"Best Birthday Ever!"

David wanted an Olaf Frozen Birthday party this year.

Opening Crazy Sand...one of the "best gifts ever."

Blowing out candles on the AMAZING Olaf cake.

Baby Faith paid attention so she'll know what to do when it's her turn.

Lincoln Logs were a fun toy for three little kids and two big kids.

They played put the carrot on Olaf's face.

 Everyone had a good time at the party. The leftover cake is almost gone, and David's asking when the next birthday will be here. :-)

Snow on the Pumpkin...and Gourds

Today was the first real snow of the season. David was so excited to see how much snow was on the ground. We took Holly on a long walk, that turned into a short walk. We planted tulips a few weeks ago in the backyard and David is anxious to see them come up, now that it turned cold and snowed.

:-)

Some things that David has learned in the past few months -- surprisingly good scissor skills, how to rhyme words and the letters that words begin with, counting to 29 (the next number is 10), that dinosaurs have different teeth (depending on if they are plant eating or meat eating), and that Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt (from Sunday School).

Halloween

There was a lot of Halloween this year -- we went to the fall festival at church, carved two pumpkins, enjoyed wearing the Olaf costume, David keeps asking if Halloween is over. :-)

David Day 3

We celebrated David Day 3 at the Indy Children's Museum on October 10 with Mommy and Grandma Arla. Everyone had a great time!

Chuck E Cheese

Katie came to visit so the three of us headed out to Chuck E Cheese for dinner. (Just a note: The secret of surviving is to go during a time that's not busy.) We had a great time and managed to collect enough tickets for a bracelet for both kids. Yeah, I know I could have bought the same bracelets for a package of 50 at the dollar store, but it's the joy of giving two kids a little fun.

Summer Fun

David has mastered the art of "pumping" the swing. He figured this out back in June, and has taught his friends at day care how to do it too. He also has been busy growing little tomatoes in the back yard.

Terracotta warriors

We went to the Children's Museum to have fun and see the terracotta warriors exhibit. It was fun for kids of all ages!

Thomas the Train

David is still a Thomas the Train fan, so we took off for Connersville to take a train ride. We did this last year too, so it wasn't a new experience, but we still had fun. The bounce house was a big hit too!

Future Pilot

David wants to be a pilot when he grows up, so we went to the Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio on Saturday. He really liked the planes, especially the one painted like a shark.

Gymastics

David still likes gymnastics! He's still with the 4-5 year olds, but so far can hold his own in the class. He says his favorite event is the vault.

Peter Rabbit and grown up clothes

This year at Easter, David was going through a Peter Rabbit phase. I looked EVERYWHERE for a Peter Rabbit toy, like the one on Nick Jr. There was an ad that Walmart had the "latest" Peter Rabbit toys. I think I walked every aisle of at least two WM stores never found any Peter toys. So finally I went online and tried ordering from Amazon. Then someone must have been about as desperate as I was, and placed their order before mine, so there were none left, so I closed my eyes and ordered the larger one at the other vendor page and paid for shipping. Ugh! Peter arrived on time, but there were two in the box! I guess the toys multiply as fast as the real ones!

Recently David has been really specific about the clothes he will wear. I'm tired of buying things that he refuses, so he picks out his clothes now. (How silly for me to think that only little girls and their mommies have this issue.) So this year, he picked out his Easter clothes, but when it was time to wear them, he exclaimed, "But I'm not big enough for these clothes!" He wore them for the picture, and they've been in the closet ever since.

another project finished

I managed to finish another quilt -- this one has a cat theme, with cat fabric from my travels before David. You can play a matching game to find the cat and the spool of thread that are the same, but you have to stay still long enough. :-)

Spring Break Vacation at Disney

On March 8, we started our trek south to sunny Florida for vacation. I was in slow gear, but glad that in planning our vacation back at Christmas, had decided it was easiest for me just to let Disney be in charge. So we stayed at the Port Orleans Riverside for most of the week, and then went to Animal Kingdom for the last night. We went to Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Downtown Disney, and Animal Kingdom. We ate at a character meal, which was fun. We also had the meal plan, and with a child with food allergies, it's the way to go. At each food location a chef came out and talked about what he could eat on the menu and then prepared it. This made a vacation for me on David's dairy challenges. We both thought the magic bands were cool and it didn't take David long to figure out how to use them!

It's been a week since we came home and David still says his favorite thing was the Dumbo ride, and he likes Pluto and Nemo. He did not like Minnie Mouse, but said maybe one day he'll change his mind. :-) He liked the airplane too and did not sleep a wink, but chattered about wanting to be a pilot and wondered where the map was to tell the pilot how to get home.

We didn't get to do all that I had hoped for -- I thought maybe we would have a chance to connect with family and friends in Florida, but it didn't come together for this trip. But we'll be back -- David is already asking if we can go to our room and the pool and see Mickey!

February done

We had a busy February, and I'm glad it is over! There was plenty of cold, snow, and more cold. As a big surprise, I had the lithotripsy procedure in mid February to try to get rid of kidney stones, and the next week, had surgery to have my gallbladder removed. And I had about a one week notice for all of it! This week was the four week marker -- I'm still tired and having some problems eating some foods, but grateful for the good medical care and help from family/friends. We only missed one day of speech therapy and one day of gymnastics in all of this, so actually we did good! I couldn't lift David until recently, but we had been working on getting in and out of the car seat by himself and other more independent tasks, so it all worked out. This experience has been a time to learn patience! And I'm still learning!!

David's Turn

David liked gymnastics so well with Katie, we found a place closer to home (Anderson) for little boy lessons. He did so well that he placed out of the pre-K class and is in the 4 and 5 year old group. He's got a lot of strength and isn't too scared to try much...yet. Unfortunately for mom, all this jumping and swinging did not result in a great nap on Saturday, but he sure was hungry!

Cool Tool

David has a new snowball maker. It's pretty easy to use -- just drop it opened up in a snowdrift, then squeeze the handles and there's a perfect, round snowball. Pretty convenient too, to throw at the house or Holly the dog.

Budding Gymnasts

David had the chance to go with Katie to visit her gymnastics place back in December. They both have some natural talent for athletics and had a great time during open gym!