the basketball party

Friday,  November 1st - 12:30pm (they had a half day), the basketball party madness began.

Table set, ready for pizza lunch.

Orange Gatorade to fuel them up.

pom poms for the cheerleaders.

Andrew through his 8 sweet years.

Popcorn at the ready, in case we had to implement a rain plain (basketball movie in the basement)

The basketball cake.

 Some of the crew eating lunch.

The Lord was very sweet to us.  15 minutes of post lunch play in the basement proved to be more than enough.  Despite a rainy forecast, the skies cleared mid-day, and the sun came out!  Which meant we were able to proceed with our plans to go the the Beauvoir Outdoor playground.

It's incredible - so much to explore and discover.

The zip line.

Collecting rocks in the creek bed.

And finally some actual basketball on their amazing court.

It was a perfect 65 degree day.

Why not play foursquare.

And ride a trike.

A cave which makes for the perfect scene for many great adventures.

Back home for cake and ice cream.

Will milked the attention from his two special friends (as he calls them), Lilly and Gracie.

Happy birthday boy, with his new buddy Elijah.

Andrew, discovering and watching you grow over the past 8 years has been one of the greatest joys and privileges of our lives.  Words can't even begin to express how much we love and treasure you.  We pray that the Lord would continue to shape and mold you, to give you his heart for people, and use the incredibly creative and bright mind he's given you for his glory.  We love you!

Andrew turns 8, Halloween, and Dave turns ??

Wow, I'm way behind.  The end of October was a blur. A fun blur, but a blur none the less.  We had lots of fun celebrating Andrew's big day.

The celebrating started a day early, when Andrew and mom got to go to a DC United Soccer game with Hunter and Aunt Ginnie (and Hunter's Vienna, VA soccer team).  Here he is meeting one of the players.

Cheering them on.  This, he said, was one of the best days ever.

 Aunt Ginnie hooked him up with a DC United Soccer ball, which he was beyond amazing to him.

And then we came home to a big birthday surprise - Daddy and some YCF friends were building a tree fort!!  How much better can it get?!?  And his real birthday wasn't even here yet!

We started his day with cinnamon rolls (his absolute favorite thing to eat at this moment).

Reading Grandpa Jack and Grandma Kathy's card, and opening their present (a skateboard!!).

 Cupcakes at school with his sweet class.  And then after school, big birthday surprise #2 - Daddy had created a geo-cache in honor of Andrew!  Titled "Andrew's Gold", it's located in the park behind the townhome we lived in when we was born.

That evening we did dinner (tacos - birthday boy's request) and cake with family.

 I think Will was the most excited for cake.

 Present time!

We love our Monie.

Trying out his skateboard for the first time!  Mom was a little nervous.

This guy is a natural.

Will was very impressed.

He only fell once. 

And sadly, this is the ONLY picture I took on Dave's birthday.  We enjoyed an incredibly fun night out with Chris, Ginnie, Hannah, the Choi's, and Brian Lee at a Jason Ramirez/Drew Holcomb and the Neighbors concert (at the Hamilton in DC - GREAT venue!).

And then came Halloween!  This year we had 2 ninja's and a monkey.

 Daddy with his crazies, and then with our sweet neighbor Cathy who just moved away.

And then that night we had our annual YCF pumpkin carving party!  Since it fell on Halloween this year, we got to throw costumes into the mix.  This night was so much fun.

The Mario Cart race.  Seriously hilarious.

 Just a few of the pumpkins.  

The next day we had Andrew's birthday party - because why not throw one more thing into our week?  That party is a post of it's own ;).