Of course, it was Everett's birth month. He turned FOUR!!
But it was also friend Marshall, Rachel, friend Aras, and my mom's birth month!
Marshall had a great dinosaur birthday party. Lots of outdoor activities: water, digging in the dirt, searching for dinosaur bones. Everett was in heaven!!
Lydia got her first ponytail! Cute! But her hair's not quite long enough yet. Maybe pigtails.
It's been an amazing month for Lydia. She's saying more "words"--they're hard to understand, but we know she's trying to say them: mom, bye, hi, Everett, brother, water, done, cheese, cheers (and probably more I'm forgetting).
She also signs a few words: more, all done, water, milk, wash hands, hat, blows kisses, makes this funny arm movement and blowing for wind, and if she drops something or there's an accident, she'll put her hands out like "uh oh!"
She's SO aware and responsive! We know she's understanding and responding appropriately to everything we say/do.
We made a pirate ship!! Well, we designed it, Brian built it, and I decorated it. These pictures are early on in the process of building it. Scroll to Everett's party to see it completed. Here Everett either has a spyglass or an eye patch. Your guess is as good as mine. Arrrrrrrrr!
Everett's preschool had a super sweet tea party for Mother's Day. So lucky to get these shots with the grandmas!
Lydia turned 15 months this month. The picture in the pink jacket is her "birthday picture." She can be such a wild child, doing with enthusiasm everything she sees the big kids doing.
Not just doing what the big kids are doing but doing it after ONE viewing! Monkey see monkey do to the extreme!
I said above that she's responsive. It's amazing. By the end of May, I could ask her to do almost anything familiar, and I could tell she understood, usually by helping with that goal. She gets up into her booster seat (and gets down when she's done--sometimes she even buckles herself!). She walks to the changing table on request, takes things to the trash when asked, and once she even went and grabbed some of Everett's underpants and brought them to us after I asked Everett to get his underpants (yes, she's much more obedient than he is). Recently, she saw me take my morning pill then asked for water herself. When she drank it, she tipped her head back and gulped the water down like I had. This girl!!
Some of Everett's art! He's been blowing me away lately! These were both done by himself, no assistance. The "T's" in "Everett" are above the "E." It's taken him a while to warm up to drawing, so I think I'm more excited than one would expect about his recent interest. I wouldn't call it enthusiasm. But it's an improvement over outright rejection.
We've had a few play dates lately with old friends we just don't see enough. It's been great!
Here we are at my dad's opening at Marina Square Gallery.
The next day was Rachel's birthday party!! John planned such a sweet simple celebration for her. The Hunters have so many awesome friends. It was a great time!
Brian was having a hard time getting a good picture of us, so we just took a selfie!!
We had a sweet Mother's Day. I slept in! Brian made breakfast, and Gion came over to celebrate with us. He served strata, fruit, and mimosas!
May 15th was Everett's fourth birthday!!
His school is Montessori and, on kids' birthdays, they hold a globe and walk around the sun (a candle) one time for each year. During the walk, I stated some milestones of each age. I ran out of milestones, though, since (unbeknownst to me) Brian had told Everett to "walk like a tortoise."
This was my first time bringing cupcakes to school!! They were carrot cake with cream cheese frosting (and cherries and sprinkles to make Everett happy). Lydia had so much fun playing with the big kids.
We asked Everett a few times what he wanted to have for his birthday dinner, and he always answered "fruit." Well, ok! We also had BBQ chicken and corn-on-the-cob. Some of his favorites as well.
The Friday after his birthday (we do Friday night dinners with Phil and Gion), he had another special dinner and received his dream gift. Bucky the pirate ship from Jake and the Neverland Pirates!!
We took a break from setting up Everett's party to celebrate Aras turning three! He had a sweet little party at the zoo. Everett was pretty attentive during the tour.
On to Everett's PIRATE PARTY!! Technically it was a Neverland dress-up party complete with pirate feast, fairy lights, teepee, golden tree, treasure hunt, and a PIRATE SHIP!!
I will post a detailed description of all the decorations, crafts, and activities on my Beyond Fine blog, but it really was a blast. I put so much into that party, but I wasn't too burnt out to enjoy myself on the actual day. And most importantly, Everett had a great time. What a wonderful 4-year-old we have!
He really is wonderful. He can get an attitude sometimes, and he still pokes and prods his sister from time to time to get a reaction from her (and us!), but he's really a gentle sweety at his core.
He's so bright. We're always going to be looking for new challenges for him. And he's so musical. Whenever I ask him what show he's quoting, he responds by singing or humming the theme song. I think that's a sign he's a music lover! Now it's up to us to find good ways for him to explore that.
The kids are still having a great time on the ship. I imagine it being a fixture in our yard for a good long time. 15-months-old and she can totally work the cannon on her own!
My mom had a birthday in May too! She turned 70!! The night before her birthday, they came over for dinner at our house. I made dinner and another pineapple upside down cake!
The next day we "surprised" my mom in Cayucos. I guess we really did surprise her, but she knew someone was going to meet them there. We had a great time playing on the beach, catching sand crabs, and dining at Schooner's Wharf.
bathing beauties
Sweet babies. Lydia watching the fish at the doctor's office (p.s. she's still TALL!!), and Everett nursing Mickey.
We spent Memorial Day Afternoon playing disc golf with friends and see-sawing at Laguna.
One day Lydia fell asleep before lunch, so by the time she woke, her chair was being used for fort construction. We went with it. And practicing animal sounds with Daddy.
Ok. I really need to rap this up. Until next month!!
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