These are a Few of Matthew's Favorite Things

I figured that since Katie had her birthday I might as well finally get around to doing Matthew's birthday blog -- so that I don't get so far behind that I don't ever do it again.

So here are some of his favorite things in no apparent order:
Being an elephant with his tie -- although lately he has been wearing a sweater vest instead of a tie so it hasn't been happening quite so often.

Decorating cupcakes with marshmellow fandant.

Helping out in the kitchen: usually he is right on top of me while I cook dinner. This is a picture of him helping with the yucky salsa I canned.

Swimming. This experience was actually an uncomfortably cold trip to the lake near Grandpa McClellan's house when we visited in July.

I didn't have a good picture of us actually canoeing but he had a great time dipping his hand or a other things over the edge into the water. He did have trouble keeping hold of the squirt gun though -- fortunately Uncle Dan was usually behind us and saved it for us -- again and again.

It was awfully cute to find him playing the piano and singing with cousins Callie and Delaney.

He loves to play at the park and this park at Grandma and Grandpa Fox's house that actually still has a merry-go-round was a big hit.

He loves to be a girl magnet -- ok really these are just cousins again, Sarah and Delaney, but I think the picture is awefully cute.

Doing fire works was really fun. I think is favorite part was running away after they were lit. It was fun to watch his cute little 2 year old waddly run.

Eating is one of his number one pasttimes - he is not so good at eating meals but he is very adept at finding himself snacks and desserts. Last Saturday morning he got up first and went down to the kitchen and raided the school lunch coookies for breakfast. He has also found the stash of frozen M'n'm's... Here we are actually taking a break and having a planned snack inbetween Smithsonian Museums.

We went to the Air and Space Museum and the Natural History Museum while we were in Washington DC. I realized I planned it poorly though because this would have been his favorite part of the day but a few minutes after this picture he fell asleep and misssed most of the cool dinosaur bones and stuffed animals.

He loves to clean windows. One day I found him standing near the kitchen sink using a Magic erase sponge, a potato scrubber, and some dish soap to wash the kitchen window. He was having such a great time I didn't stop him -- I think he kept at it for 45 min., but the window sure was a mess when he was done.

Wrestling with the other kids is great fun, until someone loses an eye!!! Surprisingly the big kids forget nearly every time that they are wrestling with a little guy and he ends up hurt.

Swimming is fun but his favorite things to do at the pool were to jump off the diving board and slide down the water slide with Dad. The pictures of him actually jumping didn't turn out so this will have to do.

This is another cleaning adventure. He and Emma went through a spirt where they would scrub and scrub the kitchen sink -- it always worked out better when there were no dishes to play with too!!

We have a plastic house out back that the two of them will play in for hours although it does usually involve a fight or two. He also loves to jump on the trampoline and ride his bike but I don't have any pictures of those. He likes to spend a lot of time outside and lately loves sticks that he can use as swords. They also had a great time the other day playing in the rain and throwing mud at eachother -- aargh!!

He was very proud of letting Aaron cut his hair, as you can probably tell from his huge grin here!!

Just another picture of him having a great time at a park.