Our Inspired Journey

On August 28th, my big boy...my oldest son...the one who made me a mother for the first time, turned 4 years old! We feel like he's been 4 for a while now...I even made a mistake at the Easter Egg hunt at church this year and told the lady registering kids that he was 4. He was put in a whole other age bracket for egg hunting! I didn't even notice until my friend whose daughter is the same age as Ryder, asked why he had on a different color wrist band. So you can see, that we've been building up to this birthday for a while! The best birthday wish came true this year...Gramma and Uncle D came to visit for a week right before Ryder's 4th birthday :) These pictures are of our mini birthday party we had with Papa Del's pizza (our favorite!) and Sneaky Chef cupcakes (that means they had healthy stuff in them...but he helped me make them and LOVED every bite! :)What a blessing it was to have Gramma and Uncle D there through it all! More pictures of their visit to come in the next post :)
Ta-Da!Cole is "Mr. Personality" and also wins the award for "Imitator of the Year!" Whatever Ryder does, Cole's version is sure to follow :)

Isn't he precious!!!!Yum, Yum! Here is Ryder's birthday breakfast the morning of his REAL birthday. Sadly, Uncle D and Gramma had left a few days before, but he was excited to open his cards from Grammie and Papa and Gramma and Gramps as soon as he woke up on the day he finally turned 4!Then, when choosing what shirt he'd wear to pre-school that day, he told me it needed to be a birthday kind of shirt with bright colors. He chose his red Nike shirt from his buddy Jacob in CA. We put his treat bags for his class in his bag to bring to pre-school that day. We also brought a snack for them to eat at school. It all had to be off the safe snack list his teacher had given us because of food allergies some of the students have, so he chose Cinnamon Teddy Grahams, baby carrots and apple juice for in class and then chose Starburst and Fruit Roll-Ups for a take home treat! Here are the bags he helped me make :) I added a tag that said, "Here are some special birthday treats, from a 4 year old boy who thinks you're real neat!" He laughed when I read it to him, but I thought they were cute!
When I picked Ry up from pre-school that day, he bounded up to me wearing a birthday visor, holding a certificate and with a star sticker on his shirt announcing his birthday! He wore the visor every moment since he received it until it recently ripped in half...:(
On our way to dinner at the food court in the mall to eat and ride the carousel (his choice), Ry fell asleep. I guess all that birthday at preschool finally caught up with him!
He's also been incredibly blessed with new things to ride for his birthday given to him by our family! Thank you family, for making our time outside so exciting with the presents you sent! When Grammie asked him if there was something he wanted for his birthday over the phone, I witnessed the cutest conversation he had with her, where he asked for...a jet airplane that he could actually fly in (that he was sure Papa could build him). Ha! What a blessing to have more things to ride...the boys FAVORITE thing to do is be outside riding around or playing soccer on the grass. Here they are with some of their AMAZING birthday presents! Cole even got two of his presents on Ryder's birthday too...this made it fun for both! A scooter like Ryder's, but smalller, (which he loves but I can't seem to get him to stay still long enough to take a picture of!) and this amazing truck! Thank you family!!! The boys also love their new soccer goal and stuffed camels sent straight from Israel!...more pictures to come :)