Jake's 5th Birthday!

I'm still trying to figure how five years have past since Jake was born. What an amazingly sweet, funny and absolutely wonderful little guy we have!

Five feels big! So I started planning accordingly.

They celebrated his birthday on Friday. His classroom was decorated, he had a birthday crown, his friends all drew him pictures for his birthday book and they had bananas dipped in chocolate at Jake's request.

And guess who else was celebrating a birthday...one of our favorites, Max turned 2 on November 16!

On the morning of his birthday Jake woke up to balloons all over his room. He came into our bedroom and climbed up in bed looked at me very concerned and said, "mama, there are balls all over my room!" He was so cute and once I reminded him that it was his birthday and that they were happy birthday balloons he thought it was awesome. 

That morning we opened up a few presents from the family and had a relaxed morning watching football. 

Super Heroes, Star Wars, Ninjago...Oh my!

Birthday time-out for GameDay in Eugene!

Following presents, Alex and Jake went to see "Wreck-it Ralph" which they both loved. Alex was happy that he convinced Jake that 5 wasn't to old that he couldn't snuggle on his lap and share popcorn during the movie.

After celebrating another birthday boy, Max, we left Allie at home with a sitter to go out with Jake for a big boy dinner date. When we got to Chez Zee they had this special sign out for the birthday boy. We had a really nice dinner although Jake was worn out from the birthday excitement and running around with his friends at Max's party. He was even too tired to eat his birthday dessert but don't worry we took it home and had some for breakfast!

Sunday was Jake's party at Dart Bowl, the bowling alley equivalent of a dive bar. Although I don't think Jake cared much about the bowling but loved seeing his friends!

Drawing and hanging out before cake!

Post-party silliness with Jacob!

More presents! Thank you, friends!

A happy and worn out boy! We all love you so much and are so happy that you're ours! Love you, Jake!!!

Outstanding October!

We started October in the best possible way, celebrating Allie's 1st birthday on the 1st! We were traveling home from Santa Fe on her actual birthday so we celebrated the following weekend.

Who knew that the doctor's office could be so fun! Thankfully we found a way to entertain ourselves while we waited for Dr. Rusk. I'm happy to report that Allie is perfect. A whopping 22 pounds and is doing fantastic!

Mimi came to town on Saturday to help us celebrate Allie's birthday. See all about Allie's party here or keep scrolling to the bottom of this post.

After coming to Allie's birthday in the morning, our good friends the Menfi's had birthdays to celebrate as well. So with Mimi and Allie having some play time together, Alex and I headed out with just Jake for John and Ava's party. Jake's taking gymnastics right now and his skills were evident!

The next day Jake's school was closed for one of the zillion fall Jewish holidays so I took the day off with Jake and Mimi we headed out to the pumpkin patch at Sweet Berry Farms. We met up with the J-crew also known as Jake, Jackie, Jack and Jacob. With their siblings (Allie went to her school that day), Ben, Gali and Max, 3 moms, a dad and a Mimi we were quite a group.

Jake loved feeding the goats

They looked like a J Crew add!

Bouncing on the huge trampoline

The barrel train!

When "Great" asked what she could get Allie for her birthday it was pretty hard for me to come up with anything until I saw this adorable shopping cart. Perfect for our little walker and a good place to store random toys.

Hmm...which one should I get?

We decided on the blue one.

My new dolly (thank you, Marylyn) likes it too!

One wonderful thing about moving to DC was that I got to know my mom's first cousin, Elliot, and his lovely family. What I love so much about the Schwartz-Fishman family is that they love being with each other and I always love being with them all! So we were excited to hear that Karen and Elliot would be kind of, sorta in our neighborhood. After quite a road trip, starting in Tuscon, they made a 7-hour detour to come and see us!

Saturday after breakfast at Kirby Lane, we headed out to Driftwood to take them to Duchman Winery and at Elliot's request to Salt Lick. 

Allie loves Uncle Elliot!

Go Allie, Go!

Had to stop for Salt Lick!

Ready for a nap?

Jake's class went on their first field trip of the year to Evergreen Farm. They went on a hayride, went through a maze and had tons of fun.

With his teacher, Miss Sarah

In the maze

2012-2013 Tigers

Our next visitor was my dad who came in to help out with the kids since Alex and I had overlapping trips. Bubba was happy to come and pitch in and hang out with the kiddos! He even got bonus time with Allie since her school was closed on Friday.

At tot Shabbat at the ECP. Allie loved it!

I got back to Austin on Friday afternoon and was so happy to be home. Bubba, Jake and Allie did great but I think Bubba was ready for a nap! Saturday, Bubba and Jake went to a movie and then we all ran some errands with a stop at Whole Foods for a treat. Allie loved the popscicle so much she probably could have eaten three more!.

We had a lazy Sunday morning with Jake enjoying some hot chocolate and Allie enjoying cuddles from Bubba before we headed out for a fun day.

We headed out to meet Mindy, a beautiful golden retriever, who family friends in Eugene fell in love with online and wanted someone to meet her before deciding if they should bring her home. We also got to meet two golden puppies who were so cute! I was happy and relieved that we didn't come home with them but man they were so cute! Then we headed to Zilker Park for a ride on the Zilker Zephyr!

Party at my Crib!

Bubba and Jake on the train

Jake the photographer!

Allie's was looking a little shaggy so we decided it might be time for her first haircut. I was hopeful that it would be better then Jake's first haircut...at least a little better.

We headed out on Saturday for the biggest Georgia game of the year: Georgia v. Florida. I was optimistic but...nervous since the Dawgs have only won this game three times since I've been with Alex. The years they won, 2004, 2007 and 2011 also corresponded with our wedding and the births of our babies. So seeing that we weren't getting married again and we're not getting pregnant again...I was nervous but the Dawgs won and it was awesome! The kids weren't going to last the whole game so the three of us left in the middle of the second quarter and watched the rest of the game at home. On his way home after the game, Alex called to check in and Jake asked if he could tell daddy something. I gave him the phone and he very excitedly said, "Daddy, you know what? The Dawgs WON!!!! Alex played along and it might have been my favorite part of the day!

We've started a new tradition with friends to have a monthly Shabbat dinner. We had a great time and are looking forward to hosting the dinner next month. These pictures of Allie and Max are too cute to not share.

When Jake makes up his mind about something he is set on it. He decided on being Luke Skywalker months ago and didn't waiver from it at all. Alex finally convinced me that Allie should be Princess Leia, since she is Luke's sister after all. So I ordered a little Leia hat, with the cinnamon buns and all, and it was so big that we had to go to Plan B. Or as Jake said, "Allie's hair didn't fit, it was too big so she couldn't be Princess Leia."

Luke!

Plan B-unny!

We headed out to Rosedale, a really cute neighborhood just a few miles south of us, to meet up with friends for pizza in the park and trick-or-treating. We quickly killed two bottle of wine and were ready to head out. First we attempted the impossible: get all the kiddos in a picture. Much to my amazement and to the credit of Shannan, our photographer, they did it! These kids are not only all adorable but they were so well-behaved and so much fun to be around.

We found a few more kiddos!

Mama and baby bunny!

We headed out to trick or treat with a ninja, a pirate, 2 power rangers, Luke Skywalker, 2 kitty kats, a peacock, a fireman, Princess Jasmine, a pumpkin and a baby bunny! It was team parenting at its best and a ton of fun!

So much fun but time to go home!