4

 Spencer turned 4 last Friday!  Alan took the day off work and we had a super fun day together.  Even though Alan made his favorite breakfast of chocolate chip waffles, Spencer could hardly eat because he was so anxious to open presents.  We got him some outside toys (a soccer net and ball and a kids landscaping set), but his favorite gifts were more Disney's Cars toys to add to his collection.  Thank you Grandma LeFevre!  He also likes the Book of Mormon Heroes from Grandma Rasmussen.  I think they played board games with him today during quiet time. :)

We spent most of the day at OMSI in Portland.  It's a cool science museum, but is terrible for taking pictures.  OMSI currently has a Lego sculpture exhibit and Spencer's favorite part of the whole museum was playing with the Duplos.  I had never seen the Duplo train sets before, but leave it to Spencer to sniff out anything that even resembles a train.  He was in heaven.

We finished the day with homemade pizza (cheese and pineapple for Spencer) and cupcakes with chocolate and strawberry frosting.  He didn't want a fancy cake this year.  Sigh of relief for me!

Spencer has really grown up this last year.  I can't say that his 3-year-old year has been my favorite.  We have had our share of power struggles and tantrums, but overall Spencer is such a good, little boy.  He's not rowdy at all and gives Alan and I lots of "lovies" all the time.  He says, "Mommy, I love you in the whole wide earth," several times every day.  I've really seen his more-reserved, shy nature come out this year.  Not surprising, given that both Alan and I are quiet.  Spencer won't talk at all to adults he doesn't know which is sometimes a little awkward when well-meaning people won't stop asking him questions.  He doesn't like meeting new kids, but gets along with almost all of them once he does.

Spencer LOVES preschool and takes pride in his ability to listen well and answer questions.  He could probably count to 100 if his attention span were long enough and can even count by 2's and 3's to 20.  He understands the concept of addition and can do simple problems with his fingers.  Spencer learns to read new words almost everyday.  He doesn't have too many sight words yet, but can sound out three-letter words pretty well.  Writing and coloring are still his least favorite preschool activities, but he has improved quiet a bit.  He can spell his first name, but won't even attempt writing it unless he's tracing.  The social aspect of preschool has been really good for him.  It's harder for him to learn some of those skills because he can't practice with kids his age at home.

Here are some of Spencer's favorites:
Cars eye guys (Disney Cars), Thomas trains, card games, running games with Daddy, riding his tricycle, cheese, bell peppers, raw broccoli, jicama (really almost any raw veggie or fruit), hard-boiled eggs, cold cereal, pizza, chocolate chip waffles, ice cream, blue snugly pants, jammies, dandelions, parks, picnics, reading stories, computer games (usually from the Sesame Street or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse websites), his Sunbeam class at church

Not so favorites:
Coming in from playing outside, cleaning up his toys, taking baths, getting dressed, any cooked veggie, anything that combines a bunch of different foods like a soup or casserole, mean guys (he doesn't like any movie with any kind of bad guy in it)

Every night when I check on Spencer before I go to bed, I think about how lucky I am to have such a special little boy.  Any tantrums or arguing from the day are gone and he's just my sweet, innocent little boy.  I wish he could stay little forever.  He brings both Alan and I so much joy.  We love you Spencer and feel so blessed that you're in our family!

Tulip Festival

We jump at the chance to do something fun as a family whenever Alan has a Saturday off.  He didn't have a race last Saturday so we headed down to the Woodburn Tulip Festival.  I figured we'd be a little early to see all of the tulips in bloom, but I had always wanted to go and it was perfect weather.  It turned out to be a great time even though the majority of the tulips hadn't bloomed yet.  We were surprised at how many fun activities they had for kids.

I asked Alan why he had to make a dorky face every time the camera points his direction.  He said, "It's my trademark."  What a thing to be known for.



This cow train was the highlight for Spencer.  It was a pretty bumpy ride through the muddy fields.  He's still a train lover.

There were several fun slides.  This one was like sliding down a washboard.  The kids loved it, but Alan was saying "ouch!" all the way down. :)

Spencer also loved these water pumps.  It took him awhile to figure out how to pump hard enough to get the water to come out, but he had a blast floating the rubber duckies to the other end once he got the hang of it.

Since I am anti big egg hunts, this was a perfect way to spend the day before Easter - beautiful spring weather with my two favorite boys!

Eggs

I love Easter eggs!  They can be such a great teaching tool.  Anything you put inside a plastic egg instantly becomes more exciting.  Boring, ordinary snacks suddenly became delicious and my primary class was begging for more time to answer the questions I had put inside of eggs.  Spencer also had a lot of fun reading and matching the word strips I hid in some eggs one day.

Then of course, there's the fun of dying Easter eggs.  I'm embarrassed to say that this year was the first time we had ever colored eggs with Spencer!  I bought a kit last year and we just never made the time to do it.  I don't know what happened the other years, but that is sad.  We've been depriving him!  Spencer loved it and was fascinated by the whole process.

 The Easter bunny visited our back yard on Saturday morning.  It was lovely dry, sunny weather - just how Easter should be, but rare for Oregon in April.  He got smart and just put a few candies in each egg this year so there were lots of eggs to find, but not gobbs of candy.  He even left Spencer a Mater truck (one of the few Disney Car's characters he didn't already have.)  Alan got in on the fun and treats too, but I didn't since I am on doctor's orders not to eat any corn products, chocolate, white flour or sugar for a month.

Hooray for Easter eggs!  They are super-fun even though they have nothing to do with the real reason for the holiday.

Dandelions

Spencer is in love with dandelions right now.  He thinks they are so beautiful and picks them where ever we go.  We have a large patch of them in our backyard right now and he picked a whole bucket-full the other day.  Our garage is now littered with smelly, wilted flowers.  Spencer got quite upset at me sweeping some out of the garage and for hoeing some of them up while I was weeding.  :)  I love the simple beauty he finds in everything around him.

Kitchen Update

We knew we wanted to replace our kitchen counter tops before we even bought our house.  They were ceramic tile, which looked pretty, but the grout was moldy and I didn't like preparing food on the uneven surface.  The grout around the sink had gotten really gross - to the point that I either had to re-grout it myself (because Alan's super-busy) or we just had to replace the whole thing.  Even though it was expensive, we decided to replace the tiles with granite.

Like all home-improvement projects, this one turned out to be more of a hassle and more expensive than we had planned.  Mostly because Alan and I don't know a thing about this type of job and didn't realize we would have to replace the drywall when taking off the old back splash left huge holes in our wall.  We also didn't know that we'd have to hire a plumber to hook up our new sink when it was all done.  And, that I'd then have to repaint nearly the whole kitchen and some of the surrounding walls.  Thanks to a super-nice neighbor who offered to replace the dry wall at cost if I watched his boys while he worked, everything is now finished and I LOVE it!

Before:



During:  We were actually only without a kitchen for less than a week.  Not bad.

After:

The color is gorgeous with our walls.  It has these little, sparkly patches that make me smile every time the light glints off of them.  I'm so happy that we paid the extra to under-mount our new sink.  Just being able to sweep crumbs off the counter straight into the sink may not seem like a big thing, but it's awesome.  I love how smooth it is and that there is no more moldy grout to try to clean.  We also got a fancy, new faucet that just makes the sink looks nice. 

It might be awhile before we do any other big improvements like this one, but I'm loving it!  Now, if only I could make my kitchen bigger...