Drew's 4th Birthday

Well, big kid Drew turned four on the 8th of May. (Took me a while to pull this post together, I know...). Since his birthday fell midweek this year, the day of his actual birthday was fairly mellow. He asked to go out to breakfast and then the rest of the day was spent doing whatever the birthday boy requested....we played in the water, played some baseball in the backyard, and he and Collin spent a fair amount of time digging up the dirt in the backyard (surprise, surprise). All in all, heaven for a recently turned four year old boy.

Birthday breakfast. Can we just pause for a moment and look at the size of that pancake? I know I mentioned how big these pancakes were when I wrote about my birthday, but this was the kids' pancake! He of course, got a kick out of that ginormous pancake and actually put a pretty good dent in it. 

Collin spent Drew's birthday being a very willing sidekick in all birthday adventures. Mud...

...water buckets...

...Wrigley lovin'....

And then finally, that evening we had a mini birthday party. I had told Drew that I'd make him whatever he wanted for dinner and what did that boy request?? Boxed macaroni. Really? I offer to make whatever he wants to eat and he wanted boxed macaroni?? I had to laugh, but of course made it for him. Easiest birthday dinner I've made in a while. :) Since we were doing birthday cake for his actual party, we simply did cupcakes on his birthday. Jenn and Burke came over and we let Drew open his gifts from us and the Oregon crew. The rest we left for Saturday.

Yay for cupcakes!

The birthday party we threw the following Saturday after his birthday. I have always asked Drew what type of party he'd like to have. This year, he came up with a Ninja themed party. Although I'm up for being creative to make my kids happy, this one was a tough one for me. I had very few ideas on how to actually pull it off, but Drew was insistent that a Ninja themed party was exactly what he wanted. Out of ideas of my own, I ended up searching Ninja themed parties on Pinterest (love Pinterest!) and one of the things that came up was Ninjagos, a ninja themed line of Lego's. Well once Drew saw a few pictures of a Lego themed party, our Ninja party quickly morphed into a Lego party. Phew! I could actually get on board with the Lego party idea! We kept his party fairly simple this year. A fun cake, some decorations, and since the forecast ended up being in the mid 90's, a lot of water time for Drew and all of his pals.

The cake. Again, I used Pinterest for ideas on this one. I sat down with Drew, let him look through a few ideas and this was the one he chose. Super simple, but I made the mistake of using fondant. Again. Remember the last time I used fondant and the great cake disaster on Collin's birthday last year? Yeah, well I apparently forgot. So can I just say, once and for all, that I hate working with fondant? I am terrible at it and swore after last year that I would never (ever!) use it again. Well, like I said, somehow I forgot all of this, so when the hair-brained idea to use fondant for Drew's cake popped into my little noggin, I went right along with the idea that all of the drama with fondant the first time around wasn't as bad as I had remembered. I could easily use it again. Especially for a cake as simple as this one. Right? Wrong. So wrong. I may be talented in other areas of my life, but  rest assured, fondant is not one of them. So, with that said, this time may it be for good.... never again! In the end though, Drew was super excited about his cake and really, that's all that mattered to me.

Snackies. My sister Jenn was a huge help with all of the Lego guys that we decorated with. Thanks Auntie Jenn Jenn!!

Like I said, it was hot the day of Drew's party. Since we had already planned to host it outdoors, we decided to scratch all of the planned games in lieu of water, water, and more water. We filled up a kiddie pool, bought a few squirt guns, turned on the sprinklers and let the kids play. And wouldn't you know it, something so simple was a huge hit. Even the big kids managed to get in on the fun. Not to shabby considering I had been worried we might all just melt away...

The girls did manage to eventually get the pool to themselves. Don't be deceived though, they were by no means hesitant to join in all the fun with the boys when they were there too!

And finally, just because I loved this picture! ...Uncle Dana and Auntie Kimmie. Love you guys! :)