Birthday Week!

What a long, crazy, fast, busy, memory making, funny, tiring, joyful week this has been! Josh was gone on another long trip which always makes things a little harder on the home-front. . .especially when my sweet Lucas decides to potty train, Finn decides to start teething, and the air conditioning in my house breaks, leaving my boys to sleep in the house when it was 85 degrees. Oy. 

Forgive me for short captions this week. Too many pictures and I have a lot to catch up on before Josh's graduation and Mother's Day this weekend!

So what do we do? We go swimming! Mr. Finn was of course just relaxing and enjoying the water.

 Lucas was pretty timid in the water, but he had fun splashing and eating a popsicle outside. 

I mean, seriously, how can you not smile when you see that face? He just loves any baby food you give him, and with two teeth now on the bottom, he is doing anything he can to get some real food!

Grand Da sent matching Taylor guitar shirts for the boys. . .aren't they so cute? Oh yes, and the shirts are adorable too.

Lucas has really started to be more interested in Finn, making him laugh, wrestling with him, etc. Finn can also show him that he needs to watch out. That beautiful 

blonde hair is really easy to grab and pull ;)

Sugar came to town to save us! Poor thing is back in Colorado now and she might be sleeping for a week after all I put her through.

 These numbers are just flying by way too fast. My sweet little one just melts my heart with his huge smile and squeal anytime you look at him. 

 Day 2= brave boy. As Josh said, "when you put big boy underwear on him, he is invincible"! Lucas loved jumping off of the "cliff board" and swimming across the pool. 

Birthday Sunday- one of the sweetest traditions at Otter Creek. I cry each month at this, even if I don't know many of the kids. It is just sweet and meaningful. This week was Lucas' turn. Each time, the same words are said over the children and parents, and the church sings to them before they eat cake in the lobby!

Sunday afternoon we had a small and simple birthday party for Lucas at the old Otter Creek playground. It was so sweet watching the kids run and play in a place that holds a lot of fun toys and memories for them and their parents. 

 Birthday Butterfly snacks thanks to Pinterest.

Oh, the joy!  

 My sweet momma friends, what blessings.

 My little 2 year old the night before his birthday.

Good Morning 3 year old!

 One tradition we have done each year so far on Lucas' birthday is spend the morning at the zoo. The past two years, the elephants have been really close which is neat! Of course, it doesn't compare to seeing them running beside your safari vehicle in Africa, but it is still pretty impressive to a 3 year old. 

Mommy and the birthday boy. He wanted to go see the dinosaur exhibit again this time. Last time he was pretty scared so I was surprised when he asked, but he told me that 3 year olds aren't scared of dinosaurs, 2 year olds are but not 3 year olds. Guess which 3 year old quickly jumped into their daddy's arms with tears when he saw the first dinosaur? ;)

 Someone knew they could talk mommy into all sorts of things for his birthday! A train ride, dinosaur exhibit, lunch at the zoo. . .

 Each time we would say Happy Birthday, or he would get a present, he would say, "Oh my goodness, thank you so much!" What manners. 

Time to blow out our candle!

 Happy Birthday sweet boy, this mommy loves you so much!

We ended the week with Finn still smiling--this time with two bottom teeth, and Lucas being a superstar at potty training. The air conditioning is fixed, and now its time for daddy to graduate, yay!