Ethan's 4th Birthday Party - March 24th, 2012

Last year was Thomas, this year Ethan is heavily into Disney Cars/Cars 2. So, that's what the theme was for his birthday party this year. And at the age of four, we are instituting the rule of inviting only the number of friends as the age you are turning, so he picked four friends from school and just by chance, 2 of them have siblings that are also in Becca's class, so she had some friends at the party too. Along with our good friends Missy, Billy, and their adorable 15 month old son, Will, we had a great group of people for the party. We took advantage of Mima and Papa's new house and had the party out at their place. The plan was that, now that they have a nice, new deck, the kids would be able to play out there or head down from the deck straight to the playground in the backyard. But, since it is March, Ethan will likely NEVER get to have a birthday party outside, since the weather is so unpredictable. It was 80 degrees and beautiful all week long, but on the day of the party, it got cold and rainy. But, the party was a big hit and everyone had a great time anyways. They played with cars on a make-shift race track, colored some plywood cars with markers, got some Cars tattoos, and made license plates out of foam stickers. Mima made an AWESOME cake and then everyone winded down watching a bit of the movie... It was a great day for celebrating such a great boy!

 Ethan somehow hoodwinked us all into getting THREE of these treats... needless to say getting him to wind down after all of that was quite a task....

Flo's V8 Cafe:

Sheriff's Stop LIght Crispies, Mater's Taters, Francesco's Fruit Funnels, Guido & Luigi's Leaning Towers of Veggies, Lightning McQueen's Pizza Wheels, Doc's Guac, Finn McMissile Mozarella Dipsticks

A simple green vinyl tablecloth and some masking tape was the biggest hit of the party.

Happy 4th Birthday Ethan!!!!

Ethan's 4th Birthday - March 14th, 2012

How is it possible that THIS little baby...

is now FOUR YEARS OLD????

I always say that the day Ethan was born is the day our lives changed forever, for the better. It is still true, to this very day. Every day that this wonderful child has been in our lives have been the BEST days of my life. Being his mom is the best job I have ever, and will ever, have. I am so proud of every challenge he takes on and overcomes with nothing but a positive attitude and a smile on his face. He is the silliest, sweetest, and most wonderful boy I know.

Birthdays are a big deal in our family and the person celebrating always deserves to have the best day possible. This year, Chris was going to be gone on the day of his birthday, so I pulled double duty to make sure it was a great day for Ethan. We all got up bright and early to take Daddy to the airport, then we made a 6am trip to Wegman's, in our PJ's, for birthday bagels, cupcakes for his classroom party and balloons.

We dropped Becca off at school and then we went and had a special Birthday Breakfast at Panera.

After breakfast he headed to school with his cupcakes and had a little party in his class with his friends. After school, we came home and called Daddy and Grandma so they could wish him a Happy Birthday and then Skyped with Oma and Grandad. Mima came over brought some awesome blueberry cupcakes that she had made for his special day.

I asked Ethan what he wanted for his special Birthday dinner and he explicitly stated that he wanted Blueberry Pancakes and Bacon. I found a great recipe online for birthday cake pancakes that use cake mix and sprinkles in the batter, so I added some blueberries to it and we all had pancakes for dinner.

Then it was time to sing "Happy Birthday" and blow out the candles on his cupcakes.

Ethan has ALWAYS eaten his cupcakes like this... I have no idea why... :-)

Time to open presents

After presents we went for a quick bike ride down to the basketball court, per the Birthday Boy's request.

I am pretty confident that he had a pretty special day, but I know it couldn't possible be half as special as he has made every day for me since he came into my life.