You turned 4 years old today. Okay, that’s not true at all. You turned 4 years old 10 days ago, and this post is late like most things we do these days. But you like to pretend that every day is your birthday, so I know you won’t mind. (Make that 18 days. Blogging is hard.)

We’re completely insane, so we not only had a party for you at our house with friends and family, we had a princess / knight / pirate-themed birthday party for you and some of your preschool friends at a place whose web site is seriously—I’m not making this up— prettyprettyprincessparties.com. It was incredibly cute, and you all had fun dressing up, going on the treasure hunt, whacking the mermaid piñata, and eating the icing off your cupcakes.

You are an amazing little preschooler. About a year ago you still didn’t talk much, until that one fateful morning you decided it was time to start speaking in complete sentences. You haven’t stopped talking since. You have an impressive vocabulary and some adorable speech habits, such as substituting "Y" for "L" and having your own way of saying some words. Some of my favorites are:

"serocerous" (rhinoceros)
"dinosaur x" (tyrannosaurus rex)
and the classic "paskettie."

You love to tell stories and have us make up stories with you, most of which star Busy Bee, Mad Bee, Princess Bee, and a host of other Bees. They live in Beeville, and oh, you would not beyieve the wacky hijinks they get up to.

You love to sing the alphabet song, but instead of "l-m-n-o-p" you sing "m-o-m-o-p."

You’re a great big sister to Keegan, except when you’re loud while he’s sleeping. Which is any time you’re awake and he’s not. He can be in the foulest mood (usually brought on by Daddy being too slow to feed him) and all it takes to make his face light up is for you to sashay into the room. He adores you, and I hope you can manage to always love that as much as you do right now.

You are constantly asking questions and testing boundaries and trying our patience, which is (often maddeningly) exactly what you’re supposed to be doing. You are one cool kid, Zoey, and you make every day an adventure.

We love you tons and tons, Zoey. Happy "Birthday"!

(You, or anyone else reading this, can and should view the whole photo set on Flickr.)

Keegan’s Birth on Flickr

It is the holiday season again and of course, we get pictures taken of my almost three year-old. As I am sending out the pictures to relatives, I want to put the year or how old she is on the back of the photo. I have not found a good pen to do that with. Either it is too bold (like a thin Sharpie) and bleeds through the photo from the back, or too hard (like a ballpoint) and it makes bumps from the letters I write. I have not been able to find the perfect pen. I know this is not a big deal or anything life threatening… but, it would be great to have something cool to write with on them this year.

It made it through Asha’s inbox, and on to the Parent Hacks site. (Hi Parent Hackers!) As always, the Parent Hacks community came up with great suggestions. Thanks! (Check it out!)

This summer, on the way to our two-family beach vacation, Brian, Jen, and Barrett stopped by the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, Oregon (home of the Spruce Goose). They really liked the airplanes on exhibit, but also discovered a collection of armored vehicles outside the museum building. Apparently a private collector left his collection of tanks and APCs to the museum. Being an aviation museum, it seems they don’t know much about the armor (or at least Brian couldn’t find anyone on staff who did). Sadly, Brian himself could also not I.D. all the armored vehicles, either. (Tsk, tsk, tsk!)

They gave me permission to post the photos and see if anyone can identify any of these vehicles. If you see something you know or think you know, please comment either here or on Flickr. Thanks!

Now, let’s play Name That Tank!

• 2006 Oregon Beach Vacation Photos on Flickr

• Zoey’s Gallery