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Cape May: Part Two - The Wedding!

Now you may have wondered what possessed us to pack up a four, and a six year old and drive twelve-ish hours away, into an entire other country just to splash in some salty water. Well, I'll tell you what. We had a much better reason to visit the beach than just to pick up some shells. The real reason we decided to go to visit Cape May was that we were going to a wedding! 

And not just any old wedding. My Little Brother's wedding. P.J. (or Uncle P.J. as he is known around here) is my little brother only in age, as by the time he hit grade 10, and I was in Grade 12, he was already almost a head taller than I was. Our Little Guy once referred to him as "dat tall uncle wif da no hair." And now that tall guy has finally met his match. Not in height of course (as you will see from the pictures) but in humour, temperament and interests they certainly see eye to eye. 

Lisa (or Aunt Lisa, as she will heretofore be known) is an American, and grew up in Philadelphia, but went every summer to Cape May for a vacation at the beach. Since many fond childhood memories are there, and she knew how beautiful it was, she wanted to have a wedding on that sweet little beach from those happy childhood days. So off we went, with the promise of a seaside vacation into the bargain.

And thus it came to pass, that on the morning of the 13th of June we went to the beach and it looked like this: It was bright, but windy. The surf was choppy and we wore bathing suits and water wings and lots of sunscreen. 

BUT, on the afternoon of the 13th of June we went to the beach and it looked like this: Sunny and bright, with a clean blue sky, and we wore our summer Sunday best, (and still more sunscreen) And where there had just been sand and beach umbrellas before, there were now rows of white chairs, and a little arch with flowers on it, and a man in a top hat waiting for a lady in a long white dress to come and meet him. And all those nearest and dearest to them were waiting to hear them tell each other of their love, and how they would live the rest of their lives together. 

It was lovely. Our little family had our small parts to play in their big day as well.  As the youngest child in the extended family, our Little Guy had the honour of being the Ring Bearer! He took his job very seriously, but luckily did not get nervous about it. He held the little ring cushion very carefully as he sat in his seat, and when the Officiant said, "May we have the rings", his cousin sitting next to him gave him a nudge and he popped up and went straight up there to deliver them. And I had a job too. Besides being the self-appointed provider of sunscreen to small children and the unprepared, I was the photographer. I really enjoy taking pictures, and despite the fact that my brother does NOT enjoy having pictures taken, (never did, even as a child) even he could seen the need to record this beautiful day. I was very honoured to be given this responsibility, and took it so seriously that I wore flats. (For those of you who know me, you realize that this practical footwear decision on a semi-formal dress occasion is a great acknowledgment of the of the importance of my job. ahem.) 

And so they tied the knot and sealed it with a kiss. 

And then smiled and stood and posed for pictures with all the family. (This one is just our immediate family on the Groom's side)

The Ring Bearer ran off with the Bride's parasol.

And the Bride and Groom smiled and posed and posed and smiled for as long as I could get two people who don't care much for posing to do so. Though I must admit that they were more than usually smiley. They must have been having a pretty nice day...

And I'm going to pat myself on the back and say I did a pretty good job with the photos. This one is my favourite. 

And then it was time to head off to Menz's for the wedding dinner, and of course, CAKE! And oh the excitement when the little boys discovered that the cake had LEGO PEOPLE on it! Our joy was complete when they found that each place card was set with a little lego man too. As the little cake banner says, it was the BEST DAY EVER!

This was the first wedding that our boys have attended, and I must say, Aunt Lisa and Uncle P.J. set the bar pretty high as they not only had lego men at their place settings, but were personally gifted with action figures as wedding favours from the bride and groom.  Oh Joy!

Batman flew all over that dance floor!

The night went on, with cake and food and lego people playing, and the bride and groom and all their guests talking and laughing and revelling late into the night, until I finally packed in my camera, picked up the boys and took our tired, happy bones home to bed with the promise of another day at the beach tomorrow. 

Best wedding ever. 

Cape May: Part One

oh, I have SO many pictures to show you. We just got back from our very first family beach vacation. Also, our very first family road trip. Also, our first swim in an ocean. Also, our first beach wedding! So many firsts. But one thing at a time. This is going to take a few posts as we saw so much stuff and had so much fun that it can't all be crammed into one little post. So here goes.

After a 10 hour drive, which was really a 14 hour road trip (what with the stops to eat and stops to pee and stops to eat some more) we arrived very late at night in warm and beautiful Cape May, New Jersey. I don't think I've ever actually been to New Jersey before, and was only vaguely aware that it had beaches due to a certain reality show which is the interest of full disclosure I will admit that I did actually watch. But " Jersey Shore" did absolutely nothing to prepare me for how lovely Cape May is. Cape May is down at the very bottom of New Jersey, and is a small, picturesque beach town, full of victorian architecture and some of the prettiest beaches on the Atlantic Coast. It was so pretty and the scale of it was so manageable. I really liked it. 

Anyhow, gushing about the location aside, we got up on our first morning in Cape May and after breakfast went straight to the beach. The beach we chose was recommended to us both by the owner of the house we rented, and my soon-to-be sister in law (more on that later). It was The Cove beach, rated in the top 21 beaches in America. And whoever does those ratings was right. The boys had never really been on an actual ocean beach before (we dipped our toes in the Pacific for about 10 minutes the last time we were in Vancouver, but didn't have a proper beach visit there really) and were full of excitement about it. We go to a little lake beach here in Ontario from time to time, but aside from the occasional bottle cap, there is not much to find in the sand there. But here, in Cape May: SHELLS! So many SHELLS. They could hardly contain their excitement. 

When we finally tore them away from the tide line and its bounty, it was a joy to watch them experience the waves for the first time.  They were just delighted to feel the waves wash up and slosh against their legs. 

Their squeals of pleasure at the simple reality of the tides was one of those parenting moments that you look forward to. 

They were easily convinced to put their buckets and shovels down, get their water wings on, and hit the surf. 

Though of course, when you are four, you don't actually do much swimming in the ocean. You mostly just wade in and get buffeted about by the waves.

And its all much easier if you have your mom or dad's hand to hold onto. 

I should also mention, in the interest if "keeping it real" parenting wise, that taking a vacation with kids is not really a vacation per se. I prefer to call it a trip. We took a trip with the kids. Which was fun and all, but also still a lot of work. I mean, look at these kids. 

I probably had the two whitest kids on that beach. Honestly, I looks like we climbed out of a basement in Iceland or something! Like, have they ever even seen the sun before? I swear, we do go outside in Canada from time to time. Anyhow, my point is that my kids are so white that they practically glow in the dark. And as I know from my own life, skin like ours only has two settings: white or red. Maybe a little light pink in between there. But basically, we do not tan. (this is all my Dad's fault by the way. My mom gets a beautiful, golden brown tan. My dad burns like a lobster. I blame the red hair gene). Which is all to say that when we go somewhere sunny and hot, putting sunscreen on little people is my full time job. Oh, and have I mentioned that little people HATE HAVING SUNSCREEN PUT ON! They hate having it applied almost as much as I hate applying it. The phrase "greasing a pig" comes to mind. Except I'll bet the pigs don't whine as much. 

Back to swimming though. One of the best features of The Cove beach was this great tidal pool. It was big, and clear and warm from the sun, and not connected to the ocean once the tide went out, so it was the perfect place for little kids to play and swim. No waves, no undertow, no deeper than a pair of adult knees. It was perfect. The kids spent hours in there. 

One of the best parts of this trip, according to my seven year old, was all the wildlife we saw. There were lots of crabs on this beach. Teeny tiny ones like this guy, and bigger ones too. Though none to big. But I did get my toe pinched when I was wading out in the water. Twice! Hubs thought I was imaging things, but I was not. Other beach goers confirmed the pinchieness of the local crabs. Not enough to break the skin though. And so very fascinating to find some, dig them up with your shovel and watch them scurry along and burrow themselves back into the wet beach sand until just their little eyeballs peeked out. We could have done that for hours!

We did a lot of beach combing, and found so many shells, though the locals all tell us that the shelling is not as good as it used to be. We found no whelks, and many shells were small and broken. Which did not matter much to us, as pretty much all of it was a wonderful novelty. But this was my favourite find of our whole trip. This odd little bit of broken shell, drilled through all over with the most perfect holes. Its a larger, hunter/predator shell creature that does this. Though they usually only make one hole. I don't know why this one was so full of holes, but I do know that I find it beautiful. I want to make a pendant out of it and wear it when its cold outside, so I can remember the warm place where I found it.

And after our long day on the beach, full of wonder and sunscreen re-applications and slightly sandy snacks, we headed back to our beach-town cottage and rinsed off the sand in the outdoor shower (another marvel!) and put on fresh clothes and curled up in chairs on the veranda for a late afternoon cup of tea and a cuddle. It was a good day.

Big News!

And no, I'm not pregnant. Bite your tongue. But yes, this does have to do with my children. Because we finally did it. We got…. wait for it… Haircuts! One of my kids looks a LOT different and one of them looks much the same. Can you guess which will be which?  Here is the Little Dude's before shot. He has naturally curly hair (obviously, who would artificially curl a six-year-old's hair?) and we just basically cut it to keep it out of his eyes. But its mostly shaggy and not really a style. 

And here is my other little wild-child. Note the unposed picture. We were late for the hairdresser, and I just needed to snap away while he ran ahead of me through the mall to the hair salon. 

The Little Dude was all set for a haircut. After the first hot, sweaty day of the early summer he agreed that he needed a haircut. "Just up to here Mom" he said, placing his hand just up to the top of his ear. "Perfect!" I agreed, because I had just the haircut in mind. 

Our nice stylist pinned it all up in place and started cutting. 

He was all smiles as she started to snip away...

…and thought that he looked delightfully like a fraggle with his curls pinned up into a faux mohawk.

But then she got out the clippers and started to buzz away...

…and the mood quite drastically changed. Oh, he was NOT happy. 

To be fair there was a LOT of hair on the floor. 

The poor guy. I felt bad for him, but I do know my kid, and I know that he doesn't love change in the moment, but that with time, he will come around. 

The change looked very drastic to him at this point, with his hair all wetted down, and he was worried that he was going to loose all his curls. And he was very annoyed with how long it was taking (30 whole minutes!) And it felt funny! So he cried a bit. I just kept hugging him, and reassuring him that we were almost done, and that it was going to look really good when it was all over.

And as soon as he was out of the chair he was back to his old self, twirling around on an empty chair and having a grand old time. 

Then it was the Little Guy's turn. 

But not to worry, the shavers would not be coming out in this case. I love his long hair (and so does he) and it looks really good on him, but we did decide that it needed to be cleaned up a little, as it was looking quite scraggly around the back. 

This guy did not seem to have a problem with the hair cutting process. 

He even took the opportunity to ham it up for the camera. Of course it was a shorter process, and less drastic visually, so it was not as stressful

We only took about two inches off the back, and tried to keep it natural looking instead of blunt.

He even enjoyed the blow dry.

And was very happy with the finished product. 

A final trim and we were out the door. 

And here are the finished results. A fine haircut complete with a smile. 

And here's the back view. Much cooler in the summer! So funny too how much more "grown up" he looks. Really like a kid now. 

The little guy's hair is still blowing in the wind, but more neatly. 

Yay for haircuts! We've all adjusted to the changes quite nicely, and are happier and cooler and ready for all the Summer Wedding pictures we will be in. 


 

archer

Do you ever have that thing where your kid turns to you over breakfast and says "oh, you know I need a medieval archer costume for school tomorrow right?" 

sigh. 

I did NOT know that.

"It's a good thing I remembered today, hey Mom?"

Yes, yes its a very good thing that I have 24 hours notice on your need for a home-made costume. Whew. What a relief!

So with a quick bit of brainstorming before he got on the bus, he found the green sweatshirt lining from his spring coat and said "its easy mom, all you need to do is make an old fashioned-y looking hood and then snap it on to here or something. And Dad can make me a bow. You tell him before he goes to work, ok?"

So I made a quick stop at the fabric store between swimming lessons and a doctors appointment and then with the hour I had in the afternoon, I whipped up a hood and attached some snaps and voila, we have a costume!

Of course, what really sells the whole thing in the bow. Which Hubs did not make. He just happens to already have it. He's a bit of a bow and arrow enthusiast, so he had a couple lying around, and this is a little junior sized compound bow. His packrat ways certainly do come in handy sometimes. 

It should go without saying that we did not send any arrows along with him. Obviously. 

Here's a shot of his hood from the back. Its just made from good ole' cheap craft felt, and I tacked the point down so that it would not look too comically elf-y. I didn't use a pattern or anything. Just folded the felt in half and laid a hoodie on it and cut out a more exagerated shape with a bit of a point on it, and a longer, rounded collar. Since it was felt, I didn't really have to do any hemming, though I did fold it over and hem in along the face edge, just because it looked nice. And then I attached it with four snaps along the collar of the sweatshirt, so that we can take it on and off for playing. 

"See Mom, this way its a crossbow."

There is nothing more satisfying than making something for your kid that they really, really like. He was so happy with this costume. The camo pants were his idea, and of course, the bow really made it, but I'm glad he was happy with this little hood. When he came out of his bedroom this morning and saw it lying on his chair, he said "Yeah, that's perfect! That's just the way I wanted it!"Medieval Archers - now with new and improved camouflage and sunglasses! Not so historically accurate, but he sure is Mommy's Little Badass.

everyday beauty

So I've been doing this thing where I take pictures. I won't say that I am a photographer, because I'm just another person with a digital SLR and there's no need to get uppity about it. But my point is that I'm not always, shall we say, a huge fan of my life. On the bad days (and there have been some bad days lately) it can be hard to see the value in what I do. And yeah, yeah, I know "Moms are important", and I'm sure if I google that phrase I'll get a bajillion heart-felt, uplifting stories about the unsung heroes of early childhood. But my point is that it feels like a bit of a boring slog sometimes. So I'm trying to do what I do and look for the beauty. Trying to make some art. Trying to see beyond the whining and the poop and the endless making of food and engage my eye and brain and heart. So I'm taking pictures of things in my life that are beautiful. They are mostly still-life-y things, and occasionally will involve my kids. But my rule for myself is no styling and no staging. No careful choosing of backgrounds. No wiping of dirty faces. No asking anyone to do anything again while I get a shot. Just pictures of things in my messy life as they are. Like this beautifully smeared plastic-plate paint palette, courtesy of my four year old. 

 Though I will allow myself slight repositioning, as in the image below.Those little boots were set on the balcony railing to dry after a good soaker, late last summer. I angled the little one on the right just a bit, to get a more pleasing angle. And I might move something into a bit of better light. 

But sometimes the light is just perfect, right where it is.

I'm going to try to put up a post like this once a week. Though I'm not committing to a particular day. You'll just have to wait and see. 

SPRING!

The first day of Spring was almost a couple of weeks ago, and I meant to post these pictures then, but you know, life happens. Ridiculous cakes have to be baked, swimming lessons had to start, committee meetings were scheduled and I forgot. But then I remembered, and wanted to share. Because the calendar said SPRING! Ad how we have longed for, waited for, hoped for SPRING. And since the calendar said so, we went out into the world for a little walk to see if what was marked in that little box had changed the way the world looked. And lo and behold, it had!First things first, we had to go to the forest's edge and see if the snowdrops had come up yet. 

We had to really get down there and look hard...

You're close guys...

...turn around.

There they are! Not quite out in full bloom yet, but peeping their little tops up in a very hopeful way.

Then there was a quick stop by the fort for some general silliness. 

And then we set off down the still snowy path, a little deeper into the woods where the trees are keeping the snow around for a little bit longer. It was slippery and crunchy at the same time, and we had to be careful where we stepped. 

We found a dead tree, beautifully pockmarked with with woodpecker holes.

We had to look inside and see if there were any bugs left. Or woodpeckers for that matter. 

And we never forget to investigate the creek. We need to stand on the bridge and drop sticks into the water and see how fast the go from one side to the other (a game called Pooh Sticks for those of you familiar with Winnie the Pooh's adventures).

but first we needed to find some sticks. The Little Guy found a perfect, tiny one. 

And the Little Dude found a very BIG one. 

Because all that beautiful, lacey, ice along the edge of the creek…

…just HAD to be smashed.I can't even tell you what fun he had doing it. We went all along the edge of the creek with our giant stick, leaving a very satisfying trail of destruction in our wake. Oddly, it was also a very satisfying parenting moment, because it was good to see him combining all the physical skills of balance, aim and precision as he carefully managed standing on the slippery creek bank, wielding a long, heavy object, shifting his centre of gravity, and aiming accurately to break the ice. Its funny how a simple, unplanned activity can be as valuable than signing up for gymnastics!

Anyhow, the weather has continued to shift, with the temperature swinging up and down, and the snow slowly disappearing. Because its coming. Spring is coming. And we are very, very happy about it. 

 

 

skittles cake

So the girl's group I volunteer with had a cake auction fundraiser today and I needed to bake a cake. The girls love rainbows and sugar, so I used that as my inspiration, and went to the store and bought all the skittles I could carry. The boys were very excited to see the 'groceries' that I brought home. And VERY excited to hear that they had a job to do to help me with my cake….

…sorting skittles!

Sort, sort, sorty sort. I can't even tell you how much they enjoyed this. 

The Little Dude drew me a diagram for how to decorate the cake we would make. 

So here we go.One layer, baked and frosted. 

Two layers, baked and frosted. 

Three layers, baked, stacked and frosted. And skittle application begun. Note: the boys were not allowed to help me stick the skittles on. Though you can see the Little Guy there in the background, still managing to have a good time, getting all creative with the baking garbage; a cake tester and an empty Skittles bag turned into a flag. He was singing "oh Skittles Cake, we stand on guard for thee!" in the most hilarious off-key manner. 

And after what felt like HOURS of saying "NO, you may NOT eat one!", it was finally finished. 

At which point I was very pleased with the result. 

And the boys were very pleased to finally be allowed free-rein with the leftover skittles to decorate the extra cupcakes I made, knowing that I would have revolt on my hands if there was not something for them! How could I make such a cake and just give it away! All those Skittles, just slipping through their fingers. 

Ah, but to their great joy we had a LOT of left over Skittles. I wish I didn't have to buy so many packs, but it was necessary because I completely used up/ran out of the purples and the pinks. But there is NO WAY the boys are going to be allowed to eat all of these. I think I will be giving a lot of these away.

A few technical notes on the cake (if you want to make one exactly like it, or, more likely for me to refer to at the next birthday when a Skittles Cake will most certainly be requested). The cake itself is made from this recipe for what is reportedly The Best White Cake Recipe Ever! from the Add a Pinch blog. And I must say, it is pretty damn good. I made two batches of it in order to fill all my pans (an 8", a 7" and a 6" round) and make almost a dozen cupcakes besides. Then I used good ole' Martha Stewart's recipe for Swiss Meringue Buttercream, but did my usual trick of adding another couple of cups of icing sugar at the end of the recipe, because I don't actually find it very sweet. Which is surprising for me. I bought eight large bags of Skittles all together, two of each 'flavour' that was available, except not the sour Skittles, as the texture is too different with the sour coating on the outside. I split all four layers in two, and iced between them. I chilled it after icing and before putting on the Skittles 

So there it is. That's it. Another week another cake!

button sudoku game

I've been a little lax in posting the stuff I've been making lately, (which I think may have been the original intension of this blog. ahem.) so I wanted to take a moment to share some pictures of this cute quilted game I made. This is a little quilted, button sudoku game! There are nine sections, and each is divided into nine squares. It could not be easier to make. I got the pattern from the lovely book "A Month of Sundays" by Cheryl Arkinson. This is a great "new quilter" project. The hardest part is finding 9 buttons in 9 different colours in your button box! And I have to say, it has been very well received by my 4 and 6 year olds. The play value is pretty high, because when it is not being used as a sudoku game, it becomes a sleeping bag for their stuffies, an Island to stand on, a picnic blanket for pretend-food picnics, and the bag of buttons is very popular as "a bag of fake money".

Here's how you play it: You need to reach into the bag of buttons and pull one out. And preferably, you should close your eyes and make a squinchy, hopeful face while you do. 

When you pull out a button, you should be surprised and delighted by the colour. (Unless it is white or black. Apparently those are boring, disappointing non-colours).

You then place your button on one of the nine squares' little segments. But be careful, each different square can only have ONE button of EACH colour in it. Like real number sudoku, but with colours. 

If your kids are really little, just make it a matching game and designate one square for each colour (this is the "green square", this is the "red square") which makes it a little simpler.  

They are so fun and easy to make that I made three of them, to have on hand for gifts. The tops are mostly made from "new" fabrics, as I don't have very many neutrals in my stash, but the backs and bindings are all made from vintage sheet fabrics. So if you happen to be the parent of a small child who is related to me, try to act surprised when you open up the package that came in the mail….

In the meantime, I need to go and replenish my button collection. I've got a whole box full of the darn things and did not realize how few orange ones I have!

 

owl cake!

I've been a bit busy lately, a bit distracted by projects and, you know, life. So I haven't yet gotten around to posting the pictures of the cake I made when our Little Guy turned three. But it did turn out so nicely, and in the interest of sharing the way I made it, I now present to you, The Owl Cake. 

Oh, but wait. First I have to tell you that the Little Guy originally asked for a different kind of cake. When I told him he could have any kind of cake he wanted, he said "A Doggy Cake!" But that's what you had last year, I told him, how about something else? "A Kitty Cake!" he exclaimed. Ok, I said, I can do that. "No," he said "A Kitty Cat Cake AND a Doggy Cake!" Weeeeellll, I demurred, I don't know if Mommy is going to make two cakes. "No WAIT!" he said, holding up his hands, as if to stop the presses, "I know what I want!" And then after a pregnant pause, he said "A cake that is a kitty cat dressed up as a doggy, AND a dog cake dressed up as a kitty cat!" I know. Mind blown. What do I look like, a cross between Anne Geddes and Martha Stewart? Luckily, I was saved from the meta-cake baking challenge that is kitty cats and doggies dressed as each other, because he was watching over my shoulder one day when I was browsing cake recipes on pinterest and he saw a cake decorated to look like an owl. "THAT! I want THAT! An OWL CAKE!" he exclaimed gleefully. Done, and done!

So here's what it looked like before frosting. I used two 10" round cake pans to make it. Made my favourite cake recipe (a light vanilla flavoured white cake) and baked and cooled them, and then had handy Hubs cut it up and make it look like an owl.  

 

And then I frosted the daylights out of it in order for it to look like a nice, feathery owl. You know I have no great love for food colouring, and I was very happy to be able to pull this off without using any, and still having three distinct colours of icing. I made a Swiss Meringue Buttercream (our favourite fancy cake icing from good ole' Martha Stewart, but I must confess I add an extra cup or so of of icing sugar at the end because we like it a bit sweeter than Martha does) and took out one third of it before adding a tablespoon of strongly brewed instant coffee to get a mocha flavoured icing which is tan coloured, and then I took half of that out of the mixer and added cocoa powder to get the chocolate/mocha flavoured icing which is dark brown. And then I used my #19 tip (manufactured by Ateco, don't know if the numbers are the same for Wilton etc.) and made the long, feathery shapes. I was very pleased with how the feathers on his chest worked out, by alternating the vanilla and mocha icing. That was Hubs' good idea. He went and googled owl pictures and suggested it. Clever man. 

The eyes are opened up Oreos, and the pupils are droopies (a weird salty dutch candy that my kids love, but yours will probably hate. M&M's would work well in their place) and the nose is a long gumdrop cut on the diagonal and stuck back together. I'm pretty happy with it, though if I had it to do again I would have made the nose a shorter triangle, so that he would look "cuter". Also, it'd have made his feather horn thingy's on top of his head shorter too. Again for the cute factor. Short features equals "cute". But luckily my big Little four year old Guy had no such criticisms for me. He just wanted to make sure he got to eat the nose. 

Even his friends were licking their lips in anticipation.

 So we sang and blew out the candles and cut up our delicious owl. Everybody got the piece they wanted ("just chocolate icing for me!", "I want vanilla!"), and there was plenty to go around.

And even an extra piece or two to save for this guy to celebrate on the day after his birthday party. Because that's how we roll, cake and lego for daaaaays!

four!

I'll try to spare you all the cliches of parenting as my child gets a year older. All the "where did the time go?", and the "how did it happen so fast!", etc. You know them all. But as they say, sometimes cliches are cliches because they are true. Suffice it to say that our Little Guy (aka, the Baby) is four today. 

Despite the fact that we've talked about it for weeks, and tucked him in bed last night with "goodnight for the last time as a three-year-old" kisses, he didn't remember that this morning was his birthday. So when he stumbled out of his room all groggy and bleary-eyed he did not notice that I hadn't managed to get around to decorating and wrapping presents last night. Ahem. That's the price of being second-baby. Parents are not so on top of their game as with those first-born little emperors. But one of the best things about little kids is that their limited life experience means that they don't always know what they're missing. And so I was able to sneak downstairs and quickly wrap a few gifts, while Hubs pinned up some bunting. And then SURPRISE we were able to reveal to him that it was, in fact, his birthday! He looked bewildered and then delighted. As though despite all this talk of the coming birthday he hadn't realized that one day it would actually BE his birthday.  We try not to go crazy with the gifts, as it can get out of hand, pretty fast these days. But you can see why people do spoil their kids because its pretty darn rewarding to watch them open a gift that they really wanted. 

This is not a great picture (bad lighting, should know better than to put him in the seat with the window right behind him. duh) but the look on his face and his joy with that little rabbit toy is so perfect. "I have always wanted this!" he cried when he pulled him out of the bag.

What is is with my kids and rabbits?

So far, four is a pretty great age. You're not too big for a morning cuddle on Daddy's lap. 

But you're big enough to help decorate the birthday cupcakes. (mmmm, sprinkles….)

Though it should be noted that you are NOT big enough to carry the box of birthday cupcakes to the fridge. Sigh.

Sidebar: Here's my honest parenting moment. I would like to say that I just chuckled about this sort of mishap due to overzealous toddler help, but I was not pleased. Though I am glad to say that aside from an audible sigh, I kept all the frustration inside. In my head I was all like "Seriously! Didn't I just tell you NOT to try and carry them to the fridge by yourself! ARGH!" But luckily the other part of my brain said "DO NOT freak out about this. Its his birthday. Don't ruin it. They are just cupcakes, and you are making them for him anyhow, and he doesn't care at all if they are smushed so long as they still have lots of icing and a liberal amount of self-applied sprinkles." And luckily, I had another 8 cupcakes, perfectly iced and ready to go in a second container that he didn't get his helpful little hands on, so there was no need to freak out. 

Another fun thing on your birthday is getting phone calls from relatives that live too far away to visit. So cool, to hold the phone yourself and talk about the things that are important to you. (such as the new bunny toy. Cupcakes. Sprinkles. etc) 

And of course, you get to blow out candles. 

And finally get your four-year-old hands on one of those cupcakes!