Kai's 4th Birthday Party!

It's hard to believe that our not so little Kai is 4 years old. As much as I don't think it's true, it has been four years because the World Cup was on when we were in the hospital delivering Kai so I guess he's four! :) He had his doctor appointment this week...he's 38.4 pounds and 42 inches tall. We're really happy with his speech progress over the past year and a half. We notice that the "s", "sh" and "th" sounds are still a little tricky, but he can make them if prompted to fix them. The teacher in me keeps bugging him about them, but I think he will catch on soon enough! :) Grayson even enjoys practicing making the correct sounds too. Haha. We are so proud of Kai. He certainly keeps us on our toes and remembers EVERYTHING!!!! Sometimes that's good and sometimes that's bad. :)
We had a really nice time at Kai's Curious George party. We had a banana split bar. Kai was most excited about the gummi bears as toppings. He was worried that people might eat all of them before he had his. You know, since everyone loves frozen gummi bears on ice cream. :) We had a monkey craft and banana hunt for the kids as well as banana trivia for the adults. Kai got a lot of new clothes and toys. He also got a giftcard, which he LOVED shopping with. Derek said he went up and down every aisle looking at everything. Wish I could have seen it!
Grayson's been battling a little cold. Luckily, this one hasn't lasted too long and his cough hasn't kept him up for many nights. I thought Leela caught some of it too, but I'm thinking it's just related to her teeth. Guess it's time for her to start getting some! :) It's rough when one gets sick...it's like a domino effect around here!
We finished up our Little Angels Bible school today. We tried doing to Tuesday through Saturday this year so that working parents could bring their kids on Saturday. We had a Creation theme this year. The kids seemed to really like it and I think they all had fun singing songs,making crafts and playing. I had blown up balloons and gotten cups to stack up and play with. They were both a hit! Funny how the simplest things are the most exciting! I told myself I wasn't going to stress out about teaching it this year and I actually succeeded. I think having three kids helped me realize this is just for fun and it's not like my classroom and didn't need to be. :)
We are getting so excited for the Chapman Reunion in Iowa next weekend. I can't wait to see everyone and for so many of them to meet Grayson and Leela and see Kai again. Last time I saw most of them was when Kai turned one. I think he's changed a bit since then. :) It will be a very short trip for us since Derek has to get back for work, but totally worth it.
Think that's about all for now. Thanks for reading and enjoy the pics. :)

Party time!

Banana splits...YUM!

C'mon! I'm ready to party!!!!

Make your own monkey station

These were all the bananas that were hidden around the house for the kids to find.

Derek with his crazy monkeys!

GG and happy Leela!!!!

Great Papa and Grayson!

 

Birthday boy is 4!!!!!

Papa and Leela!

Kai with his new backpack and lunchboxes!

How cute is this backpack?!?!?!?

Grayson and Nana with his finished monkey!

Kai and Nana with his finished monkey!

Papa with the grandkids for Father's Day celebration!

Our smiley cutie pie!

Grayson with his Godmother Annie! We love to see her!

Daddy and the kids!

Mommy and the kids!

What, this isn't how you wanted them folded????

Teething baby...loves to suck on ice cubes!

 

Love this one!

Post party pic!

Kai and Leela in the "fort".

Where's Kai?

Leela discovered the air vent....Kai was teaching her all about it!

Birthday donut!!!!

G loves his donut too!

Snack time in the fort!

Leela is 7 months!

Wow, time is flying by! We are having such a fun summer! Nothing too crazy, just enjoying getting out doing different things and playing with friends. Now that the pool has opened, Kai knows it's getting close to his birthday. A while ago he kept asking when his birthday was so I told him it was soon after the pool opened. Now, he keeps asking if it's his birthday because the pool is open. Not much longer, buddy! :) We haven't taken them to the pool yet...with the cold weather the first week, we stayed away. Now that the bigger kids have had a chance to start going, we will try to head over soon. It's always so crowded in the beginning. Everyone's so excited to swim!!
Leela had her 6 month appointment last week (a little after the fact!). She's almost 18 pounds! She's actually been the smallest one of the three at 6 months. Grayson was almost 19 pounds and Kai was 18.5. Makes sense since she's a TERRIBLE eater during the day! That girl will only feed for 5-10 minutes. She gets too distracted and it doesn't matter where I feed her! She loves her solids so I'm sure that's helping fill her up. We've tried sweet potatoes, apples, bananas, pumpkin and carrots. We're going to try peas next. Then maybe squash and chicken. She still really loves her rice cereal. Crazy girl! Sleeping has been better. She was waking up again at night often so I figured she has outgrown her dose of meds since it's based on weight. Turns out, that was the problem! We're on a bigger dose and already seeing a difference. She's been doing better with naps too. She normally takes a 40ish minute one in the morning and over an hour in the afternoon when the boys go down. She's still going to bed around 6:30 and is up around 6:30am. We're trying to work on having her put herself to sleep for naps. With all these tummy issues and sharing a room with Daxsyn she got a little spoiled with having assistance getting to sleep. :) She's doing better with it now though! She's been babbling "dadada" and "ttttt" a lot lately. I love this age. Everything amazes and interests them. Nana figured out that if she starts to get upset or cry, all you have to do is get out the camera and she perks right up and cheeses it up for the camera. So cute! Guess this princess likes having her picture taken! She's gonna be a girly girl for sure! :)
The boys are having fun with their summer reading program at the library. Storytime in the park started this week and Grayson loved it. I think he liked eating a snack during the stories and playing at the park afterwards best. Haha. We've gotten the water table out and they are enjoying playing with that, watering the garden and spraying the hose. We're doing a rotating toy tub with several of our neighbors so they've been getting some new toys to play with each week. It's fun to have some new things to play with and it's been great for teaching lessons about taking care of other's things. It's amazing how much better they are at cleaning up those toys versus their own!
I've been having fun working on Kai's birthday party. It's a Curious George theme. He's really excited! The week after his party we have Little Angels Bible School that I'm in charge of again. We are doing a Creation theme so I'm trying to come up with art projects that just involve glue and coloring. Everything has to already be cut out because we are working with kids ages 0-7ish. I'm also enjoying having my "freedom" back again. It's nice to be able to leave and go wherever whenever we want and not be on a set schedule during the week. Derek teases me that I've retired. :) Ha. I turned in my substitute teaching reactivation paperwork today so I'm looking forward to subbing again. Gotta keep my name out there....some day I'll be back!!
Think that's about all. Thanks for reading! Enjoy the pics!

Kai with his "creation" that took almost a whole roll of tape!!!

My happy girl!

 

Leela with her cute cousin Bane! (Jackie's baby)

Ready for church!

 

Creating a climbing wall with the couch cushions!

Will even smile after her 4 shots and one oral meds dose at her dr appt !

I can't stop taking her picture!!!! :)

 

Siblings!!!!!

 

Deanna Rose Farm!!!!!

Leela with her new sippy thinking she's cool. Love Kai's face. 

Do you know how hard it is to get all 3 looking at me?!?!?!?

I mean seriously...... I could have attached the other 3 I took too! :)

Play time!

Boys getting ready for their "paintball" mission. Yes, this is about as close to a real paintball gun that they will be able to touch until they are 18!!!!!! How do they know about paintball? Ask their Dad. :) Do you like which way Grayson thinks the firehat goes? He does that EVERY time. :)

Mission time!

7 Months old!!!!

Blowing bubbles!

Standard open mouth pose. :)

I'm just so cute. :)