Half-birthday (4.5)

I'm just using this half-birthday as an occasion to post a few photos of this incredible, smart, funny kid. His favorite things right now: friends, cousins, grandparents, chocolate, strawberries, riding his bike, telling stories and jokes, Netflix, swimming.

Easter 2015

Leading up to Easter, Gavin participated in a few egg hunts. Here are a couple of photos from 2 of those (a third is not pictured - it was too cold that day!)

This exclusive invitation-only egg hunt yielded some really fun prizes.

This one was a very exciting egg drop, where 2 helicopters dropped eggs on the high school football field. 

On Easter we had family and friends over for an egg hunt of our own. 

When he realized he couldn't reach that green egg in the tree, he got creative.

helping his sister: so sweet.

Twix are her favorite; she lost interest in any other egg contents when she discovered this Twix.

When we came downstairs on Easter morning to examine the contents of the baskets, Sophie immediately mauled the stuffed bunny and wasn't too interested in anything but cuddling the it.

After seeing this Peeps sunflower cake on Pinterest, I knew I had to make it. Except it's brownies instead of cake. And most participants at our Easter meal didn't really think it looked like a sunflower.

But the biggest benefit of making it was seeing my kids each try their first peep. Priceless stuff.

not a fan

clearly also not a fan

We tried getting a family picture on Easter, and this is about as good as it turned out: 

family zoo day

We enjoyed meeting some flamingos up close.

We had a great zoo day as a family. Here are some pictures of the fun.

He's not feeding her to the elephants; he's making sure she sees them.

Gavin + giraffe

Gavin + penguins

Sophie's back side + manatee's back side

We only fed the animals we brought with us.

The carousel was a highlight. Sophie was gripping the pole pretty tightly and wasn't sure at first, but then she seemed to enjoy it.

(note the small curl developing behind her ear)

the monthly S photos

If you're reading this blog, you've probably already seen this on Facebook every month, but I'm recapping it here. I've taken her photo with the same S on the 29th of each month for comparison purposes. (exceptions: November--the 11-month photos were taken the 26th; and 0 months--taken after we were home from the hospital, December 31) It's been fun to take these every month. Maybe I'll keep doing it every year on her birthday. 

Of course it didn't always go smoothly.... 

she seriously just stopped crying after 3 months...she's recently taken it back up

celebrating ONE!

 Today we got to celebrate this exceptional human being's first birthday. Has it been a year?! We love her to pieces, and we loved watching her destroy this cake.

pre-cake destruction

looking at a year-old photo of herself

 Now for the cake. She was a bit hesitant at first,but then she really loved playing with that frosting.

notice it in her hair and everything

Just a reminder of how Sophie looked BEFORE she dove into the cake/frosting: 

Happy birthday, Sweet Sophie!

Sophie's first year

1 year old!

She's a year old today! Here are some of my favorite photos from her first year. What a wonderful, sweet person she is! We're so glad she was born!!

11 months

10 months

9 months

8 months

6 months

5 months

3 months

2 months

1 month

1 day old