Where did four years go?

I tend to guage the amount of time passing by relating it to college.  It took four years to finish college (ermm, actually five for me), and that seemed like quite the accomplishment.  So when I realized it had been (gulp) 12 years since I graduated high school, I thought, “I could have gone to college 3 times by now.”

And now my baby is four and in that span I could have gotten another college degree.  Maybe it’s just me, but that length of time is just so monumental!  How he has grown – and how Simon & I have grown, too!  What did we do before Jude? we ask ourselves.

Saturday was the actual day of his birthday.  We celebrated by lunching at Whole Foods and letting him spend his birthday money from his Nonnie at the toy store.

Oh, random photo from Thursday night at the church fall festival: Jude in his Halloween costume. Captain Hook!

Then on Saturday we had the party here at our house with the family.

Simon made two gigantic bowls of chili!

And the birthday boy himself, putting on his birthday shoes all by himself.

Cousinly love.

Dontcha wish you knew what they were discussing in this photo?

I love his expression in this photo.

And then there’s me — good grief, you would’ve thought they were pajamas for ME! Ha!

So after being fully sugared and celebrated, the sweet birthday boy was exhausted.  This photo is actually from yesterday at naptime when I walked into check on him. He was passed out, clutching his legos in hand!