Happy Birthday Cole!

Cole's fourth birthday party was a SUCCESS!  We had 42 attendees - 12 little playmates, their parents, and our family members.  Despite working 15 hour days the past few weeks on this work proposal, I managed to organize the gathering. (Yes, I'm tooting my own horn there, as this was not an easy accomplishment!)  Given that we were sweating our brains out at his last three b-day parties, we decided to pick an inside venue this time.  At the Falls Church Community Center we were able to reserve a room for three hours - as well as one hour in the gym.  It was a great set-up.  The room was plenty big for everyone and we decorated it with blow-up dinosaurs, hanging dinosaurs, 40 balloons, dinosaur cups, dinosaur plates, dinosaur napkins, dinosaur gift bags with dinosaur crayons, and dinosaur paddle balls....can you tell what the party theme was yet?!?  So then we ask Cole what he wants on his cake and he says "bikes"...?!?  Of course, he learned how to ride a two-wheeler several weeks ago so now bikes are the "it" thing.  Super heroes are rising on the list too, so we managed to accommodate his request by ordering a cake with Batman riding a "bike" (motorcycle).  Thankfully, it was a hit.  Though the blue icing was not...for the parents.  That stuff STAINED their little faces like nothing I've ever seen!  But it was tasty :-)  I will post videos of Kira and Cole playing with the dinosaurs as Dave and I decorated and then some of the kids playing in the gym. They set it up really nice with plenty of options for running, playing, riding or tumbling.  It was great!  One of the most notable things of the day though, I have to mention, is Cole's response to his adult guests.  Parents would come in and say "Happy Birthday Cole - how old are you today?" and he would respond, "Three."  And they would look confused and say, "Oh, I thought this was your 4th birthday party."  To which he would say, "No, I'm not four until Monday.  Today is my fake birthday party."  Like George Washington, my son cannot tell a lie!  Hahahahahaha! 

Fun in the Sun

Our neighbors have joined a community pool so after work on weekdays and on weekend afternoons we have been joining them as their guests.  The kids are loving it - little fishes they are!  Now I just need to get them some swimming lessons...in my spare time.  Ha!  Jake, pictured here, is Cole's partner in crime in the neighborhood.  It is hysterical to watch them play "hide and seek" - I use the term loosely!  And, once again, Kira hops on the big wheels and does her best to keep up with the boys.  It is clear that she has no sense of gender or age differences.  I am encouraging that for as long as possible! 

Family fun time!

When I returned home from my business trip I took the day off of work to spend time with the kids (mother's guilt!) and we drove to Kinderfarm Park to meet up with Aunt Michelle, the twins, Sammy and Nana.  It's a really neat place where they have a ginormous three-level playground for the kids, a farm with horses, cows, pigs, roosters, sheep and goats.  And lots of picnic tables.  The cousins are just TOO CUTE together.  I love how they hold hands as they walk around.  Sammy will do absolutely anything that Cole tells him to do.  So when he runs away from us, or the picnic table we tell Cole to get his cousin.  Cole will run over to Sammy and say "Sam, we're eating lunch at the picnic table now.  Come back."  And, sure enough, Sammy will respond "Oh! OK!" and follow him back.  Kira, on the other hand, is absolutely enamored with the babies.  She tries to crawl into the stroller to sit with them - it's so funny.  She pets them on the head and says "baby, momma - look!" She's very maternal.  However, she is also a wild one who will follow Cole and Sammy up hills, down slides, and into any puddle or muddy area - in fact, she was the first one to go down the big tube slide at the park.  The boys were hesitant at first so she just pushed in front of them and went right down!  (Video to follow.)

Business trip

Momma had to go on a business trip to Florida June 13-15 and this is all she sent home - a picture of the geckos that were EVERYWHERE she turned!  (I almost brought one home when one crawled in my bag!)

Polo

A friend of mine from work plays polo and invited us out to watch a few weekends ago.  It's in a beautiful area near the mountains in VA and the kids had a blast watching the horses and "practicing" on the sidelines.  Dave and I enjoyed the picnic lunch we packed while the kids ran around!

Catching up

So much to post...so little time!  The summer is already flying by and I realized I haven't posted in weeks...or is it months?  I think Dave posted one or two entries highlighting Cole's new bike riding skills and Kira's new big girl bed, so at least he's been keeping up!  I'm downloading some pics from my phone now...here are the kids on Memorial Day Weekend at the Falls Church Fair.  Bouncing, bouncing, bouncing - in 104 degree heat!  YIKES, was it hot!  Don't worry, I had lots of water on hand for those wild ones :-)

Guess what Kira got today...

And she loves it. We just hope she stays in it!

Look momma, no training wheels!

Watch Cole as he rides his new bike:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_O9_Blym8w

Yesterday we gave Cole a "big kid" bike with pedals as an early birthday present (we're three weeks away from his 4th birthday.)  He kept asking for a big bike with pedals because all of the older kids in the neighborhood have big bikes.  Cole has been riding his balance bike for a little over 2 months now, and we were hoping that making the transition to a real pedal bike would go relatively smoothly, and would not necessitate training wheels... well, it went amazingly smoothly, as you'll see in the video.  We gave it to him Saturday evening after removing the training wheels.  He got on it once and I pushed him around, and he didn't want ANYthing to do with it because it was "too high" and unsteady for him.  Sunday morning I brought it back out, put him up on it and pushed him around the circle twice.  On the third time around all I was holding onto was his shirt, and by the next time around I let him go.  Couple more times around and he was doing laps by himself like you'll see in the video!  Apparently balance bikes really do work!!  All of the other, older kids in the neighborhood have training wheels on their bikes still, and they are 5 to 6 years old.  It was cool to see that the balance bike concept panned out!