Two Tooth Titus

Titus' first teeth are in far enough to be seen in pictures now. This calls for an obsessive number of photos of that sweet face. 

A snapshot of David - 4 years old

I found this idea for a kid's version of 20 questions online and fell in love with the idea. You ask your child the same set of questions on their birthday each year and record their answers. What a great way to get a snapshot of who they are at each age! And it would be so fun to watch the answers change over the years! I asked questions and wrote down the first thing he said...

1. What is your favorite color?  Blue

 2. What is your favorite toy? Hotwheels cars and Superhero action figures

3. What is your favorite fruit? Strawberries

4. What is your favorite tv show? Jake and the Neverland Pirates

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Macaroni and cheese, kidney beans and strawberries

6. What is your favorite outfit? Fireman shirt with gym shorts

7. What is your favorite game? Mickey Mouse Yahtzee

8. What is your favorite snack? Cheese-Its

9. What is your favorite animal? Lions and giraffes

10. What is your favorite song?” Twinkle, Twinkle” and “If You’re Happy and You Know It”.

 11. What is your favorite book? A book about Tonka trucks

12. Who is your best friend? Donny or James because they wrestle and run with me.

 13. What is your favorite cereal? Honey Bunches of Oats - Cinnamon

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Play with squirt guns

 15. What is your favorite drink? Chocolate milk

16. What is your favorite holiday? Donuts!! (I don’t think he gets the concept of “holidays” yet)

 17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Glow sticks or stuffed Spiderman toy

18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Pop-Tarts.

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Chicken from Dad’s grill, mashed potatoes and peas

 20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Where does Dad work? I want to work there. 

Four!

He's been looking forward to his birthday for a few weeks now. I had to make him a countdown calendar so he'd stop asking us every morning if it was his birthday yet. I cut out construction paper balloons and traced their outlines on a sheet of white paper. Every day he added one colored balloon onto an outline. When all the outlines were filled with colored balloons he knew it was his birthday. He was very excited when the last balloon went on this morning. He proclaimed that he is now a man. He is four. :)

We invited some of his cousins over for a birthday lunch. A dinosaur themed birthday lunch. We ate dino shaped PB&J sandwiches; green dino shaped jello jigglers; lame, not dino related veggies and Bugles that looked like dinosaur claws when we put them on our fingers. It was so fun!

I made chocolate, dinosaur topped cupcakes. 

And I decorated in dino -like green and brown

And made a nest of dinosaur eggs for the table.

And then, when it was party time, I forgot to take a single picture. Lame. There were 6 little boys here so things got a little crazy. I guess I'll just spin that one to say that we were making memories rather than taking pictures. That sounds waaay better than "Sorry, kid. Mama forgot.".

After the cousins left and the little brothers went down for a nap, David and Mama sat down for a cup of peppermint hot chocolate together (we have central air so the fact that it was 95 degrees out meant nothing to us).  We filled the mug half full of hot chocolate and topped it with half a mug of squirt can whipped cream. Just as hot chocolate was meant to be. 

He was into making silly faces. I think the giant mug of sugar had something to do with that. We made the best of it and took lots of funny pictures. 

Look at me! I'm FOUR!!!!

When the little bros woke up we went outside to play. I froze water balloons with teeny plastic dinosaurs inside. We took them outside and watched the dinosaurs "hatch" as the ice melted while we waited for Daddy to get home from work. It was the perfect activity for such a hot day.

The idea came from Pinterest, originally pinned from
this website.

I completely underestimated how fun it would be to drop,
throw and smash  these on the cement.

Soon, this...

....turned to this. 

Hi there, baby dinosaur.

Titus wasn't impressed. 

When David got home from work we pulled out our present for the birthday boy. He got cap guns, superhero masks, a teeny Batmobile and more tools to add to his toolbox - a square and a set of Allen wrenches. 

After dinner, we went to Monga and Papa Sager's house. David got a birthday ride on the 4 wheeler and Papa's big tractor. That's a big deal for a little boy. 

What a great day! And this morning this is all I've seen....

....bad guys beware. 

(How was that for low key, Ash? :D)

Mancakes

Happy Father's Day!!

Ok, I'm two days late. I know. Better late than never. 

The boys and I slipped out last week and bought David his very first Father's Day tie. I know - the classic Father's Day gift, right?! David was so geeked and lost in excitement about his tie that he didn't even notice the irony. Accountants actually like those kinds of gifts I guess. :)

I even made a special breakfast to celebrate the occasion. I give you.....mancakes. Or manly pancakes. Whichever you prefer. 

tie shaped mancakes 

Sky VBS highlights

We spent the week at Sky VBS learning that everything is possible with God (Mark 10:27) and no matter what we can trust God. 

Big Dave was a crew leader working directly with the kids, I was a co-leader in charge of the snack area and little David participated in VBS for the first time. That's pretty much how you know you're a big kid, right? When you can go to VBS? Yeah, that's what I figured. 

David had such a good time. He was a little scared and very overwhelmed by the 120 screaming kids in the church's sanctuary the first night. I left him sobbing in the arms of his crew leader. :( Night 2 went better. He was still nervous at the beginning, but he went without crying...until he fell and scraped his knee on the way to the Wild Bible Adventures station. Once the tears started, they couldn't be stopped. I stayed with him and listened to the story of Lazarus and then he was ok to move on without me. Nights 3 through 5 were tear-free. He was super pumped to go hang out with his friends. 

Eating his "Inseparable Swirls" made of
whipped cream cheese, marshmallow fluff
and chocolate syrup. It reminds us of how
nothing can separate us from God's love
(Romans 8:38)-just as nothing is going to
separate the chocolate syrup once its swirled
into the white dip. 

He may not look like he enjoyed music time,
but I had to sing those songs to him on the
way home every single night. 

One of his dear friends, Eva. 

Playing with his crew in the Imagination Station. On this night
the bubbles were teaching that no matter where we go we can
trust God (Joshua 1:9). The bubbles all started in one place
(their bottle) then got blown all over. We can meet God in one
place, but then - like the bubbles - we go all over (to school,
home, etc.) but no matter what, God is always with us. 

Sitting with his crew leader 

The Sky set

Sky VBS June 2012

The kids were encouraged to think outside
of themselves for the week. They raised money
to buy mosquito nets for kids in Mali. At the end
of the week they had enough to purchase 140
nets - that's enough to protect about 300 children
from malaria infested mosquitoes for the next 4 years! 

And, as if all that's not enough, we had 30 kids accept Jesus for the first time this week!

More on Sky VBS here