Happy Birthday Nathan!

We had a busy and fun weekend celebrating our birthday boy, but his actual birthday couldn't go unnoticed, so we celebrated even more on Tuesday. I told Nathan he got to "be in charge" for the day, and he thought that was pretty much the best thing ever. He kept asking if he was still in charge all the way until bedtime.

The first thing he was in charge of was breakfast. He decided he wanted pancakes (with chocolate chips, syrup, and whipped cream). Sounds like a great birthday breakfast to me!

Little Brother was pretty pleased with Nathan's choices for the day!

I kept back a couple of presents I'd gotten Nathan and didn't bring them out for his party, so he would have a little surprise on his birthday.

He was excited to open more presents. It's funny how the littler gifts brought just as much joy to him. I think smaller doses helped too. It's easier to enjoy and savor your presents when you don't have ten more unopened ones staring at you, I guess.

After he opened this book, he told me that he got everything he wanted for his birthday (Whew, that's a relief!)

Nathan's next decision was that he wanted to go to the mall, so we got dressed and headed that way. We stopped by Grammy's work to say hi and get some money from her to ride the carousel at the mall.

I hadn't actually taken all three kids to the mall by myself before, but everything went really smoothly. They all had fun playing. We played for about 45 minutes and then rode the carousel before heading home.

Nathan requested macaroni and cheese and chicken nuggets for lunch. I was interested to see what he would decide he wanted to do during nap time, but he's such a routine focused kid, that I don't think he even realized he could have chosen something not naptime related. He just said he wanted to watch shows on the kindle during nap time, and since Mommy was tired from our busy morning, I was a little relieved that he chose that activity :).

While Samuel and Elisabeth napped and Nathan watched TV, I rested for a bit and then baked cupcakes for Nathan to take to his school the next day. Then he wanted to go upstairs and do some crafts. He worked on Mother's Day cards.

Nathan's biggest plans for the day were Chick-Fil-A and Cherry Berry. He had been talking about going to those places for weeks leading up to his birthday, so when Matt got off work, we met him at Chick-Fil-A for dinner. Nathan ate his entire dinner and played on the play place for awhile. He was so funny talking about ice cream. Normally at Chick-Fil-A, we trade our toy from the kids' meal in for ice cream, but he was adamant that he wanted to keep his toy this time because he was getting ice cream at Cherry Berry afterwards.

So of course, after Chick-Fil-A, we headed to Cherry Berry and let the boys load up on frozen yogurt and toppings.

Nathan came home and chose his night night show and picked out his pajamas. His brother crashed hard after such a busy day, so we had some alone time just me and him to read books at bedtime and snuggle with my favorite four year old. I think he had an awesome day. I hope I always remember how excited he was to "be in charge" for the day! I had a great day spoiling him and telling him yes to whatever he wanted. We sure love birthdays around here!

Nathan's Paw Patrol Party!

 We had a great day celebrating Nathan's fourth birthday on Saturday! Seriously, though how can he be four?!?! He's the best kid around! He's wanted a Paw Patrol birthday for several months and never once changed his mind. He and Samuel were both really excited leading up to his party, and it was a great day celebrating our sweet boy.

 I always look forward to planning birthday party for my kids, and this Paw Patrol party was fun. After three transportation themed parties for my first born (airplane, train, firetruck), it was fun to do something a little different. We kept things a little simpler, but still really cute and special for a four year old.

 I made two paw print cakes for his party. Nathan picked the colors and which pups he wanted on the cakes. He loved the cakes, and he was the only person I was trying to impress with them, so I considered them a success.

 I tried to come up with some clever pup food for the party, and I bought dog bowls from the dollar store to serve the food. The boys laughed about eating food out of dog bowls. We served pupcorn, puppy chow, pups in a blanket, grapes, paw-berries, and graham cracker dog bones (Scooby snacks) with Paw-berry cake batter dip for dipping.

 I think Nathan and Samuel's favorite part were the Scooby snacks. They giggled whenever they ate their dog bones. For favors, each child got an individual bag of Scooby snacks and a pack of Paw Patrol crayons.

Our family was ready to party the morning of Nathan's big day! He had been looking forward to and talking about his party since Samuel's birthday. That jealousy bug hits him pretty often when Little Brother is the center of attention. He was so excited that it was finally his turn!

 I just bought store bought decorations: banner, table cloth and scene setter. It seemed easier and just as cool to a four year old.

Nathan told me he wanted everyone that came to Samuel's party to come to his too, so our guest list remains pretty standard for our birthdays. I know we're not too far away from all "friend" parties as he gets older and starts school, but for now it's usually family and close family friends.

His favorite guest at his party was Cousin Amelia! We were so excited when they told us they were planning to make the long drive to Iowa to help celebrate Nathan's birthday! We had the best visit with them, and I know this was Nathan's favorite birthday because he got to share the fun with his cousin. Those two are the sweetest friends. It's such a special thing watching them play together and love each other. I'm just so grateful for the weekend we had and that Jeremy, Anna, and Amelia were here for Nathan's special day.

We played Pin the Badge on Marshall. It was the first time we've had a game at a birthday party, and it was really fun, and the adults had some laughs.

I really had a hard time coming to grips with putting FOUR candles on his cake.

The kids at the party always had to be sitting next to each other. I thought it was the sweetest thing when Emma pulled a chair up right next to Nathan.

Waiting to open his presents was the worst part of the birthday party. He had a hard time being patient. He had started asking to start opening them as soon as he woke up Saturday morning!

He got some fun new toys (And how come after every birthday party, I want to do a total toy purge in their rooms and the play room?). He had asked for all the Paw Patrol vehicles. He had most of the them but was missing a few, so he was excited to get them. He got a Jake and the Neverland Pirate Ship from his Mommy and Daddy. He also got Tinker Toys, puzzles, coloring books and several other fun things too.

It was such a great morning with our dear friends and family. I'm so thankful so many people love our sweet boy.

We relaxed that afternoon while the kids napped/rested and then headed over to my parents' house for dinner and more cousin time!

Precious, precious memories! We've got more celebrating planned for this week. Birthdays are the best!

Weekend Recap- Branson Edition

 We took a little mini vacation to Branson this weekend. My mom found a great deal on Silver Dollar City season tickets, so we needed to use them of course :). We scheduled this trip close to Nathan's birthday so we could have an early celebration for him. Initially, I had planned for this trip to be Nathan's big birthday celebration and then just have a small family party for his birthday, but Nathan (and his mommy) love birthday parties, so we have a birthday party planned for him anyway next weekend.

Matt and I started our vacation a little early with a fun date night Thursday night. We went out to eat at a new restaurant which was delicious and then headed to see Phantom of the Opera at the Performing Arts Center. It was a great show. We didn't know anything about the show before we went, so it was fun to be surprised!

We left town Friday morning. Scott and Debbie ended up joining us for the weekend too. It's sort of a tradition to stop at Cracker Barrel for lunch on the way.

And of course vacation means dessert after lunch!

 Once we made it to Branson we spent a couple of hours at the Outlet Mall. We needed to pick up a few things. The boys were great to put up with our shopping. A stop at the Disney store helped :).

 We checked into our hotel which was an awesome two bedroom suite. With three kids, we love having extra space in hotels! Then we went to dinner at one of our favorite steak houses and came back to swim for a bit before bedtime. The boys were wired and went to bed way too late. But that's what vacations are for, right?

Saturday morning, we were all so excited to head to Silver Dollar City.

 We had a fun day. Matt, Barry, and I got ride one big roller coaster, but we focused on the kids the rest of the day. We thought the boys would love this boat ride. We didn't realize how many times they would get shot with water guns by silly teenagers. Samuel was in tears by the end, but Nathan said it was one of his favorite rides.

 Elisabeth was a sweet girl to hang out in the stroller all day.

 We rode a few rides, and then Samuel crashed about lunchtime. Too little sleep the night before caught up with him. He slept close to 90 minutes in the stroller.

 While he napped, Matt and Nathan rode a few more rides. Nathan is fearless when it comes to amusement park rides. I've never seen even a smidge of caution when he rides the rides. Matt was teaching him how to keep his hands in the air!

 Unfortunately Samuel was about an inch too short to ride a lot of the rides. It was frustrating that he wasn't tall enough to ride even the simple little kiddie rides. We did find a couple of rides he was tall enough to ride, and he rode those over and over while Nathan rode bigger rides.

He really liked this butterfly ride. If we pushed a button, he could go high. The first time I pushed it, he laughed and yelled, "I'm flying, I'm flying." That was probably my favorite memory with him of the day.

 He also loved these little frogs that hopped up and down. He yelled, "Ribbit, ribbit" the whole time!

 Nathan rode more of the kiddie rides, the big pirate ship and the giant swings. I rode the swings with him, and we talked the whole time how we were like Spiderman and Superman flying across Silver Dollar City. It was my favorite moment with Nathan of the day.

 As the afternoon wore on, the park got really crowded. We headed to another area that had more kiddie rides, but it just got too packed to enjoy it. We did ride one more ride and played in some indoor playgrounds before we left.

 We did have a fun day, but we were all disappointed in the park. The layout was so disorganized. When we took Nathan to Frontier City last year, all the kiddie rides were grouped together in one area, and it was so easy to just stay in that one section of the park. And there weren't varying height requirements that caused frustration. That was not the case at SDC. Everything was so spread out, and the lines were so long. When the kid rides were intermingled with other rides, more people (like teenagers) were riding the silly little kid rides, making the lines way too long. We were also frustrated with how inefficiently the rides were loaded and unloaded and overall how disorganized everything felt. And it was so crowded! Honestly, it left Matt and I longing for Disney World :). We kept saying, "This would never happen at Disney World." I think if we could have gotten rid of some of the crowds, it would have solved a lot of our problems. We'll try again (since we have season tickets), and maybe Samuel will grow an inch before then :). Nathan did have a fantastic day, and we all made some special memories.

We picked up some pizza for dinner and headed back to the hotel to eat.

 Samuel couldn't wait to swim after dinner. The pool was definitely his favorite part of the trip. He calls the swimming pool the beach. So he kept saying, "Go Beach! Go Beach!" He loves jumping in the pool, and had the best time.

 And this cutie tried on her bathing suit for the first time. Boys' swimsuits are way easier, but not near as cute as little girl swimsuits!

 The water was a little chilly and it was close to bedtime, so Elisabeth didn't seem to be a huge fan. But we'll try again soon. She's going to have to love the pool as often as we go during the summer!

We packed up and headed home Sunday morning. We were all exhausted from such a busy, fun weekend. I just love taking time to get away and spend time with my sweet family. The memories are priceless!