Happy 4th Birthday Keira!

We celebrated Keira's 4th birthday this week. Her birthday was on Sunday, so we celebrated her birthday a day early, on Saturday. Leading up to her party, we managed to have a lot of fun, especially with this being the first week of no school.

On Monday, we hung out at home for the most part. The kids had a blast running around the kitchen inside, at the tennis courts turned basketball court, and our back patio. I got a lot great pictures of the kids today.









On Tuesday, we had an early morning. Soren woke up super early and then needed a nap before we could do anything this morning.

We got a late start on the day with a playdate with several of her school friends; Angie, Charlotte, and Morgan. We met up at Power Park, and everyone had a great time. It was a big soggy due to some wet weather that we had the previous evening.





That evening, we went to the NEW Novi Public Library for the first time since it opened. We went for the first public storytime, and it was as starlight storytime. Keira enjoyed it as usual, but Soren preferred to run around and climb on the stroller. He did pay attention during the songs and to a few of the stories. The lighting in the room made it hard to take pictures with my camera- it was too light for the flash to go off, but it made most of the action shots blurry.



On Wednesday, after the gym, we did a few errands. We did have one very unusual and interesting thing that happened today. I had opened up all the car doors to let in some air, strapped Keira in the car, and as I went around to put Soren in, a BIRD flew into the car. It kept trying to get out the sunroof. We were all screaming. I was trying to figure out if should try to take a picture, get help, or try to get the sunroof open when the bird flew out the passenger front door on its own. Whew. I couldn't believe there was no one around; we made so much noise screaming, if someone was, they would have heard us. Once the bird left, Keira kept asking me to close the rest of the doors.



That evening, I had a great workout. I biked 15 miles with Cristina, Valerie, and Julie as part of the TIA workout, and then followed it up with a 3 mile run. Cristina really pushed me on the run. I ended up doing over a full sprint tri today, if you include my morning swim workout. Patrick was also in town this week from Germany, and he came over to visit with Ryan while I was working out. I was able to meet up with everyone at Baha Fresh. It was such a full day!

On Thursday, everyone woke up pretty early. We had some silliness at home. Keira and Soren were taking during doing "choo choo" with each other.


Then we went to Kindermusik. Keira has not gone in a long time. She and Soren both had a great time.



We also got Keira' haircut. Here are a few pics of her with our plants in her new 'do.


I went to a Relief Society Meeting that evening and Soren actually went into nursery! It wasn't without much effort and tears, though. It was pretty funny. I set him down in the room and he ran out screaming, Daddy! and ran straigh to the chapel. This is because on Sundays, when he starts crying in nursery, they bring him to Ryan in the chapel. Once Soren realized it was empty, and Ryan wasn't there, he switched back to crying for me. Ronna just grabbed him, and I hear him cry for a bit, but then he was fine. He got to play with Valerie's children (because Ryan and Kent were riding together tonight). We had a good time.

On Friday, we had made a playdate with Katie and Luke. Due to schedule conflicts, we hadn't been able to get together with them in a long time, and with the party being family only this year, we wanted to make sure this playdate didn't fall through. We met up at the mall for some playtime.





After the mall, we had lunch at McDonalds at Keira's request. She actually ate a bit of her chicken today since I wouldn't let either child have any snack all morning.
That afternoon Keira and Soren were anxiously anticipating the arrival of Grandma, who was coming in today to get started on the cake. To occupy time, we went to the pool.



Once my mom got into town, we got changed and headed out to dinner. The easier work of baking the cake began once the kids were in bed.

Saturday was the big day of the party. Everyone had left the house by 8:30 or so. Ryan rode 64 mile at a 20.1mph pace. I met up with Cristina with Keira and Soren for an 8 mile run at Island Lake. I averaged around 8:30 min/mile, which was great for me, especially given the stroller and the heat. Today was turning out to be a very muggy, humid, hot day. My mom had headed over to Kris and Linda's house to do the assembly and decorating of the birthday cake. It was quite the impressive cake, and was not an easy thing to do.

Since it was so hot, Linda had set up the slip and slide. Soren had a blast with it; Keira was more fond of the small pool.

Keira enjoyed opening all of her presents and had a great birthday party. We are very thankful for our wonderful family that was able to help us out and attend her party.

Sunday was Keira's actualy birthday. We went to church as usual, and Soren still wouldn't go into nursery. We sang to Keira in Sharing Time and she got her treat from the Bishop. We had a relaxing day at home, and we needed it. We gave Keira her favor bag from her party today, and she made a crown.

Keira opened up her last couple of presents as well. It was funny, she asked if she could open them, and we said "yes", and before I could get upstairs, I could hear the sound of paper tearing.

Keira and Soren spent the rest of the day playing with the new toys. Keira also finally got some of her fancy birthday cake. It was a great weekend. Happy Birthday Keira!