Will's 5th Birthday

Playing with friends on the waterslide

Will is loving being the center of attention

Will celebrated his fifth birthday on Friday, July 11th. The celebration started on Thursday with a friends' birthday party at our house. He was thrilled to be the center of attention and loved every minute of it. He picked out a "bike" birthday cake because learning to ride a two-wheeler was his big accomplishment for the year and he loves riding his bike.
Friday we went to Ohio for the weekend and the celebration continued. I think about everywhere we went, someone had another gift for him. The cards continued coming in the mail this week so he has truly felt loved.
Another big first for Will was losing his first tooth two days before his birthday. I don't know that you can call it "losing" his first tooth because he had a little help from the dentist. He fell at the YMCA a few months ago and the dentist didn't like the way his roots were looking in the x-ray at his last check-up so she thought it should be pulled. The good news is he did great. She said he did ten times better than he expected. I didn't go back with him, but I could just imagine him with a big grin during the whole appointment. That is typical Will!

Although Will is now five, we have decided (I think) to wait another year before he starts kindergarten. He barely makes the cut-off (August 1st) and it is very common here to wait for summer birthdays. It's a big school so we feel it will give him another year to prepare and another year to enjoy time at home with Mom, Bruce, and Madelyn. This decision has not come easily for us, but we feel it's right for him.

4th of July fun!

We found a great way to celebrate the Fourth of July yesterday. We went with our good friends, the Davies, to a water park about half way between here and Chicago. We had a great time, despite the unseasonably cool weather (Aaron likes to call it "global cooling"). The kids all had a great time in the wave pool, the kiddie area, the lazy river, and, of course, the water slides!
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of Justin. The Davies have a son a little older than Justin, as well as a son who is almost thirteen. They were off and running all the time so I didn't ever get any pictures of him.
Madelyn loved the water and was much braver than us. She didn't seem to mind the frigid water temperatures at all. We got lots of comments from people who thought she was adorable walking around. She loved the little water fountains.
Elizabeth surprised us and actually went down some of the slides. Historically, she has not been very brave at water parks, but she did great yesterday. Will is becoming quite the little swimmer. We just went swimming with the Davies again today and he was jumping off the diving board and swimming all over. We just finished swim lessons last week and the kids all learned so much. It was fun to see them practicing at the pool again today.

Elizabeth feeding Madelyn "dippin dots"