FOUR?!? FOUR!!!!

How is it that we have a four year old?!?  This guy... He is FULL of energy, smart as a whip, doesn't miss a beat (even when you kind of want him to) and his imagination is top notch.  I love the inner workings of this kid.  On his 4th birthday, he woke up, went into the bathroom and actually closed the door behind him because we had guests at our house (see that, he did mature in one night?).  After a minute or two, I hear him talking through the door, so I got to check and make sure everything is OK.  I say, "Caden?  Is everything OK bud?"  He puts his hand where his back pocket would be, grabs an imaginary object and holds it out to me.  He replies, "Here's a pinchy crab. Can you throw it away for me?"  Oh Man I love this KID!!!

Just before turning 4 he has mastered all sorts of large motor skills.  This summer he learned to swim the half length of a pool doing the front crawl, he can ride a bike without training wheels and he really does have mad soccer skills already.  So now, we have to work on those fine motor skills. He is getting better with following a line when cutting,  His alphabet letter recognition is pretty good and he has learned to write his name.  Definitely some room for improvement on the sitting still and completing a task front.

He loves playing outside with mulch, shovels, and pretending that he is doing all sorts of manual labor - delivering and planting trees, moving dirt piles, etc.  Inside he loves playing with tools and constructing things.  We build lots of houses around here.

He has recently gotten into Paw Patrol but for a while during his 4's he was all about Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  So we did a Jake party for him this year.  We were home for his birthday for once, and it was about the right age to do a kid party, so we tried our hand at that.  We invited the kids from his preschool class and one set of friends from the neighborhood.  I think everyone had a good time and that the birthday boy LOVED the attention.  The funniest part of the night, being that it was right after Christmas, when Caden was opening presents some of the other kids, especially Carsten, thought that they needed to open presents too.

Here are a few pics of this 4 year old!!!

He wanted to make homeless bags, so we gathered all the supplies and stocked my car so we could hand them out.  LOVE that he has a BIG heart!!!

Family Pics by Alicia this year...

With Sparky at the Firemen's Pancake Breakfast

One of the characters at ZooBoo was dressed as a knight too!

Look Mom, no training wheels!  3 3/4 and he is on his own!!!

Halloween at school as an Astronaut with Mrs. Kelly as the Man in the Yellow Hat!

I was quite impressed with his picture of a jack-o-lantern.  :)

Our "Shinning Knight in Shinning Armor" as he puts it!  ;)

Some fall pics...

Our house is in a current state of this.... because of Caden.  He loves to imagine and build!

He loves the snow, well, at least for a little while!  ;)

Jake and the Never Land Pirates cake