E-I-U Go Big Blue!!!

Football season is in full swing on campus and we are loving it!  Fall is here and this is our favorite time of year!  At the game yesterday, Stephen's department was recognized during halftime for their super awesome hard work in raising $63,696,747 during their recent capital campaign.  Max kept saying "Dad's on the field Mom, Dad's on the field!!"  Afterwards, Max got to go down and run around as well.  Just another perk of living in a smaller college community and having a Dad who works for the school!!

Pre-k fun!!!

Why does this boy have to keep growing up?!?! Wednesday was his first day of pre-k and he was just a little but excited!!! Stephen and I are just thankful we have him home one more year before kindergarten! We had a great day and is already asking when he can go back!!

The big 5!

Oh my, he's five folks!  What a day we had!  We got up early to make sure we got to wake Max up singing at the top of our lungs!

We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast and then Stephen had to head to work.  Max and I spent the morning doing fun things here at the house and then headed to lunch with dad!  We had lunch on campus with him (he works for Eastern Illinois University) which Max thinks is just the coolest place and then Max got a backstage tour of the football stadium from one of Stephen's friends who just so happens to be one of the coaches.  When we were walking in Max quietly asked "are we allowed to be here Mom ?!"  He got to go into the locker room and weight room and up into the victory suite.  He felt pretty important!

We had a Wii marathon in the afternoon (Max totally kicked my booty) and then Stephen cut out early from work to spend the evening with his boy.  Max picked his all time fave restaurant for his birthday dinner (Buffalo Wild Wings) so he could catch all the sports fun while he ate.

Then it was home for presents and cake and ice cream!!!  Max got to skype with Grandpa and Grandma while he opened his gifts from them and then he opened ours.

The bike is called a "co-pilot" and we're pretty excited about it.  Max is too big for a traditional children's bike seat or pull behind trailor, but he's not quite big enough to keep up with us on a long bike ride.  So this is the perfect solution!  He gets to "ride" his own bike but if he gets tired, he can stop pedaling and it doesn't affect Stephen's riding at all.  We're pumped to try it out!  The last picture is the present that Max is most excited about.  Of course.....it has to do with baseball!  Its a practice net for pitching and catching.  Perfect indoor/basement solution for a long winter without baseball!!!  Great idea dad!!

And then it was time for cake.  You guessed it...this year we went with a baseball theme!  Surprise, surprise!

It was SUCH a fun day!  Max kept saying "this is such a fun birthday guys!"  That makes a mama's heart glad!

I also wanted to post pictures from last week.  Max got a package in the mail all the way from Thailand, and to say he was excited would be a bit of an understatement :)  Max LOVES getting mail from Lek and Edmond, and Stephen and I LOVE that he gets to have such a special relationship with the two people that loved and cared for him so strongly for the three years before we were able to.  Lek and Edmond, you are amazing, and we are so blessed to have you in our lives!!!

Oh Max, I can't believe you're five!  You were supposed to stay little forever!  But, you are growing into an amazing young man and your dad and I are so proud!!!  Happy Birthday Max!!!

The love of the game

So, apparently I've forgotten that I have a blog!!  In all honestly, we've just been enjoying summer, and my pictures have been piling up on my camera as I occasionally think to myself "oh, this would make a great blog post!"

Several weeks ago we asked Max what he would like to do for his 5th birthday (I still can't believe he's going to be five!!!).  We were fulling expecting him to request a party with all his best buds.  After thinking about it for all of 3.5 seconds, he says "guys, I just want to go to St. Louis, watch a Cardinals game, stay in a hotel and go to a restaurant."  Music to my ears!  You mean no planning a party?!  We asked him several times over the next couple weeks if he was sure he didn't want a party and his answer was always the same.  "I REALLY REALLY want to go to a Cardinals game."  Well, judging by the pure excitement on his face every second of this past weekend, I'd say he was VERY happy with his decision!

Stephen was able to call ahead to the hotel and get a room with an AMAZING view of the stadium.  When we checked in they made a big deal of wishing Max a happy birthday which of course made him feel extra special!!  As soon as we got into the room, Max's yelled "guys look!!!!"  We had to pry him away from the window just to get over to the game :)

We all had a blast at the game.  Max sat through all 9 innings, totally loving every minute.  He seriously loves all things baseball and couldn't believe he was actually in the same stadium he had seen on tv so many times!

Not only did they wish him happy birthday when we checked in, when we got back to our room, Max had a special birthday treat waiting just for him.  There was a stuffed Cardinal, a bottle of Fitz' rootbeer (famous in STL) and two HUGE bags of gummy worms and jelly beans!

Sunday morning we surprised Max and took him to the St. Louis zoo!  Its such a great zoo.  The weather was perfect and all the animals were out.  We made sure to make a stop at the giraffes.  When we were waiting to bring Max home, we received a video of him looking at a picture book of animals.  I watched it EVERY day until we traveled!  In it, he excitedly keeps flipping back to the same page and saying "giraffe!!!!" as he pointed at it.  We brought a stuffed giraffe with us the morning we met Max for the first time (he still has it on his bed).  It was fun for us to remind Max of all this while we stood at the zoo looking at them yesterday.  Of course now, as an almost five year old boy, he patiently listened to our story and then replied "cool Mom."  Not quite the emotional response I may have dreamed up in my head, but that ok :)

 We headed to my folk's after the zoo so Max could open his gifts from them.  Such a loved kid!

I've got a little over a week left, and then I will actually be the mom of a five year old.  Its really crazy how fast time flies!  Sometimes I just hear him say something, or watch him solve a problem and I'm blown away by how grown up he is!  I'm so thankful for the young man he is growing into!!!

Royal Thai Consulate....and a trip to the zoo!

We FINALLY made our way to the Royal Thai Consulate in Chicago. Almost two years after Max came home...and the documents were all in place to officially register his adoption! But what matters is that its been done, and it was an easy, super pleasant experience! The people at the consulate we very friendly and they loved Max. It took all of 15 minutes and they gave us a copy of Max's original Thai birth certificate along with a letter of proof of his Thai citizenship. We are proud to say that Max is 100% an American, but we are also VERY proud of his Thai heritage and will always honor that, so it was a special day!

Then, to add to the celebration, we headed to the zoo! Since being home, believe it or not, with all the traveling we've done with him....Max hasn't been to a zoo with us! So that was on our bucket list for this summer for sure. It was a great day and Max had a blast! Seriously....have you ever seen a cuter tiger.....

It only took the guy 60 seconds to do that!  Max thought it was soooo cool!  (so did we!)  Opinion of  the Bloomington zoo.....small but no crowds, super cheap and all in all, two thumbs up!

The circus and baseball fun!

Getting caught up on our fun..... Last weekend we took Max to the circus with his cousins. It was great! The boys were really into it and sat through the whole two hour show without any trouble. That says a lot! The boys were particularly obsessed with the motorcycles (you know, the ones that cram WAY too many of themselves in a tiny steel cage and drive in circles....CRAZY!!!) The picture of Max with his arm around Noah is of when they were oohing and ahhing together over how cool the guys were. Those two seriously are the best of friends! Love family moments like these, making memories and being together!! And then last night we had Max's first t-ball game. What a blast! He was sooo excited to play...he's been practicing for months. He looked ridiculously cute in his uniform!! It was a great game and Max played great. They only play 3 innings in t-ball. The kids hit off the tee for the first two, and then the coach pitches to then in the final innings. Max was up to bat first for coach pitch....he walked right up to the plate, and cranked it into the outfield! I know all his times at bat won't be like that, but it did a lot for his confidence for sure!