Hunter is 3!!

Hunter turned 3!!! I think Tucker was as excited for Hunter to turn 3 as Hunter. I love that we have the tradition of opening presents in the morning. It is a tradition that might change as we enter school years but for now it is working well for us. Hunter got a leap frog writing pad from us. I am hoping that it will help him better learn his letters and practice writing. I don't think Tucker learned his alphabet really well until he was 3 1/2 so I tell myself not to stress with Hunter. There is still plenty of time before he goes to kindergarten.

Hunter really enjoys drawing the shapes on the pad but gets super excited when he traces a letter and it tells him the sound the letter makes and that he did a good job drawing it.

Hunter really wanted a "rainbow" cake for his birthday. I'm not sure where he came up with the idea but that is what he wanted. I convinced him that a funfetti cake is a lot like a rainbow cake because it has all the colors inside it. Then, as I thought more about it, I decided I could do a couple of layers of cake in different colors and icing in different colors. I was however not crazy enough to make seven layers of cake to represent all of the colors of the rainbow, mainly because I only have two round cake pans :P

So the cake was ultimately a funfetti cake with a green and yellow layer then a layer of red icing (which always looks pink because I refuse to use THAT much food coloring) then orange frosting over everything with blue lettering on top. So all the colors, except purple were represented. Hunter was super excited about it, which is all that really matters.

Because Tucker had a friend birthday party this year, he kept on wanting to invite all the neighbor kids over to see what presents they got for Hunter. It took a few times of explaining to him that we were not having a friend birthday party. Hunter was a little disappointed (I think more because Tucker kept bringing it up than anything). We did go to the "water park" (the outside pool that has a great place for children to play) to celebrate and everyone had such a great time!!

It was really fun to see each child become braver and braver the longer we were there. At first Brylee refused to go anywhere without holding onto Bryant's or my hand, then she started exploring walking between us. She thought the water's ability to push her around was so cool by the end and had fun venturing everywhere on her own exclaiming "Whoa, whoa, whoa!" with every step and wave that came. It was precious. Then she would sit on her knees and put her face in the water and blow bubbles, all the things we practiced at swimming lessons. Occasionally she would willing put her head under the water.

Tucker and Hunter were both pros with the water and were not fazed by the waves but as time progressed they each got braver too. Hunter had loads of fun trying to sit on the bottom of the pool, which meant that his face went under with each attempt but was not so deep that it completely covered his head. He also enjoyed dunking himself in the water over and over again, taking breaths in between each dunk.

I wasn't sure Tucker would ever really try to do anything on his own, without coaxing but even he impressed me. He enjoyed playing ring around the rosies and dunking under. By the end of the time there he put his whole body in the water and tried to actually swim by scooping his arms and kicking his legs. He usually started moving right as he would need to come up for a breath and then he would dunk back under and start flailing about again. I was super pleased to see each of them so brave and practicing what they had been learning.

Oh and because we took swimming lessons in the summer we had three free passes to the water park, where we only have to pay for persons ages 4 and up so the three passes covered Bryant;s, Tucker's, and my admission. It was truly a happy birthday