john's fourth birthday

john turned four on friday.
unbelievable...the years have flown by so fast.
i couldn't sleep the night before his birthday.
my mind just couldn't stop thinking about him growing up so fast.
four is a big one.

chris and i have taken him to a special coffee shop every year on his birthday.
except for his first when he wasn't even walking yet.
it's right in our area and you can sit a bar and watch the trains go by out the window.

chris suggested we take him on his second birthday, and it has since become tradition.
since he worked from home for a couple years he was able to join us.
this year it was just john and me, and that was special too.

we had a big front yard bonfire bash to celebrate his birthday.
we invited all the neighbors and family and let the kids cook hot dogs & smores on the fire.
they did lots of sparklers too.

our garage has a second garage door that opens to the backyard.
we opened it up so the kids could run back & forth from front to back & play in both yards.
we just started doing this recently, and it really works out well.
our front yard is really big and open, and our back has a big patio and great swing set.
it also has a big pool, and so not as much room to run around as the front.

we have about 25+ kids on our street.
they all play so well together.
and our weather is so beautiful here most of the year, they can be outside so much.
until july-september, of course.
today, we got home from mass & brunch around 12:30.
john literally stayed out and played with his neighborhood friends until about 4:30.

over christmas break, all the kids on the street were out playing for hours every day.
it was wonderful.
what can be better as a kid than fresh air, beautiful weather, friends and a safe street to play on?
most of our kitchens look out onto the front yard, so it is easy to keep an eye on them.
and a lot of the time they're out, we are out too.

these three boys are all a month apart - all on our street.

max turned four in december, john in january, and tommy will in february.

all blondies, but john's hair is now starting to get darker.

we decided to have a second campfire cookout in our backyard on sunday.
chris and i didn't get to sit and enjoy the fire on friday - you can never sit at your own party.
this time it was just our little family.

it was so relaxing.
i said, 'it feels like we're on vacation, and we're just in our own backyard'.
we all commented that we really need to do it more often.

i can't believe my youngest is four years old...
i went to a baby shower for a good friend of mine on saturday - her 3rd baby.
they had a basket to write advice.  i wrote:
'kiss your beautiful baby's cheeks at least 100x a day, they grow up too fast!'

happy birthday to my baby who is growing up way too fast.