S'mores with the Moores Birthday Party, Jack's 4th Birthday Party

For some reason October through the end of the year always feel extra crazy. This is the fourth time we have had a birthday party for Jack (though a first time to do it with friends) and we were still scrambling to put it together in a timely manner.

How do birthdays always sneak up on us? Are we alone in this mad scramble?

Anyways, this year we decided to invite a few friends over to celebrate with Jack. He had one specific request: he wanted a pinata. We went to a party earlier this year with a pinata (he called it a piranha) and he was enamored. 

Daniel and I quickly decided on a woodsy-outdoors theme and sent out an invite via Facebook (I'm falling down on the job, there were no printed invitations this year). 

I then said a little prayer that the weather (in November no less) would cooperate and then started perusing Pinterest for party ideas.

Besides the plan for S'mores, I thought an outdoor nature scavenger hunt would be fun, and then of course, we had the pinata.

While Friday was sunny and warm, Saturday we experienced a huge drop in temperature, along with rain. Boo.

This basically meant I had to scrap the S'mores and scavenger hunt idea. At the last minute, I found some animal silhouettes that I printed off and set out on the table, along with kraft paper, glue, markers and leaf stickers. I figured I couldn't go wrong with stickers. We also moved Jack's tent from our screened in porch to the living room.

The kids arrived and had a blast. They weren't bothered by what we didn't get a chance to do. And when they started to fight over who got to play with what, I directed them all to the dining room table for my last-minute craft. The kids decided they were making treasure maps – sure, whatever you want to make is fine by me!

After our craft, we celebrated with Owl Cupcakes that Jack helped to make (thank you Pinterest!, though mine were not nearly as pretty as the online photos I found). But they were delicious!

And finally we let the kids hit the pinata. Jack had a blast, and I'm pretty sure his friends had fun too. I am working on relaxing a bit and enjoying the party and going with the flow. 

I will probably always do a bit of decorating and making things (nothing wrong with that), but I'm trying to find balance and not go overboard.

We still have all of the ingredients for S'mores with the Moores... 
I guess we just have to save that for another day!

 

Birthday Parties from Years Past: 

Trucks Go, Age 1  |  Frogs, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails, Age 2  |  Curious George, Age 3

Happy 4th Birthday Jack!

We had several celebrations with Jack over the course of the last week. We had a friend party on Saturday, followed by a family dinner to celebrate at El Metate (the Mexican place where you wear a blue hat), and then a preschool party on Jack's actual birthday.

We are about partied out around here.

I have so much to say about my sweet boy, though not all of the blogs in the world would adequately describe him or what he means to our family. Hopefully these few words will suffice.

At four, Jack is incredibly curious. As with most parents of 3 and 4 year olds, we continue to be in a never-ending why phase. As a parent I have a love-hate relationship with these questions. I love that he is learning and wants so badly to know things, but sometimes the questions never seem to cease. These questions stretch me to help him understand the world around us and in turn I learn more as well.

Right now Jack havs a deep love for people and helping others. He has never met a stranger. His standard pick-up line at the park is "Hi, I'm Jack. I'm three [now four]. Do you want to play with me?" I hope he is always this outgoing and that his sweet spirit never gets crushed. His confidence amazes me. He doesn't care how old or young you are, he wants to be your friend. It makes him sad when older kids are not interested in playing with him. In turn that makes me sad, but I try to let him experience these harder moments without interference, along with the sweet moments.

 

At preschool and church, Jack wants to hold the door for every single person coming in and out. We are typically running late anyways, so I really have to check my patience at the door. Instead of being exasperated that we are behind (mostly my fault anyways), I allow him to hold doors and talk to everyone. I hope he always desires to put others first.

We spend a decent amount of time in the car and I try to use those moments to teach him things like our address and how to count to 100 and how to do basic addition and subtraction using his fingers. He is a little sponge and soaks up all of these lessons. He is starting to consistently recognize a handful of letters and can spell his name. One of his favorite games is to play teacher and I know that his time spent in preschool aids in his love for all things school and learning related. He has quite a few books memorized (his favorite right now is Madeline) and I can't wait until he learns to actually read and all of the doors that reading will open for him.

This year Jack requested his very own kayak so that he could take his friends paddling with him. This was a big change from last year when all he wanted was an electric toothbrush! Since it was November, we weren't ready to commit to a kayak, but we are still mulling it over – maybe Christmas little buddy! His back up request was an Optimus Prime robot (which his Great Grandmother lovingly bought for him!). I think he had a good birthday.

Most days the days are long, but the years really are short. I'm still kind of in shock that we have a four-year-old. Jack loves being four, but doesn't get why he doesn't get to move up to the 4s class at preschool and church. I am working to convince him that he is one of the first to turn four and he gets the privilege of teaching the other kids how to get ready to be four. I am really looking forward to the coming year and all that it holds for Jack.