Two Grasshoppers and a Bandit

 Will (7)

 Evan (7)

Holden (6)

It's Hard to Be 5

1. What is your favorite color? blue
2. What is your favorite toy? my scooter
3. What is your favorite fruit? peaches
4. What is your favorite tv show? Diego
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? fruit loops (he doesn't actually get these, maybe at the beach?)
6. What is your favorite outfit? sweatpants
7. What is your favorite game? Angry Pigs
8. What is your favorite snack? fruit loops, again
9. What is your favorite animal? zebra
10. What is your favorite song? Silent Night
11. What is your favorite book? The Body Book
12. Who is your best friend? Hunter
13. What is your favorite cereal? the candy kind with dots?
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? hiking with daddy
15. What is your favorite drink? mango smoothie
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Froggy
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Daddy's pancakes and sausage
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? hamburgers and cupcakes
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? I just want to be a Dad, and I don't want to grow up. What can I eat so I don't grow up mom?

Holden turned five last week and we celebrated with a party of his choice, a pirate party at Pump It Up (bounce house place). We got him a '5' shirt that he is proud to wear.  He claims that he can run faster now that he is five.  But he is showing some reluctance to 'growing up'.  He wants to stay at his preschool (not go to kinder next year), and just doesn't want to 'grow'. He can be very charming and loves to cuddle with any adult but he also will revert to baby talk,crawling or even short tantrums, more like a three or four year old. He is hanging on to being the baby in the family and it is showing at school.  It came up in his teacher meeting today. His teacher is terrific with him, all the kids really, and made some good advice and recommended the book 'It's Hard to Be 5' by Jamie Lee Curtis.  

We will be doing more talking about how great it is that we have all big kids now that Holden is five and all the fun things we can do now as a family, recognizing his good 'big boy' behavior and validating his feelings but teaching him appropriate 'actions'. I didn't know it was going to be this hard to be five.  It is certainly a big milestone for us as a family. Life with six year olds and a five year old is freer and fun.  They are amazing beings and it is fun to see their personalities evolve and independence emerge. Through our trials we are having a pretty good time.

Holden Bio

Holden, four years old.  Our baby is turning five next week!

Holden enjoys sharing.  His favorite pastime is cutting and pasting, making cards, books or other sculptural gifts for his family and friends.  When he is not crafting, he likes building block castles with his older triplet siblings.  He  also has a knack for lego construction and has created many unique vehicles and even a rendition of Perry the Platypus.  Holden is an animal lover and has two pet frogs, Perry (named after the former) and Penelope, as well as a calico cat named JoJo.

He also enjoys the outdoors, going on hikes, collecting rocks or riding his scooter.   He will often offer to sell items from his treasure trove of found objects.  One day he aspires to open his own store or become a pirate.

Colorado in Pictures (Part II)

Summer

We are enjoying our summer. We spent the first couple of weeks in Colorado, peppered in a few camps and soon off to the beach. The triplets are starting kinder in a month.

Little Red Box

Performance by Holden at St Matts

Lily introduces DJ Hexum at the Cunningham party

According to DJ Hexum this is the best introduction he's gotten :)
audio here

DJ Will

Lately...

It has been busy as we ramp to Easter.  The kids have been hiding and searching for eggs in the yard for several weeks now.  They all had elaborate Easter parties at school.  The day of the parties Will said ' it was the best day of my life'.

In other news, we have moved Holden up to the boys bunk room.  Lily didn't want to be left out so has been sleeping with them too.   The transition has been a lot smoother than we anticipated.  Holden said it was 'awesome' and 'I love you!'.   Right away he started sleeping through the night in his own bed rather than joining us in the middle of the night. He also started doing more things on his own like making his bed and buckling his car seat. So he must feel more like a big kid now.

 My cowboys, playing with party favors from a birthday at Little Buckaroo's ranch.

We had a wonderful time in Antigua at Veronica and John's wedding.  The friends of the bride and groom stayed in these four casitas with adjoining courtyard.   We were treated to a homemade breakfast in house each day, then spent our days exploring, visiting the local sites and hanging around the pool.  The town is a maze of cobblestone streets, peppered with antique churches and surrounded by volcanoes.  The guys were lucky to see a volcano erupt smoke while they were on the golf course.

The city was festive. In preparating for Easter holy days all the churches were decorated with these sawdust drawings.  On sunday there was a huge parade through town which drew hundreds of thousands of spectators.

David gave a few pointers.

Antigua was the original capital of Guatamala and has many churches over 500 years old.  They have been damaged by numerous earthquakes, but still very beautiful.

Holden's 4th Birthday Party



We celebrated Holden's 4th birthday this weekend, with a party at our home and Tiny Tails petting zoo.  Holden was delighted to introduce each animal, a baby Bearded Dragon, Chinchilla, several bunnies and more.  That big smile made it all worth it.

The baby hedgehog Ludwig Von Hedgehog was the star of the zoo.

Will


All the children got to take turns holding the animals.

Lily



Evan

  Evan wanted to hold Ludwig but was a little bit wary of the hedgehog's spines.
 

Cousin Jack and best friend Hunter flank Holden while everyone sang to the birthday boy.

Holden relaxing the day after the party in the tent David constructed for him.  This photo was taken through our front door window pane so I wouldn't disturb him.

The tent  still needs the finishing touches...the fabric will be made from a cute dinosaur print sheet, it just needs to be hemmed and add elastic bands to secure.  But the kids seem perfectly content with the makeshift sheet.

We love you Holden!

A quiet moment before the party...