Colton's celebrating started Friday, April 8th. He spent the day helping me shop, clean, bake cupcakes, prepare stuff for his party, and was seriously so helpful. That afternoon for Mommy-Colton time, we cuddled together on the couch and spent quite a while looking back at old videos and photos of him the past four years. We both loved it! That evening, after Daddy got home from work, we had his choice (macaroni and cheese) for dinner, birthday donuts, and opened presents.
Here is a collection of raw, unedited clips of Colton opening each of his presents - it's nothing special, but I like remembering the things he liked, how he talks, his personality, and just the memory of it all, so I included it here :).
That evening after the kids were in bed, Grandma and Grandpa T and Uncle Javonte arrived to spend the weekend with us. That next morning, Saturday April 9th, was his birthday party.
Colton's birthday party was at the Minnesota Air National Guard Museum in one of their hangars. We were grateful that so much of Colton's extended family, as well as 8 of his little buddies and their parents, could join us on the tour of the grounds, which included seeing many airplanes and going inside quite a few. Besides seeing, climbing in, and learning about all sorts of airplanes, we brought along Colton's train tracks and set them up in the hangar so he and his friends could play trains at the party too. After exploring, playing, and the tour, we had a Mexican style lunch of chicken tacos and carnitas, sang to Colton, and ate cupcakes. Finally, we climbed to the top floor and looked out over the airport with binoculars to see the planes landing and taking off. It truly was the perfect party for our little airplane lover! Here are a few pictures:
This was Colton's favorite plane
Playing trains
Its hard to capture in a picture, but the hangar where we ate and had the party was FILLED with planes the kids could climb in and on.
Lunch! (Shout out to Grandma Kirkwood for bringing the massive fruit salad!)
Birthday boy with his lunch
The events coordinator made tablecloths to look like runways
The fam!
Video of Singing to Colton:
Colton has already had so much fun playing with his Toy Story figurines!
He also got the three toy story DVDs, Cars II, a favorite car from the movie, and his first transformer.
He loves his Mater shirt and it was pretty cute how he exclaimed over the plaid shorts that came with it ;)
Colton got the coolest soccer gear, including a LIGHTNING MCQUEEN soccer ball and special bag, as he will start soccer in less than a month!
He was SO excited to get Jeremy the Jet plane and many of the trains from the Thomas the Train series.
He was also THRILLED with getting Tidmouth Sheds, where Thomas the train and friends are housed.
Colton's birthday was perfectly suited for our special little boy, and we are so grateful for all the friends and family that came to celebrate, the generous and thoughtful gifts (seriously you guys KNOW our little guy and what he loves!) and for the opportunity to make our favorite middle kid feel so special on his big day.
Colton's final celebration was the next day, his actual birthday, when he got his door decorated with streamers, got breakfast in bed, and after church he got his birthday meal of hotdogs and macaroni and cheese, and a special Thomas ice cream cake from Grandma and Grandpa T. He spent the rest of the day playing with his new toys!
Video of Breakfast in Bed:
Birthday Lunch
Icecream cake from Grandma and Grandpa T
Birthday playtime...combining his new and old planes, trains, and cars ... in heaven...with Grandpa T :)
What a full and special weekend! Thank you so much to everyone who helped to make it that way, and for all the pictures people took and sent so I could include them here :). We love you all, and Colton, you are a really special dude. Happy 4th birthday, bud!
Our favorite little boy turned FOUR this week! While I will write more about our celebration in the next post, I want to write a bit about Colton at age 4. I can honestly say that he is an absolute sweetheart.
He is so sweet with cousin Teddy and is so gentle!
Love this!
While he had a short-lived phase of testing and disobedience just before his 4th birthday, he has returned to his typical obedient self, with immediate "yes mommy's" and doing what he is supposed to do. He is a huge help around the house and at the grocery store, a great cuddler, loves to play anything with his older sister and is very patient with his younger sister. He plays so well with both of them!
He continues to love anything Lightning McQueen, Dusty the Crophopper, and Thomas the train and will spend hours in a day playing cars, planes, and trains. He has amazing focus. He also needs to get his energy out positively - and will often be assigned "100 jumps" on the trampoline or running "his age" in laps around the backyard if his energy is in excess of his self-control :). He has grown much more coordinated athletically through his Amazing Athletes class (sports camp) which has been really fun to see.
video:
He is a great conversationalist and is also very curious and asks great questions about the Bible and about how things work. I love our one-on-one time together each afternoon after Larkyn goes down for a nap where we read his daily Bible story,
We are currently about halfway through his Action Bible.
do preschool, play a game, or play trains/planes/cars. He has grown quite a bit this year in writing his letters, beginning reading, speech, counting, understanding of time (weeks/months/seasons), learning lowercase letters, and more.
Doing a float or sink science experiment this week
He is SUCH a great kid and I love spending time with him. I am so proud of him and among many things, pray for protection physically, spiritually, and in purity, that Colton would stay on the straight and narrow path, and that God would grow Colton closer to Him in this coming year, growing into a man of God and encouraging other men to live for Him.
At his 4 year checkup, Colton weighed in at 37 lbs and 12 oz (67th percentile).
Colton currently is 3 feet, 4 inches tall (43rd percentile)
Colton is such a silly, handsome, sweet, empathetic, and polite little boy! I could not love you any more or be any more proud of who you are and who you are becoming, Colton Paul. You are my FAVORITE little boy and I love you more than I can say!
Here is Colton's 4 year old interview (my phone died in the middle so the two parts are spliced together):
Happy 4th birthday, Colton Buddy!
*Party/Celebration blog post coming soon....
It is already halfway through April and I never blogged about our little Loo and how much she has grown up this past month! Here are a few updates:
She loves jewelry and is almost always found in piggy tails
She LOVES "no-gurt" and has it every day for breakfast
She still has a very short attention span for coloring but will enjoy it in short spurts
awesome bedhead!
Entering the 2T world of clothing! (I had fun pulling out Summer's old skinny jeans!)
Cuddles with Daddy
Cuddles with Mommy when she was sick
I never like it when she doesn't feel well...but I love the cuddles.
She LOVES to go down in the basement and jump on the trampline and say "1,2,3...1,2,3" over and over!
She has been teething a lot and chewing on her fingers and clothes
She is very interested in the potty, will ask to go, and is very self-aware of after she has gone potty. She did have one successful poop in the potty!
being silly with her brother during mealtime
watching for Grandma :)
She loves veggie tale books lately and will read them endlessly and carry them around everywhere - including to go pick up Summer from school
She tried out sitting in Summer's chair (as opposed to the high chair) and thought that was pretty fun!
She LOVES babies and will always go up to them when we are out in public. She LOVED holding her new cousin Teddy.
She is so sweet with Teddy I have never had to tell her to be gentle...she is a natural!
Here are a few videos:
Naming Letters - knows about a third of the alphabet
Counting Goldfish Crackers - loves to do this...but doesn't have one to one correspondence yet. Can count to 10 but skips 4. Can count to 20 sometimes.
Rah Rah Radishes - a favorite book for a while - its a "veggie chant" board book and she has the first few pages memorized and CAN say them all by herself however in this video we do it together. The lines she is saying are "rah-rah radishes, red and white. Carrots are calling, take a bite. Oh boy, bok choy, brussel sprouts. Broccoli, cauliflower, shout it out!"
Being REALLY silly with Colton
We love you Larkyn Emery! I love your cuddles, giggles and huge personality. You are talking in so many multiple word sentences and I love it! You are currently entering the "two's" discipline phase of enjoying your own opinion, saying no, testing boundaries, and getting frustrated when you don't get your way, however you are thankfully still relatively easy to distract and timeouts work great for you. I love that your attention span for reading is so much longer now and one of my favorite things to do with you is cuddle up with your blankie and read books together. I need to slow down time... less than three months before my littlest baby is TWO! Eek...slow down Larky-Loo! I want to enjoy every single minute with you!!! I continue to thank God for letting us have you in our family and to pray that he would use you in mighty ways to bring glory to His name and others into His kingdom. You are SUCH a blessing. So. Much. Love.
