Zachary's 4!

At the beginning of July Zachary had his 4th birthday. We celebrated in true Zach style which means involving lots of animals. The day before his birthday we had a bunch of his friends over for his first official birthday party. We went with a safari theme and planned to have most of the party take place outside. We had to get creative once the rain started coming down in a torrential down pour. We didn't get any pictures of the games but did snap this one of some of the decorations.

The first game we did was an safari hunt. My friend Gretchen (who came over to kindly helped manage the party chaos) and I hid little plastic animals around the family room since it was too wet outside. We gave the kids little toy binoculars and set them loose on the room with bags to collect the animals they could find.

Next we did an improvised lion hunt through the house where we tip toed through the tall grass (family room rug), crawled under the hanging snakes (streamer decorations), crawled through the bat cave (under the dining room table), and climbed up the rocky mountain (stairs). The kids then went into the toy room and found Derrick hiding and wearing a lion hat. He started roaring and chasing and got some pretty impressive screams. No injuries or tears and it turned out to be a hit.

The weather cleared up a little bit so we were able to also do our obstacle course outside. After games we ordered pizza and were joined by parents.

 I love the facial expressions in the next picture.

Zach requested a gorilla cake for his birthday. Derrick drew a gorilla and a monkey on paper for me and I used his drawings to make buttercream frosting transfers and decorate the cake.

 Present opening came next and just about turned into a dog pile. Between the birthday party and grandparents, Zach's animal collection grew impressively.

Random details about Zachary.

- Zach has gotten really good at expressing himself and it's so fun to hear what he thinks about.
- Z has an incredible memory for details. He was telling me the other day about everything Grandma Bowen brought for him when she came to visit last October. He even made sure I knew which things were in her suitcase and what was in her pocket.
- Z's been in swimming lessons for most of the summer and has gotten a lot more comfortable in the water. He really enjoys it now.
- Zach requests pancakes for breakfast almost every morning. When he has cereal the milk has to be in a cup and the cereal dry.
- Most requested bedtime song is "Silly Spider Song" which is the "Eensy Wensy Spider" with random animals replacing most of the nouns. (i.e. The eensy weensy elephant, went up the water lion...)
- Dora, Diego, Winnie the Pooh, The Jungle Book, Wonder Pets, and Dinosaur Train and his favorite shows.
- Z got a bike with training wheels on it for his birthday and loves to practice riding on it.
- As stated above, Zachary still has a passion for animals. His current favorites are Toob animals (the little ones lined up in the picture below) and Disney animal figurines.

- In May we found out that Zach FINALLY outgrew his wheat allergy! I still feel so excited when I can give him normal foods and treats I couldn't give him for the past 3 years. We broke out some Oreos as celebration of the exciting news. His current food allergies are peanuts (have an epipen for this one), several other nuts, eggs, soy, and corn. Thankfully we don't need to be too careful about the soy or corn.

Caleb knows how to work an Oreo party. Apparently he needs a few more Oreos in order to keep his pants up.

- Z recently learned how to pump on the swing which has been wonderful for me. He does still love to get pushed sometimes so he can really fly.

- Zach loves ordering and organizing things. He really likes taking these little decorative marbles and using them to make the letters of the alphabet.

Zach is so much fun to have in our family. We love you Zach!