Tumble Down and Digging Up

We had a scary situation occur Saturday morning with Tavin taking a frightful tumble down the stairs end over end.  Praise the Lord that he wasn't badly hurt.  He has a few little marks on his face, but otherwise he seems fine.  No bruises, no bumps and he did quite well the rest of the day.  Soon after that happened we went to a birthday party for Alex (which we totally needed as a distraction).  It was a digger theme.  Tav couldn't have dreamed up a better way to spend a Saturday morning.  He spent the first 20 minutes on the excavator until we made him get off so others could have a turn.

Koen jumped into the fun as well.  He set to coloring which is a new favorite past-time for this first-grader.  He also enjoyed being in the company of Miles, a buddy we haven't seen since our weekly summer playdates.

Tavin also got really into coloring which is something he enjoys quite a bit too.  He can get very serious when coloring.  Here he is finishing up a loader.

After some coloring time, Miles and Koen played with diggers in bins of rice.  Megan, Alex's mom (the boys' godmother), set up this matching game where you find the pieces (road signs) hidden in the rice and have to match them up on a piece of paper to their corresponding sign.  So cute!

A little while after Koen finished playing in the rice, I discovered Penn in that area.  What was amazing (as messes are a natural attraction for my little bugs) was that Penn was doing the sign game all on his own.  He must have watched the bigger kids do it and then copied it.  It was striking!  He was digging for the signs, pulling them out and putting them on the paper on signs that were either matches or that looked quite similar.  Wait to go, Penn!

Penn also enjoyed building with Doug, although most of the time he did cling to me (he is so afraid I'm leaving him!).

Here's a picture of the attempt to get a group shot of all the little people that gathered to celebrate Alex's birthday.

Happy Birthday, Alex!!  Thanks so much for sharing your super fun, digger-style celebration with us.  We had such a fun morning (which was much needed after our shocking start) being there with you.