Happy Birthday Ry!

My sweet boy is 4!!

I had been debating on whether or not I should throw Rylan a birthday party and invite some friends over for some fun. I asked him repeatedly if that would be fun and he was never too excited about it. So one day I asked him what he wanted (why didn't I start with that question??) and he suggested going to the park with Kaleb and Kade. Great! And he also wanted pancakes for breakfast. We can do that, too!
We were at Wal-Mart several weeks before his birthday and he saw a Wilton cake mold for a train cake. No surprise, he wanted it. So we came home and looked up pictures online of train cakes and finally decided on one (the day before his birthday...one of these days I'll be more prepared. I should have bought the Wilton cake mold!). After Asher's first birthday cake disaster (I'm still embarrassed thinking about that thing) I was determined to never make a birthday cake again. But this one looked easy enough. It's certainly not the greatest but, whatever. Someday I'll take a cake decorating class :)

So Kaleb and Kade, who Rylan fondly calls "my twins", came over Saturday afternoon. They all played for a bit while I was finishing up the cake. Then we piled into the car and headed to the park. It was a chilly, windy day but that didn't stop us.

Airplane arms out, ready for take off!

Trying to stay warm...brrrr!

After some swings and slides I headed back home to get the kites. Perfect idea! The boys had a ball flying the kites (with Kevin's help). It was good to get them to run around in the field to keep them a little bit warmer :)

I just had to put the above picture in even though Kaleb is blurry. But we seriously had some fantastic action shots of him! Another action shot below...

Kevin was such a good helper. All these boys were having a blast!

The boys had so much fun launching the kite!

Look at those snow covered mountains! Don't we live in a beautiful world? Do you see the kite?

After awhile we went to Carl's Jr. for dinner before heading home for cake and ice cream.

My family came by to sing to Ry Ry and eat cake and ice cream. Ry got lots of fun presents and seriously just loved the entire day.



He is such a sweet boy. No doubt there are those moments when we struggle and I have to leave the room, take a deep breath, and pray for patience. But Rylan also has the ability to make me smile when I'm sad and he certainly knows how to make me feel loved. He is very smart and I love those moments when he's quiet but I can see his mind thinking and processing. He can sing his ABC's backwards, thanks to his daddy. He has also learned some other things from daddy--he's pretty much Kev's parrot! (singing "All the single ladies, all the single ladies" is one of the funny ones!)

I asked Rylan some questions as a new 4 year old. Most of them he wouldn't answer (no surprise. That's just Ry!) He did answer most of the food questions (no surprise, he is my son!)

Favorites:

drink: apple juice and water
tv show: monkey (Curious George)
food: pb and honey
fruit: strawberries and pears
veggie: asparagus (ha! He won't touch his asparagus. As much as we've had asparagus lately though, I could see why he'd answer this way. If I had answered for him I would have said green beans.)
toy: trains
game: Hungry Hungry Hippos
breakfast food: milk and cereal

what do you want to be when you grow up? A daddy
who's your best friend? kaleb and kade

We sure do love our Rylan!!