Is it really August of 2016 and we haven't completed a single blog post yet? It has been a busy 2016 and we're just a bit past half way through it! From his 4th birthday in April, yup, 4th! To starting pre-school in another week, there has yet to be a moment to stop and take everything in.
So where do we begin? Let's start with April and his 4th birthday. Our little boy turned 4 this year and he couldn't have been happier. He had a tractor themed party with farm themed food! There was pig slop, hay stacks, chicken feed, tractor tires, and much more. Overall he had a great time and enjoyed hanging out with his cousins (and their parents), his grandparents and great grandparents.
Fast forward to the beginning of Summer when we took a few friends of ours out to The Wild's. The day was long, and it was HOT. But overall everyone had a great time and we got to see plenty of the animals up close and personal throughout the tour. Keaten seemed to have a good time with Chloe, while Brianne had a fun time with Sophie.
For the first time since we moved to Columbus, we drove downtown to watch the 4th of July Red, White and Boom event! Grange permits their employees to use their parking garage as they host an event with music, games, entertainment, and food on the roof that provided a great location to sit and watch the fireworks. Keaten had a great time running around playing, then staring in awe of the fireworks as they shot off into the night. Surprisingly traffic heading in and out of downtown was much lighter than we anticipated and thus we look forward to doing it again next year!
Following the 4th of July we went and spent a week in Tennessee. Hiking, swimming, building a new railing for my parents porch, you know, the typical things 4 year olds do. Seriously though, I think Keaten would say his favorite part in Tennessee was helping with the porch railing. His Daddy, Uncle Andrew, and Papa, spent several mornings and evenings cutting railing, posts, and screwing/bolting it all together. I honestly hope he continues to enjoy working outdoors like that, it sure will be helpful in those later years when he is asked to mow the yard.
Keaten's second favorite part of our vacation in Tennessee would have been Putt Putt. We drove into Knoxville one day and played a round of Putt Putt followed by ice cream. Keaten did great! He was actually the first person to get a hole-in-one, which set off several of us getting holes-in-one soon thereafter.
Other summer activities included, practicing writing his name, learning the alphabet and the letters in his name, colors, counting, building train tracks that take up the entire living room, building with blocks, legos, and lincoln logs, and increasing his imagination using scrap wood. This little boy, LOVES scrap wood. If you are building something, and you have wood pieces left over, he will literally take every single piece that you no longer need. Why? So he can practice hammering with his wood/toy nails and his plastic hammer, or with his plastic/toy screws and screw driver, or just stacking them in different configurations. He is into it SOOO much that he even draws up plans before he creates his masterpiece. As he goes about building his "project" he'll go back and refer to his drawing to ensure things are going "according to plan." I kid you not, this boy has construction in his veins.
Our summer hasn't be purely education, although that was a big part of it as Mommy setup daily homework assignments he and his sister had to participate in, but amid all of that hard work, Keaten got to play in the pool, have water balloon fights, go on bike rides, plan in his sand box, and color the garage floor with chalk on rainy days.
Towards the end of summer Keaten, Brianne, and Mommy visited a 1880s working farm. And when I say working farm, I mean, they use only items that existed in the 1880's. To say the kids were in awe, would be an understatement. Keaten enjoyed seeing the equipment they used, the tools it involved, and the different activities the people were performing that day.
And if that weren't enough for 2016 thus far, Keaten and his sister are now officially the oldest out of 9 cousins! The Simon Family had 4 more babies this year starting with Uncle Rob and Aunt Megan who had Miss Mikayla in January, Uncle Kris and Auntie Amber who had Mr. Fletcher in March; Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Tia who had Miss Brynn in June (their 1st), followed up with Uncle Nathan and Aunt Brittani who had Mr. Wyatt in August. Keaten couldn't be happier and honestly can't wait till the next family event to get to play with his cousins again.
But that's not all!! As I mentioned earlier Pre-K starts next week for Keaten. I'm not really sure what Mommy is going to do once both kids are in school. Thankfully, Pre-K is only 3 days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, but they are nearly 3 full days, as he is there from 8:30 to 1:00 (lunch included). Prior to his orientation, we had to fill out a paper describing what our aspirations were for him at Pre-K. In thinking about that, I honestly would like to see him gain better control of his focus. Some days it is quite difficult to get him to pay attention to you. But if you put blocks, wood scraps, or trains in front of him, you will see him laser focused at whatever imaginative task his brain threw together involving those items. It is precise and impossible to distract him during that time. I really want to see him able to apply that same focus to other aspects of his day, preferably his school work (hahaha!). I'm sure it will come in time, but that is my current aspiration for him and Pre-K and I honestly can't wait to see how he develops more through the experiences it will provide him.
Well, that was a lot to catch up on. 2016 has started and gone by SOOO fast. I hope we don't wait another 8 months for the next blog post (otherwise, when the kids are able to read these, they'll be asking a lot of questions).
Oh! We can't forget photos! So have a quick glance over 2016.
Love,
Matt, Kami, Brianne and Keaten