AbbyNolanMaxAva: A Golden Birthday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAX! In so many ways, Max seems like he's been 3 forever. He follows the big kids everywhere they go, and has been telling me since April that he's 6, just like Nolan. If you ask him if he's big, he'll say "Yes, I'm a big brother!" Indeed he is. That kid is something else. Tonight, I was talking loudly to the kids (otherwise known as yelling) about why we need to have toothbrushes in our main floor half bath instead of upstairs or downstairs, in their bathrooms. (The answer, of course, is from their bathrooms they can't see tv.) Max looked at me and said, "Mommy, are you talking to me? I don't understand what you're saying." Ha! As much as he drives me crazy, he cracks me up, so he's lucky.

So, of course for Max's birthday, just like every Fourth of July, we celebrated at Dave's parent's house south of Chicago. It was a very Toy Story birthday, and Max loved it all. The birthday pics...

Ooooh, the claw!

All the kids, minus Ava.

Toy Story cake

Ava practicing for her own #1 birthday next month. Pretty good job, don't you think?

Ava learned how to crawl this weekend. And, while I won't try to tell you she crawled to Max's towel and put it on, she did indeed crawl to all the other Toy Story toys. And if she didn't get it or Max took it away, she cried. And if she did get it? Max cried and yelled, "Ava, NO! That's my toy!" Hmmm, I hear a new refrain coming into our lives.

Everyone liked the alien towel!

Max also got Candyland. It's funny because I remember trying to play with Abby when she turned 3, but there was no way. The idea of taking turns was absolutely foreign to her. Max, though, was all about it. And check out the big kids who came around and wanted to play as soon as I started playing with Max!

We had absolutely beautiful weather, each day better than the one before. It was so nice, Dave's dad actually got in his own pool with us! Ava was happy to see him!

In the end, it was just too much for Max and he crashed in the chair outside. Something tells me this may be one of his last naps.

These clothes started dry. What you can't see in this picture is Max thinking jumping in with his clothes on would be a good idea.

The Fourth of July girls! Unfortunately, Ava got sick the night before July 4 with a pretty bad cold. She missed her first fireworks (not sure she would have went anyway) and is still under the weather, but hopefully on the mend.

All the kids in red, white and blue.

That's it for the weekend. But of course, as I took pics off the camera, there were some old ones I just had to share. Here's Nolan with his first frog of summer. This was the first of hundreds by now, I should think.