PHeather's PHamily: Jackson's 8th Birthday Weekend (back in July)

I've had these pics uploaded and waiting to post for five months. Guess I'll finally get to that today. :)

Now I know I am truly becoming a Floridian because looking back at these pictures I cannot WAIT for pool and boat and beach time!! I know the heat will be unbearable, but summer is so much fun! And I can't believe how much J has grown up since his birthday in July.

J wanted to have a Star Wars pool party, so we did our best to make that happen. Here we are before heading up to our neighborhood pool...

And then Emmett and Reid wanted a picture... and so did Davis.

Workers were expanding our pool deck that day, but luckily we were still able to swim and we stayed on the other side of the pool out of the way. Popeye played lifeguard...

Here's my friend, Tenley, and her adorable twin boys...

Rigging the Darth Vader piñata....

I bought a Darth Vader cake mold on amazon and attempted a Darth Vader head cake. Getting that icing black took a LOT of food coloring.

J with his best bud from next door...

And other buds from CC and the neighborhood...

We are so thankful for our wonderful friends...

This is the kindest, sweetest, most loving little boy. He is SO good to his little brothers and so obedient and honest. We were sure blessed when he entered our lives. I love his tender little heart.

Later the men all played in the pool while the ladies chatted on the deck. :)

All of my sun-kissed babies...

I titled this post "Birthday Weekend" because this was a weekend full of celebration and fun, starting with Thursday when J's pool party was. My parents were in town for the weekend, too, which made it extra fun. These pics are from Sunday, which was J's actual b-day.

Legos for the Lego master...

Oh, how I love this boy...

Okay, out of order, but on Friday we were able to take a boat out for a few hours. This was July 3, so we didn't think our friends would have any boats available to rent, but we were able to get one for that morning and it was amazing! Such a beautiful day!

Davis was grumpy about something and my mom and dad were so cute out there trying to cheer him up. And whoa our backyard looks so different in the summer and winter... Right now it is mostly just gross brown masses of sticks because most of that green you see is overgrown kudzu vine and it loses its leaves in the winter leaving gross dead-looking sticks behind. But it looks very lush and green in the summer. We would love to have a lot of it cleared out back there someday, but that will be a huge project.

Then on the Fourth of July we had an extra special treat because our friends invited us out on their boat to watch the fireworks! Phil was on a Delta trip and my mom stayed behind with Davis (she's so good about being the one who stays behind... She's always so selfless and thoughtful) and my dad came with J, E, R, and me. Hard to get good pics but you get the idea. Super fun!

Here we are back to Jackson's actual birthday... He set right to work on his new Lego sets!

And then we went across the street for another party that afternoon! The two girls who live across the street both have the same birthday as Jackson! So you can see that J got a fun-filled, party-packed weekend for his birthday this year. :)

Reid never left Avery's side for the whole party...

New rollerblades! My boys are rollerblade obsessed. Every morning when we get done with school they go straight outside to blade. Even Reid has his own pair now and he's getting pretty good!