9 days

Its October and that means Maks has a birthday, a birthday he has been talking about since May. Turning 5 is very important to Maks, he believes he will be closer to his brother's age 9(which of course is true). Something about 5, that bridge between preschool and school age. Its a very special age.

Since October is so hectic for us this year, we held his celebrations a little early. Friday night we met his and Alek's buddies from LL at Merrymead for the Lighting of the Great Pumpkin. This has become an annual adventure for us. The kids love it, and thankfully the rain went away by the night this year. I touted this as part of his birthday party, so we sprung for the hayrides and the cornstalk maze. The boys were so excited to be together since Alek and X had moved on from LL to the big schools. This was the first time they had all been together since the summer. 4 very excited and hyper boys--thank God we were outside. It was a perfect fall night. The kids had a blast dancing to the music of Steve Pullara, eating popcorn and my favorite-cider donuts. They are the best!! They settled down to listen to the Great Pumpkin story and watch and cheer as each sized pumpkin was rolled out with the finally the Giant pumpkin (name Merry) rolled in lighted. The kids had a great time and it was a great way to kick off the weekend for Maks.

Saturday morning started early for me as I got up to go run in my first 5k. My only goals, run the whole thing and not come in last. I achieved both of those. I was 71st out of 74! Not too bad for a girl who only use to run if chased!

After that I headed off to Alek's baseball game and then took Maks shopping for some party supplies. Kevin was working on the finishing lighting touches for our new "pavilion" area on our patio. We had a contractor working to cover part of our patio for the past month. It turned out great, we are so pleased. Seth did a great job and we highly recommend him. It is so nice having that covered space and will make a huge difference next summer to provide some shade. if you go to Seth's website you can see on the home page at the bottom, recently completed projects. Ours is right in the middle. We love it!

Sunday brought family and friends over to celebrate Makaroo! We explained how he wouldn't be five for 9 more days, so he kept telling everyone it was 9 more days til he was 5. It was very cute!

He was pumped, loves a day that is all about him! I made his favorite shrimp appetizer. He bellied up to the table and shoveld quite a few in. Kevin made some yummy ribs and we enjoyed cooking out. Maks had a blast playing with Keke, Ry, Makenzie, Little Man, Jakey, and Aldo. Thankfully the weather held out so they played out back most of the time. We were excited for the Eagles game as it was the retun of McNabb, but the game was a dud and not very exciting.

It was great to hang out with everyone. Maks chose an Incredible Hulk cake this year. He loved all the presents he received, lots of matchbox cars and tracks, legos, a cool Nerf gun (which I have been shot with several times), Transformers (um, I wish T could just stay here and help me get these back together), so many perfect boy type toys and a DS (so now, no fights over Alek's DS). Thanks so everyone for making Maks' day extra special, thanks as well for the generous gifts--he loved having everyone over for his party as did we.

So, Maks it is now 6 more days til you are 5..the countdown continues....