Liam's 4th birthday was really wonderful. We spent two days celebrating because Nathan had to work at the fire station on his actual birthday (Monday). Liam loves Curious George. One of the main things he has asked for over the past few months was to have a Curious George cake for his birthday. So I knew I wanted to have a George cake and also include a few other Curious George type things with his birthday. We didn't have a huge party or anything because well honestly that gets expensive and I knew he didn't care if a bunch of people were over watching him open presents or not, so I opted to not have a big party this year. I did want it to be special for him though. So the night before his birthday, I hung a "Happy Birthday Banner". Nathan went out and bought him the balloon he wanted. Then I set up our table with a Curious George table cloth, mason jars with fun yellow straws, and his favorite breakfast...Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins, which were wrapped in adorable little liners. I also had bought (almost a year ago) a little monkey ears headband from Michael's for him to wear. A lot of kids hate having anything on their head, but knowing how much Liam loves hats, hoods, helmets, etc.... I figured he would love the monkey ears headband.
He was SO excited when he got up on his birthday. When Nathan and I said Happy Birthday to him, he said "Happy Birthday to you too!" :) He loved all of the things and he asked "Can I put on those ears!?" Once he put them on, they only came off of his head for a few minutes later that day and then once he realized they weren't on his head, he put them back on. He even slept with them next to him on his nightstand that night. We were waiting to do cake until Tuesday so that Nathan could be home so I put candles in his muffins and Ruy and I sang Happy Birthday to him. Of course he wanted to sing too so he sang Happy Birthday right along with us. He loved the muffins and said "Mommy lets eat all of the muffins and get a stomach ache!"
Liam wanted to go to the Children's Museum so after breakfast we cleaned up and headed out. I took a few quick pictures of Liam with his monkey ears on before we left.
A new Children's Museum just opened up in our area so we went to that one. The kids all loved it. Liam's favorite part was the tractor.
After the museum we went to Liam's favorite restaurant for lunch...Chick-fil-a!!! Which works out well for me since it's my favorite as well :) It was kind of a crazy CFA experience though. The line was really long and then when we finally got our order, they had messed up on it. Then when they brought out the food the second time, it was still wrong. They finally got it right, but then I realized that my fries weren't salted. Then Ruy got a random bloody nose and blood started running everywhere! Oh and all the while Alanna was screaming. She had decided eating lunch was just not on her agenda and screaming seemed like a much better idea. So there I sat trying to help Ruy with a bloody nose and holding Alanna trying to keep her from screaming. Liam was happily eating his nuggets and lemonade though. I had Ruy go to the women's' bathroom and wash up his hands and face once his nose stopped bleeding. Then the manager came up to me and asked if everything had been ok with my order. I told him what happened but said it was ok. He said it wasn't and he went and refunded my entire meal and also gave us three kids ice-creams for free since it was Liam's birthday. Then after we had been talking he found out Nathan was a fire fighter, he went and got Nathan an entire meal for free and wrote him a note on the bag thanking him for what he does. When I was done eating, he helped me carry everything to my van and even buckled Liam in. He said he had three kids and a grandson and remembered how hard it could be sometimes with little kids. He was so nice and I was just blown away by his kindness. There is a reason why Chick-fil-a is my favorite place :)
After lunch we went to Nathan's fire station so that Liam could still spend a little time with Daddy on his birthday and also because Liam loves fire trucks. We also brought three of his presents to open while we were there. Even though we weren't doing cake until Tuesday, we still wanted him to be able to open something on his actual birthday. He loved his presents (a coonskin cap, a dinosaur from Ruy, and a Car Wash Duplo Lego Set) and he loved getting to play on Daddy's fire truck.
He was just a little excited about seeing the truck!
Ruy loved seeing the trucks too. This has got to be one of my favorite pictures of Ruy.
And of course Alanna is always so happy to be with her Daddy.
Alanna watched Nathan get his gear on but she was still scared of him once he had it all on.
When it was time to leave the fire station I helped Liam get out of the fire truck. I asked him if he had had a good time at the station. He said "Yes! Thank you for my beautiful birthday!" My heart almost burst. It was so sweet.
We had spaghetti for dinner because that is one of his favorite meals. And then my mom came over later that night and brought him his presents. He loved everything she got him. When he went to bed that night I asked him what his favorite part of his birthday was? He said "the fire trucks!" He was so sweet on his birthday and just kept telling me "thank you for my birthday!"
The next morning Nathan got home from the station and we spent a good amount of the morning playing outside on the playground with the kids. I told Liam we would do cake after lunch. I was kind of upset because three of his presents I had ordered online for him hadn't been delivered yet. I had two presents for him but I really wanted him to have what I had ordered on Amazon. When I went inside to make lunch I saw the UPS truck pull up. I was SO happy. All of Liam's presents were delivered right before lunch! God worked that out perfectly.
Liam could hardly sit through lunch because he was so excited to see his Curious George cake. I had plans of making his cake myself, but the cake topper I ordered for his cake didn't show up until his birthday because it got delayed and I had already ordered him a cake to make sure he had a Curious George cake. He
loved it so much! He was so happy he couldn't really say anything. He just sat there smiling and pointing and saying "George!"
He loved all of his presents. We got him a raincoat, new binoculars (he lost his at the beach), a wheelbarrow, a toy Curious George, two Curious George books, a powder horn to go along with his coonskin cap, and a knight duplo lego set. He was mostly excited about the raincoat and the binoculars. He put them on right away and wore them the rest of the day. He told me when he went to bed that the binoculars were his favorite present of all.
It started storming while he was opening his presents and then rained the rest of the day, so we had a pretty relaxing day just being at home and enjoying being together. It was a really great two-day celebration and Liam was so thankful and happy about it all.
I still can't believe he is already four years old. It really does feel like yesterday that he was just born. Time goes by so fast once you have children. I wish I could make it all slow down.
Happy 4th Birthday Liam Michael.
We all love you so very much!
