poke it with a stick. image gallery: 2015

random ledge 46

when we babysit for penny it can be hard to keep ledger entertained. we went to the dollar store and picked up a bunch of random stuff that he might like so that we could pull them out one or two at a time and keep him occupied for a while and out of penny's way. one of the random things we got was this stuffed fishy which he absolutely loved!

at grandma's, being a fast little boy running from one end of the house to the other. sans pants, of course.

resting, watching tsum tsums, with mama.

fast asleep for naptime in his crib. one of the last days of sleeping in his bed as a crib. out little guy is growing up!

he wanted to take a picture of himself and daddy.

tsum tsums and lunch.

picking up leaves from the yard and bringing them back to the table to examine them.

playing at the library. the weather is finally starting to turn warmer, so they took the kids outside after reading time to play with some of their different toys. ledge did pretty well with sharing, but not very well with keeping the sand inside the box...

a book and eggs

during his nap we pulled out the plastic eggs and put some candy and little toys in them and hid them around the house. he was confused about the whole process at first, but once he got the hang of it he was off, scouring the house for as many eggys as he could find!

'look mama, that eggy is hiding in mema's plant!'

he was almost more thrilled with seeing the faces of the eggys than he was with getting the treats inside them!

the big oh three 2

opening his birthday gifts- a cool new transformer!

chattin' it up with his cousins.

so thankful for his new birthday prizes!

his special 3rd birthday caterpillar cake.

longingly looking at his cake!

chow down time!

playing with one of his new toys with mama.

the big oh three 1

we had been telling him for months that he was going to have to get rid of his binky when he turned three. we would tell him that when he was three he wouldn't be a baby anymore, so he would have to give his binkys to the babies who needed them. he was always a bit apprehensive about that idea, but knew that it was what the babies needed, so he was willing to do it. sometimes he would ask which babies were going to get his binkys and if he could go and visit them... come on kid, you're making this ruse hard to maintain...!
well, now that the day was finally here, we pulled out the special binky bag and went around the house collecting the different binkys we found. all of them were put into the bag.

ledger then proudly carried the bag around, showing everyone what a big boy he was, willing to give up all his binkys for the needy babies! the binky bag was then put on the front porch for the binky fairy to take. we informed him that the binky fairy would sometimes leave a gift for big boys that gave up all their binkys. after the bag was on the front step, i waited until he was distracted, and then slipped away into the garage and took care of things. when he asked again about the binky fairy we opened the front door and saw a huge gift wrapped box! he was beside himself with excitement! we brought it in and he unwrapped it. he had gotten a cool new electronic drum kit from the binky fairy! he immediately wanted to set it up and jam! maybe giving away his binkys wasn't such a bad idea after all!

chatting with jaidey.

aves made a special sign for his chair- which he couldn't read, but was really excited about anyway!

dinner time!

six years in

every year i insist that she wear her tiara. she wore it on our wedding day. she was a princess on that day, and she is my princess ever since!

some of the delicious food we tried.

the place was packed- no wonder we had to wait an hour to get a seat!

they cover the table with brown paper as a table cloth, so i took the opportunity to draw a little bit.

we had a great seat up on the balcony.

ledger's birthday in south bend 2

when i asked him what he wanted on his cake he said 'dinos!'. alright little guy, dinos it is!

blowing out his candles.

chowing down on his birthday cake!

after lunch we built a bonfire in the backyard. david has a lot of brush at the house and always looks for an opportunity to burn it up.

you can't have a bonfire without s'mores!

ledger's first s'more.

ledger's second s'more...

we even pulled out his motorized little four wheeler so he could rock out in the backyard!

after sarah, vince and the kids all left, we put ledger to bed. its wasn't too hard, he was absolutely exhausted! now with him out of the way, the rest of us played a little bit of cards!

ledger's birthday in south bend 1

the weather was nice out, so everyone headed out to the backyard to play on the swing set!

while they played, i got the grill going for lunch.

gather round, its time for lunch!

while we had hot dogs, brats, and burgers, diana made a special plate of ledger's favorite: mac and cheese!

ledger opens some of his gifts while shawn plays with one of the balloons.

sarah, vince, abby and shawn got ledger an easel for his birthday! it came with magnetic letters so shawn showed us all how to use them! he's a year older than ledger and he is a wiz with spelling- the perfect teacher for ledge!