FOUR!

It is hard for us to believe, but our little man turned four this past Monday! We had a fantastic celebration day. It started off with birthday circle at school. Natalie and Amanda were able to join us too, which was nice.

Here, Will and his sisters proudly show off Will's birthday board.

 

 

And then it was time for Will to take his walk around his circle of friends with the globe -- one walk to each year of his life.  

 

Here is Will's wonderful teacher, Dayna, who asked Will questions about each year of his life.

After Will was done, Dayna opened up the floor so Will's friends could ask him some questions.  It was hilarious!  Here is a sampling of the questions:  (1) do you have stairs at your house; (2) do you have toys; (3) do have a pool; (4) do you have a TV.....and it went on and on just like that!

While we were at school, our nanny Sarah was home making these very fun Minion cupcakes from the Despicable Me movies.  Don't they look awesome?!?!

Will thought they were terrific....

 

....he even did a little happy dance he was so excited!

He could not wait to blow out the candles.

So that he could begin opening up his presents!

He loved the new telescope he got. 

Now he can be a pirate!

Yay for Legos!!!

And they remote controlled flying saucer/UFO (which he calls a "PFO"!) scored big too!

He was VERY excited about the rockets.  This is a very cool toy that he actually can play with all by himself, making the rockets fly way up in the sky.

Amanda, Sarah and Natalie were interested onlookers, who made a nice funny face for their photo opportunity!

Natalie was a big fan of the blue frosting on the cupcakes.  Can you tell?

Here is Will putting those cool new toys to use.  He and Dad are flying the UFO here.

And he loves building with his new Lego set.

It was a very fun and exciting day!  Happy Birthday, William!!!

Parents To Be

At a recent work event, Natalie, Amanda and Will got to test out their baby skills.  They were SO excited when they got the chance to hold this little cutie.

Natalie was taking her job very seriously!  Will was excited to get his turn.

Amanda was looking at mom to make sure she was doing it right.

 

Next up was Will's turn.  He was all smiles the entire time!

 

 

Pretend Play and Story Time

The kids love to pretend play and are constantly making up stories and dressing up.  One day when I cam home from work, I found these two lovely mermaids.




And this very tough ninja.

Will is very creative in making things out of household items.  When we gave dad a birthday present recently, the cardboard strip around the box immediately became binoculars and the bow was his belt.

Those were pretty good binoculars!

Amanda got into the action too and became a girl ninja.

They are also enjoy practicing their reading.  Amanda is doing great and so she often reads the her siblings some stories.  It's pretty cute!

 

Vacation!

We had a wonderful lake vacation with daddy's family in South Carolina! It was so nice to spend time with family and the kids had a terrific time with their grandma, aunts and uncles and cousins. They also loved swimming, boating, tubing and learning how to golf. Many thanks to the Taylors for all of their hospitality! We will treasure these memories forever!  (If you click on the collages, you can see the pictures in a larger format if you so desire.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Swim Time

We are loving the pool this summer. The girls are now fantastic swimmers and Will has learned to find his way around the pool in his floatie. It's definitely a lot less stressful for mom and dad and it's been so hot this summer that we feel very fortunate to have a pool

Here is Will playing catch with a beach ball.

 

Natalie shows off her rainbow attire and goggles.

Smiling in the floatie.

 

 

Amanda likes floating too.

 

Here is some kicking action.  Go Amanda!

Both girls love jumping in.  Here is Amanda.

And Natalie, ready to make a big splash!