I can't believe he's 4!

We had Crash's birthday party the weekend before because that's when my family could attend. The big excitement was his first bicycle. He has been trying to ride the test pilot's and you can imagine that. He was so excited and did great riding it.


As exciting as the bicycle was (and it was exciting) this big monkey balloon came in a close second. I knew he would love it the minute I saw it. We had an animal themed party so it went great.



Here he is with the cupcakes. I found this idea at www.wilton.com. He is so into animals right now. The kids all got to pick which animal they wanted. I did not realize how much they would all like it.

Here's a close up of one of the cupcakes.

Here's our magnificent father working at the grill. Not only did he grill but managed to fog the whole backyard so the mosquitoes would die. I get eaten alive in my own backyard after like 2 seconds out there so this was an urgent request of the wife. It worked great. Thank you husband.

This birthday was extra special because this one was the first one that he really got. He knew it was his birthday and was very excited about it. In the past, big groups overwhelmed him plus some communication problems led to parties that were not always something he enjoyed. It just warmed my heart to see him smile and have fun and run around telling everyone that he was 4! He's such a sweet boy!

The love of brothers

Happy Birthday Crash! Today my little boy is 4 years old. I will post more about the festivities later. A couple of months ago the test pilot wanted to work on Crash's birthday. He's a planner like his mother. Here's his creation.

Not sure why that color change on the computer- it's all the same yellow IRL. He did all his own spelling.

In case you need a translation:

Dear Crash,

May the force

be with you

on your birthday

and I hope you

enjoy your present.

Love,

The test pilot

I will treasure this card.

Travelling with boys

Now that only one kid is in diapers travelling has gotten a little more interesting. The test pilot states in the middle of no where that he has to go to the bathroom. The Captain pulls off the interstate and they hike away to find a bush.

It's times like these that I am glad we have all boys and the hubby takes care of these issues.

About 30 minutes later (still in the middle of no where) Crash announces that he needs to go potty. Once again we pull off the interstate and the Captain takes this child on a wilderness hike in search of a bush.

When Crash jumps back in the car he says, "Mom, I peed on the potty grass!" We all had a good chuckle.

More beach

There was a really nice swimming pool at our hotel where we went to "rest" from the beach.

Crash is doing really well with his swimming although he is still not crazy about his face getting wet.

Here's the test pilot showing off his jumping skills. It took me several tries to time this photo. Apparently, my camera is slow.

Our basic schedule was:

Get up and eat breakfast.

Go to the beach.

Eat lunch.

Nap for the little ones/adult recovery time.

Swim at the pool.

Eat dinner.

Back to the beach.

Bedtime at dark.

I don't have pictures but we did some boogeyboarding this year. That was so much fun. That would have to be my favorite part of the trip. Surfing will probably never be something I master due to my poor balance so this is close as I get.

Everyone was exhausted at the end-although the children won't admit it. Already looking forward to next year.

Not an ordinary sand castle

When your dad is an engineer little things like sand castle building are just not like other people's sand castles. We start here with our tent and start piling the sand in front. This takes them hours over many days so we have to have shade.


This is truly the test pilot's favorite part of the beach- building sand castles with dad.

Crash loves helping with his construction toys and fetching water from the ocean to keep the sand moist.

Day one started out like this. It involved a lot of sand hauling, shaping, wetting, decorating, etc.

Day 3 ended with this. They called it their dragon. The test pilot still wonders if their dragon is still there. They always draw a crowd at the beach of people coming to watch and see their creations.

Wow!

Wow! Whoa! These were the first two words out of Wingman's mouth as he hit the beach. He thought the beach was awesome! Here he is with my mom. It really is helpful when you have small children to have a 1:1 adult/child ratio while at the beach.

He loved the water.

He liked chasing the seagulls. He liked chasing dogs on the beach.

It was just amazing to get to see his expressions at his first "real" exposure to the beach. (He was 6 months old last year.)

It was funny watching him examine the bottoms of his feet after walking in the sand. He was trying to figure out what was all over his feet. It was priceless.

We're home!

There have not been any posts because we have been at the beach. We had a great time!

This is the first family picture at the beach in the 4 years we have gone. It was my mission. We had lots of fun and brought home lots of sand. I will post more when I get time to edit the pictures.