Will is 5!

Will's birthday fell on a Saturday this year, which was great for so many reasons. First of all, it meant he got to experience that awesome feeling when your party is on your ACTUAL birthday! It also meant that instead of a weekday of celebrating with family and then a weekend party with friends and having everything spread out and sometimes seeming like this birthday will never ever end, we got to do one big, splashy, jam-packed day of fun.

First, the annual balloon-and-singing wake-up call:



Posing in his new Bruins jersey:

The party gets started:

With cousins Bella and Joe

Preschool friend

Another preschool friend

James before telling me "No pictures!"

Connor and Will!

Connor, Will and Abby flashing their fives

Joined by Jake and Kaben

Will's preschool friend and her twin sisters, who are in Finn's class this year

Daredevil Bridget imitating her brothers' moves

Will with Ella

Boys in blue

We ordered Bruins cookies so the entire morning could be no-forks-required--this was a serious clean-up coup!

Plotting his wish between Maisie and Sammy

Jack, Connor, Will and Finn: the fantastic four

Kaben taking care of Bridgie

Will with his surrogate big brother

The four Pflegers!

Natalie and "Baby Bridgie" in a quasi-hug

With oldest bud Ryan (they met at four and six weeks old, respectively)

The three stooges amigos!

We had a quick celebration with Nan and Mamp in the afternoon

The day ended with some family self-pictures, a lot of hugging, and even more "I can't believe you're five!" commentary from me and Dave. Although when you have a preschooler who's already saving his dimes for his first car--specifically "a Chevy when I'm seventeen after I'm a student driver and get my learner's permit" (he even has a dealership picked out for that blissful day twelve years in the future)--then "five" doesn't seem so terribly old after all.

You CAN Go Home Again

To escape from our intense home addition, we've moved in with my parents for a few months. Yes, the very same few months in which we will also be welcoming twins into the family. Hey, no one said we liked to space out our Major Life Events!

While the four adults here work on adjusting to crowded quarters and ever-changing household roles, the three kids are eating it up. Literally:

August Adventures!

Dave took all three kids to New Jersey to see Aunt Jen and Uncle Kai's new house, go out on their boat, and see lots of family:

Aunt Ronni, Sara and Dana came to visit us from Gloucester (originally California!), and the kids put them to work with a dance party and some light reading:

We celebrated Lucy and Sam's third birthday at their awesome backyard carnival party:

We had some playground dates with friends Maisie...

...and Abby and Natalie:

For our grand finale, we went on a whale watch in Gloucester that claimed to last 3.5-4 hours. (Maisie and her family joined us.) Unfortunately, our trip was the record-setter of the season and lasted SIX HOURS, so we were on the water until 7:30 at night with no cash left to purchase "food" on board. Thank goodness for good-natured kids is all I have to say about that!

And we did get to see TWO different whale species, which is highly unusual! We saw a humpback and a finback whale (which we kept calling a "Finn-back Will" to make the boys laugh), and watching them both blow and breech so close to the boat was very exciting.