My Little Man Turns 4!

Another birthday has come and gone, but this time it came and went without a big party. Daniel turned four on Wednesday and we decided not to have a birthday party for him, well more like HE decided he didn't want one. Last year we had about 20 friends at MyGym and he was simply overwhelmed. He doesn't like big groups of people, or small groups for that matter. He just likes hanging out with his family and maybe one on one with a friend here or there. I was perfectly content not to have to throw a big party for him - they are rather stressful and costly. But that's not to say we didn't celebrate! On Sunday, I had my parents over for lunch and we feasted on ice cream cake and Daniel opened presents from grandma and papa and mommy and daddy. Here's a couple pictures:

A new scooter from mommy and daddy:

Some money from grandma (Which he specifically asked for):

As well as a moon for his new "outer space room" (more on that in a future post):

After opening presents, we feasted on the Carvel ice cream cake that I let Daniel pick out at the food store. He picked the big yellow M&M cake:

And posed for a picture:
My mom did take one of the four of us, but Daniel had a scowl on his face for some reason so Im choosing not to post that one. Here's Daniel with grandma and papa:

Then we sang happy birthday and Daniel blew out his candles:

Not much left to do but eat cake!

Oh yeah, and try out his new scooter:

Daniel greatly enjoyed celebrating with just the six of us. On his actual birthday he had the pleasure of going to school. He wanted to celebrate there as well so I brought in cupcakes for all the little ones and his teacher, Miss Maggie made him a special birthday crown:

All the kids sang happy birthday and then they feasted on the yummy cupcakes:

After school Jeff came home early and we surprised Daniel by taking him to Chuck-E-Cheeses. We pretty much had the whole place to ourselves, which was great. The kids liked the little rides:

And Daniel especially enjoyed the driving game with daddy:

They also tried their hands at some skeeball - Allison did well but Daniel's balls were flying everywhere:
Next Allison decided to go dance with Chuckie to win free tickets. This girl just cracks me up with her dance moves:



After the dance-a-thon, Allison and Daniel had a heated game of air hockey. Daniel lost interest after about two minutes and then the puck got stuck in the machine and that was the end of that:
The kids continued playing games to try and win more tickets. Allison decided to try out a game where you push a button to release a ball and whatever hole it lands on, you win that number of tickets. Well luck was on her side because her ball landed in the jackpot hole and she won 115 tickets! We were both so excited:

After trading in all the tickets for a bunch of junk we headed to California Pizza Kitchen - Daniel's choice of where he wanted to go for his birthday dinner. Daniel feasted on mac and cheese and then filled his tummy with a huge bowl of ice cream with m&m's on top:
Then we went home, he opened so more gifts from family and that was that. It was his ideal birthday experience (and very little stress for me). Happy 4th birthday Daniel!!