanket for an entire baseball game!

It was a very exciting game.  They had over 40 balls pop into the crowd.  Never seen that before!  Fun way to spend a day waiting for the husband to finish up with work!

California Cousins~

The best part about traveling to California is the family we have to visit.  Spencer has a sister there, my brother is there, and I have 2 cousins that live there too.  We had a chance to see all of them and it was so nice.  We went to Spen's sister Kasey's house for her baby's 1st birthday!  What perfect timing!  He was darling.  Ethan had just the best time with his cousins.  He didn't want to leave.  Mason wasn't so sure about the change of scenery, and Ezra tormented all of his cousins to tears anytime he was within 3 feet of them!  What a little baby bully!  I don't actually know why the older kids were so afraid of him.  Oh well.  Next time will be better.

Spen absolutely adores his neices and nephews.  He lights up when he gets to see them.  I'm sure he enjoys his siblings too but the kids are the real draw for him.  He talks about them and misses them.  He loves to play with them all and they all just eat him up too.

I don't really know how this game came about, I just know that Ezra was not invited to play and he was NOT happy about it!

After seeing Spen's family we had a chance to go to dinner with my cousins and then saw them again at my niece's baptism.  My whole family was able to make it for the event.  My sister drove her family in a huge RV -- "the house car".  The kids thought that was the coolest thing ever.  They stayed in a campground and we all joined them at this pool to play one afternoon.  Everyone went swimming but me.  Mason wasn't really prepared to go - I was sitting with him.  I didn't want to deal with the stress of taking care of him in the pool.  Of course my mom swooped in and became his hero.  She insisted that he had to go swimming with the rest of the kids.  He had the most fun of all of them I'm sure.  Thanks mom.

Santa Monica Pier~

This is a post that I hope Spencer doesn't see.  The reason for that??  It's a big reminder of the evening in traffic that followed and a touchy subject!~  After Spen was finished up with his work days we were headed to my brother's house to stay with him and his girls.  The reason we dragged the whole family along on this adventure was that my sweet niece was getting baptized and I desperately wanted to be there.  The business trip was just a great cover to get us all there and they covered a lot of the travel costs!  When we checked out of the hotel he asked what I wanted to do.  He wanted to drive straight to my brother's house (we would have made it there in just over an hour and missed any trace of traffic).  I wanted to go to the pier with the kids.  Here we are at the pier!~

It was very foggy and you couldn't actually see much.  The awesome part was that we parked right on the pier in handi parking and because we had handi parking it was free!!  Woo Hoo..  Mason really loved the sound and feeling of wheeling along the boards.  Ezra just wanted out of his stroller prison and Ethan just wanted to spend money on all of the extremely over-priced rides.  Ethan refuses to let me get a good picture of him.  One day I'll think it's funny but today it drives me nuts!

I really think Mason and I had the most fun.  Spen really just wanted to get on the road.  Did I mention that when we finally did get on the road it took us 5 hours to get to my brother's house?!!  It's shocking really.

One day Ezra will be able to run from me and my camera, but I'll stash him in pictures as long as I can.  Good thing Mason is such a good sport!  Poor kid will have to endure me forever!  We had a fun little walk but I think the consensus of the visit to the pier was that we should have passed and driven straight to Rusty's house.  Live and learn I guess.  Always trust traffic advice from a Californian!