5 Year old Westyn

Westyn is pretty difficult to get to sit still for pictures so we're rather limited on pictures to choose from.  He knew exactly what he wanted for his birthday party and made sure I knew every detail.  Will said it's my fault for setting the bar high from previous parties I've done for Lilyanah.  When Westyn started asking for a lego batman cake with every color of the rainbow I knew Will was right.  Instead he got a white cake with a road coming off it so I could set his Lego batcave & batcar on it.  We put the candles on the corner so less pieces were ruined by his blowing them out spit.  : )  Since we were doing a little party we decided to all dress up like superheroes or villians mostly from Batman.  Daddy was Superman again but Lilyanah dressed like Cat girl, Ethne like Harley Quinn (who the kids called "Harry Queen" up until about a month ago because they thought that was her name, Westyn was obviously Batman & I'm Robin Girl wearing Ethne's tank top which explains why the R is so low.  I just love Westyn's serious face, that's what he does when you tell him to pose like Batman.  I think he's captured his essence quite well.  : )  The costumes arrived a couple of days before Westyn's party and the kids spent hours running around playing hero and villians.  You can see Batman and Harley Quinn battling it out in one of the pictures.

We had a few of Westyn's friends over for a dinner party on Sunday night, the day before his birthday.  Grandpa made an obstacle course for them to go through downstairs including a red yarn 'laser field".  It was a great way to get some energy out and entertain 5 highly energetic boys.  I don't know how we made it without getting pictures of all of them.  Mason Hinman is the son of one of the women that comes to Bible study at our home.  He and Westyn are adorable and get along perfectly.  Jackson, Trace, & Ty Sorensen also came and dressed as Captain America, Ironman & baby Superman.  Westyn loves having them over.  That's Mason in his Spiderman pajamas.  He and Westyn were taking turns trying to throw something through the ring.
 I probably don't need to point out that Westyn's costume is at least one size too big!  It should fit perfectly next Halloween, so spoiler for our next Halloween post.  I had to include a picture of Ethne in her costume with her eyes open.  With five people in our family it's nearly impossible to get a picture with everyone looking at the camera, eyes open, let alone actually smiling!  I just love her costume, the reviews on it were awful on amazon but apparently we got a good one that you'll also be seeing next Halloween.  : )  Fortunately, the costume Lilyanah chose is very versatile.  She can be Bat girl, Cat girl, a super spy, a thief, a panther. . . .  the possibilities are endless, so you'll just have to check in next Halloween to see what she chooses.
The final picture is Westyn covered in his birthday cake.  I'll admit I had a little crumb on my chin too but nothing like his face.  : )  I'm wearing a shirt that Will and I got after completing my first 5k & our first 5k together The Workforce Challenge in downtown Albany, NY. 
I can hardly believe our little Westyn is already 5 years old.  On his actual birthday I gave him the choice of what he wanted to do and as result spent over 4 hours playing Batman Lego on the Wii that Dad and Mom gave us for Christmas.  Four hours was my limit,with a headache from looking at the tv for too long I had to quit! Needless ot say, his favorite thing is anything Batman.  When I asked him his favorite colors he said yellow and black.
 Westyn is such a laid back little boy and such a joy to all of us. I am so immensely blessed not only to be his mommy, but to get to spend every day at home with him.  He has so much joy in his little heart, laughing through most of our days and most importantly will tell you how much he loves God.  In fact, when I talk to him about how much I'm going to miss him when he leaves for kindergarten next year he says, "don't worry Mommy, God is with you, you won't be alone."  If I teach him nothing else but that God is always with Him I will have done my job.  .  I feel so humbled to be raising a little man who will some day have a family of his own.  We are doing our best to try to teach him to be a gentleman and good helper around the house.  He takes being a gentleman quite seriously but REALLY does NOT like doing housework.  : (  I have my work cut out for me.  He is a very talented chef.  The kid can break eggs and stir things without spilling them all over the place.  Just the other morning he mixed pancake batter up for himself.  I was supervising of course.  Mom measured him and he and Ethne are separated now only by 1/2".  He is 45 1/2" tall and weighs about 53 lbs.  He's our little cuddler and can melt my heart as much now as the day he was born.  Thanks be to God for blessing our family with our Westyn Jack.

Halloween 2013

  Last year the kids weren't allowed to dress up for Halloween so they were extra excited to be able to wear costumes this year.  I am proud to announce that this was our first year since the girls have had an opportunity to dress up that we have been "princess-free".  Lilyanah chose to be a ballerina and Ethne went as "Robin girl".  My favorite part of her homemade costume is the R patch that my lovely and talented mama sewed for her.  She loved her costume so much she wore it for three days afterwards!  Next to Lilyanah is one of her best friends Maddie from up the street and by Ethne is little Madison, also a neighbor from around a couple of corners.

  

 The night of Halloween we had friends over for dinner (ghost shaped homemade pizza & mummy weinerwraps) before heading out to trick-or-treat together.  Lilyanah chose to be batgirl, Ethne was still Robin girl and Westyn went as Batman.  Rather than spend more than $100 on costumes we took the homemade costume route.  Will had the wig and glasses from being Will-I-am for a kareoke thing at work so he just went and bought a shirt and surprised us as Superman!  Since I'm writing it here I ruin it for later but Will joked about having me see what Dad wore that day and getting something to try to match as closely as possible and go around mimicking him all night.  Dad should take that as a compliment I think that the only thing keeping Will's costume from being Superman vs. dad is the clothes.  : )
Unforunately I only got one picture of little Westyn in his costume.  I had a full outfit for him including a black batman shirt and black pants but he was comfortable in what he was wearing.

  Trick-or-treating has changed significantly over the years.  This was the first year that we had to chase the kids down vs. leading them from house to house.  The kids never did seem to learn that you're only as fast as your slowest team mate.  The youngest little guy Jack was only 2 so they were waiting A LOT.  : )  Once they got t to the door they all wanted to ring the doorbell so we had to have them all take turns which worked out well.  It was drizzling the entire time but fortunately held off the hard rain until we were almost done.  You can see all the rain on Will's shirt where he was photo bombing the picture of Ayumi  

and Lilyanah.  Ayumi is one of Lilyanah's best friends in her class.  She moved here from Idaho this year after being there for 2 years (like us).  Her family originally came from Japan and she has been very sweet to Lilyanah writing her notes about how kind Lilyanah is.  She has also taught Lilyanah quite a bit of origami.  I think she was a pirate.
Halloween is also the end of budget season for Will and since the kids wanted him to be a part of our pumpkin carving we didn't end up carving our pumpkins until the night of Halloween.  Lilyanah was actually the only one who really cared to carve pumpkins.  So of course it was her pumpkin that had, shall we say, more than we bargained for?
Grandpa was helping cut the pumpkins open and when he cut open Lilyanah's they found little black bugs crawling all around inside of it.  Lilyanah was DEVASTATED.  Grandpa did everything he could to make it right, driving all over to try to find a pumpkin for her but there were none to be found. I had what I thought was a brilliant idea to set the pumpkin on fire and have a Halloween bonfire in the front.  Kill those nasty little buggers!  Lilyanah warmed up after quite a few "MYYYYY PUMPKINNNNNN" sobs.  The kids all roasted some hot dogs before calling it a night.  I told the kids anyone can carve a pumpkin but how many people do you know having a pumpkin bonfire!?

The next day grandpa found a cooking pumpkin in the grocery store and brought that home making Lilyanah, who FINALLY got to carve her very own pumpkin, very happy.