Happy 4th Birthday Alex!

My big four-year old birthday boy!

I can't believe that my baby boy just turned four years old today. Whew! Where the time has gone, I shall never really know. He's growing up into such an amazing little boy and we couldn't be more proud of him. He's become such an independent, clever kid and I swear he does or learns something new every day that never ceases to surprise me. He is very proud of the fact that he is four years old. Whenever I ask him to eat his vegetables, he answers, "Okay, but I only need to eat four bites because I'm almost four years old!" It's so cute that I'm hard pressed to argue with him. I think he's developing his logic. But in that case, I would need to eat 31 bites of my vegetables and even I have to draw the line somewhere.

So this weekend was awesome for Alex. He asked if all his cousins (and then proceeded to name every cousin he could think of. Long list.) were coming to his birthday party. I felt bad when I thought the answer was no. Turns out that Ben was super-awesome and brought all his girls (Lauren, Linsey and Kate) for a visit for the weekend. We missed Aunt Heather because she had to work. And it's her birthday today too so a big Happy Birthday to my wonderful sister-in-law even though she couldn't be here. Alex was beyond thrilled and is still wound up from the excitement. He sure loves and misses all his cousins even when he doesn't get to see them that often. So thanks to Ben for making his birthday so great. The worst part of the weekend was when we discovered on Saturday night that Josh wasn't going to be able to be there. Turned out that his blasted job decided, last minute, to make everyone come in and work yet another 12 hour shift today. Poor Josh had to miss his son's birthday and I felt just awful for him. But the jokes on his job because Josh is taking three days off to go with us to visit Ben and Heather for Lauren's birthday.

This weekend was a busy one and we sure had a lot of stuff going on but I think it would be more justified to just concentrate this blog on Alex's actual birthday. So here are the pictures that were taken by my wonderful friend, Mandy. She was kind enough to be my photographer. Thanks Mandy!

I couldn't believe how lucky I was when I stumbled upon the entire Wiggles doll set at Toys-R-Us. I took the kids to look around out of boredom one day and there, sitting pretty on the clearance shelf, were two large boxes of these guys. At a whopping $3 a piece, I decided to get Abby a set too to prevent the mass fight that would surely ensue upon opening the presents. I was right. Tonight I had to write their names on the tags so they would stop battling to the death over them.

Abby was really excited about the presents even when she knew they weren't for her.

Kate and Lauren posing for the camera. Have I ever mentioned how much I love being an aunt?

Linsey and Kate enjoying the birthday spoils.

Grandma was helping open presents for all to enjoy.

Greta and Uncle Sean chillin' at the party.

Alex's buddy Wesley was there in all the madness as well.

Can you tell I wasn't the one taking photos? I'm actually caught on camera. *gasp*

Uncle Ben came in handy with his pocket knife. Toys these days are almost impossible to open. And yes, Alex is tucking his shirt in. He won't wear his shirts untucked. I call it the 'Wiggle tuck' because he only wears them tucked in because, and I quote, "Because that's how the Wiggle's wear them mama!"

More present goodness.

This is the cake I decorated. Alex asked for a Wiggle, snake, tractor cake. I talked him down to just tractors. (phew!) I stayed up on Saturday night after the house was quiet with the sounds of five sleeping children and two sleeping brothers (Josh and Ben). I'm quite the night owl so this didn't bother me a bit. It took me an hour to decorate. It then took me 1 1/2 hours to clean up afterward. And turns out, crushed Oreos on frosting? Sinful.

Yummy birthday cake. I think it was a hit. The kids all wanted to eat the 'grass' on the cake. I kept laughing when they asked to eat more grass.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. I was especially grateful to have my brother-in-law here. He was great with all the kids and even Abby was just wonderful with him. I felt bad that he didn't get to spend time with his brother. But he was a big help all around so a big thanks to Ben. Thanks to my mom who was sweet enough to do all my birthday dishes. That took a huge weight off my load for the day. And thanks to Josh's folks for coming as well. And if you are curious, Alex is currently sleeping in his bed with every Wiggle and his new garbage truck seen below. Thanks to everyone for making him one happy four-year old this weekend!