Chi Chi's visit and Hunter's 4th birthday party!!

Last week was Circle of Love's biggest fundraiser of the year.  Basically, the kids ride their bicycles/tricycles in circles around the track and the parents donate money.  There is also a silent auction and a carnival.  It's all very cute!

Hunter and his girlfriend, Avery, have taken their relationship to the next level and are now engaged.  Please send engagement gifts to my home address.  We got home from the cruise and the Trike-A-Thon was the next day.  I heard that they embraced when Hunter got to school and kissed! Can you imagine?! Anyhow, this is them on the way to the trike-a-thon.  Holding hands.

 This is her smile face.  So cute.

 Hunter, Kellan and Jack.  Cute buddies.

 Landon SO badly wants to do everything his brother does.  He threw a giant fit about not being able to ride when Hunter did.

 There he goes!

 At the end he got an award!

 And the love of a girl...and his little brother.  He's pretty much a celebrity.

 Showing off his medal.

 Avery on Hunter's lap.

 Meema came down for the trike-a-thon .  Here she is with my smiley little girl.

 Chi Chi came to town! What a blessing my aunt is! She came for 48 hours.  Amazing.  She helped me make cookies, feed the baby, love the boys and we went strawberry picking.  It was a busy 2 days.

 Strawberry picking with church friends.

 Ryan, Landon and Beckett.  When did Landon get SO big?

 Me and Chi Chi

 Picking away

 The boys

 Jasmine, Ryan and Brandon

 Kate, Hamilton Strawberry face and Beckett.

 All the kids on the wagon

 The 5 of us

 Making cookies

 Caught in the act!

 In the "hideout" - hideouts are a very big deal right now.

 I'm decorating the cake and Brian lending his support.

 Landon's cute face in the hideout.

 Hunter put eyes on the cookies - he wanted 2 eyes on a lot of the cookies.  It's so cute the way the almost 4 yr old mind works.

 The cakes! I ended up with leftover cake so I made a baby dinosaur too.

 When did Landon get so big?! :-(

 Me and my little man

 Meema, Chi Chi and Aspen

 Rachel and Landon

 Cheering for Hunter while he plays air hockey.  Oh -and you can't see my amazing cousin, Jenny, who drove up from San Diego for the day and night.  She was my photographer until my camera battery died! How sad. Anyhow, we were SUPER excited to have her there.

 Avery (Hunter's fiance)

 Me and some girlfriends - Adrienne, Tami, Mega, Kate and Mackenzie

 On Sunday morning Jenn helped me with the kids while I got everyone ready for church.  My beautiful wonderful cousin!

Rachel was nice enough to take photos for me. The rest of the photos are courtesy of her.  Wonderful, wonderful friend!

 Birthday boy!

 Chi Chi, Landon and Gigi

 Me and Landon

 Rachel and Clayton

 CHi Chi helping Landon to play

 Mackenzie helping Rhys to play

 King George

 All the kids before dinner!

 

 Dinosaur cookies

 Dinosaur eggs + dinosaur hatchlings

 Brian and Clayton in their Mickey mouse shirts

 2 of my favorite people - Chi Chi and Megan

 Cake time!

 Family shot

 "I'm 4!"

 Rachel and the boys

It was a very successful party.  Hunter had a fantastic time and I think it lived up to his hopes and dreams. All of his friends seemed to have a lot of fun too.  What a sweet boy he is.  He is so kind to his brother and sister, doing a great job of sharing and bringing them things when they need something.  He is happy to share his gifts and even offered that Landon can open some of them.  Whenever he asked for a gift, he would ask for one "for Landon."  I love the kindness that I see in him.  He is starting to calm down a bit, but still has a wonderful zest for life and happiness.  He is SUPER social and, from what I understand, the most popular kid in his class.  Every parent has told me that Hunter is their child's "best friend" and he has a ridiculous number of requests for playdates.  I am proud of the person that my 4 year old child is and I look forward to seeing him mature and grow.  For now, I am going to love every minute of him - even the difficult ones - because birthdays just remind me how quickly his life has gone thus far. I love this little boy.