a letter to the birthday boy

Dear P,

I can't believe you are FOUR YEARS OLD! You are growing into quite a boy (you're a big boy now, as you often remind me), and it is such a privilege for me to watch you grow! You are growing so independent, and you are very helpful. I'm proud of the way you always lend a hand!

Each day I am amazed at your empathy. Last week you offered to move your school birthday celebration so that everyone in your class could be there for cupcakes, and Friday you spontaneously offered to loan some of your "crazy clothes" to Riley when he forgot to dress up. You are so careful to make sure to include others, because, as you say, "I don't want anyone to be sad".

Staying home with you and your brother is such a gift for me - playing trains and cars with you, reading, playing on the swingset or at the park, and doing art projects with you are my favorite ways to pass the day.

Even as you are "turnin' into a grown up", I cherish the "little boy" things you still enjoy. When you ask me to carry you downstairs first thing in the morning, I enjoy the feeling of you in my arms, your toddler breaths on my cheek, and your soft, sweet smelling hair. You will always be my baby, even though you are not a baby anymore.

I love you, P!

Love,
Mommy

P's Hot Diggity Dog Birthday Party!

P wanted a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse party this year, so we went with that theme. Friday night Grandma Hen helped me make his cake.

P went to a party at Tumblemania about six weeks ago. He had so much fun that all he talked about for the rest of that weekend was having his birthday party there. When he was still talking about it weeks later, we considered it. We told him that would be his big present from us, and he was fine with that. I will say that working with Tumblemania was a very positive experience for us. They were helpful, easygoing, and great with our kids and party guests.

We arrived half an hour early to set up for the party.


As soon as the gym was open, the boys were out on the floor. They balanced,


"hung out" with friends (literally!),



and played games with a parachute.



The highlight of the gym for P? His friend Maggie is about to slide into it in this picture...


...a gigantic pit of FOAM!


P and his friends climbed, jumped, slid, and were thrown into the pit over and over and over. They loved it!

The party was pretty boy heavy (three girls to roughly five times as many boys), and I couldn't resist snapping a pic of this Disney Princess playhouse full of princes!



P spent time jumping with one of his "bes' friends," Colby.

C spent lots of time jumping too, and he was especially happy when his friend Katherine showed up to pick up her big brother and she had a chance to jump with him for a few minutes.

Of course, we sang "Happy Birthday" to P and dug into the Mickey Mouse cake!

Oh boy! We had a great time!

Crazy Clothes Day!... and another birthday celebration

Grandma Hen arrived at our house Thursday night. When I got home from play rehearsal, she helped me finish turning an old pair of Daddy A's pj pants into a pair of Dr. Seuss shorts for P. (I added an applique to a red tee to match.) Continuing with Dr. Seuss week, Friday was Crazy Clothes Day. P wore his new Dr. Seuss pjs and mismatched shoes, socks, and four different legwarmers (one on each leg and one on each arm). He may have looked "crazy", but I think it was crazy how cute he looked!

I loaned my camera for a class photo. Some of the boys forgot their "crazy clothes," but a quick trip to the bathroom to turn things inside out and/or backwards straightened everything out crazied everything up!

When the school day was over (12:00), we all picked P up for a birthday surprise. On the way out of school, P showed me his Thing 1 and Thing 2 picture and asked me to snap a photo. I was happy to oblige!

After a quick lunch at Mountain Burrito, we headed to Hickory to see Tangled (P's favorite movie) at the dollar theater. We arrived a bit early and had a chance to shop a bit. The boys posed with Grandma Hen on a decorative bench.

We stumbled into an adorable shop and P discovered his new love - Automoblox! They're sort of a cross between cars and legos... he's quite enthusiastic about the set Grandma Hen got him for his birthday.

We saw Tangled and then drove back to Mo-town for P's birthday dinner at our local Sagebrush Steakhouse.

When we arrived back at home, P opened his birthday gifts from Grandma Hen and Granddaddy Rooster.

He used his new goggles and snorkel in the bathtub.

He shared a pair of goggles with C, too, but C wasn't a big fan of having them on his eyes.

After all of the excitement, everyone slept well Friday night. We woke Saturday ready for P's birthday party at Tumblemania!

Happy birthday, P!

Last Wednesday, we started off P's birthday with his favorite breakfast (chocolate chip pancakes), and both of the boys got to blow out the candles on top of their pancakes.





We checked out the special "birthday peektures" we had made the day before. I can't believe how old the boys are getting!

Once P was dressed and ready for school, in his birthday tee (thanks, Grandma Paige!) and crazy hat,

he and I loaded up a bunch of these cupcakes for his class and headed out the door. (Okay, fine. By loaded up I mean we put them in the car. I had made a makeshift carrier for them the night before so they wouldn't topple over on the way to school and counted out the right number. I'm type A like that.)




I added a maraschino cherry to the top of each cone just before we left for school. I'm not sure if the cupcake cones or the cherries were the bigger hit!



In honor of the birthday of Dr. Seuss, P's class had a special surprise visitor! (The surprise visitor may have been Riley's dad, who did an AMAZING Cat in the Hat impersonation! And if it were Riley's dad, that would be a surprise, because we wouldn't want Riley - or his classmates - to find out. You know, if he was the visitor. Which I didn't say he was.)



The Cat in the Hat read his story to the class, and he even knew that it was P's birthday. P was totally thrilled - he's still talking about it and hoping the Cat in the Hat will visit again, or maybe even come to his house.



Just before P's birthday snack, the Cat led the class in a rendition of "Happy Birthday to You!" for P and Dr. Seuss/the Cat in the Hat.

To cap off a celebratory morning, P took two of his "bes' friens," Hamza (pictured below) and Riley to "pizza and chips" (Subway) for lunch and then had the boys over for a short playdate.

Happy birthday, newly-turned 4 (gulp!) year old!

Crazy Hat Day!

P and Dr. Seuss share a birthday, so last Wednesday was Crazy Hat Day at P's preschool. I looked around the house, but I couldn't really find any good crazy hats. Then it dawned on me - we could make our own crazy hats... so we did!

Tuesday afternoon we got to work. I taped a piece of yellow paper (we didn't have any white paper, so I let P choose a color) to the table with painter's tape. I taped stripes across the paper, and the boys got to work covering all of the yellow paper they could see with red paint.


At least I thought I said cover the yellow paper, but I must have actually said cover your body with paint! Good thing P and C had taken their shirts off!

Once the paper was covered, P got to work painting two paper plates red. (He finished his paper before C was done, and he offered to be "a nice guy" and paint C's plate, too. Since C was on board, I let him paint away!)

The plates and papers dried on the easel, and after the boys were in bed Daddy A and I peeled away the painters' tape and cut the centers out of the paper plates. Then we attached the boys' painted papers on top of the paper plate hat brims.

We were ready for Crazy Hat Day!

my broomstick buckaroo

If you've been reading, you're probably aware that P takes dance class once a week. His recital will be near the end of May, but in the meantime the class took pictures in their costumes on the day of their last class in February. I am really pleased with how the pictures turned out, but since I don't order them until next week, I can't show them to you yet! (Actually, I'm not planning to pay for any digital images, so you'll have to come by and see them in person if you want to see them at all - sorry!) I do have a preview for you, though. On our way out of the studio, P asked me to snap a photo of him in his "cowboy costume," so here it is!


I can't begin to explain how much better the photos taken inside the studio by the pros are, and P also smiled and laughed and, you know, looked like he was enjoying himself in those photos, but you take what you can get, right?

I love my hobby horse riding broomstick buckaroo and his younger brother!

Say Cheese!

Even though P is only in preschool, he did have one "homework assignment" this year. Every member of his class was assigned a day at the beginning of the year to bring in a poster that illustrated his (yes, the class is all boys) favorite things. P was assigned February 28th. A couple of weekends ago, we sat down to work on his "cheese poster".

We talked with P about his favorite things, printed out some pictures, and let him choose which ones would go on his display board. He worked very hard - first coloring and cutting out a picture of SuperWhy!, and then telling me about the other pictures and items he'd chosen to represent his favorite things. His favorite color, for example, has recently changed from pink to red. Pink is now his "next favorite".

I wrote down what P said (in his own words and pronunciations), and we glued the pictures and captions onto his board. He was so excited for the 28th to arrive!

Before he left for school, he posed with his "cheese poster".


He practiced his presentation, telling me all about the different things on his poster.

He finished with a big, "Ta-da!" and headed off to school.

I arrived at school at 10:30 to watch his presentation. Mrs. Heather helped him out with her pointer, showing him which pictures to talk about and making sure P hit the highlights of his project. He got stuck once or twice and I tried to help him get restarted, but he quickly proved his independence with, "No, no, no. Mommy, don't help me. I can do it!"

And he did. I was so proud of my (not so little anymore!) boy as he told his teacher, classmates, and family all about his interests and explained why he likes the things he likes right now. Way to go, P!