Happy Reformation Day! Happy Halloween!

"On Reformation Day, we glorify God for what he accomplished in 16th century Germany through His servant, Dr. Martin Luther -- the recovery of the gospel of salvation by grace through faith for Christ's sake. We also earnestly pray that God would keep all of us faithful to the true gospel and help us to joyfully declare it to the world. This lovely hymn verse encapsulates the theme of our Reformation celebration: 

By grace God's Son, our only Savior,  

Came down to earth to bear our sin. 

Was it because of your own merit  

That Jesus died your soul to win?  

No, it was grace, and grace alone, 

It brought Him from His heav'nly throne. "

from - Monergism.com

Our neighborhood celebrated Halloween last night with our annual block party and trick or treating.  The kids had a blast running around the cul-de-sac and then going to some houses to get candy.  Samuel probably enjoyed coming home and handing out candy as much as he enjoyed trick or treating himself. 

Abigail really enjoyed her pizza and sat in the wagon for the first little while just taking it all in:)

 

Samuel with his friends Mario and Luigi

Ellie Kate found some other cute girls all dressed up

 

Samuel and his pirate princess friend (she is in his class at school)

finally going to Trick or Treat!

"Snow White" was at one of the houses and EK was totally mesmerized of course

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!  

Lego Party!

We hosted a Lego party for Samuel tonight.  It was his request.  I am really trying to get away from the big parties for him, but he has never requested anything before.  So since he did this time, I went with it and it was so fun!  I kept it pretty simple but the boys LOVED it!  This is a perfect age for a lego party because it is a very popular thing right now for Samuel and his friends.  It was WILD though!

the little invite i did...

 

my pitiful cake (it was gluten free but it didn't really matter because he had pizza anyway) 

favor bags

the boys each got one of these little kits to put together...it was fun to watch their different personalities as they did this

another little activity was for them to guess how many legos were in the jar

the fam 

(my chances for a good christmas card pic are just not looking good)

we were so excited that Jeff's parents made it to the party! 

birthday boy! 

some of the boys starting on their legos

silly boy

enjoying gluten and dairy filled food for the first time in awhile (i may regret this but I just didn't know how to deny him)

After everyone left, Samuel came up to me and said "Thank you for my party, Mama! It was so fun!"  Melt. My. Heart.  I love my sweet boy and am so happy he loved his party!!! It makes my heart so full to give him something he really wanted. 

Pumpkins!

So, with our crazy schedule this week, we might not actually get to carving a pumpkin.  Sad, I know!  I don't actually think our kids will even notice though:).   Soooo, I decided to at least try to attempt a few pics in front of the house with our non carved pumpkins and pretty mums. 

It's really just about impossible to get a good pic of all 3 at these ages.  I sure do try though.  I'm trying to figure out how I'm going to get a good Christmas Card pic (basically, what kind of bribery can I bring or offer?)! 

 

Fall Festival!

Sunday afternoon our church hosted a fall festival!  The kids had a great time as usual dressing up and getting a little bit of candy.  The girls were fairy princesses and Samuel was a redneck Alabama fan with rotted out teeth and a gold chain along with his Alabama jersey.  He loved showing everyone his teeth and making them laugh!  It was cute. 

the loved the jump house...

Abigail was unsure at first since she had never done one before, but once she got the hang of it, she didn't want to get out the entire time! 

face painting

Samuel did this fishing game at least 10 times

Ellie Kate and Neely...best friends forever:)

Neely and EK were so cute doing the bouncy slide thing over and over and over again.  I'm so thankful she has such a sweet friend! 

I'm pretty sure my girls were the last ones out of the bounce house

We Have a Birthday Boy!

Samuel turned 8 years old today!  This is SO hard to believe.  I can't believe he is getting so big.  We had a great day celebrating my little man today.  He got to open one present before school today which was definitely exciting to him!  After I picked him up from school, we went to Sonic and got a strawberry slushy for a fun cheap (it was happy hour) treat!  His teacher gave him a no homework pass and he talked about this for most of the afternoon.  After that treat, he really may not have even needed any presents from us! Ha! Seriously, no homework to Samuel is a BIG DEAL!  When daddy got home, he got to open presents and then we went to eat dinner at his choice (Jason's Deli). 

Ellie Kate and Abigail were really excited for Samuel too.  So sweet! 

Samuel opening the present that Ellie Kate picked out (she of course had already told him what it was)

and he still acted genuinely excited about it...A SNAKE!  

Abigail actually smiled for the camera!!! Maybe I have some hope for next week when we celebrate her birthday:)  She was obsessed with this card for Samuel that sang the Happy Birthday song...

LEGOS!!! 

This is your hint for what kind of birthday he requested this year! 

Birthdays for Samuel are always a tiny bit bitter sweet for me.  Thankfully not for him yet.  It hurts my heart that I don't know his birth story (or his first 3 years for that matter).  I always think of his birth mom and what it must have been like to leave him.  I'm thankful that our Father chose our precious Samuel for us.  I'm so thankful that we get to celebrate his birthdays and love on him and cherish him as our son!!!