Josh is 4!

On August 27th, we gave our 3 year old boy hugs and kisses for the last time at bed time because when we woke up on the 28th, we had a 4 year old boy instead.  How is that even possible?  Since his birthday was in the middle of the week, the day was fairly low key.  We took iced sugar cookies to school for Josh to share with his friends.  From the description Josh gave us, a miracle must have occurred at daycare because those 23 (Emma and Josh had to perform quality control the night before) cookies apparently fed the entire school, teachers, Pastor, and random other workers.  Mr. Win and RiRi came over for dinner.  Josh requested bacon wrapped hot dogs so Brad grilled some dogs and burgers.  For all the talk of the bacon wrapped hot dog, once they came out, Josh changed his mind and went for a burger instead.  Guess it was his prerogative since he was the birthday boy.  After dinner, it was gifts and then cupcakes and ice cream. 

 

 

 

The week after his birthday, I took Josh in for his 4 year check up.  He is 85th percentile for both height and weight.  Unfortunately for him, the check-up also included four vaccines.  All I can say is thank goodness, we're done with shots until age 11 or 12.  I had one very unhappy boy who probably scared every other child at the clinic.  Donut holes afterwards momentarily dulled the pain but he was pretty miserable the rest of the day.

At four years old, Josh continues to be such a clown.  He makes the silliest faces and can make his buddy Ross laugh by pretty much just tapping a finger.  At the same time, he also has the wildest mood swings.  One minutes, he'll be happy and laughing and the next he is falling to pieces.  Josh is also quite fashion conscious and has definite opinions about what he will and will not wear.  Granted, the reasoning doesn't always have a basis in reality but what can you do.  Josh has become much more picky with eating over the past year and recently forgot how to swallow his vegetables.  He can literally chew a mouthful of vegetables for 15 minutes and still not swallow them.  Emma did go through the same thing so I know this will pass as well.  Josh still loves to play basketball and baseball.  He is also into Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Superheroes, tools and trucks.  He loves hanging out with Daddy when Brad is working on projects around the house and thinks he is big stuff when he gets to help out even if it is just throwing away trash.  He may love hanging with Daddy but at four, he is still Mommy's boy.  Happy 4th Birthday Josh!  We are so thankful to have you in our lives and look forward to seeing what you come up with next. 

Little Einsteins Birthday

For Josh's birthday this year, I pinned him down to a Little Einsteins party.  Of course, the week or two before after the invitations went out, he had a change of heart but I overruled him on this one.  Since the Little Einsteins are always off to new places, we had several themed rooms.  We had a Jungle Room, a Music Room and a Circus Room.  We also had Rocket so the kids could blast off and some arts and crafts.  They could decorate some binoculars to help with hunting in the jungle and a maraca out of paper plates and beans.  The kids all had a great time playing and then enjoyed hot dogs, chips and fruit before cake and ice cream.  Josh took a nice, long nap after the party! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seniors Rule!

Josh started his Senior and final year at Grace on August 21st.  I tried to get some photos of our big senior but managed only one before the battery died on the camera.  The senior class has five kids this year; Josh, Ross, Pierce, Holdyn and Anna Beth.  This may be the one time that the red heads are in the majority since there are three out of five.  With only five kids, they are looking forward to multiple field trips and more one on one directed learning.  In less than one month, Josh has really blossomed with Ms. LeAnn and is more interested in writing his letters and trying to write words.  It is going to be a great senior year at Grace!

Splash Park

Brad stayed with the kids the Monday and Tuesday before Emma started back to school.  They had tons of fun and got to make a trip to the Splash Park.  They had both been wanting to go but we opted for the pool whenever the chance arose to be in the water this summer.  Looks like they had fun and the report was that Josh took a nice, long nap.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday Night Lights

The Episcopal Wildcats kicked off the football season on Friday night.  Brad and Josh had a night on the town (aka, dinner at Purple Cow) while Emma and I went with Meredith and Juliana to enjoy free gourmet hot dogs and watch a little football.  I should clarify that the only football Emma may have watched was while she was eating her hot dog and truthfully, she was probably only watching the cheerleaders.  After that, it was pretty much just running and having tons of fun with her friends.  She is a total social butterfly!  I have a feeling she'll be begging me to go back to more games throughout the season.  These photos that Meredith took makes it look like the kids were actually interested in the game but they really represent the 10 minutes that Emma sat while we were there.  

Emma & Juliana Pre-Game

Lainey, Juliana & Emma

Lainey, Juliana, Tate & Emma

Lainey, Juliana, Tate & Emma

Grace End of the Year Program

On August 16th, Grace had their graduation/promotion.  Thankfully I was able to pick up Emma right after school so she could come over and join in the program since she had been at Grace for the summer.  The juniors and seniors came in first with Josh, Ross and Baron joined at the hip.  The juniors received their certificates first.  At some point during this process, Josh needed to be separated from Baron since they were being typical boys.  I still contend that if their teacher Ms. Shannon was there, the boys would have towed the line.  After the juniors received their certificate, it was the seniors turns.   

 

 

 

 

 At this point, it was time for the rest of the classes to join the big kids for some songs.  Although Josh knows all the songs they sing routinely, this was the first time that I ever saw him participate with his buddies. 
 

 

 

 

 After the program, it was downstairs for some treats before we headed to Cajun Sno with the Martins for some shaved ice.  We are sad to see most of Josh's buddies move on but he is going to have a great year in Ms. LeAnn's class as a senior.  With only five kids in the class, they are going to get to do lots of fun activities and go on at least one field trip per month.

 

Wordless Wednesday

Senior Buddy

All the kindergarten students get paired up with a Senior at Episcopal this year and today was the day they got to meet their Senior Buddy.  After they were paired up, they got to go enjoy a Popsicle and talk on the play ground.  The key things that Emma learned about her buddy were that she likes purple and has a younger brother.  It sounds like a perfect match.  Emma could not remember her buddies name but thankfully the note home informed us that her name is Ashton Brass.  Emma was so excited and I know she'll enjoy all the fun activities throughout the year with Ashton.