The Mighty 4

On May 28th, our little man turned The Mighty 4. It's hard to believe that is has been four years since we welcomed our first bundle of joy into this world and entered the realm of parenthood. From the moment Ryan was born, he has been nothing but exuberant. His eyes sparkled from the beginning, even in the delivery room. In the last four years, we have watched with amazement as Ryan has approached life with so much zeal and so much emotion. He is certainly priceless and a source of constant entertainment. I've decided to include a few pix of Ryan through the years, including one at 14 hours and one for each of his birthdays.

Ryan began his 4th birthday with helping to decorate his Spiderman Cupcakes for pre-school. This was a big moment for me as it was the first time making cupcakes for classmates =)

In honor of turning 4, Ryan received 4 crisp dollar bills from Grama and also from JoAnne. He also got a bug catching set from Nana and Papa, among other fantastic gifts!

This year, for Ryan's birthday, he decided that he wanted a Dinosaur birthday party. The weekend after his birthday, we hosted a party at the "Dinosaur Bones" at a local park were we had 14 kids to celebrate with. We had a great time. The party began with a dinosaur hunt where the kids searched among the bones for hidden plastic dinosaurs. Then, they went on a fossil excavation where they searched for fossils. I had found these great plastic dino skeletons which John and I covered with a coffee/sand mixture and baked until they were like little rocks. Then we buried them in the leaves at the park and turned our little paleontologists loose. Finally, each kid got to make and erupt their own volcano. Wow!! The kids were terrific and hopefully had a good time.

"Wasn't me!"

Noah - The first 8 weeks

Easter

Dying Easter Eggs. (Notice Caleb's efficiency in moving eggs - just think "Great Dane Puppy")

Noah in his Easter clothes - what a precious doll baby!

The boys and their baskets

The day before Easter, our sunday school class gathered for a great Easter Egg Hunt. Caleb was sick so he and daddy had to stay home, but Ryan, Noah, and Mommy had a great time hunting for eggs!

Waiting for Noah

I know that this is a little out of order, but I didn't get a chance to post these pictures of us waiting for Noah before he arrived. These pictures we taken just days prior to his arrival as we waited anxiously for the big day. In an effort to help things along, we decided to go for a walk out on one of the many boardwalk nature walks in the area. It started as a beautiful walk, then turned to rain, then hail, then sun again - all in a half mile loop! The kids had a great time exploring everything.

The waiting game also included a trip to McDonald's Playland with daddy. This was Caleb's first time up in the structure. Ryan was a fantastic big brother and stayed with Caleb until he felt comfortable. He guided him through all of the tunnels and helped coax him down the slides. I wasn't there, but I hear it was pretty amazing to watch =)

38 Weeks and counting. (Noah was boran right at 39 weeks) - a few days later than Ryan and 2 1/2 weeks later than Caleb

Happy 2nd Birthday, Caleb!