Let's start off with this lovely (and LARGE) assortment of toys... What's so interesting about these, you might wonder? Well, I was reaching down into a vent duct to get a small toy that one of the boys dropped through the air slots, and saw there was a car down there, too. As I reached for it, my hand touched several more cars, and I kept reaching further and further into the vent until I got them all - ELEVEN cars down in the vent! This is the second such discovery of toys found in places they definitely should not be... you may remember a year or two ago I opened the back of a speaker and found a ton of toys that had been dropped in by little hands through the sound opening on the front of the speaker. Small and unusual places are sure appealing for little hands and eyes.
Landon turned 4 this month, which he is of course very excited about. He got to be Star of the Week at preschool during the week leading up to his birthday. It turned out he was starting to catch a flu bug, which we discovered the next morning, so he looks far less than enthusiastic to be celebrating at school.
The birthday balloons in the doorway have become a fun tradition for the boys. It always starts the day of with fun, and keeps them entertained for at least an hour afterward.
Here is one of those moments when we get to enjoy seeing the closeness these two have with one another... They are buddies, and love each other so much!
We kept things very simple for Landon's birthday party this year - family and one friend of his choice, and we celebrated with dinner together at Rick's Pizza and some homemade Paw Patrol cupcakes. The kids had fun being together, and it was amazing to not be stressed or rushing around an hour before the party because there was no house to be cleaned or decorations to be hung. Now I get why people pay the big bucks to have parties outside of their houses!! We'll have to find more ways to do that in the future!
Oh Beau... This is SO Beau! :)
With Caleb being in school five days a week this year, and most of Landon's friends going to MWF preschool schedule, he and I spend our MWFs together alone. On those days he often requests going to the science museum. We have a membership which makes it easy to drop in for short, frequent visits, and I do mean frequent - we are usually there one or two times each week.
Bella the lover... she came and put herself right in the middle of the action to get some attention, right on top of the floor puzzle Landon was building.
The start of our backyard turning red... one of my favorite times of the year!
The boys enjoyed putting together Landon's new puzzles one Saturday morning.
Baking time with Candace. Today they were measuring spices for Pumpkin Pie.
My handsome boys!
Landon's preschool had their Thanksgiving Feast, for which the kids help prepare the food that they will eat. Landon always loves eating tons of black olives, and this year he actually ate some of the turkey as well as trying Pumpkin Pie for the first time.
For Kindergarten, Caleb got to have a whole day dedicated to Thanksgiving, and they moved from one activity to the next amongst the three Kinder classrooms. Activities included making butter in a mason jar, crushing cranberries, mashing corn with rocks, and making these indian costumes out of paper bags and the pilgrim hat that Landon borrowed for the picture.
All was well at Landon's 4 year checkup, with the exception of an ear infection from a cold he had recently (that he hadn't complained about one bit). He currently weighs 43lbs (92nd percentile) and is 3' 6'' tall (84th percentile)
Landon is into all sorts of puzzles, coloring, writing letters and words that he tries to sound out himself, playing soccer and baseball, riding his bike, building Legos, talking in a high-pitched version of his raspy little voice, and general silliness and goofy facial expressions. He wants to 'do his homework' like big brother does, and he loves to help cook in the kitchen, both at home and at the shoppe. He seems to pick up quickly on song lyrics, and recently told me if he could play any instrument he would want to play the guitar and violin.
This Thanksgiving we did something different - everyone headed down to Newport to spend the holiday with my brothers and their families. Mom and Dad had enough air miles for themselves and Caleb and Landon, so the boys got to fly down and back from Orange County (which they were very excited about), and also very excited about getting to go with Papa and Nonni and Papa Jack and Nana Dee all by themselves, because Jimmy and I drove down in our car ALL BY OURSELVES. We had seven and a half hours in the car, with uninterrupted conversations, it was great!
The boys had SO much fun playing with their cousins. Caleb is 5, Deacon 4, Landon 4, Delanie 2, and Jackson almost 2, so they all had a blast running around, playing super heroes, Legos, and any other thing they could find to do together.
Joey and Lindsey hosted Thanksgiving at their house for the first time this year. Everything was delicious and beautiful, and the kids were excited to have a table all for themselves. They played and played and played some more, while the adults ate and ate and ate some more. The post-feast walk was much needed, and got out more energy from the kids as they raced each other around the block. Jackson was so cute trying to keep up with the older kids... he was going as fast as his little legs could take him!
Our friend and firefighter Mike was working while we were in Orange County so all the dads took the boys and Lanie for a visit around the station, as well as a trip down the fire pole.
One of Landon's birthday requests was to have a piñata, but since we celebrated his birthday at Rick's Pizza, it wasn't really possible. I had bought him one thinking we could maybe do it at home before going to Rick's, but since we ran out of time, we took it to SoCal instead and let the kids have fun with it instead.
Caleb's creation - the start of a unit on Gingerbread man that he made for school.
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