We got back from our trip Saturday night, leaving us only a few hours to prepare for Kaleb's birthday Sunday! Luckily I wrapped presents earlier and picked out what cake I wanted to make. Sunday morning Braydan stayed home from his early meeting to make him eggs, hash browns, and bacon. (I think Braydan influenced Kaleb's food choices) He kept trying to open presents in between bites. He got Lincoln Logs,
puzzle, movie, and money from grandma and grandpas.
It was fun in primary because I was conducting and got to call him up so we could sing him the birthday song. He was shy and hid in my skirt. His sunbeam teacher was so nice and got him a dragon coloring book and candy that he was excited to show me.
After shrimp and mac and cheese for lunch, Braydan read him as many books as he wanted and he fell asleep! It was a cold, but sunny day so we did another of his favorite things later: go on a walk. He got to pick the park and instead of just watching them play, which I often do, we played pirates and he was on my team. We had a blast trying to capture Braydan, shooting his ship and throwing him overboard.
After hot dogs for dinner, we asked Kaleb if he wanted anyone to come over and have cake and ice ream with him and he, not surprisingly, asked for the Dyer and Adams' kids. They raced upstairs to play and I had to coax him back down to stop and eat his cake!
Here is his shy face when everyone started singing to him. So cute!
As he was climbing into bed that night, I asked him what his favorite present was. He said, "Henry's present." His friend Henry put a little Bakugan ball and some other random toys in a tithing envelope and taped it all up to give to Kaleb. How can I compete with that!
I love my little boy. It's hard to believe next year he'll be in kindergarten! Here's some fun things about him:
He loves his dogs. He has 6 or more beanie baby dogs that he takes care of with lots of love. First thing every morning he has to check on them, feed them, play with them. Eliza even knows their names. And boy, if you don't get their names right, he'll tell you! Whenever he goes to the park lately, he brings his backpack so they can come too. He left one at the park one day and didn't realize it. We looked all over the house for Schnitzel, but it wasn't until the next week when we were at the park again, we saw someone had threw him up on the roof of the pavilion. Well, Amber tried to hoist me up there, we tried long sticks, and throwing balls at it, but no luck. We had to leave him there and Kaleb was so worried about him. Luckily, Braydan got him down later, and Kaleb happily welcomed a dirtier, more ragged looking Schnitzel.
He loves to read. Many, many times during the day he'll ask me to read a book. And that's beside our quiet-time reading and bedtime books! I've been trying to make a better effort at stopping what I'm doing and reading to him, but it's hard He'll settle for me making up stories while I'm doing dishes or whatever.
I've been reading a parenting book that encourages outside play every day, so I've been trying to get out at least for 30 min. every day. I notice a huge difference in Kaleb when we do. Boys need it. I need it! His favorite thing to do outside is "check on his raccoon food." He has a big bucket full of mud, grass, sticks, I don't want to know what else, but he calls it his raccoon food and, apparently, it has to be properly mixed and monitored daily.
Kaleb's primary teacher told me a story about him today. She's been having them bring their scriptures every week and they get a sticker reward, but they haven't ever read them in class. So today Kaleb asked her, "are we ever going to read these things?" (holding up his scripture bag).
Another time one of the bishopric members was sharing a short message in primary and showed a picture of the prophet on his phone and asked who it was. From far away, (I don't know how he saw it), Kaleb blurted out, "President Monson!"
Kaleb was so funny at the water park with his hair. He DOES NOT like his hair spiked. When we ask why, he says, "cause Kinkaid told me that." He blames everything on poor Kinkaid :) So at the pool, Braydan and Wes were teasing him that his hair was spikey. Poor Kaleb hurriedly flattened down his hair and kept asking me, "Mom, is my hair spikey?"
He's a man of routine. He wants oatmeal everday for breakfast and toast with honey for lunch. I try and get peanut butter on it, meat, veggies, but no. He'll eat those things on the side, but his toast better have just honey and butter.
Okay, I might have to add more later, but I'm tired! Good night.
Kaleb loved climbing through these tunnels like a meerkat :) It was so funny to watch him make friends with other little kids, like it's no big deal to play with complete strangers.
puzzle, movie, and money from grandma and grandpas. 
With Kaleb's birthday this month, valentines day, and Braydan not getting a Christmas vacation, we decided a trip to Great Wolf Lodge was in order. The Dyers, Bates, and Horkleys joined us in the fun. 
We all took turns watching the kids so we could ride the big slides. The tornado was our favorite again, by far.