Today is Daniel's 4th birthday. Scott & I "won" (for those of you who haven't seen the prior post about my other auction win, this simply means we crazily agreed to plunk down more money than anyone else did!) a firehouse birthday party at one of the school auctions we attended this past spring. I'd fully intended to have the party in July, even after we learned Scott was going to be deployed, but life has a funny way of changing things. Daniel's two best friends aren't here this summer because their daddy is up in Seattle for work, so they went up there with their mom to spend a couple of months. I had the sudden realization that if we did his party in July, not only would his dad miss it, but his two best friends, too. So, I sat down with my 3 year-old & explained the situation. He looked a little crestfallen until I explained that if we waited a couple of months, they'd all be able to come. He immediately perked up & said, "I want to wait." I went over it all again & even counted out the months he'd have to wait & there was no changing his mind, so his party will be delayed until all important parties have returned to the area :)
Needless to say, when you're 4, the party is a HUUUUUUGE part of why you love your birthday so much. So, I did all I could to make sure he really enjoyed his birthday. We started out with candles & singing, and everyone had a chocolate cupcake for breakfast, even Colin.
There were birthday hats and noise blowers, too. Colin even figured out how to make the blower work!! Again, I got it on video, but will have to upload in a later post.
He got a few presents from the family, including a couple of LEGO sets as well as some "Target money" that we had to spend immediately!
One of the LEGO sets was a little above Daniel's head, so he asked William to put it together for him. I was all prepared for mucho frustration, but William was SOOOO patient. He read the instructions (called it the "recipe"--can you tell we've been cooking???), figured out how many of each part he needed for each step, and then patiently attached all of those teeny-tiny LEGO parts where they needed to go. There were only a couple of steps he needed help with, and to be honest, it took me a minute to figure out what they wanted you to do, too! Here is the LEGO master working on it:
And, the finished product:
Later in the morning, I'd gotten a sitter for William & Colin, so Daniel & I took off to the mall to take his 4 year old pics at JCPenney. He did GREAT!! As a reward, he rode the train & the carousel. I had to ride the carousel with him, so no pics of that, but here he is on the train. He was so excited b/c it used to be green, but now they've gotten a new one & it looks just like Thomas the Train!!
Check out this grin!!
Next, it was off to lunch at Red Robin. We ate there with Nana when she was in town & they now have a fried cheese stick appetizer. Daniel LOVES, LOVES, LOVES cheese sticks, so he wanted "lots of cheese sticks and a pile of grilled cheese" for lunch! Who's going to argue with the birthday boy? Not sure what a pile of grilled cheese looks like, but he was satisfied with the mere sandwich they brought to the table ;)
He insisted I sit next to him & is very into silly faces right now. Here are all the silly faces I managed to capture (please excuse my tonsils--the camera apparently ended up on level with my wide-open mouth!):
Notice the cherry he's holding in one of the silly shots, and here is another. We've been making "cherry sprites", otherwise known as cherry limemades at home, so the boy wanted some cherries in his apple juice at lunch. Again, who can say no to the birthday boy, so the waitress very kindly bribed the bartender to give away some of his garnish to make one four-year-old very happy!!
A couple of smiley shots of the two of us, but I had a hard time getting him to smile & look at the camera at the same time!!
Red Robin is one of those restaurants that loves to sing obnoxiously, ummm....I mean enthusiastically, if it's your birthday. I was worried that Daniel would be freaked out by it all, and to be honest, he looked a little nervous when the 8 grown-ups came around in their red shirts & started clapping, but as soon as the singing started, he lit up like a Christmas tree!! His little expression was so cute, I laughed until I cried :) Here he is with the massive ice cream sundae they brought out. He took down 2/3 of it AFTER eating 3 cheese sticks, his entire cup of apple slices, one slice of his grilled cheese "pile" and half of the other slice!! I couldn't believe he had room left, but he truly must be my child b/c he couldn't turn down ice cream.
The waitress brought him not one, but two, green balloons because green is his favorite color & he was sweet enough to bring them both home so William could have one & they could let them go off into the sky together. Sweet birthday boy!!
We finished our lunch with our tradition at Red Robin--driving the car video game just inside the door! It's the most fabulous parent trick ever--they get to stare at a TV screen & turn a wheel & they think they're playing :) Totally free entertainment!! I'm sure I don't have much longer until they figure it out, but for now, it makes them soooo happy.
After lunch, we ran to Target where he insisted on spending his entire gift card on a set of Toy Story 3 toys. He & William spent the afternoon playing with Woody, Buzz, Jessie, Hamm, Rex, and Bullseye. When Colin woke up from his nap, we went over to the Simmonses' house for some dinner & swimming. The boys got more cupcakes & there was more singing!! All in all, a great birthday, I think :)
1 comment:
What an awesome birthday! I will get a gift sent one of these days I promise!
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