Happy 4th Birthday, Cole!

On February 8th, Cole turned 4! I still can't believe he's so big.

For his special dinner, he wanted macaroni and cheese, so we ran over to Panera Bread. Luckily they have a 5 Guys right next door, so everyone was happy!

On a separate note, Lance is coming along really well in piano. One day his buddy Abel came over and they had a mini jam session on the piano. It was cute. :)


Here are a few Cole updates:

Cole continues to be obsessed with trains. Any train, any color (although blue is his favorite), and any type. Doesn't matter. If it's a train, he loves it.

Cole is our artist. He and Lily enjoy sitting at the kitchen table with paper and crayons or markers and drawing. He also really likes to play with playdoh.

He would rather play with his train set than watch TV. In fact, he'll often disappear upstairs in his room for hours at a time, making elaborate tracks and building different kinds of trains. He's been getting very creative lately and will use Legos and other figurines in his play.

He likes to build with Legos. I think we have an engineer on our hands. He's very good at putting things together and figuring out how things work.

He knows all his letters and the numbers up through 10. We're working on sounds now.

He is still very quiet most of the time, although if he gets upset he can get very LOUD. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, watch out!

Cole is talking a lot more! It's still mostly about trains, but he's been making more effort to join in conversations and will tell you about his day or things that he's noticed. I love hearing him talk and getting a glimpse into his mind.

He has a very good memory. He'll randomly start talking about things that happened years ago in detail. With his quiet personality and his conservative talking, I feel like this kid has a wealth of ideas and thoughts that are untapped. I'm excited to see how he develops and grows.

He is finally starting to play with other kids. He's been playing with Jude and Lily, but he's branching out and actually cooperative playing with friends at the gym and at the bus stop. Yay! I'll be honest--my mom heart has been aching a bit with all the solitary play he does, so watching him come out of his shell socially has been amazing.

Cole loves Lily. A lot. They spend a lot of their day doing the same things--coloring together, playing in Lily's room, watching TV. It's cute to see their relationship grow.

Cole is a tender soul. He loves to pretend to cook in our little kitchen we have for the kids, he loves dolls, he loves stuffed animals, and loves to be cuddled. He also has a very hard time if we ever get onto him for an infraction or if he has to sit in time out. It seems to hit him harder than the other kids and he gets very upset and sad. (Actually reminds me of me when I was little.)

We love, love, love our Cole. He makes us laugh with the silly things he does and melts our hearts with his big eyes. He is sweet and stubborn, funny and obsessive, tender and loving yet can hold his own. We can't imagine our family with him!

Happy (Chinese) New Year!

February 6th we celebrated one of Lance's favorite Glass holidays: Chinese New Year!

We drove up to Northern Virginia and were able to meet most of the extended family at one of our favorite Chinese buffets.

Love it when these cousins get together!

We're always here for at least two hours, eating and talking. It really is a great holiday.

So full!

Jude was able to read his entire fortune, minus one word. He's making some great progress.

Cousins!

Well, we tried.

And it wouldn't be New Years without some homemade rice cakes. Lily thought the pink cakes were great.

While we were up there, we stopped by Grandma's house. She was out of town for Jude and Cole's Birthdays, so the boys were excited to blow out some candles and open a gift. 

A Lily in shining armor.

Happy New Year!!

February: It's a GIRL!

February 2nd we found out we are having another GIRL! We are so excited Lily will have a sister and can't wait to welcome this little peanut into our family!


Now all we need is a name!


Speaking of peanuts, this little one never stops moving.

She is constantly climbing, jumping, running, and laughing. I get tired just watching her. Don't let her tiny size fool you! She is capable of big things and can keep up with her brothers no problem.

Lance is plugging away at Scouts. He and his dad attend each week and work on merit badges at home. It's neat that Scott gets to serve in the Scouts with Lance.

Jude is really into video games, his favorite being "horror maps" in Minecraft, or "scary" games like Five Nights at Freddy (nothing too intense, but there are some good jump scares throughout). No, he doesn't actually play them, he likes to watch videos of other people playing through the levels. He claims he's not scared, but more often then not I'll wake up in the middle of the night to this little visitor:

Bender doesn't seem to mind the company, even though Jude takes over his bed.

Jude got to experience his first Valentine's Day at school this year! (Lance happened to be in San Diego with his Dad and Abbey and missed his class handing out cards.)

This is the first year we've had to put together a box. Jude said he wanted a Minecraft box, so we put together some perler bead characters and I printed out a .tif of a dirt block that I glued to the outside of the box to make it look more true to the game.

I love the creeper poking out of the hole. That was all Jude's idea.

Excited boy!

I love moments like this.

It gives me hope that through all the bickering and tears, they are actually friends and do indeed love each other.

Costco and Sam's Club are some of our favorite places to go to run errands, usually for lunch after the gym. This is a classic Cole outfit: his blue Santa hat that is never out of season, rocking the orange sunglasses. 

Love this kid!


February is Cole's Birthday, so much of my free time during the month was spent putting together his Train Birthday party.

Thank goodness for little helpers!

The kids all wanted a chance to help paint the train piñata. (What else would you have at a train birthday party?)

And  you can't forget the train cookies! We ended up taking these to the party and had the kids decorate them there.

The highlight of our afternoons is getting Lance and Jude off the bus. Cole and Lily especially like to wait in this tree that's right at the stop. Lily has become an expert climber of this tree and if I turn around for even 10 seconds, she's shimmied up a good 5 feet off the ground. This girl is crazy!

Jude's Skylander Superchargers Birthday Party!

After the Pinewood Derby, George took the kids to get some lunch while I set up the party. 

Birthday boy!

The cultural hall is basically just a big basketball court, so we did our best to make it festive. 

Kaos!

One of the games the kids were going to play:

Hats! In Skylanders, you can upgrade your character by purchasing/earning hats that they wear, so of course we had to have some crazy hats for the kids.

Friends! 

Instructions on the first game:

First game we played was life-sized Hungry Hungry Hippos. I found this idea online and thought it would be so much fun! And it was, although I think the kids may have been a little young. It was a bit slow, but the kids seemed to enjoy it.

Basically, the kids were put into teams and each team had to collect as many balls as they could and bring them back to their "base". The team to collect the most balls got to pick their crazy hats first.

Haha! Love that George was being pushed by the kids.

Lily!

We played a couple times, everyone got to pick a crazy hat and also got their goodie bag with a beach ball to put inside.

Next game! We played the Minute-to-Win-it elephant game. Wearing hose on their heads with a baseball in the toe, the kids had to knock over 10 water bottles (each with a Skylander villain pictured on it) in under a minute without using their hands or feet.

I thought for sure it would be hard, but almost all the kids managed to do it in the time frame!

It was hysterical watching the kids swing their ball.

Prizes and snacks time!

Group shot:

We love having family so close! Laura and Tyler came down with their boys, as did the Scholz and the Glasses.

Last game: another Minute-to-Win-it game called "Junk in the Trunk". The kids had boxes full of ping pong balls strapped to their back and had one minute to shake all the balls out.

It made for some pretty funny moves!

Finally, piñata time!

Birthday boy went first (and I totally missed it!)

We then went youngest to oldest. I was convinced this piñata would be impossible to break, so we didn't bother with a blind fold.

It wasn't as strong as I thought! Mason put a big dent in it right at the beginning which had me sweating that we might not get through all the kids before it was destroyed.

George did a great job manning the rope!

Bryce

Lance

Callie got to deliver the final blow!

Candy!!

Then it was time for cake!

Happy Birthday, Jude!!

We hung out after the party for a bit before cleaning everything up. It was fun to see so many family members and friends.

This little girl loves her Aunt Jen!

Jude couldn't wait any longer and broke into his gifts, basically unwrapping the whole pile before I realized what he was doing. I'm still not sure who gave him what (sorry everyone!), but he was thrilled with each and every gift.

Astronaut ice cream! He had been asking for some for weeks, so George and I got him a big 10-pack with several different flavors.

It was a hit!

Lily wanted to help:

Snorkling gear! Just what he wanted!

The Birthday was a success! Jude was happy and the kids all went home with a bag full of goodies and candy. Thank you to all our family who made the two-hour drive to be there for Jude, and for helping clean up after the party! You guys are wonderful!

Love you, Jude! Happy 6th Birthday!