Birthday Rundown and A Bunch of Pictures!

I have to start this off by saying something. We know SO MANY people who have July birthdays. What is happening back in October/November that is causing so many people to be born in July? Oh wait, I have a July birthday child. Ahem....let's change the subject, shall we? ;)

So Lucas turned four last week. His actual, official birthday was July 24th, but we had his birthday party on July 27th. We tried to make both days special in their own way. Wednesday was just a family day. The girls drew birthday pictures for him. I went and got donuts for breakfast. We walked to the park, played Memory, Candyland and cars with him in the afternoon. And that evening, we let him choose to go eat dinner anywhere he wanted. His choice? Luby's Cafeteria. My dad takes the kids there often (my dad loves a good cafeteria meal) and so the kids think it is a pretty cool place. I mean, you get to pick your own food. Including jello! And we learned a good tidbit for future use-- kids eat FREE Monday - Thursday after 4pm. Score! Free birthday meal! My dad joined us for dinner and then we came home to open a few presents from us and eat cake and ice cream.

 About to open a gift from his sisters (his first ever lego set)

 Diving into Mom and Dad's gift (a batman cave)

 So excited about his chocolate birthday cake that his sisters decorated

 Make a wish!

"Behold, I have made Legos!" Imagine him saying this like Tom Hanks in Castaway. 

After jammies were on, Lucas and Mike put together his first lego set-- Ironman chasing some villain in a motorcycle. He was tha-rilled!

Saturday's party was a combined birthday party with our good friend, Marlee. She turned four on the 27th and since we all know most of the same people, we went in together for a Cowgirls and Cowboys themed party. We hosted it in Marlee's backyard which has plenty of space and shade. Including our own kids, we had 16 children in attendance and about 20 adults. We thought it might get a bit crazy, but there was enough room to spread out and everyone had a good time!

My little Cowboy. I'm sure all Cowboys carry a neon green gun, right?

Our friend Leta playing with the horse ring toss

Boys vs. Girls stick horse relay races were a hit!

Lucas bringing it home. He smiled the entire time!

Next up was a game of "Pin the Sheriff Badge on Woody"

Mike drew a picture of Woody from Toy Story and the kids each had a sticker badge with their name on it. Leah purposefully placed her badge on Woody's eye. She goes for a good laugh over a personal victory. She's funny like that.

And what's a party without a pinata? We had a candy stuffed Cowboy boot that the kids had a lot of fun whacking the living daylights out of. This was Marlee walking away after her turn.

Lucas gave it two good hits. The boy loves anything that is similar to baseball, so this was right up his alley.

Thwack!

Hannah waiting for her turn to get at it. We let the littlest party goers try first, followed by the bigger kids, then the dads.

Our friend, Reed, spinning his nine year old, Eli. He made sure to get him good and dizzy. 

Note: our pinata is being held together with tape at this point. Some of the kids managed to open it up before everyone had a turn. Whoopsie! Duct tape to the rescue.

The birthday kids!

And future spouses. 

Can we still arrange marriages these days?

We finished the party with hot dogs, chips, watermelon, and cake. And presents of course. 

After playing a bunch of games, the kids wasted no time chowing down.

And, guess which parents forgot to buy candles? They will remain nameless, but you can probably guess who it was. We just sang "Happy Birthday" and had them pretend to blow them out. 

Life goes on.

PS--Never buy a cookie cake from Sam's. They are way. too. sweet. Blech!

The party was nearing its end, so I had to get at least one shot of the adults.

This is Marlee's mom, Nikki, our good friend (and amazing fitness instructor), Rachel, and Me with my weird, contorted arm. 

It was fun, but I am partied out for now. 

We have two and a half more weeks until school starts to recover before the whirlwind of "back to school" begins. Looking forward to every last day to sleep in, relax, swim and soak up the sun.