Austin is 5!

 What a fun and busy weekend we had celebrating Austin's 5th birthday!  On Friday, Austin got to bring treats to school.  He chose brownies with mini m&m's sprinkled on top!  He was happy to report that his birthday was a lot of fun at school.  He wore a crown for all of his preschool class and they sang to him two times at snack time . . . one round of happy birthday and then a round of the thank you song, since he brought treats!

 We got home Friday evening and had presents waiting for us!  The boys were all excited to get started on ripping the wrapping paper off of them.  Austin wanted me to read all the cards out loud to everyone.  One of the cards was a Transformers card that talked and it was a lot of entertainment the rest of the evening.  Another card had ninja guys on it, so Austin and Colton tried to act out all the moves the guys on the card were doing!  Gavin just wanted to get as much wrapping paper in his mouth as possible!

 Austin's big boy bike!  The bike has rockets on it and the helmet has flames on it, so obviously this bike is going to go super fast.  Austin cruised around inside on Saturday because it was way to cold to go outside first thing in the morning.

 Captain America cake as requested by the birthday boy!

 Saturday afternoon we had a birthday party for Austin and a few of his friends at the Jump House place in Waterloo.  The kids LOVED the party.  They took a 20 minute break from jumping so that we could eat cake and open presents, otherwise they jumped from 1-4pm.  It was a great time.  Colton wasn't up for a picture when this was taken, so that is why he is not in it!!

 Gavin, having a blast at the jump house!

 After the party we went to the hotel where Annie and Papa were staying.  Austin and Colton got to swim, open more presents and we ordered pizza.  Grandma and Grandmpa Kliegl had to take off after dinner because the weather sounded like it might get bad.  We headed home from the hotel around 8:30 . . . . everyone was tired.  It was a long fun day! 

 Gavin didn't swim on Saturday night, he was exhausted, but on Sunday morning we went back out to the hotel so that the boys could swim and Gavin even got in the water.  I held him at first to get him used to the water . . . he kept picking his toes up out of the water!  Then Brian held on to him and walked him around for a little bit so he could see what all the excitement was about!  He seemed to enjoy it and really just laid back and kicked his legs a little bit!

Swimming Lessons!

 Colton had his first day of swimming lessons last Saturday and he did great.  He jumped right in and wanted to head for the deep end!  The teacher had to coax him back up the ramp, which he was not happy about at first.  He wanted to, of course, be where Austin was.  Austin is already in level 2 and Colton wanted to be jumping in and having fun with him instead of starting in the preschool level.  Once I talked to him for a few minutes he was just fine and spent the rest of the lesson blowing bubbles and listening attentively to the teacher.  I think his swimming skills are ready for level 1 but he needs to know how important it is to listen to his teacher and learn all the safety rules!  Hopefully the rest of the lessons go well for him!

 Here is Colton sitting on the edge of the "hot pool" as he likes to call it!

 And here is Austin going round and round in circles while holding on to a green noodle.  He wanted me to keep taking pictures and was definitely being a bit cheesy for the camera!  He is in Level 2, which is over on a part of the pool where he can just keep his head out of the water by standing on his toes.  He loved it though!  Both boys got to sit in the "hot pool" for five minutes after their class.  Papa was able to come and watch their first lesson and the boys were excited to have an audience!

And Gavin is able to get everywhere!  He is doing a scoot-crawl maneuver that gets him everywhere he wants and/or needs to be.  We have been working on baby proofing the house all over again.  It is funny how Gavin will crawl through a living room full of appropriate baby toys just to reach that one toy on the other side of the room that he shouldn't have!  Austin and Colton are really good at keeping the little toys picked up and of course Brian and I are constantly checking and double checking to make sure everything is picked up that Gavin could reach. 

 

Gavin is making clicking noises with his tongue a lot and he loves when you do it back to him.  He has 8 teeth now, four on top and four on bottom!  He gets really excited about imitating noises that we make to him.  And he also lights up every time he lays eyes on his mama (which I LOVE, of course!)  Colton and Austin greet him every morning with kisses and hugs!  The perfect little trio most days!