birthday weekend

And he's 4.  It is hard to believe sometime that our baby is already 4.  Where did the time go?  It just seems like yesterday when he was born, the big boy of almost 10 pounds.  It's like he came with a roar and is still roaring to us. :)  Kason can be very loud, especially when he meets his best buddies and sometimes it is a bit embarrassing.   But I think he's slowly getting better at listening as he's getting older.  It is fun to watch him become his own person and his personality come out more and more.  He's just a fun loving child, always wanting to be where the fun is and if he's not he'll just make his own fun.  He is still my touchy loving boy, who hugs me and tells me he loves me first in English and then in Slovak, just in case I didn't hear him the first time. :)

One thing that we are trying to get used to these last 6 months or so is our Kason's love for clothes.  He never used to care and all of a sudden almost every day we are battling his choice of clothes.  And really, most of the times it is not the clothes he picks because I let him pick out his own clothes to a point, it is mostly him wanting to change his shirt 5 times a day because he wants to look at a different one.  He'll just go into his closet during the day, dig through his shirts and change because now he wants such and such shirt.  So I have been dealing with that a little bit and somehow it doesn't go into his head that whatever he puts on in the morning is what he needs to wear until going to bed. :)  He is just so funny about clothes and it is a brand new experience to us because neither Kade or Anika were ever that determined to dress certain way or change their clothes that much.  He does have his own style he likes too.  He tells me: "mom, I don't like Sunday clothes." :) That is one day I made clear to him right away that I am picking his clothes out and although he didn't like it at first and there were some tears, now he's just fine with it and as soon as we come home from church he is in his closet picking out his outfit. :)  He loves any kind of sport shirts or shirts with a picture of an animal/car/cartoon and for pants it has to be either jeans or shorts. I just hope he's not going to turn into a little fashionista when he's in middle school.

Well, we had a busy Birthday weekend for Kason.  First we had his friends over on Saturday afternoon for a kids' party.  It was mainly boys and all the kids were between 3-8 so it was a bit challenging to get them interested in doing the same things together.  I was so thankful we had beautiful weather outside so we were there most of the time.  I had some relay games ready for the kids and they had fun but afterwards I realized I didn't even have to plan any of those since they had fun just running around outside and playing sports games. We had some snacks and cake and then we had a scavenger hunt where instead of clues they were finding simple tasks they had to all do as a group (run around the house, or everyone bring 3 dandelions,etc.).  Once they completed the task I gave them the next clue until finally they found a bag with their goodie bags.  It was a busy afternoon but they all had fun.  I was glad 2 of my friends stayed here during the party because we had more adults gathering up the kids.  All the kids slept so good that night, it was just a fun day.

Kason has been wanting a Cars cake for his birthday and I thought about a big number 4 right away.  It is funny but every time I have an idea for a cake, I google it and I get a ton of pictures of people's cakes that are almost exactly what I wanted to do.  So it's nice to see how they did it and what they used for decorations and stuff.  So it isn't all my ideas, but that's ok.  I always have a rule that the cake has to taste good, not just look good so I usually make our family's favorite chocolate cake recipe.  As far as frosting the cake, I am really terrible and any fancy piping or whatever the cake decorators do I would fail at miserably.  But I am realizing, to make a cute cake you don't need to be a good decorator, it can be simple and to the point and they love it.  So I have gotten myself into this tradition now of making fun cakes for their birthdays and now all our kids are thinking ahead for the theme they want in their next birthday cake, even if it's months away. :)

Yesterday we had Ehren's family over for lunch and a little birthday get together.  All the cousins got together except for the 2 that live in NY.  They had fun playing together all afternoon and after they left Ehren and I took the kids for a 6 mile bike ride.  We could have gone further but it was pretty windy out here in the country.  Anika loves the tandem bike attachment we have for Ehren's bike and she just kept giggling and talking nonstop.  Kason is still in the bike trailer even though he's almost too big for it.  Next year we may need another tandem attachment for him so we can go on long bike rides.  So it was a good and a busy weekend and everyone slept like a baby including me. )

the birthday crew

Kason couldn't wait to blow off the candles

papa and all the cousins together