"I'm Free!"

No, I haven't flown the coop just yet, this is about William, but we aren't giving him away just yet either...he turned three at the end of July, and he proudly declares his age ("free") whenever given the opportunity.  We had so much fun celebrating his life, and his special day.  The best part was having our dear friends, Nick and Megan, who happen to also be William's godparents, here with us for his birthday.  It had been waaaay too long since we have been able to see them, but it made our time with them extra special.  As if he would forget, big brothers reminded Will throughout his special day that he was permitted to do whatever he wanted, and it was comical to overhear such conversations:
 "do you want Sean and I to play the Wii, Will?"
"Will, should Henry and I get a treat?"
"William, do you want us three to go get ice cream?"
etc, etc, etc....

 All William requested for his birthday was a "red cake".  We were temporarily stumped trying to capture our William within the boundaries of "red cake".  Then, alas!  we found our inspiration as we reflected back over the span of Will's life.  Thankfully Megan has some cake skills that she brought with her, and was a huge help designing and decorating the masterpiece....a big, red crab!

He L.O.V.E.D. his cake

Our favorite things about William:

Sean- "When he wrestles with me"

Henry- "That he is my brother.  I just love him, that's all"

Mom- I love how William still loves to cuddle, and is many times content to just be near me.  He randomly and unprovoked will frequently say, "Mom, I love you too".  Will has a great little sense of humor and understanding, even when he is being contrary.  Lastly, Will loves chocolate almost as much as I do, so he and I have special moments where we sneak off to the pantry to eat chocolate chips, and afterwards, we both feel much better! 

Dad- I love William's curiosity, and how he will crawl up on my lap or lay on the couch and cuddle with me.

Pumpkin Carving

We had a lot of fun carving pumpkins this year.  We invested in a good quality carving kit which made the process so much easier and less messy.  And by less messy, I mean for the first time we didn't empty Josh's tool box as well as my kitchen drawers attempting to find the perfect tool for carving.  

Henry loved every part of the process

Sean enjoyed carving, up until he reached inside the pumpkin...

texture issues!!

I love the looks on every ones faces, no words needed to explain what is going on here

more texture issues!

again, no words needed!

The final products...

These three fine pumpkins yielded many seeds, so I made three different flavors of toasted seeds,  YUMMY! 

Carmel Apples, even more yummy!

yes, the carmel apples resulted in a wonderful evening of hyperactivity....it was just a nice way to say goodbye to Josh the night before goes TDY.  I am sure he will miss us:) 

Back in July....

....we were here, just being us, and this is what it looked like:

Like Mother, like Son

We dig, because we are boys.  Note: Sean stepping on a garden trowel like you would a large shovel- Kid Genius!

A boy's life: (from left to right)

fencing- inspired by the Olympics, wrestling starts young around here

reading chapter books, baseball

relaxing, catching toads

July in New Jersey was extremely hot, similar to every other part of the country.  The three older boys attended Vacation Bible School for a week, and I enjoyed a few hours of quiet time, baby time, and while the babies napped some serious catching up on my "to do" list.  If you know me at all, you know I love a good list, but the list had grown very long the previous months, with little accomplished, until the week of VBS.  I was exhausted by the end of the week, but very much rejuvenated and maybe even slightly more sane and accomplished.  Oh, yeah, and the boys LOVED VBS and thus, we were one big happy family!  So the boys learned a few new songs at VBS, one being about the 7 sacraments.  At dinner, we asked, "how many sacraments are there?" to which the boys correctly answered, "SEVEN"!  

"And what are the seven sacraments?"

Sean: "SURFING!"

He confused the sacraments with a song about "surfing with the Spirit", but whatever, while we fine tune his doctrine lessons, I am sure someone out there believes that surfing is a sacrament, and would totally, most definitely agree with Sean and say, "Yeah, Dude."

Much to my dismay, the twins started getting teeth at the ripe ole age of 4 months, and they also started using them- even more to my dismay:(  Ben & Sam also started rolling like pros, as well as scooting, therefore making them official "mobile hazards".  

The boys had their first Olympics experience, and they loved it!  For the first time ever, watching TV in our home was highly encouraged and done by all, and it opened a whole new door into the world of sports for the Conway boys.  I am sure the neighbors were relieved when half way through the Olympics we left for vacation (will get to that another time), because I am sure the "U-S-A" chanting coming from our home was deafening.  William still cheers for USA whenever he sees sports on TV, even though we have tried telling him that both NFL teams are USA.  Oh well.

Lastly, on July 27th, we celebrated William's 3rd birthday.  I will come back soon for that...