Life's Greatest Blessings: Happy Birthday

Every other year for Caleb's birthday we have done a very large party and included many of our local friends and family. This year we decided to do something different. Caleb is of the age now where he really enjoys playing WITH friends. Since he turned 4 years old, we told him that he could choose 4 friends to invite for a party on the Saturday before his actual birthday. He knew exactly who he wanted to invite and, much to Caleb's delight, all four of the friends he invited were able to come! I also let Caleb choose what kind of party he wanted and with zero hesitation he proclaimed, "an Angry Birds party . . . regular Angry Birds, Star War Angry Birds, and Bad Piggies Party". With some coaxing, we finally agreed that just calling it an "Angry Birds" party was best. Aliceson made or borrowed many of the decorations including some bird balloons, an Angry Birds banner, and paper plate birds (which Caleb painted himself), made the invitations, baked and decorated the cookie cake, prepared several games, and even made a King Piggie pinata (Caleb's request) from scratch! Her first pinata but likely won't be the last. It was fun! On the day of the party all of Caleb's friends and their parents (and baby siblings - a special request by Caleb, that all the babies also come) came over, the kids played on Caleb's new "fort" for a while, we played games, ate snacks, sang "Happy Birthday", ate cookie cake and ice cream, opened presents, and then the kids played some more. For a mid-June day in Houston, the weather wasn't too bad thankfully. Hot and humid, as usual, but could have been much worse for sure. Caleb said it was his best party ever! Hope he remembers the party and how much he is loved as he continues to grow. :)

The bird paddles Aliceson made for a "Squish the Piggies" game

Piggie cans for a game

Caleb painted plates and we cut and glued faces on them to make Angry Birds! Love cheap decorations!

Bird balloon decorations

Caleb and buddy Ian are having fun gliding on Caleb's new play set.

Christopher and big Caleb climbing down the ramp

"Squash the Piggies" game. Each child got one blue bird and one red bird on a stick. Kyle and Aliceson threw out green balloons decorated with Piggie faces and they had to try and pop the balloons (it's easier than you think on grass!).

Game #2 - Each child was given a ball decorated like an Angry Bird to throw at this set-up. Goal of the game is to knock down the Piggies! Just like real Angry Birds . . . minus the sling shots! This game was a HIT!

Ready! Aim! FIRE!

All of the boys with the King Pig pinata. From the left: Carson, Caleb, Caleb B., Ian, and Christopher

Caleb taking his first hit!

I think we put one too many layers of paper mache on the pinata. It was TOUGH to break. It required some help to give up its goodies!

FINALLY!!

Picking up the goodies!

Victory! King Piggie is demolished!

The spread of snacks and cake. Each snack was specifically chosen to fit with the Angry Birds theme.

Look at that big FOUR year old! *Sigh*

Caleb's Angry Birds cookie cake made by Mommy! (Sorry for the weird angle.)

Make a wish!

Caleb's favorite part - DESSERT!

Samuel took one of his first long(er) naps the morning of the party. Thank you, little buddy!! Mommy and Daddy appreciate it!

Opening gifts from friends!

These are the favor bags for all of Caleb's friends. Mommy wrote the names of his friends on Post-Its and he copied them onto the bags. This Mommy is pretty proud! He did a great job and worked really hard on each one!

On Monday, June 17th, the day before Caleb's birthday, Daddy took off of work so we could have just a family day together, celebrating Caleb. We went blueberry picking at Pioneer Blueberry Farm in the Conroe area, ate lunch at our favorite BBQ place (where Caleb even got to choose a cookie from the bakery next door), stopped for a cherry snow-cone on the way home, and just had a great day being together.

Showing off his very own basket of blueberries he picked himself.

Samuel sampled his first blueberry at the farm! He was not a fan of riding in the stroller, riding in the carrier on Daddy's back, or being carried by Daddy. Mommy picked as many blueberries as she could one-handed. ha!

On June 18, Caleb's birthday, we started off with a yummy breakfast and then we invited best buddy Ian back over to play and have lunch. We enjoyed pepperoni pizza, fruit, and veggies for lunch with some ice cream for dessert. Caleb and Ian had a blast!! That night we let Caleb choose dinner and, as expected, he chose "Chick-uh-late", his FAVORITE!! With his chicken nuggets he chose chocolate milk and fruit cup. We also let him choose a dessert and he wanted to try the cookie sundae. Yes, that means he had ice cream twice in one day! haha Definitely not something we do often but we figured it was just fine as a special birthday treat! Caleb also got to open his gifts from Mommy, Daddy and Samuel - his first bicycle, a Monsters University cookie painting kit, and a jar of maraschino cherries (his favorite!).

Caleb was in a Superhero mood that morning. He was a big fan of the "glowing" balloons Mommy found at the store for him (they had a little LED light inside - too bad only half of them worked, half of the time).

Superhero Caleb and sidekick Samuel

"I'M FFOOUURRR!!"

Got the two of them to finally stop running for a second for a quick picture!

Buddies!

Ryan was enjoying his lunch too!

Enjoying some Homemade Vanilla with sprinkles and candles

It takes teamwork (and the ceiling fan) to blow out the trick candles!

See the previous blog entry about Caleb turning four and you'll see there was mention of watermelon being catapulted across the room. This was the consequence of the watermelon incident. Mopping on your birthday.

Caleb seeing his first bicycle for the first time. Pure joy!

Safety first!

Just has to be silly . . . ;)

Samuel is enjoying his first Chick-fil-A placemat!

Yet another reason why we choose to support Chick-fil-A -- Caleb was so excited to tell the cashier that it was his birthday. She told him "happy birthday" while we were ordering. Later on, after we were finished eating, she came over and brought him a few balloons with a plush cow tied on! How thoughtful! Can't think of any other restaurant with workers that would take the time and initiative to do something like that. He LOVED it!

It was "Kid's Night" so even the CFA cow was there! Caleb LOVES the cow!!

The following weekend we went to Brenham and Caleb got to celebrate with family. He loved getting to play with cousins Mallory and Luke, having a special lunch at Nana and Papa's house, and having a special dinner with Paw Paw and Mimi to celebrate their birthdays as well.