Happy Birthday Aiden!

We celebrated Aiden's FOURTH birthday a couple of days in a row. We took him to Texas Roadhouse (yummmm yummmm) for a special birthday dinner. He got to sit on the saddle while everyone in the restaurant yelled YEEEEHAAWWW!!! He also got a chocolate sundae for dessert :)

Every time we pass by Craig's Cruisers Aiden says that he wishes he could ride a race car. So in celebration of his birthday we let him ride with us and then he even got to ride on a mini kids course all by himself - he was thrilled to finally be able to go there!

He LOVES Toy Story....

He LOVES helicopters and airplanes...

And is obsessed with construction. Anytime we pass a detour or road construction sign he wants to see the construction and wants to know exactly what is going on.

He has already outgrown the bike we gave him for his birthday last year so we got him a new one. Since it was rainy outside, we let him drive it around the house for a bit.

A little while later I found him downstairs putting on all of his construction gear to ride his bike! Cute!

We also celebrated his birthday with his great-grandma, grandparents, aunties, uncles and cousins...

If you remember one of my posts from when he was three years old I wondered if Aiden would ever actually use utensils while eating. Well, now that he is four, you can see he uses the combination of utensils and his hands. Maybe when he's five years old he will stop eating with his hands!

Aiden wanted balloons for his birthday - what a hit with the kids! Gavin was the only one that got his tied... all of the rest of them endlessly blew them up and then let them go fly around crazily until they deflated.
Aiden and Uncle Jeff...

Our birthday boy!!!!

Four...

Attempts at a family pic...

Aiden had an awesome few days of celebrating his 4th birthday! I can't believe that he is four years old already - time sure flies when you are having fun! :) Here's some highlights about our fabulous four year old...

• He can count to 100 (but sometimes needs help with which "10's" number comes next - 40, 50, 60, etc.)


• He recognizes and knows all of the capital letters and most of the lower case letters. He is always spelling out the words on signs, labels, etc.


• He knows what sound each of the letters make and can identify words that start with those sounds.


• He loves math (YES!!!!!!) and is always asking us to give him addition problems.


• He can spell his first and last name, Gavin's name, my name and Bryan's name along with "stop", "exit", "open"


• He can write his name and draw a person.


• He loves to help Bryan out in the garage or in the yard with anything and everything. He shadows him and asks "why" about everything that Bryan does. He loves to find out why and how things work.


• He is not afraid of the water and will jump off diving boards, go down water slides, and do anything else in the water! He loves to swim!


• He is the best big brother to Gavin. So nuturing and kind and loves to play with him and help him.


• He is very social and can't wait to start pre-school this fall!

We love you so much Aiden Thomas and are so blessed that you are our son!

July

So now that I have caught up blogging about April, May & June, here's July...

Last fall I found a slip-n-slide on clearance for $3 so I bought it. Summer was long gone so I tucked it away for the following year - this year! This $3 steal has gotten a lot of good use since we have had so many hot days. I remember Aiden going over to the neighbor's house last year to use theirs and wasn't quite so coordinated to run and slide on his belly. This year, however, he's a pro! :) He has had lots of fun with it! Gavin, on the other hand, has no idea what to think of it so he just walks around it and touches the water.


I had some free tickets to the John Ball Park Zoo so we took the boys to go see some animals. Do you see the feet sticking out of this wallaby's pouch? A zookeeper told us that she is within days of kicking the baby out of her pouch for good. Within days???? I'm sure that it's a hard adjustment to have an "empty nest" but HELLO the baby doesn't even fit anymore. I'm surprised they keep them in there for that long.

Both boys loved petting the animals in the children's zoo. Gavin kept saying "woof, woof". I think he thought that all of the goats were just big dogs with funny looking things on their heads :)

Gavin's favorite animal at the zoo was this Howler Monkey. After he saw him he kept trying to imitate him! So cute! :)

We went to a Whitecaps game with two of my brothers and their wives and one of A & G's cousins. It was Gav's first Whitecaps game and Aiden's second. Gavin was fascinated with the mascots - it was hilarious!

Bryan bought Aiden his first fishing pole and they went fishing together. He caught a few sunfish and had lots of fun!

Gav's was just happy to watch from the stroller with his own fish :)

We have been invited to a couple of different pools this summer and have thoroughly enjoyed it!

We had a few days in a row in July where it rained a lot and turned the boys sandbox into a mud pit. It didn't stop them from having fun though :)

G loves PBJ :)

Bryan found a really good deal on a boat on Craigslist on the other side of the state. We went to check it out and ended up buying it! :) We have had it out a few times and have had lots of fun! It has a cuddy and the boys LOVE to play in it. It's also nice for Gavin to take naps in! Aiden loves when we anchor the boat on the shore of Lake Michigan so he can swim around. Although Gav's is not so crazy about swimming he does like to play in the sand.

The nice thing about boating: it wears the boys out! :)

We went to the Ottawa County Fair and the boys had lots of fun checking out all of the animals.