Amazing cookies!

The other day while at work.  An 86 year old woman came to tea and she brought us these fabulous hand-painted cookies.  I just had to share a few with you.

An evening at the park

Since the weather has been so nice, we have been taking walks in the park after dinner.  Below Dave is checking the creek for fish!

He then found a squirrel who he tried to feed some bread too.  I think the squirrel actually enjoyed a few pieces.  

Then he walked a little further and he stopped and knelt down.  Can you guess what he spotted?

He has eagle eyes for turtles!!

The boys then decided to walk down to the red bridge.

And take a walk through it.

And then they stopped to see if there were any fish under the bridge.

Ladies and Gentleman Boys and Girls of all ages...

Welcome to the Greatest Show on Earth!  The Ringling Brothers and Barnum Bailey Circus presents

 ZING, ZANG, ZOOM!!!

The expression on Dave's face pretty much tells you that he loved every minute of the circus.  I had more fun watching him enjoy the day, then actually watching the circus.  

We had  great seats, the elephants looked like they were right next to us!

The dancing horses and zebras (in the back ring).

We saw two ladies get shot out of a double barrel cannon.

And Dave's favorite the tigers!  And he had to wait till the very end to see them, yes he lasted the full two and half hours of the show!

Dave's 4th birthday party!

Dave patiently waiting for his guests to arrive.

Just a few pictures of our guests.  Em with her mom Jess.

Lisa and Lou, Dalton and Jordan must have been playing with the other kids.

Pops and Pop.

Sarah and Mitch helping their boys, Caleb and Noah, to paint their cars.

Caden and Aaron working hard on their cars.

And Dave painting his car, all blue, his favorite color!

All the kids getting ready to pull their string on the pinata.  

Everyone collecting their treats!   This was the politest group of kids that I have ever seen.   There was still a bunch of stuff on the ground they are walking away saying that they have enough in their bag.  After we told them to take more, the kids were making sure that the littler kids had enough stuff in their bags!  What a great group of boys to watch out for the little ones.

Then it was time to sing Happy Birthday!

And blow out the candles.

And the best part for a kid, the presents!!

Thank you to everyone that came to Dave's party! 

Happy Birthday, Dave!

Dave got to choose what he wanted to do on his birthday, and he chose to go the Elmwood Park Zoo together as a family!  It was a beautiful afternoon to walk around the zoo.  Of course our first stop was to see his favorite turtle!   Who had a new home, which was rather exciting for Dave.

He then was off to see the prairie dogs and on his way there he found a caterpillar.  

And lucky for us the prairie dog's little babies just came out of their holes this week!  Aren't they so cute.

Then we continued around the zoo and stopped to see the ugly birds.  And Dave thought this was pretty funny.   A zoo ugly bird meeting a real ugly bird through the cage.

Then it was onto see the big horn sheep who also had a new addition.  (sorry the picture isn't that great)

Then since it was a nice day we thought that maybe the otters would be in the water.  But they were eating their lunch!

So after watching the otter's eat lunch, Dave went over the be a turtle.  (which everyone has seen a million pictures of in the past, so I thought I would post him as a monkey this time.)

And can you guess what was the best part of the zoo today?

Dave was so very excited!

The turtles are out for the summer!!!!! 

And are in the big pond this year with the fish and eagles!

It was a great afternoon at the zoo.  When we got home, we had Dave open his birthday present from us!

Happy 4th birthday, Dave!!!!

The party preparations begin.

Yesterday, Dave helped me do a good cleaning of the house to get ready for his birthday party.  This way we will only to do a light cleaning before the party.  And today, we headed to the tea room to make his birthday cupcakes.  Below are a few pictures of him working on them.  

Adding the sugar to the butter.

Cracking the egg.

"Here, Nan, I think we need vanilla."

Adding the liquids and flour till they are totally mixed together.

And you will have to wait to see the finished product!!

We are going on a frog hunt! (again)

So we were back at Nan and Pop's once again trying to catch a frog.  As you can see with each attempt our tactics are changing.  This time we had a longer pole on our net.   But still not luck catching that frog!  But we did however find something even better!!!!

A turtle!!!

"I just love turtles, all turtles! Big ones, little ones, green ones, brown ones..... just all turtles!"