Paul is 4!

Our spunky middle child turned 4 last week.

He's been talking about having a birthday for months and months now. He has patiently waited through his siblings birthdays and now it was his turn. He wanted a yellow Thomas train cake, ice cream, salad, and his friends Tegan and Emily over for the party. So we did just that!

A few things about Paul:

• He weighs 35 pounds. 
• He is so skinny and has no bottom, all of his pants fall straight down off of him. 
• He prefers salads, vegetables, fruits and bread over anything else to eat. He loves just a salad for dinner (he does NOT have his mother's genes!)
• He is independent. 
• He is affectionate with me and loves to brush my hair, give me hugs and kisses and tell me that he loves me. 
• He is gentle. 
• He is fierce and feisty also. One wrong move that crosses him and he turns into the hulk. A padded room would be nice to have for him some days. 
• He does not let people bully or run over him. He is a man of his own mind and is not afraid to let you know about it. 
• He sees the joy in all of the little things about life. The snow glistening in the sunlight, calling it "glitters from heaven". Seeing the lights of the city as we go up a hill. Seeing the sunset. Watching fireworks. The twinkling of Christmas lights. A balloon. Anything simple, he finds such excitement in it. Yesterday we were driving home from somewhere at night and we came over the hill with the city on the other side and he said, "OH Mom, LOOK! The whole city! Oh it is beautiful! The lights! WOW!"  He says this every time. I just love this about him. 
• He has an exquisite imagination and the ability to play by himself in his own world for hours. 
• If he doesn't get time to himself, he turns into the hulk. I am getting better at reading his cues and figuring out when he's had too much people interaction. He has an introvert personality. 
• He loves the water and turns into a fish when he takes a shower or bath. 
• His favorite toys are his Rescue Bots (and that's his favorite show), cars, trains, and trucks, stuffed dogs, and play kitchen things. 
• His favorite friends are Tegan and Grady. 
• He loves to drink coffee. 
• He is sensitive to smells. He smells all of his food and if there's a stinky smell he almost cannot function until he is away from it. 
• He is a hoarder, he sleeps on just a sliver of his mattress because the rest of his bed is covered in toys, books, and blankets all balled up everywhere. 
• He tells grand stories about going to Asia when he's 4! 

To surprise Paul, I decorated the whole upstairs with balloons, streamers, and fun globe lights. He said, "WOW! It's my birthday house!!"

We celebrated with a grilled chicken sandwiches and salad for dinner, birthday cake, and ice cream. The kids played to the hearts content and had a great time like they always do!

Leah was laugh/crying she was so excited when we were singing happy birthday!

Happy Birthday to our fun and feisty four year old! 

We now have a 2, 4, & 6 year old! Wow! 

Chatterbox

Paul is my little chatterbox now that Josiah is gone to school all day. I guess he felt overwhelmed from the constant talking and noise from Josiah that he kept silent. Now he talks constantly, especially in the car. He has grand tales with intricate details about things that are happening in his world. Paul's world is very adventurous!

I've been keeping a notepad handy to write down what he says:

• While drinking Pepsi- "It makes me have crazy mouth!"
• "When I turn 4 I am going to Asia"  (He says this ALL of the time, and he tells of all of the things he's going to do in Asia!) 
• "I can't learn my bible verse because my teeth aren't big enough!!" (He went on to learn his verse and now makes up songs with dance moves about Jeremiah 29:11)
• "I am never going to grow up." 
• When talking to Justin, mid sentence he points to his go-tee and says, "Hey! That looks like a punk of broccoli!" (????)
• Driving past Chuck E Cheese's, Paul yells, "Let's go to Chunkin' JESUS!!!!!" (no matter how many times we tell him he's saying it wrong, he continue to say it his way)
• While eating dinner:  "This is sooooo tasty"   "Oooooh juicy!" 
• "When I grow up, I'm not going to get a dog, I'm gonna have a kangaroo and a striped cat."
• "On Halloween we will celebrate all of the pumpkin's birthdays."
• After searching for one of his cars for a long time he sat on the stairs and sighed, saying, "Jesus will find my airplane. I just know it. I will just sit here and wait for him to bring it to me."

Cycle of Life & Fireworks

July 4th week is always fun in our neighborhood. We live outside of the city limits so people are constantly popping fireworks. The kids just loved watching them every night! 

We invited our friends over for dinner and to do some kid friendly (not so loud) fireworks like smoke bombs, pop-its, and sparklers. But before they arrived the boys were outside catching bugs in their bug catcher vacuums. I was in the kitchen cleaning dishes and Josiah yelled from the deck, "Do roly polies lay eggs?" That's a weird question, I thought. "No I don't think so!" I answered back.  

A few minutes later Josiah ran in to tell me he caught a mommy roly poly. I asked, "How do you know it's a mommy?"  He replied, "Well, because she is having babies!" I thought for sure it was going to be a dead roly poly covered in maggots or something, but I turn around to look at it and as I looked closer, I realized, this roly poly was indeed giving birth. 

Josiah, Paul and I sat and watched 50 babies come out of her belly, little baby ones rolling around everywhere. They were mesmerized. 

Josiah was so proud and exclaimed, "I can't wait to show Emily when she gets here! It will be my present to her, she will love the mommy roly poly and all of her babies!" Oh yes Josiah, that's what every girl wants. hahaha! 

Unfortunately, as quickly as the miracle of life began, the tragedy of death occurred.

20 minutes after this poor mommy gave birth, Josiah, in all of his excitement, ran inside when Justin came home, with his bug catcher that was carrying the babies and mom, and tripped and fell and the bug catcher went flying and the top popped off. We had baby roly poly's all over the kitchen floor. We desperately tried putting them all back in, but they were just so little! Josiah was horrified. He looked like he'd seen a ghost.  I think the gravity of what happened made sense in his little mind. He said, "Mom, I think I just killed all of her babies."

"Yes Josiah, some of them didn't make it."

"Oh. That's really sad."

He just witnessed the cycle of life.

On a good note, Emily was excited to see the mom roly poly and her babies. I guess he does know what will win a girl's heart!

The kids were so cute giggling and laughing while we ate dinner outside. Leah loves Emily and Tegan. She can even say their names. She calls Tegan, Teetee and Emily, emly. 

Josiah and Emily are our highly sensitive children. They were so fearful the smoke bombs would make a loud noise!

Paul had no fear of the fire. Scary, I know. Here they are trying to light a sparkler.

Smoke bomb show

Leah loves my friend Jennifer. 

When I say loves, I mean she runs to her and wants her immediately when she sees her! She cries when they leave and even got in their van and was ready to go home with them, she was telling me, goodbye! I had to peel her out kicking and screaming! It is really nice to have someone else that I trust that I can leave her with and know she will be perfectly happy. We are blessed to have friends who love your kids and you love theirs. 

We had a great evening of fun! We had to wait until really late to enjoy everyone's fireworks. It doesn't get dark here until about 8:45, and the fun doesn't get going until after 9. We sat on the back porch in our pi's and watched until 10. Paul was crazy excited about the fireworks. I have never seen him act so funny and silly. He did this dance every time the fireworks would go off. He was running and jumping all over the place! Watch for yourself, Paul's firework dancing...

Summer Memories

Snapshots of things we've done already this summer....

Been making homemade popsicles. 

We tried a fudge pop recipe that was sooo good. It tasted better than what you buy at the store! 

The popsicle molds are made by Tupperware and they are great! 

 We've been swimming in the backyard in our sad little pool. Our bigger one busted. They don't seem to care. They are happy with the hose and some buckets. 

And they must not be able to feel cold, the water is glacier cold coming out of the hose!! And it wasn't even that hot outside.

 Leah likes to drive her car around under the tree while eating her cheerios and occasionally getting a drink from the pool. 

 Paul is our water-lover. No fear. Full steam ahead. 

 COOOLD! 

 This is what Josiah likes to do. Lay on his towel and talk. And talk. And talk. And ask questions. 

J: "Mom, when is there children's day?"

M: What are you talking about? I have never heard of children's day?

J: "There's a happy mother's day and father's day. So when is there a happy children's day? 

M: uhhhh.... everyday son... 

M: Happy Children's Day, today! I cooked you breakfast, & lunch, washed your clothes, wiped your poop off the toilet seat, got the back yard ready for swimming, got you snacks and water, and made sure you had sunscreen on so you didn't get a burn... did I do enough for you today to make you have a happy children's day?

J: "Oh, yeah, thanks mom." :)

We experimented making sidewalk chalk paint. It was an easy mixture of 1/4 cup cornstarch with 1/4 cup cold water and a few drops of food coloring. The kids had a fun time painting everything! I think Leah had the most fun. The nice thing was it easily washed off them, their clothes, and the sidewalk. No stains!

Last Saturday we headed to the hills for a church picnic at Sylvan Lake. It was such a beautiful day! There's a beach area with really shallow water. The kids were in heaven! Especially Paul, he was in the water nearly the whole time!

I love this picture of him!

Josiah did a lot of climbing on the rocks. He and Justin went on a little hike too.

Then there was a minor... sort of minor... vomiting incident in the water for EVERYONE to see. 

Josiah started coughing, he got choked on the water (he gags easy), and before we know it, he's coughing so hard he starts gag-vomiting, then full-on upheaval. We were ALL sitting on the beach watching this unfold and you hear everyone simultaneously do the "that's so gross" gasping and "ewww" as he's throwing up in the water. It was a sight to behold. 

We are making memories, people! HA!

Paul eventually got out of the water and realized he'd been swimming in GLACIER water on top of a mountain and his internal body temperature was frozen! I don't know how they weren't freezing while swimming! He huddled under the blanket for an hour in the sun and then he went and got right back in the water.

It's been a great start to the summer!