Turning Four!

On her actual birthday (her friend birthday was a few days prior), Maia wore this to school. She handed out mini-cupcakes to her classmates.

 She got to pick out her own favorite dinner (she requested spaghetti) and we had a birthday cookie.

Aunt Tara and Nana had facilitated this gift (from Aunt Tara, Uncle Dave, Aaron, Rachael, Nana and Grandpa) and it sat in the box for an agonizingly long time for Maia... until Ray and I finally managed to put it together.

Later we had a tea party with Doc McStuffins and Aunt Kathleen

Look Ma, no training wheels!

 I love balance bikes. Have I mentioned that? I think they're such a cool idea. Here she is, just weeks from being four, and Papa has presented Maia with Adrian's old bike. No training wheels.

The bike was a little big for her yet. But she was pretty determined to do it.  Unfortunately, one of her favorite parts of riding her balance bike includes doing small circles, turns and figure 8s.  Easy peasy with the balance bike, but learning on a standard bike takes some time and practice.

But here's her third attempt on the big kid bike, with a little help from Papa. On a balmy, 94º evening.

And while Maia was busy, Parker thought he needed to check this thing out.

Massena (part 3)

Maia had made huge improvements with her balance bike at Interlochen... and with the little hills and bigger open spaces, Maia's confidence grew. She started to really, really enjoy going down hills.  She rode her balance bike just about everywhere she could.