Christmas Candylane

Yesterday we left our house around 9am to head to Hershey. We drove in two cars and left one car in Lewisburg because I played my flute for a concert at 7:30pm. We arrived at 11:15 and headed to Chocolate World as the Christmas Candylane didn't open until noon. All three kids LOVED the free ride in Chocolate World. In fact all throughout the park Ian kept asking for us to go back and "watch them make Hershey Kisses" again. We almost did it at the very end of the day, but the line was longer at that point, and I was afraid I might not get to the concert in time. My favorite candy that Hershey makes are Rolos, and that's what they were handing out as the free sample at the end of the ride yesterday morning! We also got a picture of the kids with Santa. None of them looked enthused, but at least Oliver wasn't screaming although I guess most people like the screaming baby on Santa's lap picture. A little before noon we got in line to buy our admission tickets, and we spent the next five hours in the park. The first three hours there were hardly any lines. It got much more crowded after that.

The next time we go, we'll have to remember to ride the bigger rides first (ex. the old fashioned cars that adults and kids can ride together) because the line was really long when Paul took the kids on that. The kiddie rides still had pretty short lines even when the crowds picked up so it would be better to save those rides for later. Nadia really enjoyed the big slide and a ride with eagles on it that she rode with Paul, but I think her favorite ride of the day was the pirate ship that I rode twice with her. She laughed hysterically the entire time! She wanted to go a third time in a row, but my stomach couldn't handle that!
She's getting a bit too old to enjoy most of the kiddie rides. Oliver rode one with Nadia and also did the carousel with me. Ian overall probably had the best time because the kiddie rides are still really fun for him. When he woke up yesterday morning the first words out of his mouth were "We're going to Hershey Kiss Park today!". He kept adding the word kiss to the name of the park. So cute! I took Oliver and Ian in to watch one of the shows while Paul took Nadia on a couple of rides. The boys really enjoyed it. Oliver was dancing away while standing on my lap.

The weather was perfect. The highs were in the low 50's, but there was still snow on the ground so it looked very Christmasy even though it was warmer than usual. If I wasn't playing the flute last night, we would have stayed for the 5pm light show, but frankly Paul and I were exhausted after 6 hours in the park. It will be easier once Oliver is a bit older and doesn't need to be carried so much. I think he'll have fun at Knoebels next summer as he said "weeee" when riding the carousel.

This morning the King's Kids sang at church. It was Nadia's first time singing with them in a church service, and they'll be singing a different song on Tuesday night for the Christmas Eve service. I played my flute for the 3pm concert today (a paid gig) and then took Nadia and Ian to a Birthday Party for Jesus at our church at 4pm. I also watched some football, and the Steelers managed to win, which means there's still a tiny chance they could make it to the post season. It was a very busy but very special weekend!

Oliver's Vocabulary

Everyone says that parents take the most pictures and keep the most records on their first child. I think I've taken plenty of pictures of Oliver and Ian. I was very meticulous with Nadia and pretty careful with Ian when it came to making a record of their first words. I have not been doing a good job of recording Oliver's list, but I want to get on track with that. So I am trying to recollect the words we've heard him say thus far. The two he uses the most are dada (sometimes he says Daddy instead) and mama.

1. Dada (or Daddy)
2. Mama
3. Hi
4. Yes
5. book
6. bye bye
7. Pop Pop
8. amen
9. up
10. Yay! (one of the times he said it was when I gave him a pretzel, which cracked me up)
11. uh oh (before knocking down a tower of blocks)
12. Na Na (Nadia)
13. Baby (referring to one of Nadia's dolls)
14. Weee! (said out of the blue when he was riding the carousel today)

First animal sound - quack quack

Thankful Thursday

1. Paul received another invitation for a phone interview yesterday (to take place on January 10th). It's for a three year physical chemistry position in Indiana. So far four of the first sixteen applications have resulted in an interview of some sort, and some of those schools haven't started reviewing the applications yet.

2. We had fun roller skating as a family on Tuesday morning.

3. It's really nice having Paul at home a lot more than usual!

4. I love our reading and spelling curriculum. Nadia loved an activity a couple of weeks ago where she would pick a couple of slips of paper that had different food items on them (ex. liver, coffee, jam, cheese, ham, etc.) and then she was to put them in various places on a paper and read the sentences. She thinks the activity is hysterical because she creates all different kinds of cakes, muffins, sandwiches, and shakes. Ian loves one where there are words written on the back of some paper bones, and if he reads the word correctly he gets to put the "bone" in the mouth (hole) of a paper monster. He loves to feed that monster! I also love that Nadia is now trying to read everything (such as her Bible verses in her AWANA handbook).

5. I'm not a fan of cold weather, but the kids have been enjoying the snow. By far Nadia has spent the most time it in of the five members of our family, and she's now old enough to get herself into all her snow gear, which is greatly appreciated by me. I am also thankful that Paul has been willing to go out with the kids a few times to play in the snow with them, as it means I can stay in where it's warm.

6. The Steelers won on Sunday night! The ironic thing is that we beat one of the teams with the best records. Why couldn't we play like that more often this season? Oh well. It's just football.

7. I placed an order through Kohl's website a few weeks ago, and one of the two things I bought took a lot longer than expected to arrive. It didn't bother me because it still arrived before Christmas, but I got an email a couple of days ago for $25 off a purchase of any size (in store or online) because the item didn't arrive on time. How nice!

8. Nadia and I really enjoyed the musical Narnia on Sunday. I'm going to have to read the rest of the books in the Chronicles of Narnia series to her in 2014!

9. Paul and the kids (especially Nadia) enjoyed the Pirate School show at Bucknell on Saturday.

10. I am glad that our cookies have been turning out nicely! In the past week we've made cut-out sugar cookies, M&M cookies, cut-out gingerbread cookies, and chocolate chip Hershey kiss cookies. We're eating some and giving many away as gifts.

11. The kids have really been enjoying the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books. We're flying through them!

12. We're all still healthy! PTL!

13. Paul and Nadia went bowling last Wednesday afternoon, and that's where they are again today. This afternoon is the last bowling session for this co-op so they've also made it their Christmas party with pizza and such.

14. Oliver's afternoon naps have been pretty consistently 60 minutes long, but his morning nap had gotten short again lately (30-45 minutes). Yesterday it was 60 minutes long, and today it was 90 minutes long. WOOHOO!

Birthday Interview

I finally got around to doing Ian's four-year-old birthday interview today. Kids this age are rather predictable in that their answers tend to be focused on what has happened very . For example, Ian very rarely eats Trix cereal. I can say without any hesitation that Cocoa Puffs is his favorite cereal, but  he hasn't had it lately. He happened to have Trix this morning, and I think that's why he said it was his favorite. He actually hasn't been eating cereal lately because he doesn't like having to use a spoon now that I am putting milk in his cereal. Most of the time he has an English muffin or bagel. Goulash is definitely NOT his favorite food, but he saw me cooking that this afternoon for our dinner tonight. I wish he liked it! His favorite foods (not including desserts) would be grilled cheese sandwiches, peanut and butter jelly sandwiches, pizza, waffles, and pancakes. We've also had a lot of snow lately, which is why many of the answers had something to do with snow. I would concur that the Little Critter books are his favorite. I would have guessed that answer correctly. I was thinking he'd say Friendly's was his favorite restaurant, but I wasn't surprised with the McDonald's answer because he loves playing in the play land there. I would say his top three restaurants are Friendly's, Perkins, and McDonald's. I have NO idea why he said the tv makes me happy. The only tv I watch is football, and that hasn't made me very happy this year as both of our teams have done very poorly. I do 100% agree with him though that tickling him makes him laugh! I was actually relieved when he said he didn't know how old I was because another time he told me I was 61 years old! Milk is definitely his favorite drink, his new pirate ship that his grandparents gave him on Sunday is certainly his favorite toy at the moment, and he does love when I give him airplane rides! I was very surprised at his answer of "Peter" regarding his favorite Bible story. I would have guessed he would say either Joshua at Jericho or David and Goliath.  The thing he said made him sad was last night when Daddy took some of his toys in the basement because he wouldn't eat his dinner. My favorite answer by FAR was that Nadia is his best friend. I hope and pray they are close friends for the rest of their lives.

Here is his third birthday interview, and here is Nadia's fourth birthday interview for comparison.

P.S. I really, really wish I had cleaned up the room before I did the video as the toys on the floor are seen in the reflection on the fireplace glass. Oh well. Our house often has the "lived in" look with three kids age five and under spending almost all their time here each day. :)

Roller Skating!

Nadia went to our neighbor's roller skating birthday party in June 2012, and that was when I found out about this roller skating rink located about 15 minutes north of us. I had seen on their website that they had a skate on Tuesday mornings from 10:00-12:30 that was geared for preschoolers. Today was the first time that Ian, Oliver, or Paul went there. Actually our kids were the only preschoolers there. It seems to be geared for senior citizens (retirees) who were enjoying roller skating, playing pool, etc. Ian has been ice skating in Maryland, but this was his first time at a roller skating rink, and it was only Nadia's second time. We lasted for 90 minutes. Paul and I took turns skating with Ian and Nadia while the other parent was with Oliver. We brought Nadia and Ian's skates that I bought a couple of years ago, and Paul and I rented skates. We are glad we went, but the next time we return, we plan on just one parent taking either Nadia or Ian (until Oliver is old enough to roller skate), which would make the outing a lot more affordable. Nadia did a better job than Ian, but both children have a LOT of room for improvement. They haven't used their skates much in our driveway. They both definitely made progress over the time we were there.

We had been planning to go ice skating with some other homeschoolers this Friday, but we've decided to wait until January to go ice skating as a family because Nadia and Paul are planning to go bowling on Thursday, and all five of us are planning to go to Hershey Park's Christmas Candylane on Saturday.

Paul has submitted his grades and other assessment data for the semester. Now he's started working on preparing for the new class he'll be teaching in the spring semester. I submitted two more job applications for him today, which puts the current total at seventeen. Once I have his student evaluations for the fall semester, I will submit three more applications for him.

Christmas Cookies!

We started making Christmas cookies last week. First we made chocolate chip cookies that had a Hershey kiss inside, and then on Saturday the kids had fun decorating gingerbread cookies. We made LOTS of cut out cookies, and we also made one large (about 12 inch) gingerbread boy that I took to church on Sunday for the kids in my Sunday School class to enjoy. Today we made a smaller batch of cut out sugar cookies. On Saturday I was impressed that the kids lasted much longer with decorating cookies, as last year I ended up decorating a lot of the cookies myself. Today Ian didn't last as long, partly because he is very fixated on the pirate Lego toy that he got yesterday from his grandparents. What really surprised me was that Ian did a better job than Nadia with decorating the cookies. Nadia was far more prone to dumping large quantities of decorations on a cookie. Ian was very careful and more meticulous with his decorations. We'll be giving plates of cookies to their AWANA leaders on Wednesday night and to their Sunday School teachers on Sunday morning. I tried new recipes, and these were definitely the best gingerbread cookies we've made thus far. The ones we made last year were really tasty but weren't really suitable for using cookie cutters with them. The sugar cookies were also very tasty. I am not a huge fan of sugar cookies, but the almond extract really was a very nice addition.

Oliver was a fussy boy today because his fourth molar broke through the gum. He now has six teeth. Next year he'll be joining in on the fun of decorating Christmas cookies! He's enjoying eating them this year.

Birthday Cake!

Ian turned four years old three days ago, but today was only the second time he ate cake for his birthday, as he didn't eat any his first two birthdays. He wouldn't eat his dinner last night (white chicken chili), and he still refused to eat it at breakfast or lunch today. I think he would have caved a bit earlier if he hadn't eaten so many goldfish crackers at church this morning. Thankfully after he woke up from his nap, he ate his chili for Daddy while Nadia and I were attending a three hour musical (Narnia). Paul's parents came up to join us for pizza and birthday cake, and the kids were thrilled that we were finally using the Monster's Inc. paper plates and cups. Ian made up for skipping a couple of meals by eating one slice of pizza, one sugar cookie, one piece of chocolate birthday cake, and part of a chocolate covered pretzel. Aunt Millie made his cake! I forgot to check our supply of candles and discovered we only had two. OOPS! He didn't seem to care. This was the fewest family members in attendance for any of our children's birthday parties thus far, and I have a feeling that his will always have the fewest attendees in light of the snowy weather that often comes in December (we got 6 inches of snow yesterday). If we move far away next summer, no extended family might be able to attend any of the children's birthday parties. At some point I'll need to find a way to start inviting other kids to their parties, but thus far they haven't noticed. This is one of the (very few) downsides of home schooling.

Oliver had his second testosterone shot today, as his surgery is now only three weeks away. Our neighbor, who is a nurse, gave him the shot, and Oliver didn't cry! It's the first time he's had a shot and didn't cry. He definitely cried on Friday when he had his second dose of the flu shot. What is rather ironic is that their son (Westyn) who is a few weeks younger than Oliver also has hypospadias. This condition effects 1 in 125 boys in the United States, and in our two houses (we live across from each other) all three of our sons (they have one boy and one girl) were born with hypospadias. Their son might need as many as three surgeries to complete his repair. Oliver will need one or two surgeries. I can't wait until it's over.

Pirate School!

Today's plans changed several times. For weeks the plan had been for Paul to take the kids to Lowe's for a 9:00 workshop to make a train and then to Bucknell for David Engel's Pirate School at 1pm. Paul's family was going to come to our house for pizza and birthday cake at 4pm. We had to cancel their registration for Lowe's when Paul found out he had a basketball coach meeting this morning, and we moved Ian's birthday party to tomorrow when we heard how many inches of snow we were supposed to get today (Paul's family live an hour away from us). Paul showed up at 11am for the basketball meeting only to find out that it had been moved up to earlier this morning due to the snow. We didn't get the message. Nadia will be one of five kids on her basketball team - the Leopards. She'll be the only girl on her team. The K-2nd grade teams play three on three on a half-court. Paul is going to hold his practices on Friday nights. The only thing that happened as planned was that Paul did take the kids to see the Pirate School show.

This morning while Oliver was napping and I was mopping the kitchen floor, I looked over and saw that Nadia was reading a book to Ian. I had to grab the camera and snap a picture of that priceless memory. Nadia was so proud that she could read to her brother, and Ian was enjoying the book. I get books from a public library every Thursday night, and yesterday Nadia picked up a library book I hadn't read her yet and started reading it herself. Once I realized what a great job she was doing, I ran and got the camcorder and recorded the rest of the story (see above). It is SO exciting watching Nadia and Ian learn to read. Paul and I both love to read. I recently read John Grisham's newest book and am currently reading Karen Kingsbury's newest book. We both hope that all three of our kids are lifelong readers! All three of them enjoy being read to that is for certain. :)

Last night we took the kids to see Santa. Last year was the first time we did this because I'm not a big Santa fan. I decided though that we encourage the kids to have their picture taken with Curious George, Cinderella, or Cookie Monster and having their picture taken with Santa is no different than that. Last year I got a great picture with all three of them, but this year Oliver is in the "terrified of Santa" phase. In hind sight, I should have taken a picture of him screaming on Santa's lap as plenty of parents have taken pictures like that, but I am not accustomed to taking pics of my kids when they're screaming. It's free to visit this Santa in our town (unlike the small fortune they charge at the mall), and they gave the kids each a candycane, a plastic Christmas cup, coloring pages, and one free toy. Ian picked a little matchbox car, and Nadia picked a Disney princess figurine. Amazingly they had one she didn't already own (Tiana)! They were VERY happy that we visited Santa. The next two videos I want to take are Ian's birthday interview and one of Nadia doing her addition flash cards. Our plans for tomorrow include Sunday School, church, me taking Nadia to see the musical Narnia while Paul watches football at home, and Ian's birthday party. We shall see if those plans change or not. I'm sure the kids will be playing in the snow later today as it's really coming down!

42-48 months old times two!

Nadia 3 1/2 years old (December 2011)

1. Although Ian has come a long way, Nadia was still FAR more outgoing and social than Ian is.
2. Nadia definitely had a favorite color (pink). Ian doesn't seem to have a favorite color yet.

3. They both dressed up in costumes All The Time.

4. They both were sleeping 11 hours at night. Nadia gave up her 2-3 hour afternoon nap during this time span. Ian still usually takes a nap that is on average one hour long.

5. Nadia was playing board games like Zingo. Ian doesn't have the maturity yet for that.

6. Both kids could identify all the letters of the alphabet (upper and lower case) and identify at least one sound each letter makes. Ian is also reading short vowel words (plus a few sight words like "the"). I worked with Nadia to help her learn her letters. I didn't work with Ian on them.




Ian 3 1/2 years old (June 2013)

7. They both loved to be read to, tickled, and hugged!

8. Nadia was far more schedule oriented than Ian is.

9. They both preferred to drink milk all day long.

10. They both could do a 100 piece jigsaw puzzle independently before they turned four.

11. Nadia often spoke of herself in the third person. Ian has never done that.

12. Ian RUNS a lot more than Nadia did at this age.

13. Nadia was enjoying ballet lessons and gymnastics class. Both of them enjoyed Cubbies.

14. Nadia wasn't crazy about vegetables (needed raisins with them), but she would feed herself just about everything else and finish in a very reasonable time frame. Ian is a MUCH pickier and MUCH slower eater. They both liked pizza and grilled cheese sandwiches at this age.

Nadia 4 years old (6/24/2012)

15. Ian weighed 35 pounds this morning with his clothes on at the doctor's office, which puts him at the 42nd percentile for weight. He gained 3 pounds and grew 3 inches over the past 12 months. He's 39 inches tall, which puts him at the 22nd percentile for height. Nadia's 4 year appointment was delayed 4 months because of my bed rest and Oliver's NICU stay. At that appointment she weighed 40 pounds and was 40 inches tall.

16. Nadia was very attached to her Poland pillow. Ian doesn't have a lovey.

Ian 4 years old (12/13/13)

Four Years Old!

Ian Alexander turned four years old today! As I reflect on each of our children, it seems that the most challenging experience with Nadia thus far was waiting 5 1/2 years to see a heartbeat on an ultrasound screen, and the most challenging part with Oliver were the last 10 weeks of the pregnancy and the first 10 weeks of his life. The "trying to conceive" part was definitely the easiest with Ian, as it only involved one fresh IVF transfer, and his pregnancy was rather smooth, aside from gestational diabetes and my water breaking 6 weeks before his due date. Unlike his siblings, the most challenging aspects with Ian have been the medical issues after he was born. First there was the retained placenta that put my life in danger. Then he had four surgeries between the ages of 10-21 months of age. He was also diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis during that time span and had a very restricted diet for about 18 months. He had OT once a week for two years and also spent 4 weeks in an intensive feeding program. The good news is that we seem to be over the worst of those issues. The first three years of his life he had many, many doctor appointments, but it's been almost 11 months since his last doctor appointment! Praise the Lord!

1. He loves to run. This boy has TONS of energy. Nadia is usually willing to engage in rather physical play with him, but I imagine in time her opinion will change. Hopefully before that happens Oliver will be big enough to chase and tackle with Ian instead.

2. Ian can do 50-100 piece jigsaw puzzles all by himself! He also has begun to build more complicated structures with legos. He has to work hard to resist the urge to knock it down, as that is still a thrill for this boy!

3. He loves to wear costumes. Even when he's not wearing a costume, he and Nadia take on various roles in their dramatic play every day. I love to watch them play together!

4. He is usually the first one up in the morning, but thankfully he has been waking up closer to 7am these days! He usually sleeps for almost 11 hours at night and takes a nap that is usually about 45-60 minutes long. Every time he crawls in bed he selects one stuffed animal to sleep with. He rotates through a wide variety of them although I would say Tweety is probably his favorite at the moment. He sleeps with a sheet pulled completely over his head. Just recently we broke him of the habit of also pulling the comforter over his head. His clothes and sheets used to be SO sweaty. This is a definite improvement!

5. He is almost 100% independent with dressing, undressing, and going to the bathroom. If he goes #2 I check him before he pulls his clothes back on to make sure he did a good job wiping.

6. He's doing a great job learning his Bible verses for Cubbies. He also has been learning the books of the New Testament because he's overheard Nadia working on them.

7. He learned some new skills in gymnastics, but we are waiting until he's more mature before we sign him up for another class because he definitely wasn't getting our money's worth. He did a better job of following instructions in the t-ball class and swimming lessons.

8. He had been doing better with not crying when I took him to Sunday School, but switching back and forth between two churches the past few months has been hard on him. He cried at our church the last time I took him to Sunday School. We're done going to the other church, and I think he'll do better once we are more consistent. Nadia is in the children's choir in between SS and church, and Oliver is in the nursery. I've been reading books to Ian in the children's library at the church during that time span, but in January I'll be in choir rehearsal then. I'll need to find someone to watch Ian. He sits with Nadia and I in the sanctuary for the first part of the worship service, and then he goes to Children's Church during the offertory.

9. On Thursdays while Nadia is in gymnastics, I've been taking the boys to the library. Ian loves to use their computers. He hasn't figured out how to use a mouse; so I put the headphones on him and select the programs which read stories to him.

10. Over the past year he has made a lot of improvements with feeding himself. Dinner is still the toughest meal. He wants me to feed him or to at least get the food on his fork or spoon for him. This summer he learned how to feed himself a yogurt, and the last few weeks we've been working on him using a spoon to eat his cereal. Previously he had been eating dry cereal with his fingers, but now I've been putting some milk in his bowl of cereal and expecting him to use a spoon. Aside from desserts (he'll eat just about any cake, cookie, brownie, or candy), his favorite foods are pizza, chocolate chip pancakes, grilled cheese sandwiches, chicken nuggets, fish sticks, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pretzels, yogurt, dry cereal, and crackers. He drinks cold skim milk at every meal. He also likes chocolate milk and will drink most kinds of juice. The main issue we have right now is getting him to finish each meal in one hour or less.

11. Although leans toward being shy (in contrast to his sister who has always been a social butterfly), he does not like to be alone in a room, unless he's sleeping.

12. He has enjoyed most of the chapter books I've read to the kids, especially James and the Giant Peach, the Ramona books, and the Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books. He loves for us to read him picture books. Some of his favorites include Froggy books, Little Critter books, LarryBoy books, and Dave Ramsey's Junior books.

13. Ian is starting to read! He can read many of the stories in All About Reading's Level 1 reader (that Nadia couldn't read until she was 5 years old), and he can also read the first few BOB books! He knows how to sound words out, but he is tempted to just guess the words based on the illustrations.

14. The only letter he can write is "I." I'm hoping that he'll make a lot of improvements with his drawing and writing skills over the next year.

15. He still doesn't exercise enough patience or self-control to play a game that lasts longer than tic-tac-toe. Hopefully over the next year he'll learn how to play games with rules (like Candyland, Uno, Chutes and Ladders, Go Fish, etc.).

16. He still plays with his belly button as his soothing technique. That poor belly button becomes bright red at times!

17. He loves to listen to music, play on the iPad, and watch dvds.

It's so much easier to make this boy's day special now that he eats solid food. He didn't eat his dinner on Tuesday night and still wouldn't eat it at breakfast on Wednesday, but he finally ate his chicken at lunch on Wednesday. I was determined last night that he WOULD eat his pasta because I wanted him to have a special day today that included chocolate gem donuts for breakfast. It took 2 1/4 hours last night, and they were a couple of minutes late for AWANA, but we did it. There are days I wish he had a feeding tube because I get SO weary of the battles to get him to eat, but we had a reprieve today. The kids had donuts and milk for breakfast, and then Ian opened his presents. Last year Paul thought I hadn't gotten enough presents for Ian. He is sensitive to the problem of having one's birthday so close to Christmas. I think I got him more than enough this year! He received a new VeggieTales dvd, two Peter Pan plush toys, two 100 piece LarryBoy puzzles, new sheets for his bed, a lego set, Monsters Inc figurines, and some new blocks. The most beloved gift today was definitely the set of figurines, but he insisted that I change his sheets on his bed before his nap, and he was so excited to sleep with Peter Pan and John during his nap that he actually didn't take a nap today. And as seen by the first second picture in this post, he also played with the new cardboard blocks. I had my eye on those for awhile, and Amazon does a 50% off sale on Melissa and Doug items once a year, and those were on that sale this year (very recently). He also opened a gift my mom had mailed him, and he received a phone call from my parents.

He picked a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch (no surprise there!), and for his "dessert" I gave him 3 Hershey kisses. Since Paul was at home today (he interviewed by Skype from 2:00-3:30), the boys didn't have to go with me when I took her to gymnastics. Paul left a bit later and we met at Perkins for Ian's birthday dinner. Ian's meal was free plus they gave us 8 small cookies for the 5 of us to share. On the way to Perkins Paul stopped at the dollar store so that Ian could pick out his birthday balloons. Ian had chocolate chip pancakes, Nadia had rainbow sprinkle pancakes, and I had pumpkin pancakes. Paul had a turkey sandwich and fries. Oliver had a little bit from each of our plates. He liked the breakfast potatoes the best. When we got home, we watched part of the movie Despicable Me. The kids had never seen the movie  before, and Ian had requested I get it at the library. Ian kept wondering where his birthday cake was. I kept reminding him that he'll get his cake at his birthday party on Saturday. Today he had a few small chocolate donuts, 3 Hershey kisses, chocolate chip pancakes, and three small chocolate chip cookies. Nadia also shared part of her HUGE Twizzler with him. She got it last night at AWANA because she passed nine sections of her book last night! I don't think he lacked for any sweets today! I think he enjoyed his special day. We will continue his birthday celebrations on Saturday with Paul's family. Tomorrow he has his 4 year well doctor appointment, and I am also hoping to do his birthday interview video tomorrow. I am so very thankful that the Lord gave us this precious boy four years ago!