Four.

Max's "birthday week" was awesome.  There's nothing better than seeing your kiddo beaming with happiness.  And I love that his favorite things were wrapped up in family fun and giving to others rather than actual wrapping paper.

School Party + Show-&-Tell:

Max's little heart bursting with pride as Dad read the book he brought to share with his class.

The other special show-and-tell items he chose were his ViewFinder (I order new slide each year), his favorite toy car and a little chick that he got for Easter last year.

{this year's ViewFinder slide}

His little friends loved passing the ViewFinder around and looking at his pictures from this past year.

As a fun surprise I wrapped all of the food in his lunchbox on the day of his birthday.  

He was thrilled.  It's the little things that matter most :)

Family Birthday:  

I asked Max what theme he wanted for his family b-day and he said he wanted a Spider Man/Toy Story party.  Hmmm...ok!  So I decorated a cake with Toy Story characters and bought a Spider Man puzzle for us to do after dinner.  Both themes covered!  He got to pick whatever he wanted for dinner too...and he chose Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup and grilled cheese.  I told him we could get food from ANYWHERE he wanted, but he stuck with his choice :)

Family puzzle time after dinner.

Earlier in the day, we gave Max his birthday gifts...

 A brand new bicycle, a lava lamp and a Leap Reader w/books.

Very excited about his Leap Reader!  He has been begging me to learn how to read and I thought this might assist us in helping him take the next step.  So far, so good.  He's been very studious about using this new tool :)

Bowling Party:

This was Max's first "friend party".  He got to invite his pre-school class and his cousin's to go bowling.  This is also the first time we've had a party outside our house.  I'm learning to let go ;)

This awesome cake and cupcakes made by Suzette at The Cupcakery.

Sneaky Sully blew out Max's candle halfway through the birthday song.  Oops.  So we had a do-over :)

For the fourth year Max collected donations for the Ronald McDonald House at his birthday party. 

And again this year the happiest I saw him all week was when we dropped off the items he collected.

 I'm so proud of his generous heart and the little man he's becoming. 

In the words of Max..."I'm four years old now, which means I'm pretty much an adult." :)

{Max's 3rd Birthday}

{Max's 2nd Birthday }

Love Hangover

I look forward to holidays (even the ridiculous ones like Valentine's Day) with my kids so much. Mostly because I use it as an excuse to do one of my favorite things...plan a party.  Putting together these little surprises is a creative outlet for me.  I hope they never outgrow their excitement for my efforts because I really want to do these things until they're in high school :)

That being said...I'm really sick of hearts, sugar and the color red right now.
Ugh.  Love hangover.

They each got a small surprise, a card from Momma and a little note from Dad.

Donuts and yogurt w/strawberry sauce.

 Making Valentine Slime for their playgroup.  It's so easy they did it themselves (minus the measuring)

For our playgroup Valentine's Party.

For Sullivan's class.

For Max's class.

  Fletcher went to his very first Valentine's Party too!  We started going to a playgroup on Tuesday's when the big boys are in school so he could make his own "friends" and I could spend some quality time with him alone.  The Saturday before V-day one of the babies hosted an awesome party :)

Ready to go!

I love these little valentine's of mine...

We hosted playgroup on Valentine's Day at the Vintage House and celebrated Max's birthday too.

Cookie decorating and strawberry milk.

So much fun.  So much love.