Last of the Birthday and a Trip to the Farm

It was a fun and busy week at our house last week. Bryan's actual birthday was Tuesday but it may have been a bit anti-climatic with all of the parties beforehand. We had a good day and Bryan was thrilled with his brand new bike. Now he just needs to get used to riding it.

Thoroughly enjoying his Costco cupcake from Grandma. He's actually enjoying the frosting. I think he decided that the cupcake wasn't worth the calories.

On Thursday, Ashlynn's class took a field trip to the Post Family Farm. It's a local farm that teaches kids about farming, taking care of the environment and just let's them enjoy being outside. It's truly a great place. My mom graciously took Bryan for the afternoon so that I could join her and we had a great time.

Ashlynn with her best friend.

A fun day together. Look at those cute sun-kissed cheeks. Believe it or not, she was slathered in sunscreen!

Ashlynn's kindergarten class

It has truly been a wonderful year for Ashlynn. She is looking forward to first grade while I'm starting to dread it. Bryan is going to miss his sisters tremendously. We're looking forward to a great summer home as a family before we launch into the next stage.

We finished up our week with a trip to Indianapolis to visit my sister's family. I'll post pictures for that in a couple of days. We had an awesome time with them as we always do and were already hearing, "when can we go back to Indianapolis?" on the long drive home.

Bryan is 3!!!

"Mommy, I'm ready to go. Are these the right feet?"

Eric's family joined us this past weekend for another birthday party for Bryan. This poor boy will be in shock when the festivities are over tomorrow.

"Dad, look at my cool new Spiderman backpack."

Hugs for Great Grandma and Great Grandpa.

and a big hug for Great Grandma too.




"That's my car cake!! Isn't it cool?"

Happy Birthday, Bryan! Today's the day and my baby is 3. The time is flying but we're enjoying every day that the Lord allows us to love and raise our precious son!

Bryan is almost 3!

It's so hard for me to believe my baby is almost 3. It's been a difficult week as we began it battling some flu-like symptoms and have ended it with possible allergy symptoms. Through most of it, he's maintained his sweetness as we enjoyed a lot of time around the house.

This is a picture I had to take because it's one of the things that I know I will one day forget. Every night Bryan asks, "Will you lay with me for one song, Mommy?" Of course, I can't refuse him, so every night we sing "Jesus Loves Me" together. For the past couple months, it's become extremely important that he have two "diapees," one for his head and one for mine so when I came in the other night, this is what I found.

On the seemingly long days when the girls are at school, Bryan has become my little helper. Here he is watering my rosebushes.

Part of the frustration of the week was that Shari came to visit and we didn't get much time together because of the illnesses. Fortunately our plan for an early birthday party for Bryan worked out and we were able to have my whole family here on Friday night. We'll be heading down to Indy for Memorial Day weekend so we'll be able to make up the lost time then. Here Bryan is checking to see if Grandma left him any frosting.

Our "almost" 3 year old with his monkey cake.

Alivia and Ashlynn were very willing to help with the unwrapping of the gifts. Here Alivia seems to be more interested in the wrapping paper than what is actually in the box.

Loving a Superman card from Grandpa and Grandma.

Any picture of Grandma during the evening would be likely to include at least one of her grandchildren.

James and Bryan enjoying the new toolset. Boys will be boys.

Shari and her little buddy.

Elizabeth is ready to hit a home run. She was heard saying that she's very upset to be a girl because it lessens her chances of playing baseball and football.

It's no wonder that these two are mistaken for twins every once in a while.

We love the opportunities that they have to play together even though they are few and far between. We love you, Alivia and James (and Shari and Stephen), and we'll see you in just 2 weeks!!!!