I am 4!

Yay~ I am 4 years old!  I have been talking about turning 4 since the day after my 3rd birthday.  I asked if we could spend the weekend up at Grammy's house on the lake and since it was Memorial Weekend we decided to head north for the celebration.

 Sam and Sophie came to Grammy's house to help Mommy and Bridget set up for their annual garage sale this weekend.  We played in the dirty pedal boat, ate popsicles, and mostly played with EVERYTHING that is being sold in the upcoming sale.  We love Sam's expression in the above photo, I am sure he is thinking we are CRAZY boys :)

 My birthday morning couldn't have been more perfect...Grammy let me make whipped cream for the puff pancakes she made for breakfast.  As you know, I love gadgets especially her hand mixer.  A close second to running the mixer was licking the whisk clean.

My birthday request was to go to this little resort bar/restaurant on the lake that serves ice cream treats.  Cooper and I picked our favorite treats which happened to be the messiest ones around, of course.

Mommy and Daddy said "Cheers" to me and to Summer!

 I love Grammy's refurbished pontoon.  She even lets Cooper and I drive her boat, honk the horn, and spill a ton of treats on the floor.  Good thing she loves us so much :)

Mommy, Daddy and Coopie gave me some cool birthday presents later that day.  One of them was a blow-up wave runner.  It actually steers and has a propeller.  We ignored the box that clearly stated kids should be 5+ to operate this thing and it should only operate in a pool.  It went very slowly (unlike the photo on the box that made the kid look like a zooming maniac).  My parents were relieved that it went slower than they could swim...just in case they had to do a water rescue (no worries, this did not occur).

 Other gifts included Hot Wheels cars, Leapster Explorer game, baseball glove and ball (a real one), Brewers shirt, new awesome undies for 4 year olds, art supplies, and some other gadgets and such.  Grammy gave me some money for a pool pass, shoe-tyeing book and some bathtub alphabet letters!

Mommy's friend Jeannie makes my b-day cakes but since we were not home, we had aunt Lynn make a train cake.  She owns the bakery by Grammy's house, so it worked great.  I requested a train cake and it was yummy!

I loved my birthday and look forward to my "Up" themed combined party with Cooper in mid-June!

 The next day was Memorial Day.  We didn't make the parade in town, but were able to see the military jets do their fly over patterns from Grammy's house.  It was very cool.

When we got home the next day, we checked in on our garden.  We planted it last weekend and hope it will grow healthy and strong fruits, vegetables and herbs!  I enjoy going to the garden with my wheelbarrow and tools almost daily to do my "chores" and check in.

We had a terrible storm last week, which included a scary drive home from daycare.  The wind was horrible, rain was torrential and lightning and thunder was everywhere.  When we got home, one of our favorite trees, a variegated maple was split down the trunk and had fallen down :(  We think lightning was the cause as our garden plants were OK (at least recovered) while this big tree did not make it.  The boys all grabbed their chainsaws... Craftsman, Black and Decker, and John Deere did some serious teamwork to get the job done.

Yup, see Cooper's pacifier... still a terrible "habit" of Cooper's and on top of it all, he had hand, foot and mouth disease this week.  This involves a high fever followed by a chalky tongue and a few tiny blisters in his mouth.  Fortunately, it cleared, he is not contagious and it did not spread to his feet nor hands.  Yuck!

No birthday is complete without a trip to the pediatrician.  I had my 4 year check up which involved a few new tests.  The first one, a hearing check was a little intimidating.  I already am very sensitive to loud sounds, but it all went well and I had "perfect" hearing, to no one's surprise.  The biggest challenge was remembering if I should raise my hand when I heard a beep, say "I HEAR IT" when I heard a beep, or just raise my eyebrows and smile at the nurse when I heard all those beeps.

 Second new test, vision screening.  This was tricky as I had to name these objects and shapes.  I was able to name all of them, heart, star, circle, moon, boat, cup, cross, fish, and another star (which Mommy told me afterwards it was a flag, as though a 4 year old would know that and it wasn't even an American flag, duh).  I had 20/20 in one eye and 20/30 in my other eye, so good eyes for now :)

 Height and Weight- I am in the 25% for both my height and weight.  I am 39 inches tall and 33 pounds.  I am growing at a nice even pace.  My interpretation is that I am taller than 1 person out of 4 :)  That's called "looking on the bright side of things!"

 Cooper and I made the hospital's newsletter with this photo.  They had a short article about the bike rodeo and we were the poster children for the event.  Not sure if this would be considered our best photo, but it seemed to work for them.

 A few weeks ago, we met our girlfriends at the park.  We posed for some cute pictures and Laurie Jo shared them this week with Mommy.  We love our local park as they have a nice small zoo, several playground areas, and an old retired train that Cooper and I love to "choo-choo" at.

 Mommy did one of those gasps when she saw the photo of me above.  She says my expression looks just like Papa!

What's up Dude?

 Last week, Mommy's Kindergarten class went to the farm.  They had a great time learning and interacting with the many farm animals and farm areas.  One highlight included a relay for the teachers called "A Day in the Life of a Farmer."  Teachers had to pretend to sleep, wake up when the kids made the rooster crow, brush their teeth, throw on farm clothes, race around a feed bin, dump out the feed, run back (wearing HUGE farmer boots...remember Mom wears a size 5 shoe), brush her teeth again, and go back to sleep.  She was exhausted and yes, she won the race!  Yee-haw!