Fourth of July

We had a pretty low key Fourth of July, but both boys really enjoyed the fireworks. We went to our church BBQ/fireworks show, and they played and ran hard before snuggling down for the show. They even slept in a little the next morning!


Maybe next year they will even be old enough for a few of our own fireworks. We tried a couple but Titus just wanted to run out and grab them.

Train park

We had a special birthday outing with Silas on Sunday. He loves trains (as you probably gathered from the cake), so when I found out about Shady Dell Train Park, I knew we had to take him there.


We dropped off Titus for a special day with the grandparents and made the hour long drive to Molalla. I wasn't sure how it would go so I didn't tell Silas much about it ahead of time, but as soon as we pulled up he looked out the front window and saw people riding on a little train and practically jumped out of his seat with excitement. Luckily, the wait time was pretty short.


Leaving the "station":


He frequently had a very serious look on his face as he took it all in, but each time we got off, he got a huge smile and immediately asked to ride again. He rode five times, and it was probably at least a mile worth of track.


Successful trip = a completely worn out 3-year-old and a quiet ride home:

Our big 3-year-old

Silas is continuing to grow like a weed... he's 3' 2" tall, the same height that Matt was when he was 3.

Photo courtesy Paul Ries

Silas is just full of interesting thoughts and ideas. Whenever anything stops working he runs to find his toy screwdriver and tells me to get some new batteries. This apparently crosses over to things other than toys. The other day I told him he needed to get out of the shower because the hot water was all gone and he replied, "Maybe you need to put some batteries in it."

When we tell him he can't do something, he often asks, "When I grow bigger I can do that?" Apparently it works in reverse too. He says, "Mom, when you grow littler then can you climb behind the couch with me?"

Things that happened sometime in the past are generally referred to as happening "next-erday." He does, however, understand when we tell him things are happening tomorrow, or next week, and looks forward to them with great anticipation, like his birthday.

We celebrated his birthday by having family over for dinner, cake and ice cream. Silas requested a choo choo train cake this year, and luckily, my mother-in-law had given me a mold so it was much easier to construct than last year's cake.

Of course, this year, Silas was ready to get in on the action. He put all the M&M wheels on the train cars and filled them with candy.


He even tried to write his name, but wasn't quite strong enough to squeeze the frosting bag, so we had to do that together.


Of course, clean up was no problem:


Nor was eating it that evening....


He got some pretty cool presents, including a remote control Lightning McQueen from us...


A new tricycle from Grandma & Papa and Aunt Wendy, and light-up shoes from Grandma Kaye & Grandpa Dave:


We had to go for a ride that evening even though it was drizzling:


Uncle Andrew & Aunt Danae got him a warm dinosaur cover-up.


He wanted to wear it right away but we convinced him to save it for after playing with this fun water toy from Grandma & Grandpa Rausch:


There's more birthday fun to come - stay tuned!