Carson turns 4!

Well, my little guy is growing up (excuse me while I blink back some tears). I think I say this every year but SERIOUSLY I can't believe how fast the time has gone by. We celebrated Carson's birthday early this year so my parents and siblings could attend. Carson had a great time being the center of attention! Carson is such a sweet and easy going kid we feel so blessed to have him in our family. We sure love this kid!

Carson 4 with attitude

Preparing to blow out the candles

Carson and the tractor tipping race track he has been asking for since just after Christmas

Giving me a fake smile while opening his gifts

And my masterpiece the Great White Shark Cake (to give credit where it is due my sister Sandi did help me make this cake with her amazing cake decorating skills, so I guess technically it's both our masterpiece).

Tupperware

Lincoln loves Tupperware. He loves to get out a spoon and a Tupperware and pretend to cook while I cook. Or he likes to pull out a Tupperware and put as many toy cars in it as will fit. Or he likes the classic game of pulling all the Tupperware out and dispersing them all over the house. He had just finished the latter when he decided to be extra mischievious and climb in the drawer.

I know I should be more annoyed about this, but even when being mischievous he is so stinking cute! It has been a long time since this drawer opened and closed smoothly.

Predators

Predators reign supreme around the Snow household, thanks to Carson's new obsession with anything that is flesh-eating. He loves to read about them, watch them on TV, and pretend to be them. The predators that are top dog at our house right now are the shark and the killer whale. The other day Carson kept begging me to play "shark-killer whale-trucks" with him. Not being familiar with this game I asked him how we play. He instructed me thus: I was to be the trucks, I was to drive them to Sea World (which is where he was sitting) and I was to make sounds of amazement as my trucks watched the battle between the killer whale and the great white shark (which would be orchestrated by him). If you were wondering, the killer whale came out on top. I am a little worried that when we go to Sea World next year he might be a little disappointed that Shamu just jumps out of the water and doesn't battle to the death with other ferocious ocean creatures.

Carson and a well loved library book

Carson playing "sharks-killer whale-trucks" while maintaining his favorite yoga pose

Another year older

Nate turned 32 this June. As you can see he is less than thrilled. Probably because he has now advanced deep into his thirties while his youthful wife remains in her prime. (No offense to those over thirty)

Happy Birthday to the man who can always make me laugh

(We love ya hon')

The End of May

The end of May brought an end to the soccer season and to preschool. Carson really enjoyed both activities and was sad when they ended. I had mixed feelings about soccer it took A Lot of encouragement, positive reinforcement, and bribery to keep Carson interested, but in the end I would say that the experience was 90% positive. Preschool was a 100% positive experience for both me and Carson it was great to help the kids learn and see them interact and grow socially.

Soccer
By the end of soccer . . . .

Carson was quite good at following the crowd

Carson would try to block the ball (Check out his determined little face)

and Carson still needed to be reminded which goal was his

Preschool

We started Carson's preschool group in September, and all of the parents switched off having preschool at their house twice a week. This May Carson graduated from the little preschool co-op and will be moving to a more formal preschool in the fall. The preschool co-op went pretty smoothly and it was fun to teach the kids and see them interact. Thanks to everyone who participated in our little preschool. I loved getting to know your kids better and Carson loved getting to play with his friends(Almost every morning Carson would ask if it was preschool day). Everyone putting forth a lot of effort made the preschool a huge success.

All of Carson's preschool buddies minus one

Just some jumping off the couch time, not a preschool standard but still fun times

Oh, to be a kid and get so much pleasure from something as small as jumping off the couch