You say it's your birthday!

SOMEONE celebrated a big 4th birthday just four days after Christmas...
And while we had some fun at the bowling alley and went to dinner and celebrated with yummy desserts...

His request was to have the same party he's had for the last every single birthday he's ever had...(and his sister too for that matter!)

Fine by me!
We waited until we had gotten through the craziness that was the holidays, and then we invited a few friends to come over to celebrate at our house...

Bring on the cake!


I LOVE looking back and comparing 'kids with the cake' photos! oh MY how they have grown!

We are pretty bummed the Metrodome is deflated and we won't be seeing Monster Jam there next weekend...Since seeing our first real Monster Truck show in November, we can't get enough! We LOVE our Monster Trucks!

Despite being told not to - the guests brought gifts...

And D couldn't WAIT to get into them!

And for this tries-to-go-with-the-flow-but-can't mother...aye aye aye!

I can't stand when gifts get ripped open, cards get tossed aside...thank you's are NOT properly said...

So I had to slow things down a bit...

Boss got tired of waiting...nobody mind that 93 pound dog in the middle of the floor...

Present after present was a hit...He was gifted by so many people...all awesome things he loves...Batcave, Airplanes, Cars, A football, remote control monster truck, air hockey we can play on our floor!, a light bright...

A $1000!

(Not really-but no one tell him that...he was pretty pumped about it!) And thanks to the 'last chance' commercials being put out by Disney World right now - he's saving every penny he can get his hands on for a trip there! Awesome huh?

I really need to find some sort of community room - because our house gets smaller with each passing year...and a handful of little boys and one princess - all with their very own pirate swords...

Well, we're running out of room!

Little J - the youngest of the bunch present on this day was all smiles...by this time next year - look out boys! He'll be right there with ya! For now, he's all about killing the ladies with that DIMPLE! ACK!

For now, he was pretty content to hang with the bigger of the boys...

And later on, after things quieted down...they didn't really.

But D was able to really look at his gifts and put them to use...among the favorites?

SWEATBANDS!

The kid loves to exercise...these are perfect!

And...when you are busy shooting nerf 'narrow's' all over the house - a person can really work up a good sweat!

(I figure he calls them narrows because when a person says Bow and Arrow it comes out like bow & narrow...and he DID recently ask Santa for one of those, although I don't know if he really does know what that is!)

Anyway - A huge thank you to our friends & family who made D's birthday a smashing success. This past year has easily been the toughest on all of us...celebrating our blessings with those who love our kids means more than you could possibly know...