More Monster Truck pics

From big kid pics

Luke & Will came over for dinner tonight and the boys immediately wanted to hop in the new truck & take a spin. Here are a few pics of them as Willliam tooled them around in it! He's gotten very good at shifting gears & braking when he needs to. He even told the younger boys to stop messing with the gears, in typical big brother fashion.

From big kid pics

From big kid pics

From big kid pics

Check out that smile--is he in heaven, or what?!?! Heaven help me in his teenage years:

From big kid pics

One last piece of cake.....

Here is Daniel enjoying the very last piece of his yummy cake, just for post-birthday cuteness!

From Daniel's BD weekend

From Daniel's BD weekend

From Daniel's BD weekend

The Monkey Joe's Party!!

All the boys have wanted is a Monkey Joe's birthday party. They were so excited that we were going to get to have Daniel's party there, as it's their "fravorite" place to play! We got an hour & a half on the bouncy houses & half an hour in a private birthday room. They had a great turnout & everyone had a great time!! Daniel wanted a Thomas-themed party, so we did Thomas (again!!).

Daniel and "Paw-Paw Bip":

From Daniel's BD weekend

William the crazy-man having fun!

From Daniel's BD weekend

The birthday party kiddos climbing up one of the obstacle courses' walls:

From Daniel's BD weekend

The birthday boy jumping:

From Daniel's BD weekend

And, one of Daniel going down the big slide. Check out his leap before he heads down!

From videos

A few pics with the cake:

From Daniel's BD weekend

From Daniel's BD weekend

From Daniel's BD weekend

The cousins:

From Daniel's BD weekend

The birthday boy & his brother sitting in the birthday chair (Daniel was nice enough to share, so we avoided 4-year-old meltdown--Yay, Daniel!!):

From Daniel's BD weekend

The whole party:

From Daniel's BD weekend

And, finally, opening his presents at home after the party:

From Daniel's BD weekend

(Daniel is making his smiley face here--he only LOOKS like he's in pain!)

From Daniel's BD weekend

Overall, it was a great party & a great day. Thanks to all of our friends & family for making Daniel's big day so special!!

Zoo day

From Daniel's BD weekend

On the Sunday, we went to the St. Louis zoo. I didn't take too many pictures, but we got some neat ones of the kids at the new stingray exhibit, petting the stingrays. I thought they'd feel a bit like a shark (yes, we've petted those, too!), but it was a little "slimier", for lack of a better term. The stingrays were great & would swim right up to you & get right under your hand so you could pet them. It was almost as if they liked it. They're actually really beautiful when you watch them swim! Check out my brave little adventurers leaning WAY over the wall so they could get a good feel. Scott had to hold their feet!

From Daniel's BD weekend

From Daniel's BD weekend

From Daniel's BD weekend

And, here is a cutie-pie snap of Colin in my carrier. He spent the morning in the stroller & after lunch, got into the carrier & promptly fell asleep. I bought this carrier when I was positive he was a girl & it's just so darn comfy I can't sell it!

From Daniel's BD weekend

Happy 3rd Birthday, Daniel-man!!

Here is the birthday boy on his actual birthday! Note the enthusiasm he shows for all of the wrapped goodies in front of him ;-) We let him open his presents from the cousins and from my family on his "real" birthday.

From Daniel's BD weekend

From Daniel's BD weekend

And, here are the boys enjoying their first joyride in Daniel's "monster truck", as they call it. It provided hours of entertainment for all of the neighborhood kiddos later that night, too!

From Daniel's BD weekend

Daniel wasn't too sure about driving it, so he let William go first:

From Daniel's BD weekend

Once they swapped, fun times ahead for Mommy! I had to run alongside them to keep Daniel from running into any parked cars. Phew!

From Daniel's BD weekend

Here come the cousins!

Scott's brother Brian, his wife Kristy, and their three kiddos--Jay, Madelaine, and Meredith--drove up to see us for the weekend. They arrived just before dinner today & will stay through Tuesday, so they can take part in Daniel's birthday party!

Here is a picture of Madelaine holding Colin:

From Daniel's BD weekend

And, one of Meredith:

From Daniel's BD weekend

The twins are seven and couldn't WAIT to get their hands on the baby! What great little mommies they made. Colin was not wanting for his paci the whole time they were here, that's for sure!!!

Zerohead??

Colin has a little patch of hair on the back of his hair that swirls into a perfect "0". It's courtesy of his daddy & all three boys have it, but William had so much hair, it wasn't as obvious, and Daniel was only bald in the front, so his was obscured, too. Colin is pretty bald, in case you haven't noticed, so his is very obvious since it's practically the only hair on his little head. The other day, William walked up to him & touched it and said, "Mommy, Colin is a zerohead. He's zero years old. When I'm five, I'll be a fivehead. Right now, I'm a fourhead." He then proceeded to tap his FOREhead & look at me proudly, like he'd figured out the secrets of the universe! Oh, four-year-old logic!

Here Come The Simmons Kids!!

Corey made it in 3 weeks ago, Dawn followed last weekend. The kids have been at Dawn's mom's house so that Dawn & Corey could get some unpacking & setting up done. They arrived at their new house last night. We went over there for dinner, and the kids had to immediately jump in the pool. (Daniel made it all of 3 minutes, that's why there are no pics of him. Once he realized that he couldn't have the trucks & cars in the pool, he was back in his clothes & playing in the basement. Oh, how different my boys are!) Here is William swimming with his "new best friend" Drew (who shares William's BD & is 6) and Shelby (who is 4 also):

From big kid pics

When we walked into their house, Drew came running over & gave William a HUGE hug & said, "It's SOOO good to see you!" William just kept staring at him with this wonderous look on his face & said not once, but twice, "It's DREW!" I don't think he really understood that we were going to actually SEE them, since it's been so long!

Here are the kids playing shark. Shelby was the shark & chased William & Drew around the pool while they tried to get away from her on the raft:

From big kid pics

From big kid pics

And, Miss Shelby Grace:

From big kid pics

And, check out this leap! (Did I mention that my child is no longer in the slightest bit apprehensive of the water?? Not sure whether to be excited or nervous about that!)

From big kid pics

And then, a slightly blurry shot of William & Drew hanging out in the pool:

From big kid pics

It's going to be so nice to have a pool to go to after ours closes on Labor Day! It's warm here until at least late September & sometimes into October and their pool is heated, so we'll be having LOTS of pool days this year! Yay!

It's so great to have the whole family in town now. I didn't manage to grab a picture of Luke. He was playing inside with Daniel & helping his Mommy cook! More to come.

Random Colin cuteness!

More pics of the little man just hanging around. Here he is in his baseball cap (Daddy insisted on it!):

From Colin pics

And, a cute snap of "the twins":

From Colin pics

And, here are a couple of shots of him sitting up on our table today. I'm barely holding the little guy!

From Colin pics

From Colin pics

Special TV chair

A friend of ours gave Colin a Bumbo chair. It's a little booster-type chair that's specially angled so that babies can sit up in it just after they have head control. Daniel LOVED the one we borrowed from the Simmons Crew when he was teeny, and apparently he hasn't lost his "relationship" with it! It's now what he sits in when he watches his TV shows! I must say, it makes a pretty good pre-schooler chair, too!!

 

Let's Play a Game!

So, here are a couple of videos of the older boys at the same age Colin is now. Look at the Colin video in the previous post & see whom he looks more like & if you can figure out which big boy is which!

From Will videos

From Will videos

Babies and Belly Laughs!

Scott was trying to keep Colin entertained while I cooked dinner tonight & this was the result. Be sure to listen carefully to the big boy screeches in the background, too!

From videos

Our little hound dog

And, no, I'm not referring to myself, but to Colin! Please excuse the lovely singing I needed to do in order to get Colin to join in. If you'd ever told me I'd be singing and then posting it to a blog that the entire world would be able to hear (in theory!), I'd have said you were crazier than a loon. But, here I am.

I usually sing to Colin when I'm trying to get him to take a nap, & it's always Brahm's lullaby. Just today, he decided he needed to join in. Listen to our little crooner! American Idol, here we come! He's really been noticing the camera lately, so he gets a bit distracted. Usually, he sings his little heart out during the whole song.

From videos

And, here is one of him giggling with our neighbor. Apparently, the little guy is ticklish!

From videos

And, just one of him looking adorable! You can tell that he's really starting to tune into the camera. Look at those smiley eyes!

From videos