Birthday Boy!

March 12th was LM's 4th birthday! Here is how we celebrated...

Thursday was the preschool celebration. We are lucky enough to go to an amazing preschool where they don't hold back at all on birthdays. The entire circle time was focused on LM. First he received his birthday crown. Then he symbolically walked around the sun 4 times. I love how Miss Jemima takes advantage of every opportunity to teach the kids! Each time he went around we told a funny story about LM to represent that age. After reaching age 4 he got to look at the items around the sun. There were 4 different items, and 4 of each (m&m's, gummy bears, little clothespins, and pennies). The perfect things for a little 4 year old to carry around. Oh and he blew out the candle in the sun. My favorite part was when he played the Happy Birthday music box. All the kids had to be silent while LM thought about how he was turning 4. You could tell it was a really special moment for him. We brought in some birthday treats for the whole class to enjoy while Miss Jemima read his favorite book.
Friday morning we started opening gifts so LM could enjoy them little by little. The first was from Grandma and Papa Weidner--Geotrax. Once he got started we couldn't even pull him away from them, even to go to Toys R' Us and buy more. I had to bribe him to get in the car by bringing most of them with! Now we have a new toy to start collecting.
That evening was our little family birthday. He got 2 new games, Candyland and Hi Ho Cherrio. It was perfect because we were able to play the games all evening. I thought they would be the perfect games for everyone but I hated it because I lost every single time! I think everyone knows how competitive I am, which is why I hate games like that. I not only lost each game, it was bad. Karma really gets you everytime.

Saturday morning he got a Woody doll from Grandma and Papa Ogles. Then Saturday night was a small friend party at Red Robin. He got several more gifts then and was completely overwhelmed with all his new gifts. Once he started opening gifts the eating ended. We were horrible parents basically letting kids run around the area. They were having fun. When the servers came out singing Happy Birthday to LM he was very uncomfortable. I thought he was going to cry. Then he gave a very small, tentative smile that barely expressed any enjoyment. He didn't even touch the ice cream sundae they brought out because we had brought some cupcakes. After they came out we did our own birthday song with another cupcake.

We were at the store a few days ago and LM told me he wanted a toy. I said no, and he said "remember mom, it is my birthday." I guess he figured his birthday would go on forever.