Collin's birthday was the Monday after Tate's blessing. For that reason (plus that it was a Monday) we decided to do his party the following Saturday. On the day of his birthday, we asked him what he wanted to do, and he wanted to see Frozen on the big screen. After opening a present, we went to the movie!
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| He was excited about his work bench with its working parts! |
The next day, we let him open another present.
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| SO excited because his other DS (that we bought used) broke. Now he can play his games again! |
Then Saturday came with a major snow storm. Only three of the 9 friends we'd invited showed up. 1 let us know that they couldn't make it. Wish I would have known, because then it wouldn't have taken so long to get the party put together! Again, I put the finishing touches on the party last minute. A big THANKS to my mom, who came up Friday to help me get things done!
Collin wanted a Secret Agent Perry the Platypus party. I went with just a Secret Agent party to give myself more things to do. I made shirts and hats, a bunch of disguise stickers, a Pin the tail on Perry game, and puzzles of bad guys.
When the kids showed up, we got them dressed in their secret agent gear (hat and shirt). Then I took their picture and told them that today they were going through secret agent training and if they finished they'd get a secret agent badge! The first thing we did was help other secret agents (pictures of animals) disguise themselves. This was a huge hit! I had glasses, wigs, hats and mustache stickers for them to use. Collin probably did 5 different animals.
Then we went downstairs to get our secret mission from Perry, but he was missing his tail! We had to help him out first. They closed their eyes, and did really well getting the tail in the right place! (Forgot to take pictures!)
Then we came upstairs where a trap was (supposed to be) set up! There were 4 colored "buttons" on the floor and 4 smaller circles with numbers on them. We figured out that if we hit the buttons the matching number of times with bean bags then the trap would free us! This took longer than I thought it would (probably cause there was only 4 kids throwing bean bags), but was also a huge hit. When the party was done, the kids set it back up and played again!
We worked real hard to break the trap so we took a small break for a snack of cheesy crackers, apples, and marshmallows.
Then we went upstairs to find the bad guys. There was another trap! Lasers (red string) criss-crossed the hallway! I was going to show them how to get through the lasers, but they dove right in and made it through all by themselves! Collin went first, and only pulled two off the walls :)
In Collin's room there were bad guys, but they were scrambled. Each kid took a puzzle to discover the bad guy and then put them in jail (the trash can). Because there were only 4 kids, they got to each do two.
They were good sports and did awesome so here they are with their badges!
Then we opened presents. Collin got some dinos and monster trucks, a Book of Mormon animated book, a nightlight, a soccer ball, and a make your own bouncy ball kit.
In their take home bag was a pair of sunglasses to help disguise them, a magnifying glass for finding clues and treats!
Collin is getting big as well. At the doctor appt we found out that he is in the 70th percentile for weight and height, his hearing is great, and he has 20/20 vision (and I don't!)
Some more fun facts about our 4-year-old:
His talking is coming along. He still struggles with the /k/ sound sometimes, especially in words he learned early in learning to speak.
He is super social. He LOVES playing with friends. Preschool has helped a ton with his social skills. He listens and plays nice with friends nearly all of the time!
He still loves games. He plays his DS, computer and games on our phone very well by himself. Sometimes he's better than us! In an attempt to limit electronic time, we invested in some board games. He loves those too. We're still working on loosing without freaking out...
He is so sweet. Out of blue, he'll say "I love you, Mom!" or "I like you, Dad."
He adores his little brother. He talks to him and gets so excited when Tate smiles at him. He's a great helper, too. If Tate is sad, he'll try to give him the pacifier or whatever else he could do, including calling for Mom "Mom! MOM! Tate is sad!" When visitors come over hes eager to show them our "Baby Tate". "He's so tute!" (Can't get that /k/ sound!)
Preschool is also helping a lot with his learning. I couldn't get him to focus (or care) about letters before. Now he surprises me by knowing them as well as some of their sounds. They trace and write at preschool, but he hasn't picked that up yet. We've been practicing at home though, and he's slowly getting better and more interested.
He loves to dance! We put on upbeat music and he is busting moves! He's much better than he was back in the days of just bouncing. From watching characters dance on tv, he's actually picked up some legitimate dance moves.
We love our little 4 year-old. I can't believe how fast time is going! He's such a joy to have in our family. He keeps us laughing and smiling!
