Pancakes and Pirates

It's hard to believe that J is 4. It has been fun to see lately how he is growing into a little man. So many things he does on his own: fills his water from the fridge, completely picks out and dresses himself (finally not putting his clothes on backwards), getting up at night (all by himself) to use the potty (out of pull-ups!!!!!), helping me around the house, holds M's hand to get her to a certain place and so much more. And now and then, still a 2 yr. old temper tantrum. Will he ever out grow that? It's fun to watch him grow and really wonder about the world around him. So many great questions have been coming from him lately. He even keeps Jon and I accountable with our devos...seriously.

J really understood his birthday this year and it made it really fun. I asked him what he wanted to eat for dinner on his actual birthday and he said pancakes. So, a pancake dinner it was. My parents came, along with his cousins J & H. They were a surprise and he loved it!!!!

J's buddies/cousins

Saturday was his pirate party. We combined his and D's (my nephew) parties. All the kids dressed up as pirates. It was a blast. The boys loved it and so did the moms. I was completely exhausted and I am still today recuperating from it. 3rd pregnancy is way different than the first and even the second.

J (4) and D (3)

We had fun dressing up as pirates! Even Mimi and PopPop dressed up - sorry no pics.

Game master "you're still the one" (see previous posts) led the kids in "walk the plank" and "treasure chest toss". His motto was "all kids are winners" - which means all kids are losers. A fun token they got to make was a pirate telescope made out of toilet paper rolls. What 3 & 4 yr. old wouldn't love that!

The party ended with a bang smashing the pinata! Go M. A tradition that "you're still the one" and I have is the making of the birthday cake. It all started with J's 1st cake. It wasn't until that night of decorating his 1st cake that I realized I married a cake decorator. Aren't you girls jealous? Well, here is the 4th bday cake. We have fun planning what we will do and then it always takes us way longer than we think and by the end of decorating we are annoyed at each other. It has happened every year. But, it creates memories!!!! We love it!