Taylor's 4th Birthday

I can't believe our little girl is 4.  She is getting so big.  Taylor had such a fun birthday this year.  It just so happened that Joy School was at our house on her birthday.  So she got to share some yummy cupcakes with 3 very sweet friends.

Taylor has not learned the art of eating cupcakes without getting icing all over your face.  I guess we need to eat more cupcakes.

Taylor chose to go to Chick Fila for her birthday dinner and since it was Tuesday she got to have her face painted while we were there.  She was thrilled. Then we came home for cake and presents.

I have finally figured out some icing that the kids can have that will sort of hold up for decorating a cake.  But it is still a little too runny for anything fancy.

Taylor was enthusiastic about all of her girlie presents.  I loved the "ohhh" gasp everytime she opened something.  She is so easy to please.

We sure do love this little girl.  She is so girlie yet so tough when she wants to be.  She is bossy and stubborn beyond belief but can also be my biggest helper and favorite snuggler.  I can't wait to see her continue to grow and learn and become an amazing girl.

While Abe was away

Abe spent three weeks in January in Houston working in a children's ER so it made for a long, busy month.  We sure do miss him when he is away and we especially hate when he misses lots of fun things at home.  Taylor's has been taking a dance class at the YMCA and they had their recital in January.  She was most excited to get dressed up and get to wear some makeup.  She is such a girl.  They didn't bring in a stage for the kids to dance on so unfortunately it was about impossible for anyone to see the little girls if you weren't sitting on the front row.  We were disappointed that we really couldn't see her without standing up but we were happy that she did the dances and had fun.

 

 Ethan's school had a science fair night during January and everyone had to complete a science project related to something they had learned out during the year.  The teacher had the great idea of giving them an example of how they could make an exploding volcano so Ethan came home with a list of all the things we would need and was ready to get started.  I tried to talk him out of the idea (out of sheer laziness on my part) but we were finally able to compromise on doing a cross section of a volcano.  Even though you can't tell from this picture he really was excited about building it and how it turned out.  We were all just tired after making lots of homemade playdough and building it.

 On the night of the science fair the teacher had a video camera and asked him to explain his project on camera.  He did an excellent job of explaining the different parts and really impressed the parents standing around.  It has been a lot of fun volunteering in his class more now that I don't have work.  The other day the teacher told me that she wished she had a class full of Ethan's.  He can be a handful sometimes but it made me so proud to hear the teacher brag on him.

 Abe did make it home in time for the First Semester awards program at Ethan's school.  Ethan was excited to get an award for perfect attendance and one for character.  I always find it amusing that the teacher always comments on how kind he is to others and how polite.  At home it isn't always that way.  He can be quite unkind to Taylor and full of sass.  We were having a discussion about his lack of empathy and concern towards others one day and I was giving some examples of unkind things he did at home.  He quickly reminded me that those were all examples from home but that he was really kind to others at school.  Why can't that Ethan come home!

 But we are so proud of that amazingly smart, funny not so little boy.