Birthday Bonanza

It seems I have a thing for birthdays.  I think it stems back to my childhood and the pleasure on "my day."  I want to create that same magic for my kids and I often tend to get carried away.  Fortunately the overdrive doesn't kick in until at least the 3rd birthday.

Colin's 2nd Birthday

For Colin's Birthday he got three surprise house showings.  I told my Realtor I would have tried a little harder on the cake had I know so many people would be seeing it that day.  It all worked out because it provided a perfect opportunity to go visit Grandma Mona and Grandpa Dave to unwrap the adorable hooded towel Grandma had made.

The rest of the birthday was cake and presents and simple family fun.

My favorite was when Colin tried to "roar" the candles out. (The cute part is the last 30 seconds.)

Colin is such a cute little bug.  He has the best giggle and I love his baby babble ("dig-a dig-a dig-a").  He has picked up on some of Mason's stubborn attitude, but it quickly distracted with a sippy cup of juice, a graham cracker, or some fruit snacks (he would live on those if I would let him).  If he wants something to eat he will ask for "due" (two of whatever he is requesting).  He has been known to chime in during prayers ("Bess Date, an Mommy, an Da-da") and loves to join his older brothers in whatever they are doing.  He is affectionately known as Boo-ie or Boo-in.

Mason's 4th Birthday

This week we celebrated Mason's much anticipated 4th Birthday.  He has been talking about it for months and it didn't disappoint.

One hour to showtime and I was once again overwhelmed with the details of the party, but determined to pull it all together.  There was just too much fun to be had!  With the unwavering help of my man and the timely arrival of my helpful sister and her daughter the party went off without a hitch.

It was a boys only TRAIN party.  When I asked Mason if he wanted to invite the one girl in his sunbeam class he replied, "No, Brookie is a girl."  The boys arrived one by one (thankfully most were a few minutes late!) and played on the wooden train track in the front room. 

Once everyone had arrived it was time to ride the rails!  I made train tracks out of butcher paper and we "rode" them from station to station for different activities.

 First we stopped at "Sticker Station" to collect foam train stickers and put them on bookmarks.

Next we rode to "Cookie Crossing" where we decorated train car cookies.

The last stop was "Cake Landing" where we sang "The Wheels on the Train" and ate birthday cake.

Next we opened presents then gathered candy from the pinata.

Mason's new dinosaur themed towel made by Grandma Mona

We sent everyone home with a train cookie (and railroad crossing cookies for any tag-along siblings).

Mason can't get enough of his new toys although he will share when heavily coaxed.  The transition to four still finds him opinionated and demanding ("Give me some juice!",  "I NEED to go PEE-PEEEE!", "I don't like you anymore!"), but creative and fun loving. 

His favorite past time, other than building train tracks, is dressing up in super hero costumes.  Every morning for a week he would dress himself and then immediately put on the full Batman costume (suit, belt, cape, gloves, mask) over his clothes and wear it all day.  (All the adults at the gym and the grocery store got a kick out of that!). 

He would drink a gallon of apple juice every day if left to himself and spend hours watching Spiderman and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  He hates naps and I agreed he could stop taking them after this birthday (with the known exception of Sunday afternoon, sick days, and super grumpy days).  Most nights when Mason goes to sleep he asks if I will wake him up in the morning when the sun goes "Dup, dup, dup, dup, ching!"  He insists on hugging and kissing everyone before he will settle in for the night.

He is a juxtaposition of joy and anger, fighting and forgiveness, playful and pompous.  But with all these, he is 100% my boy and I love him very much!