Authentically Lifing

Kai's birthday feast. Yummy
This month has been full and fun. It has gone from 20 degree weather to a blazing mid 80's within this past week. We are grateful for the warmth.
Kai, my mom, Isaac and I put in our garden and look forward to the bounty it will provide. We have planted. Bok choy, chard, kale, broccoli, cabbage, leeks, onions, raspberries, blackberries, beets, carrots, sunflowers, green beans, different kinds of squash, melons, peas, tomatoes, asparagus, strawberries, spinach, lettuce, arugula, potatoes and there may be more, but that is what I am remembering now.
We harvested honey from our bees and planted more fruit trees.
We celebrated Mother's day and Kai's 4th birthday!
Kai continues to be a delightful handful. He says the funniest things. Leading up to his birthday, he was becoming more and more concerned about being 4. Here is a conversation I had one night with him while putting him to bed. "Am I going to be this size when I am 4?" Me- "Yes, but you will keep growing and get bigger." Kai - "Why? Did you grow up?" Me- "Yes"
Kai- "I don't want to be 4 because I want to be your little boy."
Kai- "What is your favorite color, mine is black, white and brown." I then told him my favorite colors and kissed him and wished him sweet dreams. He had a few conversations with both Jeff and I very similar to this one the week leading up to his birthday.
When he turned 4, he woke up and said, "Am I 4? Why?" Later that day he said, "Does my voice sound skinner now that I'm 4? - Like papa's?" I am not so sure what he meant by that, but I told him his voice sounded a little more grown up to me. He then said, "Do you remember when I was in bed and shy because I didn't want to be 4?" I said, yes and he said, "But its okay because I was three and I cried a little. I still cry though and that's okay, right?" This boy is putting a lot of thought into all this.
This next comment was just too funny not to share. The other day Kai was walking in the kitchen kinda scratching at his bottom. I asked him if his bottom itched. He squatted down and said, "No, this is just a very funny trick. I squat and squeeze to make my farts come out." Not sure where that one is coming from, but whatever releases gas, right?
Kai's biggest milestone is that he toilet trained in one night for night time sleeping. We had been saying, "When your 4, no more night time diapers." This may have been what was troubling him about turning 4. But that night going to bed we said, "Remember you're 4 now, no more diapers." He said, "yeah, that's right." From that night on, no diapers and no accidents. We do wake him up once to pee. We are proud!

Isaac is cute as ever. he pivots around the floor, mostly using his arms. He Loves watching Kai and cannot focus on much else when Kai is in the room.
He is extremely observant and loves to engage. He enjoys going on hikes, swinging and watching me water the garden.
He is saying BABABAB and Mamamama and cooing a lot still.
He loves making zerbert sounds with his lips.
He is bright blue eyed and in wonder and awe of everything.

Well that is all for now. Kai's 4th year Birthday video is taking me a little time. I am preparing to go back to work starting next week and I have been training for the Woman's Triathlon for the Cure in Denver which will take place in August. Busy, busy, busy.

Until next time, take care.
Love,
The Jacksons

As party favors, I made the children dinosaur shirt, dinosaur napkins which you will see below and dinosaur finder puppets. They are harder to see in the picture of all the children sitting together on the floor. I may have to take a picture of the puppets separately. They also got these super cool masks and dinosaur party blowers. Anyone know the theme of Kai's party?

Make a wish! The kids decorated dinosaur cookies. A BIG hit!

Mr. 4 year old.

Here are the dinosaur chicken nuggets the kids got for lunch. Who knew they made these?

Napkin party favors. Trying to be green :)

Kai's SUPER cool pedal bike from Pasha. He perfected the balance bike and feels so confident on it that the switch to pedals is a little scarey for him. We are working on it a little every day.

3-1 Kai and his friends on the see-saw. It hailed and got down to 24 degrees at night on Kai's birthday. Go figure. Winter GO AWAY!!!!

Whoa! Legos from his friends Harley and Heather.

Little brother wishing his bro a Happy Birthday!

When we went to the bike store to pick out Kai's bike, he saw this cool pick-up truck and really wanted a picture with it.

Kai's new bike helmet from Nana and Grandaddy Jackson.

Kai's loader from mama and papa.

Playing our friend's mandolin. Kai is super into instruments and has said that he wants to play the mandolin, banjo and dulcimer. We shall see.

Wheelbarrow boy.

Trucks and diggers in the sandbox - Kai's haven.

Isaac LOVES his tongue. He gets so much joy out of sticking hit out, turning it around, etc. It makes us happy that we had it cut so he now has the ability to do these things.

The Jackson Garden scarecrow.

Uncle E. sure knows how to find the coolest gifts.

The next few pics are slightly out of order from end to beginning of story. Our bees swarmed which happens every spring. We were lucky enough to be her during their swarm this year which was a most amazing site. Kai and I were working in the garden and we heard an increasingly loud buzz. We looked toward the hive and Kai said, "Look mama, a flock of bees." We watched them as they spiraled up and up from the hive and then after about 5 minutes they spread out over our entire yard in the air. It looked like a blanket of bees in the air. We went inside and continued to watch. After another 5 min. or so, the bees began to come closer together around a tree, they then dropped down and hovered over the creek in our yard and then went to the branch on which you see them, and latched on. We called a friend who we knew wanted a swarm and you can see him above catching the swarm in a box. We LOVE our bees. What a fun experience. The half that stayed in our hive are doing great and we have seen their new queen cells, so all is good.

The bees on there branch.

This picture gives no justice to the site. If you can spot the specks in the pic. They are the bees.

Same here. The picture is too small to see, but they are spiraling up here from the hive, which is near the chicken coop.

The birds at our feeder this year have been varied and plentiful. This is a Lewis Woodpecker. Bright hot pink belly and black body.

Mount Sopris just a week ago. We have 250% snow pack.

My camera is not so hot for taking nature photos. These are Western tanagers and there are some gross beaks too. The tanagers have such amazing vibrant colors. Red heads, going to orange, then bright yellow bodies and black wings. We have had about 6 pairs come. Every time they visit Kai says, "There are our friends the western tanagers." Then when the magpies come he says, "There's the pesky magpie." I love that he is learning all the native birds. We look new ones up in our bird book.