"Party Time, Excellent"

Per usual, our camera was MIA during most of Jacob's party (which was really a party for Jacob, and friends Olyver (turning 2) and our beloved Roman (turning 1). SO, thank you Casey for the pictures!

It was great fun with fantastic weather, as can be seen by the aerial view- check out those balloons!

And certainly a proud picture of Jacob eating bacon and a hot dog. Not only does that make most people want to throw-up just a little....it also makes this RD want to to cry a bit. But, it was his party....

Jacob decided about 2 months ago that he would like to have 3 angry bird cakes for his party; 1 red, 1 yellow, 1 blue. So, we made the red from cookie, the yellow was rice krispie treat, and though hard to see, Jacob's was a blue angry bird chocolate cake mound.

It's also easy to forget how exhausting parties can be- even for big 4 year olds.

Pacific coast fun

This past weekend Daniel as out of town (possibly exciting life changes are firming up!), we decided we needed a beach day. So, the boys, our sweet ladies KD and Roman, and I all headed to the beach and had a blast.

Though Jacob initially didn't like sand sticking anywhere- those who know him know he is rather particular ie. dislike for for feeling dirty. Clearly, he overcame that. He may still have sand in his ears. 

Roman seemed to love with the texture of sand on her feet, in her mouth (delicious), and seemed to have a blast chilling with the boys. Our little girlfriend even took some steps out there on that uneven sand!

And then there is Thomas. I have never seen a child face the ocean, sand, and general experience with such an utter lack of concern. There are only a few pictures of Thomas experiencing the beach because if I had the camera out instead of chasing him down, he would be in the freezing waters of the Pacific. Truly, he is in complete love with the ocean. He only left willingly because some bug (we think) stung his foot. As a side note; has anyone even been stung, experienced some sweeling and redness followed by intense bruising for the next few days?

The day before Daniel's departure, we returned to our beloved Zoo in Oakland. Here are the boys looking for the sea otters. They're both getting huge.

I believe there's a similar picture of Jacob from when we lived here years ago...except now he's a big boy!

Birthday Montage

Jacob got spoiled on his birthday with all kinds of goodies and love from family all over the country. We did our best to record each gift opening 'session' (we spaced them out throughout the entire day) in hopes of sharing his joy via blog with the gift-givers. Here's a taste of his silliness and sweet joy!

Fantastic Four

That is, 'fantastic four' as in age...though all of us having super powers would be pretty fantastic.

Jacob hit the 4th birthday milestone on Good Friday; we had chocolate cupcakes for us to eat and candles for Jesus (as requested by Jacob himself).

As a four year old, Jacob continues to be what he's obviously been from the very beginning; a smiley, tender bundle of non-stop motion with deeper questions than you'd ever expect with a slight leaning toward perfectionism (though no recent book trails, concentric circles of CD's, or tantrums about imperfectly stacked domino's).

He's all that plus his life changed when he came across the Mario game that accompanied our Wii at Christmas. Jacob requests to read the Mario manual- in all 3 languages. While he doesn't play, he watches intensely and soaks up every detail. So, expect to hear about Mario if you talk to him (whether you want to or not).

As an early bday present, we picked-out 2 stools for the boys from Ikea. It's hard to say who likes them better; Thomas, Jacob, or us! (Though Thomas did insist on sitting on his stool 4-5 times while walking from the Ikea exit to the car when they were purchased. Hilarious.)

Look at those boys hard at work!

Singing to the bday boy: