a birthday story

Michael was bouncing around the room excitedly, "It's my birthday tomorrow! Yay! Mom, I'm so excited for my party!"

This is what excitement looks like at our house

Unfortunately, Michael has parents who dream about awesome parties but procrastinate too much to ever execute them. In fact I was sort of hoping to wrap a present for Michael, take him out for ice cream and call it good this year. But after his cute exclamation about his (inexistent) birthday party, the wheels in my head started turning. How could I let this cute boy down?

We live in a new area. A month ago I thought maybe we'd invite a bunch of our Seattle friends to come hang out for an afternoon at our new place. But now with only a day's notice, I changed my mind. Instead I called up a new friend from church. She has two boys about Michael's age, and an adorable daughter too.

I said, "Hey friend! Do you and your kids want to join us in singing happy birthday to Michael, and help us eat some cake and ice cream?" She was more than delighted, and Michael was thrilled. Rachel told me her son, J, had sung Happy Birthday to Michael in primary that previous Sunday and had already asked to go to Michael's party (because he assumed there was a party, right)?

Michael was also very excited for his Star Wars cake. After Richard planted this cake idea in his mind, I went on the search for the most simple Star Wars cake I could find. Michael helped me out in the kitchen, wearing his birthday crown he got at preschool. He shares his birthday with one other girl in his class, and his teacher--so it was a big preschool party.

We baked a light saber cake made from scratch, chocolate cake with basic buttercream icing. (It's very easy. Just cut a 13x9 cake into thirds, shape it correctly and wal-ah)!

Using the force

We actually went to our friend's home for the party, cake and ice cream in hand. They have more room than us, and parking is a pain at our complex. We also brought balloons as a source of easy entertainment.

Come on, birthday boy...

His cheeks look puffier than the balloon

Rambunctious children!

If you watch last year's birthday video, Michael was absolutely scared of the candles. This year, he told me he was going to blow them out. I wish I had someone video recording him again this year. Holy smokes...this kid is hilarious. He started off standing on the chair, and with each blow he backed up just a little bit, until eventually he climbed down and stood by me. But he continued to blow from a distance, and finally hit that 4th birthday candle. Phew!

Michael is very good at puzzles, so we decided to skip 100 piece puzzles and jump straight to a 300 piece puzzle. That was obviously too complex, but not with daddy's help!

And then we all lived happily ever after. Already counting how many sleeps until his next birthday.