Adam told me, “Mom, I think I am old enough to get the mail all by myself now.”

The boys took turns pushing Maggie around the driveway. She slept through the whole thing.

Adam decided to have a “cookout” while I was making dinner last night. Luke crashed the barbecue – literally, he knocked the entire grill over.

And here’s a couple of pictures from this morning. Man I love these kids.

Favorite Toy: A Firetruck

Favorite Fruit: Grapes

Favorite Thing to Wear: All green clothes

Favorite Snack: Cookies

Best Friend: Caleb

Favorite Cereal: Lucky Charms

Favorite Thing to do Outside: Play

Favorite Holiday: Halloween or Christmas, I like both of them

What do take to bed with you at night: Mickey & Lumpy Bumpy Pillow

Favorite Thing to Eat for Breakfast: Pop Tarts

What do you want for dinner on your Birthday: Chicken Nuggets

What do you want to be when you grow up: A Fix-it Guy

Two weekends ago we went to a picnic with my family at our local Vets’ Club. It was a lot of fun and Adam just asked me tonight when the next one is. He couldn’t believe it when Dave told him he had to wait until he was five.

Saturday morning Adam and Dave set out on their “adventure” (as Adam called it). It started with a trip to the hardware store, where Adam was outfitted with these nifty safety goggles and a work apron.

He was also given a hammer and a kit to build an airplane. He was pretty excited about it all (we had told him in advance that he was going to build something, but not what).

Dave said a lot of the hammering was too advanced for Adam, but he still really enjoyed himself. They got to spend time together and Adam got a fun new airplane out of it (plus he got to keep the apron, goggles, and hammer).

Afterwards they went for haircuts and to return bottles and cans at the grocery store. It might not sound like too much, but Adam really loves sorting and feeding the cans into the machine. Then they went to lunch at “The Apple”, just the two of them.

Here’s a before & after of that haircut. Dave said it was the easiest haircut yet. Adam just sat nicely and the hairdresser even commented on how much better he was now. I’m fairly certain she’s scarred for life from a few of those early haircuts where Adam screamed the entire time.

Side note: Luke pronounces the words happy, airplane, and ice cream almost identically. It can make for some interesting mix-ups. And it sort of makes me want to take him for a plane ride and give him an ice cream cone – just to see if it makes him happy. I bet it would.

Just a mix of cute photos from the last few days:

Today had no business being a good day – none at all.

Yesterday the first of Luke’s 2-year molars started to break through. He came up to me screaming “hurt, hurt!” after naptime while holding the left side of his face. A couple of hours later I was finally able to poke a finger in (dangerous, I know) and felt the offending tooth. One started, three more to go.

Adam didn’t go to sleep until after one o’clock last night. Even though he took a two and a half hour nap, I think he was over tired. We spent a lot of time playing outside yesterday and it really wore him out. Thanks to his late, late bedtime, I assumed he would be a miserable today.

And Maggie is going through a “I’m-not-happy-unless-mama-is-holding-me” phase. As a result I have loads and loads (pun intended) of unfolded laundry. Doing the laundry one-handed is easy – folding it, not so much. I’ve also been missing my “me” time the last couple of nights. Normally she hangs out with Dave in the evening for a couple of hours, but lately she’s been boycotting that (I think she’s tired of watching baseball).

Anyway, like I said, today had no business being a good day – but it was.

Maggie woke up in an awesome mood. She even let me put her down in the stroller for her morning nap. I was able to read a magazine while Luke and Adam played together. They said hello (and bye bye) to every person that walked past our driveway. We don’t have a lot of cars that go by our house, but there is a lot of foot traffic. They were both excited to see the mail truck pull up, and the mailman honked his horn at them as he left. I’m pretty sure it made Adam’s day. He is pretty big on people tooting their horns when they leave, to say good-bye (he gets that from his Aunt Stacy).

Adam drew a picture of me. You can tell because it says my name on it – twice (and that is totally what my hair looks like – I really need a haircut). He insisted on drawing it inside of the garage so that the rain won’t wash it away.

The boys played nicely most of the day. Here they’re doing an experiment in their water table. I filled it with water from the hose and then gave them some containers with colored ice in them. (Side note: Normally I try not to let Luke have his pacifier unless it’s naptime or bedtime, however he’s teething and it makes him feel better – so he gets a pass.)

The experiment was pretty simple: Blue Ice + Yellow Ice = Green Water. I got the idea for this online, and they used food coloring when they did it. I was worried about it staining though and so I crushed up some of the pellets the kids’ use to turn their bathwater different colors and it worked great. Both boys played with this for a long time and Adam has already asked if they can do it again tomorrow.

When they weren’t playing in the water or drawing with chalk, they were riding around the driveway. This scooter was another of Adam’s birthday gifts.

For some reason, Luke thinks it is hilarious to crash in to the front of the van. He did it repeatedly with the car and also with the tricycle. I’m really hoping he doesn’t have this same mindset when he turns 16.

Anyway, it turned out to be not too bad of a day after all. Sure, we had our share of tears (from all three kids), but overall, it was good (I didn’t cry once!).

Tonight we took the pictures off of Adam’s camera. Here are a few of my favorites.

Daddy & Eggbert (his first picture with this camera)

Lumpy Bumpy Pillow

Mickey

Self Portrait #1

Self Portrait #2

View From the Backseat

Eggbert

Mabel’s Flowers

Uncle Steve Hard at Work

Uncle Robbie & Nala (the camera has a photo editing feature, and apparently he decided this picture needed a mustache)

Papa’s Garden

Papa

Sherman

The Artist Himself (photo by Mama)

Aunt Stacy & Luke (I think I took this one too actually)

It’s actually not a bad little camera. It does much better outside in the sun than it does indoors (there’s no flash) and it helps if you have a steady hand. Adam and Luke have both been having a lot of fun with it.

We had Maggie’s pictures done tonight. I was a little nervous at how they would turn out. I had it perfectly planned for a time she is normally in a good mood and had her fed, changed, and ready to go. Then we got to the picture place, and they were running about 45 minutes behind. So we walked around for a bit and then went in to get her pictures done. She was a little crabby at this point, but not too bad.

Here are the three that we had put on a disk:

And here are the rest of them:

They also did a few edited prints, which we didn’t purchase. As we were looking at the pictures on the screen to decide which to buy, Luke kept pointing and saying, Eggbert!” The photographer thought the boys’ nickname for their sister was pretty funny.

Adam got one of his birthday gifts as soon as he woke up. It was a new pair of pajamas for his bear in the chair picture. He insisted that he be allowed to wear his birthday pajamas all day, because it was his birthday. It sounded pretty reasonable to me.

He got his second gift (a camera) when Dave came home for lunch. He dove right in to the picture taking and even insisted on getting a shot of his cupcakes before we ate them.

After Dave went back to work, the kids and I drove out to my parents’ house to celebrate some more.

Adam was very happy with his Sheriff Woody cake.

He was super excited to have everyone sing to him.

It took him at least four tries to blow out those pesky candles. He didn’t seem to mind though and made a wish before each try.

After cake and more presents, he and Aunt Amanda relaxed in the hammock for a bit.

It was the perfect way to celebrate being four and Adam told me later that he had a “happy happy birthday”.

Definitely gives a new meaning to “having a blast” with my family.