Jacob's Lego Surprise!

This kid is definitely my kid.

He loves surprises every bit as much as I do.

He's already told us that he prefers gifts wrapped as opposed to in a bag.

He says it makes the surprise last longer!

So I decided to do a surprise date with him.

To the Lego Store at Discover Mills.

As much as he loves Legos, he'd never been!

So many choices!!

He ended up with a batman set.

And a chocolate shake from Burger King.

In his little 9 year old mind,

that's heaven!

Christmas Eve

So it's kinda become a fun tradition for our family

to let the boys exchange gifts on Christmas eve.

They usually shop at the Dollar Tree

or Five Below and find something they think their siblings would like.

They wrap.  They present.

Fun to see them do for each other!

Jacob takes after me and LOVES gifts & surprises.

So naturally he LOVES to give them as well!!

Jarrett gave Blaine an iTunes gift card ...

... and Jacob Despicable Me 2.

Really, really generous of him ... and honestly surprised Bo and I a bit!

Did I already say I love this tradition??!

Awesome!

Only Jacob!

I love that I still get to have fun schoolwork like this come home.

From the sweet handwriting, to the sweet answers ...

it just makes a momma happy!

Jacob had done this in FOCUS one of the first weeks of school.

You'd think I'd love the fact that he put me down by the word beautiful ... and I do.

You'd think I'd love the fact that he thought of his brother (not sure which one) as courageous ... and I do.

But my absolute favorite?

COW RIPKIN!!

That is just about the cutest spelling mistake I've ever seen!!

Last Day 2013!

Another last day post ... goodness!

Just to refresh - here's the first day:

And the last:

I'm not sure if all schools do this (but they should!), 

but Mulberry lets the 5th graders parade around the school on the last day 

while all the 'underclassmen' stand in the halls and high five and cheer for them.

What a great send off!!

Of course there were lots of 5th grade parents there too ...

so special.

And all this is done while the song 'Celebration' by Kool and the Gang

is blaring over the intercom ... super fun!

Students, parents & teachers lining the halls ...

Love that Jarrett sported his new Dacula shirt ...

he's pumped about next year!

High fives all around!

Jacob standing with his class to cheer them on ...

After the parade, all the 5th graders gathered in the front atrium

to see what gift their class would leave to Mulberry.

This year it was especially neat, 

since this was the first group of kids to go from K-5 at the school.

This huge carpet will stay in the atrium for all to see as they enter the school.

All the 5th graders' names are on it.

Love!

And, of course, Jarrett had to limbo one last time.

Sniff!!

(somehow I missed Jacob limbo-ing to 3rd grade!)

Coming to the jeep after school ... one last time at Mulberry.

Honestly, I did get a bit of a lump in my throat at this point.

We have loved Mulberry so much.

I'm not a fan of change.

TIME, PLEASE STAND STILL!!

But when I saw that Christa had once again put the sign out ...

I let out a huge sigh and smiled.

It's gonna be a GREAT summer!

Jacob's First Hit!

This kid.

I can hardly take him.

With 2 older brothers that are pretty serious about baseball,

he's kinda a take-it-or-leave-it player.

Don't get me wrong.

He wants to win.

He wants to hit.

But I think he might be more about the social aspect!

Anyway, Bowdie had asked Jarrett to be Jacob's hitting coach.

Told him that he'd pay $1 for every hit Jacob got.

Jarrett worked with him.

Jacob didn't enjoy it.

Hits didn't come.

Until ....

dessert got involved.

I finally, on a whim, promised Jacob a DQ trip if he got a hit.

And guess what?

It totally worked!

The kid got his first (and only) hit of the season.

Yeah - he's totally motivated by ice cream.

Whatever it takes!

Here he is at third ... got so excited, 

forgot to snap pics of him at first!

He got the game ball!

Seriously, is that the sweetest smile or what?!

His buddies and team mates, Will & Nick, 

came with us to enjoy the treat!

Have We Lost Our Minds??!!

Quite possibly.

This baseball season we will have all 3 playing.

In three separate leagues.

Which means 3 separate games on any given day.

When there's only 2 of us!

The phrase 'divide and conquer' is taking on all new meaning.

This is Jacob's first season playing.

He'll be in the PeeWee league.

He's not much for practicing 

and doesn't really have the 'eye of the tiger' that the other 2 have,

so this should be an adventure.

I'm thinking he's more pumped for the snacks than the games!

Here are some shots from his very first game ...

Warming up ... literally and figuratively!

Taking some soft toss from Daddy ...

(who is head coaching Blaine's team and assisting the other 2)

Umm ... yeah.

This is about what I expected to happen during the game.

Better.

Love to see him run off the field

and low five his daddy!

LOVE!!

He walked to first -

Buds ...

Snack!

So fun to play with his best buds,

Nick and Will.

Gonna be an interesting GREAT season!

Go Nationals!!

Jacob's First Spend the Night Birthday!

We promised Jacob when he turned 8

that he could invite some friends over to spend the night for his birthday.

It's all he talked about leading up to the big day.

And, in true Jacob fashion, he had a list of about 10 kids he wanted to invite.

Because baseball season has started and schedules are a bit crazy,

Bowdie made him limit it to 5 friends.

Which ended up being absolutely perfect because,

due to the extremely cold weather,

Blaine and Jarrett both had games rescheduled for the night of the party!

But you know the great thing about the ballfield?

It comes with a playground.

And what's more fun to 7-8 year olds than a playground

and buddies to play on it with??!!

So we just took a little birthday party field trip,

watched Blaine's game,

and then resumed the party when we got back home.

It was really quite fun!

Love this shot so much ... just having fun!

On the way home, I let them watch some of a movie.

They thought that was great!

Eating pizza once back in the house ...

Jacob Dickinson

Nicholas Wiley

Will Mock

Ty Warbington

Can he really be 8??!!!!

Another ice cream/cookie/double doozey cake by Nana!

This shot pretty much captures the personalities ... perfectly.

I bought the game Headbanz for the boys to play, if needed.

I ended up playing with them.  So fun!!

Snuggled up for Ice Age!

Saturday morning Jacob decided to change it up and not do pancakes ...

he wanted Krispy Kreme donuts instead!

So, so fun.

Such sweet boys.

I love this age ... I need time to stand still!!!