Happy Birthday Little Buddy!

Where does the time go? Theo is no longer a toddler but a full fledged preschooler and now 4! He seems so big. He is still our joyful boy, though watch out when he doesn't get enough sleep. He is so gentle and loving with Gabriel, listens and plays nicely with Maddie and loves nothing more than to give the biggest strongest hugs.

We were excited to celebrate him and his friend Sam at the Windsor Club with a special bear hunt party.

The invites

My friend Denise is a party planner extraordinaire. I was actually hesitant to plan a party with her as I was still feeling crummy and I knew how it could get out of control. No fear - it was fun and fairly easy to plan. We had personalized buckets with bear hats, bear pouches, bear food - goldfish, an animal mix CD with the cutest label on it, and personalized bear hunt t-shirts. (Now that I type it out it does seem a tad excessive - sigh.)

The piece de resistance was having Brian come to do creative movement. Theo LOVES Brian and looks forward to every Friday at Bowen when Brian comes to teach his class movement. Brian is young, fun, crazy yet stern. The kids listen and follow directions when he speaks. And one of his weekly activities is Going on a Bear Hunt hence our party theme.

Maddie was very excited to celebrate Theo. She made 25 origami bear hunt "purses" for the goodie bags, decorated with little scenes on the outside. Unfortunately, her spacey mama left them at home.

Attentively listening to Brian.

This is a game where one team knocks down the cones and the other team has to set them up.

Playing another favorite - messy backyard.

Theo and Sam

Going on a bear hunt!

Maddie and her friend Taraneh

Our bear hunt mountain cake

Back row: Max, Ency, Nathan, Ian, Scotty, Taraneh, Bijan, Davis

Front row: Natalie, friend of Sam, Sam, Theo, Maddie, Emma, Georgia, Caroline, Hilary

Hooray for Theo and Sam!

Maddie and Modern Dance

Maddie was ready to try dance again and it just so happened that our newly opened Waban Library Center was offering a class right after school. Maddie and her friend Avery signed up for the class. Though we knew it wasn't ballet, it turned into quite a modern dance class with a lot of free movement. They had fun but Maddie said she'd pass on it next time and would prefer a ballet class!

In Williams Sonoma with Lydia

One of Nathan's favorite cookbook authors is Lydia Bastianich. I had just given him her latest cookbook for Valentine's Day and we found out she'd be in Boston on a book tour. Nathan called at 4:30 and said do you want to come to the city to meet her and go out to dinner? Yes, and yes. An adventure to Boston and I don't have to cook dinner (the irony of that last phrase is not lost on me!). We trekked in, stood in a short line while being served some of her creations and met her. Coincidentally, Theo and Maddie had recently helped Nathan make one of her dishes. Theo proudly told her all about it, which as you can imagine, pleased her immensely.

We had dinner at Legal Seafood. Only in Boston, do you have the option of lobster on the kid's menu.

In the Kitchen with Maddie and Daddy

Maddie wanted to cook a meal for the family. You can imagine Nathan's reaction! They planned out the menu, did the shopping and prepared a feast. Everyone who knows Nathan will appreciate that he told Maddie that if she can make pasta with an olive oil and garlic sauce, she'd be on her way to the basics of cooking. We had the pasta, a fennel/apple salad, and lemonade. Delish.

What a pair. Maybe a future food network show for the two of them?

You can have fun with food too!

I looked at Theo and he had his underwear, pants and shirt on backward. I asked him what he was doing and he said it's backwards day and started walking backwards. He then told me that tomorrow is sideways day. Hmmm.

Gabriel's words: Mama, Dada, Cow, Moo, Thank you, Excuse me, wawa, hat, woof, ball, football, up, car, choo choo,

The Bee

Our brave girl did the city spelling bee. She's a fantastic speller but getting up on stage in front of a packed room and speaking into the microphone is very very much outside her comfort zone. We are so proud of her. Though next year she said she'd like to observe instead! We celebrated with ice cream at Cabot's afterwards.

Taraneh and Maddie at the Bee

Cutie Puttutie

Gabriel is turning into quite the little guy. He is a great helper, likes to clear his plate just like the big kids. And we have daily lessons for Maddie and Theo about how Gabriel is watching everything that they do. His latest we heard in the car. As Nathan was loudly making strange noises/trying to be funny, Gabriel shouts, "Shush!" If you ask him something, like, "Who made this mess?" He'll answer with a loud, enthusiastic, "ME!" If you ask him not to do something, you'll hear, "Tay." He is also very adept at telling stories with little words. He'll use the words that he knows along with movements and actions to get the point across.

Happy messy boy reading the newspaper

Yummy pasta