For Evan's birthday party, we did the same thing this year as we did last year. Just threw out all our sports stuff on the lawn and let the kids run loose. I think it went fairly smoothly :) At least I know the kids had fun. Thank goodness for my mom's help - not only did she make the pirate cupcakes (which Evan loved), but she helped prepare the food/snacks which allowed me to greet guests and try to maintain order. Also, thanks to my dad for grabbing an extra bag of chips and beer on the way to our house. We all had a nice afternoon, and Evan is a lucky kid to have such great family and friends.

the annual brewer game.

We had a great time at the Brewers/Pirates game last weekend. The usual gang went with - Bennett, Tate, Matthew, & Mackenzie (plus their parents). Huge thanks to Aunt Mary who watched Gracie (who was under the weather with a summer cold and was much better off spending the day with Mary). Evan had so much fun playing baseball in the parking lot, sitting in his Batman chair eating a hot dog, and then cheering for the "sausage guys" during the game. Already looking forward to next year.

Took advantage of a beautiful day last week to dress the kiddos up and take some more pictures. Can you believe it?!?!? I know, it's so weird because I never take pictures...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EVAN!
We love you.
Can't believe you are already 4 years old.

The party isn't until next weekend, but I'm not sure he will get a present as much as he likes the card his Great Aunt Marcia sent him. It turned into a field goal post, and then you try to flick a paper football through it. He just had to take it do daycare to show his friends :)

More things Evan has said...I've been meaning to get these on the blog...by now they are months old. Just a few cute things he's said:

- Grace was screeching and jabbering away, so I asked Evan what she was saying and his reply was "Grace said we should get pizza for lunch."

- One morning when he was snacking on his cereal, I hear him say to Wrigley "Are you hungry? Are you hungry...then you need to say please. Good job saying please. Here you go" and he proceeds to give her a cherrio. He then looks at me and says "Wrigley said please so I gave her ONE," meaning he knew he wasn't supposed to, but since she said please, it was ok. Oh my.

- For about a week, whenever Evan went to the bathroom, for whatever reason he wanted either Eric or myself to stay and talk with him. Usually he just tells us about his day or whatever superhero is his current favorite. My particular favorite was when out of the blue he says to me "Mommy, you're my best mommy."

These pictures would have turned out better if there had been a little more light (or, if I was better with my camera), but they still turned out cute.