Happy Birthday, Peter!

He's two!
This feels like some kind of accomplishment!
He still struggles with communication and frustrations, but hopefully we are progressing.  He was very happy to spend his birthday with family at Thanksgiving Point.  Here he is on the tractor ride. 

He is so strong and determined. 

He is so passionate and gets so excited.

He smiled for a picture on the pony ride.

If it's true that you love those you serve, then Faith, Cannon, and George must really love Peter.  They are very helpful with a demanding Peter.  We wouldn't have been able to venture out today with Peter and Greta without the other kid's (including Elinor's) help.  But not just today-- all the kids try to so hard to help Peter and help him be happy.

Peter got some trucks and trains for his birthday this morning before Abe left for work.  He's been really into construction trucks lately and this gift was a hit.  He even bathed with them tonight.

 Clark and Bethany have been gone everyday this week at EFY.  It's a stay-at-home conference and they've come home each night with glowing reports of classes and friends and good times.  One disappointment is they auditioned for, but didn't make it into the variety show for tomorrow.  They worked really hard on a piano/violin duet of "Bohemian Rhapsody".  It sounded so good and they got rave reviews from the judges, but apparently, it was judged to have questionable lyrics and they couldn't put it in.
Hmm...
Anyway, disappointing.  We'll have to record them performing it and put it on YouTube.

Elinor with her chickens and her trusty egg helper, Peter.

With my big helpers gone, I had to depend much more on younger helpers.  Cannon was so proud of himself getting to go into Little Caesars to buy pizza all by himself.  Then he went into the library alone to get my books I had on hold.  I was rather proud of him as well.

We've had a non-functional basketball hoop int he backyard for years.  For reasons that just demonstrate our laziness, we haven't fixed it up to make it usable for many, many years--- until yesterday.  Team Little Kids made themselves jerseys and have had a grand time the last couple of days shooting hoops in the backyard.

Not that anyone cares, but if you do, please know I have since fixed Cannon's hair so it's not quite so poofy.

Our good neighbor and firefighter came over for our first Wolf Den meeting.  The boys got to ask him questions about what he does and why he decided to become a firefighter.  He was great with the kids and we appreciated him taking the time to come over and help the boys.

This was a really funny moment for the little kids and me yesterday.  If you are familiar with the comedy sketch group Studio C, you may know of a D&D sketch  where it seems two characters are about to kiss.  Behind them another character is like a dragon rising and flapping it's wings in excitement.  It's pretty funny.
We were reading a Penderwicks book and one character is about to be kissed when these three little funnies jumped up on the couch and started flapping their wings.  I LOVE READING together!

Not a very good picture, but it shows the action!  I like Faith doing her gymnastics while watching Olympic gymnastics.

Watermelon.
I LOVE watermelon.  I love eating watermelon while I watch Olympics.

I love eating watermelon while watching Olympics and holding this little sweetheart.

I love not being pregnant anymore.

I will leave you with this funny picture of Peter.  I don't know why he scowls when I tell him to smile.  He had a mouth full of doughnut, but he was really happy here, I swear!  Cannon had the great idea for let him play with the kinetic sand with his construction trucks.