Birthday cake!

birthday bash in the woods part 1

busted

bub bubs

Squishy baby in too small sweater. Oh the cuteness. Those perfect little fingers are almost too much.
This sweater was one of the very first baby things I ever bought. Yep, he's dressed in his sisters clothes.

I went to the animal fair....

We attempted to go to the zoo. But alas, it was a free day. Which meant that traffic was backed up out to the interstate exit.  Um, not exactly sure how all those people fit into the zoo? So then we thought we'd keep going and play some mini gold in Sieverville. Again we were stopped by traffic!  Soooo, onward we forged, out to a drive through "safari". Poor baby was awoken from his nap only to be terrified of the animals that kept popping their heads in our car window. The girls loved it! He did enjoy the petting zoo so it wasn't a total fail of  a birthday activity. I will admit that I do not normally enjoy these types of places but this place was sooo clean and the animals all looked extremely well taken care of.  This is the one that is out past Sieverville, not the one closer in to Knoxville.

birthday breakfast

It's a funny thing to be number 4. You're kind of unimportant to the outside world. And we Mama's take our children's slights and multiply them in our hearts. I was so sad that he wasn't special enough to be celebrated by anyone but us. So instead of doing  what I should have done and made a big todo (birthday pancakes, anyone?) I just moped. I literally sat on the couch and was all teary. (And I might have even called my own Mama  and demand they meet us the next day - even if it meant driving 2 hours.) But he, being the awesome, super little dude that he is, had other plans than watching me blubber. He made it very clear he wanted his cheerios in a bowl and with a spoon and with milk! And so he got them. And made me laugh in the process.

braids!

I didn't think we would ever get here. A year ago we were growing out yet another self inflicted "hair do". But, finally! One year later and no more scissors have been used. It's become a bit of a running joke between us, anytime she gets that guilty look I say "did you cut your hair ?" and she responds with "MAAMA. I DIDN'T DO IT" and then she usually proceeds to tell me what she did do instead. Love it.
Girl has got some fluffy hair so you can't ever really tell how long it is. I didn't even realize I could braid it until just the other day. Cuteness, right?

no more nicknames please

She's requested that we call her by her given name. Why does she want to grow up? Make it stop!

Daddy love

Or alternately, attack Daddy. Pretty much the same thing when you are ALMOST ONE.

to brighten your day

I have to edit this to add a little fact. If you haven't actually met the boy you probably just think this is a goofy picture. Nope. This is his snuffle face, where he does his best nasally challenged animal impersonation. He won't say "mama" but he will sniff on demand.

leaves

He doesn't want to play in the leaves. Oh no, he wants to use the tools and rake them. Every time I sat him down in the leaves and the girls and I threw some up in the air he just looked at us, like he was saying "what is wrong you?" When I took the big rake away from him, he went and found the sand toy rake and proceeded to walk all over with that.

holy eyeballs, Batman.

Just my gorgeous girl.  And what was she doing?

Don't all oarsmen wear striped hoods? And don't all  Moms pull them off the boat to take a picture when they realize how pretty their eyes look ?