Summer Fun, part 1

The day after Liam's birthday party, he was showing off that he'd figured out how to blow out the paper blowout thingy

Two boys in a basket

Here are a pair of pics of Dean and Robin.  Robin is now much, much bigger

Silly squirrel

Liam, drawing a BIG picture

Is it just me, or is four years old too young to be growing facial hair?

Hiding in the narrow alcove by the library

Somebody didn't want to get up in the morning.  (There are some days that I think I see glimpses of what he'll be like as a teenager)

Robin started t-ball this summer.  His best friend C has been playing for a while, and Robin wanted to join his team.  Dean gave a few pointers before the first practice

Trying to cram his toes into his brother's shoes.  He looks like Llama Llama.  (That may even be who he was pretending to be)

Take a picture of me too!!!

A trip to the zoo with a friend

A baby zebra, born the previous evening!

Seeing how tall they all are

Trying on polar bear paws

.

Raar!

Sea lions

Exploring the new play area

(And getting our shorts wet)

Touching a tortoise

Happy Father's Day, Dean!  Here come the boys with their gifts

Presenting the hats

.

Trying them out

And one with the boys modeling them

Liam got a special treat on Father's Day:  his final birthday gift, a balance bike of his very own, arrived!

When he began, he went very, v-e-r-y slow.  Baby step slow.  But he loved it, and managed to keep it under him.

Posing with Ama and Poppa, who gave him the bike

And here you can see how Poppa made his bike "fly" after he got tired

A pair of boys on a pair of balance bikes (this was about a month before Robin got his new pedal bike.)

You can see Liam's baby steps in this video.  You can also hear (if you turn your speakers way up) Liam saying "brother."  We love the way he pronounces it:  bruh-brrrr.  He probably won't keep saying it this way for much longer, as he occasionally actually says "Robin" now.

Liam's Birthday

Me, up way too late the day before Liam's party, sculpting cakes as usual

The party was construction themed, in case you couldn't guess.

Sometimes it's still hard to believe that Liam has been around from more than two years.  He's so big, and yet, still so little.

Here's the little boy, all decked out for his construction party

Apple-banana-bell pepper front loaders

Surrounded by grandmas and great-grandmas

More construction stuff

Birthday boy gettin' some chow

We tried to have friends over, but everybody was busy so it was a family gathering.  One half of the assemblage:

And the other half

Posing with his cake

Here it comes, with candles lit!

Picking off the candles after blowing them out

Mmm, cake!

C'mon, get messy already!

There we go!

Time for presents!

Party favor

A few more gifts with just the four of us, in the evening

All in all, it was a good day.  We had to remind Robin more than once that this was Liam's day, that Liam was the center of attention because it was his birthday, that the gifts were for Liam, that Liam would have to share, but that Liam got to try it all out first.  It was (and still is) a work in progress.

Happy second birthday, little buddy!  We love you so much and are so happy you're in our lives!