Star Wars

Owen has read a few Star Wars books from the library but has become a big fan. When he wants to imaginative play, it's always Star Wars lately (he knows WAY more than me!!). For his birthday, he got a kit of little coloring pages of the characters. Here he is naming them. When we read his storybook Bible at night he's been able to pick out the words God and Jesus. When reading Star Wars books he's caught on to R2-D2 and C3PO. Here he is "reading" even more of them.

Kite Festival

We've enjoyed the local kite festival the past two years, and this year was equally as enjoyable. The weather was sunny in the low 60s with a bit of a breeze. We met Nana, Grandpa, Kim and the kids there. It was a fun morning!

We've decided to buy a "for real" kite for next year, rather than the freebie ones they giveaway that don't catch any air. The kids and Chris tried creating their own breeze for a while.

They even got Nana running!

Up up and away!! For a few seconds at least!

Chris attempts to juggle Hannah and run with a kite backwards:

Wanna come out and play?

The free ice cream is always a hit!!

Owen thought the back of my legs looked like a comfy spot to rest:

Can you spot everyone except Kim in this picture?

Hannah was amazed!!

This octopus/squid type kite was HUGE!!

Panoramic is better, but pictures still don't do it justice!!

Happy 4th Birthday Owen!!

Owen's birthday was on a Monday this year so he had a few days to wait for his party. He enjoyed opening gifts on the morning of his birthday and has been building Lego sets ever since. Chris was pretty excited to get him the Star Wars millennium falcon. I'm surprised he hasn't finished putting it together while Owen's at school. It has 12 bags in the kit, so it's definitely a long term project!

It was only appropriate to have a Lego themed party this year since Owen is all about Legos. As always, Pinterest had a ton of fun ideas that were fun to try. 

Thanks to Chris for his artwork on the cups!

I found Lego molds online and used them for everything! Chocolate for favors, Koolaid ice cubes for the punch, fruit snacks (Jello) for lunch, and cake pops for lunch too!

Thanks to Nana for making 40+ fun Lego bean bags for the bean bag toss game. The kids got to bring home one of each color. 

Coloring books!

Thanks to Gramma for her help with the fun Lego banners! Foam tape gave them a fun 3-D look.

We definitely rely on our backyard for birthday party entertainment, but not this year!! With a high of 42 and snowflakes falling multiple times throughout the morinng, we all packed inside to play. 

We invited Owen's whole preschool class since he talks about playing with a lot of the kids in his class. I was very pleased with the number of friends who were interested in attending. We ended up with 14 kids and it was a bit much for our buddy. He was happy when Roman showed up so they could play trucks together instead of kitchen with all the girls. 

We had a couple games/activities but the kids were pretty happy just playing with the toys in the play room.

Owen wanted a little help (support) with his candles.

Chris snuck away for some fun pics:

Owen's friends all picked out such thoughtful gifts for him. His friend Nora told her mom about 5 things that Owen likes. I love that she knows him so well!

Nora checks out Ironman

Some down time with Daddy after the party

Here are Owen's answers to the 20 questions this year. It's been fun to go back and watch his video from when he was 3. And Willow's from when she was 3 and 4 also. Here were his answers:

1. What is your favorite color? red

2. What is your favorite toy? Star Wars

3. What is your favorite fruit? apples

4. What is your favorite TV show? Paw Patrol, Jake and the Neverland Pirates

5. What is your favorite thing to eat at lunch? PB &J

6. What is your favorite outfit to wear? Star Wars shirt

7. What is your favorite game to play? catch the bad guy

8. What is your favorite snack? apples

9. What is your favorite animal? jaguars and lions

10. What is your favorite song? Jake and the Neverland Pirates

11. What is your favorite book? Star Wars ABCs

12. Who is your best friend? Roman

13. What is your favorite cereal? Honeycomb

14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? play bad guys, trampoline

15. What is your favorite drink? chocolate milk

16. What is your favorite holiday? Halloween

17. What do you take to bed with you at night? Buddy buddy (blanket)

18. What is your favorite thing to eat at breakfast? oatmeal

19. What did you have for dinner on your birthday? Wendy's

20. What job do you want to have when you're older? fix Star Wars vehicles

Owen is quite a joy to be around lately. He loves making people laugh, especially at the dinner table (instead of eating). He loves to tell knock-knock jokes, but they go something like this:

Owen: Knock, knock.

Us: Whose there?

Owen: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...

No joke. It's pitiful. Pitifully funny most of the time. We're going a year strong on dinnertime battles. He loves breakfast, lunch, and snacks, but isn't a big fan of dinner. Just when you think a meal is a "guaranteed good dinner meal" for him, he won't like it the next time. He's still growing and usually not upset about dinner (just takes f o r e v e r and is not motivated by dessert afterwards) so I guess we'll try to relax about it. For lunch he loves peanut butter and jelly. He even picked that over the offered corndog at the kite festival this weekend. For breakfast he likes oatmeal or many types of cereal (shredded wheat, honeycomb, cinnamon swirl, vanilla flakes with almonds, granola....anything Chris puts in a bowl really...). His favorite drink is definitely juice although we've limited him to one cup a day. 

Owen

loves

Alli.

He is so incredibly sweet with her. He does such a good job petting her how she likes to be pet. He loves to let her in and out of the house when she's by the door. 

Owen is in a major Star Wars phase right now. Video evidence here. He's also really in to Legos. He has a really good attention span for building his sets and can follow the directions well on his own. The problem now is to keep the Legos contained!! He got the Millennium Falcon for his birthday. It has 12 bags containing 1329 pieces and a 160-page instruction manual. I think Chris is just as excited as Owen!

He also loves superheros. Here's a fun costume he got for his birthday from a friend: 

Owen still naps about 75% of the time. He naps for about an hour, then knows to play in his room until 3:00. He'll happily come down to announce that "the 2 turned to a 3!!!" When he doesn't nap he still does ok in the afternoon, just falls asleep faster at bedtime. He's usually asleep from 8pm-6am or so. In the morning he'll rest "quietly" until 6:30 and can tell that time on his clock. We request "quiet time" until 7:00 on weekends =)

He and Willow are continually getting better at playing together for longer peacefully. They definitely have their moments and push each other's buttons too far eventually, but there are many joy-filled moments on the trampoline, flopping on the couches, playing rough, or enjoying a bath together.

Owen loves reading books and will often ask for "one more" before nap/bedtime even though we've read 3 books and a Bible story. He often asks for stories to be read while he eats breakfast on the weekends or throughout the day between playing.

He has such a sweet heart and will regularly tell me that he likes my skirt, shirt, etc. He gives the best hugs and still loves to sit on my lap to read books.

Owen is doing well staying dry at night, but not consistently enough to go without a pull-up. He does great in underwear at naptime though.

He has had a great year in preschool this year. We've really liked his teachers and he seems to have made some good buddies in class. We hear most about Roman, Walker, and William. He seems to want to play with Grace more than she wants to play with him. He'll often say that Grace wanted to play with Ava today. She actually has an older brother at home, so she's probably happy to have girl time at school. He's doing well writing his name as well as recognizing letters and sounds. He likes to know what letter words start with and is pretty good at identifying it on his own when it's stretched out for him. He's super at rhyming and loves to play "What rhymes with _____" in the car. He'll be a little reader before we know it!

Here are Owen's stats from his 4-yr well visit (super late) in June:
Weight: 42 lb (85%ile)
Height: 43 3/4" (96%ile)
BMI: 15 (44%ile)

We love you so much Buddy!!