William's Fourth Birthday Party!

William had an amazing fourth birthday party at Pump It Up, thanks to all his awesome family and friends!



Super William!



Cute little munchkins!



This photo is hilarious!



Party shot!



William with cousin Claire and Maddie!



William and Annabelle, his girlfriend from school!



Group shot!



William's Super cape and cake!





Make a wish!





In the King's chair with his scepter!





After the birthday party, the fam went out to lunch at Mickey Finn's, and after lunch, we went to Grandpa and Pamma's house to open some gifts! William loved his musical Star Wars birthday card from Grandpa and Pamma, and all his other awesome gifts!

Easter 2012

William had a great Easter with the family! He went with Pamma to the Easter egg hunt in Hawthorn Woods, where he took this cute photo with the Easter Bunny!



A couple days before Easter, we went to Long Grove to say hi to the GGs, Uncle Chris, and Robin. Here GG is giving William her traditional and delicious rice crispy lamb! She has been making these at Easter for decades. Chris grew up with them too!



The little ones hanging with their Pamma on Easter Sunday!





Grandpa and William getting an egg!



We also did a small Birthday celebration in the midst of Easter for William. Love the pretty blue cake he picked out!



He also got to dye some Easter eggs with Pamma!





William had a lot of fun with the eggs and loved showing the GGs every single egg he and Pamma made.

Colorado Family Fun!

At the end of March, we took a trip out to Colorado to visit friends and family. William had a blast spending a few days staying with Gramps, Gramby, Lyssie, Cooper, and Cayle.

Group shot at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science.



Checking out the snake and reptile exhibit.





This snake looks mean and hungry!



The gem and mineral exhibit was incredible.



We even had an early birthday party for William! What a lucky guy to have such a loving family.



Fore! The weather was gorgeous, perfect for a round of mini golf.

Colorado Fun with Friends

We sure do have a lot of wonderful friends in CO! On our trip there in March, we got to see many close friends. It was fun for all of us, because many friends have kids around the same age as William, so the kids and adults all enjoy spending time together.

Here is William in the middle of a fierce Jedi battle with his buddy, Quinn.



No trip to CO is complete without a backyard party at the Lussier house. William and Genevieve are just a few months apart and are really cute hanging out together. She is doing all the work in this photo!



Sweet.



We got to see Anton and Theresa, and their new little man, Crosby!



William also got to spend a beautiful afternoon hanging out at the Boulder creek with his best buddy, Jameson, and Jameson's sister, Isabel. We really miss seeing and spending time with all our dear friends in CO!

April School Craft

For this month’s school craft, William and I appropriately decorated an Easter egg! We used all kinds of goodies to decorate it. The "under the sea" theme was all William. His favorite part of the egg is the shark.

William is almost 4!

We can hardly believe our little baby boy is turning 4 in just a few days! WOW! In the past year he has grown a lot and has gained many new experiences. We enjoyed many fun travels with him this past year, from the Hawaiian Islands to the west coast and all around the gorgeous mountains of Colorado. We plan to keep the travel train going this year too, we love traveling with our little guy!

This past year we also relocated to the Midwest. The move was a little stressful, as all moves are! William handled it pretty well, though he was very sad to leave his friends and family back in Colorado. Overall though he has enjoyed the change, making new friends at school, and spending more time with our Chicago family.

William started preschool and has been learning so much, intellectually and socially! He really enjoys going to school and likes both of his teachers. He now knows how to write his name, love, Pamma, Grandpa, dad, daddy, mom, Luz, Nora, and dog. His reading is improving every day. He is excellent at telling us what letter words start with, and with a little help, he can even spell various words by sight and sound.

William has showed no signs of slowing down in the kitchen either. He plays with his kitchen set and all the tools and ingredients often, and frequently makes us all meals, like tomatoes on toast or vegetable soup. To help him explore this interest, we signed him up in a Lil Chefs class at our YMCA. The class meets once a week and cooks things that he brings home to eat.

Chris and I are very thrilled to watch our little boy grow and change in the year ahead.

William’s Imagination

Destination Imagination



William has quite the imagination these days! He has a large cardboard box that turns into anything, from a space ship to a pirate’s ship or a cave. Lately, he has also been using two large chip clips as imaginary planes which I really find hilarious with all the toys he has which include toy planes.

His imagination kick started with 20 “bunnies” that would follow him around the house and on errands. He even named some of them: Fluffy, Fuzzy, Snuffy, Snugalo, Shugalo…and some others. The bunnies went to school with him one day and one of his teachers told him she was allergic to bunnies, so they have not been back since. Too funny!

He also has imaginary siblings and cousin. They will often come with us to restaurants, stores, the gym, or go with him to school.

William also plays in a band, like his Daddy. William often tells us he has practice at night, and that he can’t forget his bass. When we ask him about the music his band plays, he always says, “hard metal.” The band may be imaginary, but his dance moves certainly are not. The boy can really break it down.

William talks about his town a lot. Like his “siblings” (as he calls them) and Cousin, his imaginary town is based on a lot of his real world experiences. For example, if we are driving and get stuck in traffic, he will say, “There is no traffic in my town.” There are also some cool buildings and sports teams in his town, and just about anything else you (or he) can think of. His town really sounds like a cool place!

When it comes to William’s imagination, there is no shortage of creativity, and that’s just how we like it!

And of course you can't go on a space mission without your light saber!