Saturday, July 20, 2013

Sound the Alarm! Ethan is 4!

Ethan just celebrated his fourth, yes FOURTH, birthday!
He's spent the last 6 months inviting everyone he met, waiters, amusement park attendants, strangers of all sorts, to his (unplanned) birthday party. With that much build up, I figured we had to throw one!?
Luckily, our fantastic friends made it much more fun than he had dreamt about all year!
He hosted his buddies at the local fire station, complete with a fire fighter's tour of the trucks and station!
The invite:

The favors:

The crafts:

The cake:

The piñata:

 

(I love Ethan's enthusiasm while his friend is at bat!)

(The lone lady of the group leaving the line after deciding this was NOT for her!)

(Apparently the one thing these active boys will wait patiently in line for is hammering paper mâché with a bat!)

(The piñata would NOT break, even after several rounds by the boys! So we let Ethan at it!)

 

 

The loot:

 

The tour:

 

The candles:

(You can tell how vigorously they played by looking at the decorations behind me!)

 

The fun!

I could have skipped the crafts because all they cared about was running in the open space...

Tossing the balloons

(Doesn't that look like a balloon stand off between the seniors and the freshmen?)

And lapping the room in Ethan's fire truck!

 

 

 

 

"Thank you amazing friends for making big bro's day so special!!!"

 

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Our little red-headed fish!

Thanks to Pops' generous fourth birthday gift, Ethan is starting real swimming lessons this summer!

I captured the beginning of his lessons so we can look back on his progress later this summer. Right now the focus is safety, with the child being able to flip over in the water and float on their own. Today he earned his first ribbon ever, for achieving the goal of floating on his own!

He's also learning to put his head under the water, which he is now regularly doing in the bathtub trying to give me a heart attack.

He's working hard to make his Aunt Tina proud!!

Did you catch that little gem of a word he dropped while looking for the uh.. right word? Ugh.

 

If you are reading this post via email, make sure to visit www.livingingear@blogspot.com to watch all the videos!

 

Thanks again Pops!!!!

 

 

 

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Big Cats and Little Cats

Gavin's been enjoying doing animal noises and his favorite two are captured here!

 

Friday, July 5, 2013

Kids at Knoebels!

This past weekend we visited Chris's family in PA and immediately surprised the boys by driving straight to Knoebels Amusement Park. This place is AMAZING!!! Tons of little kids rides, free admission, cheap and yummy food, and no lines for the rides! Boys liked the ride, sure, ride it again, NOW!
We bought Ethan his (cheap!) unlimited ride pass and Chris and him jumped on a ride as we planned.
Suddenly Gavin started frantically signing "please!!" pointing to the rides, "E-an! E-an!" Oops. I think we should have bought two.
From then on the boys rode together for hours, as long as brother was by his side, Gavin showed no fear. And Ethan HAS no fear so they were a fun combo.
(Seriously, no fear. He rode the Haunted House with Daddy, a smaller roller coaster, and all adult rides he could meet the height requirement for. THAT he gets from his Daddy!)
 
No Fear/Fear
That is a blurry shot of Ethan spontaneously kissing Gavin's hand mid-ride!! Awww!
Grandma snuck some Gavin kisses too!
Bonus PA trip pics:
A random bear spotting between the Amish carriages!
And after a weekend of swimming, rides, and family fun, this was Ethan the drive home: