Jude's 7th Birthday Party at JUMP!

This year for Jude's Birthday, he wanted his party to be at our local trampoline park, JUMP. Sweet! We celebrated about two weeks after his actual Birthday to give the holidays a chance to fade and make this a special day.

It was great! Very little set-up for us, we brought the cake and they provided pizza and drinks. It was amazing!

Do the "dab". Apparently it's a thing.

Jude wanted a Nerf Gun theme and asked specifically for "tiny nerf guns" on his cake. This was the best I could come up with and I think it turned out alright.

The Scholz and the Calderwoods both drove all the way to Charlottesville to be there for the party!

Waiting for the kids to arrive:

We had quite the crowd. Ever the peacemaker and friend to all, Jude insisted we invite his ENTIRE class. So we did. I think we had about 25 kids all together!

And now for a million pictures of kids jumping:

Mason! We were so glad he could make it!

This is Alex, one of Jude's best friends at school. 

This foam pit was lots of fun, but it totally felt like quicksand once you landed. It was nearly impossible for some of the little kids to climb out without help.

Go, Daddy, go!

Lily is a little daredevil and had a blast.

Lance showing off his moves:

Grant!

Aunt Laura to the rescue! Lily kept hopping in from the side without waiting her turn. I don't know what it is about a line that is so difficult to understand, but it felt like I had to re-explain "waiting your turn" about 100 times.

Callie and Bryce

Birthday boy!

Go Cole!

Lance and Killian

These kids were getting high!

Thanks, Aunt Jen! Lexi adores her Aunt!

They have a ninja course that Bryce tried out. 

Bryce's cheering section:

The kids jumped for an hour and then came back for pizza and cake.

I can't believe this handsome boy is 7 years old!

We had so many friends come!

Little Austin getting help from Uncle Eric

Someone was having fun. This was a dream come true to be surrounded by his buddies and family.

Lexi got passed around to tall the adults while I took pictures and George did crowd control.

It was perfect! So many fun friends and family, cake, food, bouncing, and best of all--no clean up! YES!

That night Jude got to open his gifts. The highlight? Callie and Bryce got Jude, Cole and Lily Hatchimals for their birthdays! (They brought all three so the kids could open them together. Smart.)

Cole especially was ecstatic!

It's hatching!

Thank you, Callie and Bryce!

Happy, happy Birthday, Jude! We love having you as part of our family. Your enthusiasm for life and your never-faltering smile brings us so much joy. You try so hard to be good and your love for people shows in everything you do. I am loving being your mom. Thank you for teaching me great patience and setting a perfect example of how to find happiness in the every day. We love you!

January: a Birthday, heartbreak, and school work

Woo. Nothing like being more than four months behind on our family journal! For the sake of catching up, I'll post-date these entries to approximately where they occur in the year and try to fly through them. Wish me luck!

The kids are loving the new play set and insist on playing on it even in the snow. One day we will finally finish the slides, but until the, the swings are awesome.

January 2nd was Jude's 7th Birthday! We let him pick dinner that night and he chose Chick-fil-a. I can't believe how big this kid is getting. 

On New Years we received terrible news. Tyler's baby brother Connor overdosed accidentally and was in the hospital on life support. Because there was nothing that could be done, the family decided to pull life support and allow Conner to donate his organs to others in need. It broadsided us--you never in a million years think something like this would happen to someone you know. Our hearts were broken for the Calderwood family.

I came up to Ashburn with the kids so I could attend the funeral while George worked and held down the fort at home. Tyler asked me to make a special shirt for him to wear at the open house with the Cowboy's star (Connor's favorite team), his number 46 from his football days, and an SB for Stone Bridge High School.

I was grateful I could do something for Tyler, helping in a small way to make a terrible day maybe a bit brighter.  

George's parents were wonderful and watched the kids while I ran errands and helped with preparations. Nothing like making homemade sushi with Grandmom!

As painful as it was to attend the open house the night before the funeral, it was really really nice to see so many people I grew up with. So many families came into town from other states to honor Connor and support his family. This man was deeply loved by so many.

Lily was a good helper and kept Lexi happy.

The funeral was beautiful and touching and I was grateful to be there to celebrate Connor's life and grieve with his family.

Life for us continues as it does. Lily has found a desire for fashion and loves to dress up with her stick-on earrings she got as a gift from Aunt Jen.  

In an effort to record sweet moments, I took pictures of some of the notes and pictures the kids have done in the past few months:

A note from Jude at Thanksgiving:

Letter from Jude:

(back)

Cole is doing well in preschool and is finally starting to get used to the routine. Here is a self-portrait he drew one day in the fall:

Another note from Jude:

Drawing has never really been important to Jude (it's more of Cole's thing), but like most things, Jude picks it up quickly. I think his cardinal is beautiful! 

Lexi's 6-month appointment went well! She's growing like a weed at 18.5 lbs. 

Cole's preschool sends pictures via a special app, but I haven't figured out how to pull the pictures off. Here are a few that I finally was able to get:

Learning about Johnny Appleseed:

(Cole's in the front on the right side with the pot over his face)

Doing his favorite thing and playing on the play ground:

Every Friday is show and tell day. Cole loves to bring in his stuffed animals. This particular one he named "Flower".

Never too young to learn about your civic duty and privilege!

The teachers tell me that his favorite activity (beside playing outside) is doing art.

Cole was head over heals excited to get to meet Santa! He's been wearing his blue Santa hat for months.

Sitting with friends. The kids are all really sweet to Cole and seem excited to see him when he comes. I'm grateful that even though Cole isn't the best at putting himself out there when it comes to making friends, these kiddos accept him just the way he is.