Corbin is 4!!!

Corbin has been looking forward to his birthday for some time now. I was getting worried that I'd never live up to his expectations. I knew the best chance of making it a special day for him was to give him the one thing that I know would make his day. Donuts! I've never seen a kid so infatuated with a food before. He once snuck a box of donuts into the pantry and finished it off in less than 10 minutes. I watched him cram the last pieces into his already overflowing mouth because he knew I'd take them away when I got close enough. It's a little frightening. Today, his birthday, we got star shaped donuts. He ate 3. I let him have the first one. The second one he snuck off Mia's plate when she wasn't looking and wolfed it down before I could stop him. I'm still not certain how he climbed up to the top shelf of the pantry for the third. Let's just say that the donuts made a perfect breakfast for Corbin.

 I tried to get a picture of him with his donut before he started eating it, but I was too slow. Even though I had the camera in my hand and on when I handed him his donut. I'm telling ya, he LOVES donuts. 

While Corbin was busy scheming on how to get more donuts, I was busy finishing his cake. I'd started it the night before but ran out of frosting and just wasn't in the mood to make more seeing as it was already 11. Thankfully, it wasn't too hard to finish.

 When Corbin was watching me finish it up, he kept thanking me. "Thanks for the green dinosaur, Mom. And the orange. Oh, Mom, it has blue! Thanks!" And I just reveled in it.

 Corbin doesn't think you can have a birthday without balloons. So of course he got some!

Don't you just love his hair? I had to distract him while Denver snuck outside and got his bike out of the trunk and put balloons on it. I told Corbin he needed spikes like a dinosaur and it worked! He was happily distracted.

You know all those pictures of Chase's birthdays where Corbin is blowing out Chase's candles? This is Chase's revenge! When I asked Chase about it, he said he didn't even realize he was doing it.

PRESENTS!!!!!

 "My green dinosaur bank!"

Okay, so he was with me when I bought it. He was still excited.

 "This is for shooting the zombies"

Uh, maybe we shouldn't have given Chase an air soft gun with zombie targets...

 "I'm a dinosaur and I say ROOOAAAR. And this says Happy Birthday to Corbin."

 Mia really struggled with letting Corbin open his own presents. Quite the change from her birthday last year when she wouldn't open any.

 Corbin has been waiting for months for the green blanket that "Gama makes him". When he saw it he got so excited he didn't speak at first. He just started clapping when I asked him if he liked it!

 And then he began hugging it and telling us how much he loved it. "It's my blanket Gama made me. I love it. It has dinosaurs. And red and blue and orange and GREEEEEN!!!"

 We were able to drag him away from his blanket with the bike, but only just.

 Corbin followed me up when I went to put his blankent on his new bed. I love this picture of him because, well because I see the sweet little boy he's always been and I can pretend that he's not going to continue growing up and wanting me less and less. If only it were true.

 Corbin requested macaroni and cheese "the orange kind" for dinner. So that's what he got, with some dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets as well. He was very pleased.

Let's have some cake! Please don't ask why everyone but my husband looks happy. I can't even begin to understand what goes through that man's head when I say that I'm going to take a picture and to smile and look at Mommy. Maybe he doesn't want everyone to know what a devastatingly handsome man he is when he smiles. Good job dear, no one will think that while looking at you in this picture.

All in all, Corbin seemed to have a great day. And when I mentioned that it was time for bed he disappeared and this is how I found him...

It was a long day, and someone was so excited to sleep in his new bed with his new blanket that I didn't even have to tuck him in. Happy Birthday, my little man.

Karli's first ponytail

Okay, so I couldn't get her to smile for the pictures, but I still think she's the cutest little button ever!

Toenails

Mia loves getting her toenails painted, and I love to do it. I like to paint so much, I asked Denver if I could paint his toenails. My answer was a crusty look and an emphatic "No". However, a sweet two-year-old overheard my question and asked one herself, "Daddy, can I paint your toenails?"  Like he'd ever say no to that!

I had my revenge however. Later, we were all gathered on our bed watching a movie. Denver had his arm around me and the fingernail polish was nearby. Maybe you aren't aware of this, but Denver becomes engrossed in ANY show that is on. Seriously, if I want his attention when Dora or some other inane children's program is on I have to call his name several times in order to get his attention. And that's for kids shows that he's not really interested in. For something that's actually entertaining I have to stand right in front of him and block his view. So, when I painted a stripe of bright pink nail polish on his thumb nail I wasn't overly concerned about getting caught. And I laughed hysterically when he came home from a meeting the next day and asked if I knew how it got there because he just had to explain to the Bishop that he wasn't the one that painted it! Good times.

Karli, meet the ocean.

My elven blood has been stirring and the ocean has been calling. I couldn't stay away.

 Ahhh, sweet baby girl. You will always love the ocean now. I can see it in your eyes. You're welcome.

 These two were awesome. Got them the buckets and then I didn't have to do much else for them because they were so happy.

 Corbin took this picture of us. I didn't think it would work out, but the boy has talent. Or luck. I'll say talent. After all, his Gama is a professional photographer.

 This is when I really missed Chase. I wanted to make sure Karli was out of the sun as much as possible and I knew Chase would be up to the challenge of making her a "sun-shelter." Another day.

 I took this hoping you could see the amount of sand this kid is eating. Literally, this was a "sand"wich.
You could hear the crunching, but he was that hungry.

 We had the beach to ourselves for most of the day.

 I've heard stories about a time when this little girl didn't like the sand. According to Gama, she hated it and didn't want to be anywhere near it. I find that hard to believe because she was like a little sand crab. Digging and burying herself. I had to drag her off the beach because every time I let go of her hands, she would stop and put them right back in the sand.  In the parking lot when we were getting ready to leave, she kept running her hands through the sand piles that had accumulated there. So either Mia's outgrown her hatred of sand or Gama's losing her mind. Hmmmmm.

Karli took a nap while I was busy relaxing and watching my kids have the time of their life. I say watching because half the time I couldn't even hear the little darlings over the roar of the ocean. It almost felt like a real vacation. After Karli woke up, we decided to hike on up to the lighthouse.

 "Look Mia, it's the jungle."

 I like this one because it proves that they don't fight all the time.

 And another of Corbin's masterpieces. Did I say he had talent? Hey, at least he got us all in the picture like I asked.

 And when I attempted to take one he couldn't resist trying to get in as well.

 Sometimes, a brother really is the best comfort a girl can get. Especially after she falls down and Mom's arms are full of Karli.

 After our hike, I figured it was time to let the kids really have some fun and actually get in the water. Oh, how they loved it.

 Mia really did love it, she's just a little more cautious than Corbin. I think it's because she's fallen down twice as many times as he has.

 And Karli fell asleep again. Maybe I should live at the beach...

I forgot to take a picture of the actual lighthouse. Mainly because it's under construction and there's not much to see. But if you look really closely you can see a black thing where the lighthouse should be. They're expecting it to be under construction for another couple of months, which is really quite sad because we're expecting Muriel and her brood to visit in the next couple of weeks and were planning on bringing them here. We may still do so because it really is such an incredible beach. Until next time Dalton-er, Heceta Head Lighthouse.