Happy 6th Birthday Jacob!

I have been meaning to do this blog since Monday (Jacob's birthday) but have not had a chance. Monday night Nathan got a horrible ear infection and he and I ended up in the ER for two hours. FUN! He then had a 103 temp I could not keep down all day yesterday. BUT as of today he is back to himself almost annoyingly so!:)

So Jacob is now six. I am not quite sure how this crept up on us but it is crazy to me that he is already that old. We decided to do a family day down at Shedd Aquarium and then let him pick dinner and a treat for dessert rather than make or normal cake. As we look forward to next year, there is a very good chance Ian could/will be deployed by this time next year so we thought it would be good to make some good family memories with birthdays this year.

So, Jacob's birthday started last Thursday actually when he got his first package from Gramps and Lolly with a big $20 bill. Jacob was ecstatic! He LOVES being able to go shopping with his own money so off to Toys R Us we went (we still had to do shopping from us and its great he is still totally oblivious and we can buy presents with him there:) I am sure this will be ending soon.) Jacob had been begging for this transformer Mudflat and we had planned on getting it for him but he could not be talked out of it and so that is what he picked with his money. Here is a picture of him from this morning when he transformed it from a crane to the "man" (or whatever its called)



Next came a package from Nana with a "money card" and Madagascar 2! He has not yet spent his money card yet but it is burning a hole in his pocket and I don't think a day has gone by that he has not begged to go spend it:)

Sunday night we let him open his presents from us as we knew we would be leaving early Monday and home late. His big present from us was a Leapster2. It is a handheld game system that has a lot of learning games. Jacob is really struggling with writing and putting sounds together to form words so we wanted to get him something that was fun but that could help him. So, we got him this system and a game that helps with writing letters/numbers etc. He LOVES it. Hopefully it will help a bit with his confidence in writing.


Showing off his Leapster!


Showing off his Lightbrite! And then below is him letting Nathan have a turn. They are having such a good time playing. Nathan loves to watch Jacob and his his little cheerleader.





We spent Monday at Shedd. We had gotten passes in August but had not been back since. It was a lot of fun even though the big animals like the Dolphins, penguins etc have been temporarily relocated while their homes are being redone. It was SO crowded it was insane but we still had a good time. Owen did much better than I thought he would and we all had a blast. After at Jacob's request the boys had Happy Meals for dinner (go figure) and then he and Ian picked out a cake from Ben & Jerry's for dessert.

All in all it was a great day:) Here are a few more pictures from Shedd!


Nathan cooking a racoon in the play area....don't ask all I can say is he is related to his father!


Owen keeping himself busy!


All three kids waiting for daddy to put jackets in our locker. I am not sure what Owen is doing with his mouth but it was the cutest of all three of them:)






Nathan, Owen and Ian at lunch. Note the coolaide mustache on Nathan:) I personally love Owen's bib:)




Last but not least when we returned home from Shedd there were two packages on the front door from Grammy and Grandpa! Grammy sent a really neat space station from her work and the boys have been enjoying pretending to be astronauts! Here they are showing off their men!


Tearing into the package:)