Hayden is Four!

My sweet little Hayden turned four August 25, 2014. He is lucky, he shares his birthday with some fine folk: Aleese, Sean Connery, Rachel Ray,  Billy Ray Cyrus, my good friend Craig...and I am many more.

 Since July we had been working on his sandbox...which we had to tell him was the "dance floor" so he would be surprised. There was no way to build it without him knowing. And if there was, there was no where to hide it. After we built it, we decked-it-over it "Atlantic". I don't know if it's as amazing as it seems, but so-far so-good. ...and it's cute navy blue.

 I wanted it to be as big as possible, knowing my boys, they each need a lot of room. We made is about 6'x6' which was about as much sand as we could afford. I now know I would have to make it 25' by 25' for Preston not to throw it out and for Hayden to have enough room to dig.

 While we were decking-over we also did the bottom of the playhouse.

 I found two cute cushions at DownEast (thanks Jill for telling my mom they were back!) and cut them down to fit on the two seats. I have mad sewing skills. Meaning "I make it work"

 We moved the creeping jenny and leveled the spot for the house and the sandbox. I use "we" very liberally, David worked and I directed. 

 We put rocks, of which we have many, beneath the base to hopefully help with drainage to also for leveling. Hayden was all ready to sweep.

 ...and we moved the house into place. I can't tell you how many times we had moved this heavy, heavy house. I was glad it was finally in it's spot.

 Hayden is still cleaning. We got him a littler sweeper :)

 We had his party a week before his birthday so David wouldn't have to go to school the next day.
The night before his party, we snuck out and dumped all the sand in. We had bought 60ish bags of sand. We ended up having 10 or so left over. I was thinking that we would want to fill it all the way up...no, leave 4-6inches, but even then Preston will dump it out.

 David has moved literally 2 tons of sand the last month. Serves him right for wearing that BYU shirt :)

 The next day we had a Beach Party to go along with the Sandbox.
David made such a cute cake! Katie thought it was so good, she said that someone would "even pay money for it"...what a compliment.

 We made yummy pina coladas, had pulled pork sandwhiches,

 yummy salads, a watermelon shark (thank you David), chips, yumm.

 and topped it off with a castle cake and homemade ice cream!
I can't believe my sweet little Hayden is four already. He loves talking to anyone. He is interested in everything. He loves garbage cans and vacuums. He is on a first name basis with everyone at the floral wholesaler and Sam's Club. He loves to read. He loves to water. He loves to go to the cabin. He loves to go to St.George. He loves hiking and running. He loves to sing. He's a great big brother. He loves to ask questions. He loves to cook. He loves to clean.

We love our little Neal Hayden!