Star Wars Birthday fun

Alex, we had such a great weekend celebrating YOU!

Thursday was your "school" celebrate day, which had you thoroughly confused because you weren't 4 quite yet, but everyone was celebrating you.  

Friday, Makenna had off school so we took a trip to the Shady Maple farm along with the Muellers.  You LOVED it!

We got to climb in this huge barn with hay bales in it

And visit the animals at the petting zoo

And find our way through a corn maze

And take a hayride

What a great day!!

Saturday, we went with all the traditions.....

Balloons to greet you in the morning...... although we couldn't keep them outside your door because you are still waking up in the middle of the night and snuggling us.  Sure enough you climbed in at around 2am but by 6:30 you went back in your room to get dressed & ready for the day so I had Makenna keep you occupied while daddy and I grabbed the video camera and the goodies so we could still surprise you.

We had a great morning of playing with your new toys, watching your one year video and of course...

A big chocolate chip "4" pancake!

Then we headed to East Troy to ride the train and go apple picking.  We made it to the train station in perfect timing to grab the next train....

You thought the train ride was pretty cool.

We made it to the Elegant Farmer just in time to grab a quick lunch and head out to the apple orchard for a few minutes....

 Before it started POURING on us!

You were SO excited to find a little mini smiley barn

You were pretty excited about all this mud too

And enjoyed a yummy cider donut

All aboard and heading back to our dry car!!

You were SO tired on the train ride back but managed to catch a second wind and talked the ENTIRE ride home.  Until the last 3 minutes before we arrived and then you were out cold.  We told you that without a nap we wouldn't make it to Red Robin for dinner.  I guess that was your motivation because you slept for over an hour in your carseat.

Red Robin didn't disappoint.  AND you even shared your birthday ice cream with Makenna!

Today was PARTY day - which in your mind was your REAL birthday. 

You decided on a Star Wars theme and EVEN put on jeans for the occasion!  Well at least the first half of it....

All our family and your favorite friends were her to celebrate with you.....

and of course, your bff Ben

And of course, Cookie Beek.  She just adores you buddy and I love how much you love her.

You did a GREAT job picking out your cake......after mama convinced you that the $45 Meijer deluxe star wars cake could be replaced with a $20 costco cake and a set of your very own Star Wars figurines that we could buy for you to put on top.  Mama even showed much restraint when you opted for the Pirate cake at Costco, which totally didn't go with the star wars theme but we rolled with it and kept the birthday boy happy.

You are THE. BEST. present opener.  This was your face after every present and card.  

You were so quick to go over to each person after you opened their gift and scream THANK YOU! to them as well.  

We love you SO much Alex!!  What a great weekend celebrating 4!!

And, for the party details........

Kept it simple and cheap again this year again with the Evite...

And didn't go to crazy with any of the decorations, which is good because I procrastinated big time and did most of this the night before.

I thought these were pretty clever - I meant to take one of Lukey's water bottle but forgot - ha ha!

I had these super cute helpers assist with Great Grandma's cookie recipe this year, too

These little party favors were my FAVORITE find, but of course I totally forgot to hand them out as people were leaving the party.  Oops!!

And because I always like to have some sort of a craft for the kiddos to do, here was a make your own R2-D2 craft.  

And of course, the mantle - I made the "A" for Alex's first birthday party and I've been using it ever since.  

Finally I pasted some random Star Wars fun facts around the house. 

Oh wait, let us NOT forget about Makenna's contributions...

All week she has been preparing this dance routine and asking me to help her build the stage out of a few sheets of plywood and random pieces of lumber. 

I finally convinced her to just get creative with the layout and here is what she came up with.  She and the girls put together a whole dance routine and then set up chairs for us to come outside and watch it.  It was great - that girl is such a performer!  

What a great weekend!!  Time to get some SLEEP!

Dear Baby Boy.....

Oh Alex, how is it that when you wake up tomorrow morning you will be 4?!  It seems like I just wrote last year's blog post and here we are again already.  Alex, you are an adorable, silly, sweet, loving, chatty, goofy boy.  You definitely complete our family and we are so thankful every day that God chose you for us.

Where do I even start this year........


Likes....

The spotlight.....I'm fairly certain you are going to be the class clown.  You will do anything to get a laugh out of people.

At that same time, you have an electric smile and laugh that absolutely light up any room you walk into.

You like all things star wars right now.  You watch them with Daddy and every time it's your turn to pick the movie for movie night you go right to star wars.  Library books..... star wars.  Birthday party this year..... star wars.

Fast clothes.  Earlier this year, you decided that you would ONLY wear clothes that were "fast".  That made for an interesting time trying to get you dressed for Great Grandpa's funeral....

I guess we could say you got the last laugh on that one!

Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches.  Bonus on this one, you learned to make them yourself!

Cooking with mommy..... this one is a new one.  Any time I'm making something in the kitchen lately you want to help out.  Here you are helping me make soup.  And you normally turn your nose up at soup, but because you helped make it you dove right in.  Score.

Dishes..... again, score.  Any time I'm rinsing out dishes after dinner, you insist that you get to do it.  You really just love the running water, but hey, I'll let you do it any time!

Your mustache pants.  I don't know what it is about them, but you LOVE them and they are always the first things you put on when I tell you that you have to wear pants.


The Brewers.  We made it to a few Brewers games with you this year and you did great.

Well, until that game when you didn't - but we'll blame that on a lack of a nap and hunger.  And thank goodness we had preferred parking that day because it was a LONG walk to the car!

Grandpa.  You are still quite obsessed with Grandpa.  When you leave him the first thing you want to know is when you will see him again.  Thankfully he worked at the zoo again this year and we got to take lots of free train rides.

Ben.  He is no doubt your best buddy.  You adore him and insist on a hug from him every morning before he gets on the bus.  He forgot to give you one the other day and you were so sad until he rolled down his window on the bus and waved to you.  Totally made your day.

Jakey.  You love playing at his house and you two have a blast together.

And let's not forget Vince

School.  You LOVE school.  You can't wait to go and are starting to learn so much.  Your teachers are great this year.  You are a butterfly, though we love to hear you say "I am not a callepitter!"

Arse Cream.  Wait, that would be ice cream now.  Broke my heart the first time you pronounced it correctly.

Makenna.  For the MOST part you two adore each other.  You certainly need plenty of reminders to be nice and stop fighting but when you two put your heads together and use your imaginations it is SO fun to watch you together.

Baseball.  All things baseball.  You had your first official baseball this year and you were very bummed to find out it wasn't an official league, but rather just skills.  You wanted so badly to get on the field and just play.  You are a rockstar hitter, but still refuse to throw overhand most of the time.

Daddy.  Mommy is slowly losing out on the mama's boy spot.  I knew it was only a matter of time but I'm fairly sure by this time next year I'll be out.

Reading.  You love to curl up with a pile of books any time of the day or night.  You sit and listen to so intently and soak it all in.


Impact.  I signed you up for kid's night at our church even though you are technically not old enough yet.  You absolutely love it though.  Mama helps out in your classroom, too, which you think is pretty cool.

Bike rides... we got you a tag along bike this summer and you LOVE it!  You do great on it, too.  We've been able to take lots of family bike rides to the coffee shop, train bridge, library and parks.

Routine.  You THRIVE on routine.  Now that school is back in session and summer is over, you are doing SO much better with melt downs.  You take great naps at school and Ms. Jamie's and I think it is all about the routine.

Although I must say, we did a LOT of vacationing this summer and you ROCKED it, well for the most part.  

Charleston

You LOVED the ocean & the beach!

You were a TOTAL sass in Greenville when I wanted to get a cute picture of you....

But a total ham later that night when we were trying to take a family selfie...

You LOVED the Cada's cabin-et and keep asking if we can go back

You also LOVED our trip to St. Louis with Grandma and Grandpa...... well, until we got to the top of the arch and you had to poop.  Let's just say we'll never say "squeeze your cheeks" again without thinking of you!

Your wishlist this year includes Legos and anything Star Wars.

Dislikes.....

"Fancy" clothes.  This would include jeans, "jakey" shirts, really anything other than your standard t-shirt and sports shorts.  Actually come to think of it, you really prefer no clothes at all......

Here you are after mama asked you to go back upstairs and get some clothes on...... you came down with sissy's lanyard and said - I dressed mama!!

Although, I must say that when we went to the pumpkin farm with your school, your teachers taught you that you had to wear jeans and you insisted that you comply.  I did not complain one bit.

And when we went back to the pumpkin farm today, you knew if you wanted to go on the "pokey" hay ride that jeans were a must.

And you even busted out the jeans for the sock hop at mom's night at your school JUST for me.  Dare I say we are on the brink of getting out of this "fast" clothes phase?!

Naps at home.  I'm not sure why but you REFUSE to nap at home for mama.  Although, I must say you have mastered the car seat nap......

and the stroller nap is still going strong, when necessary.

Peeing INDOORS..... you've mastered the outdoor pee and there have been times you've tried to convince me that you just couldn't make it to the toilet even though you started out INSIDE the house.

Oh buddy, I feel like I could go on forever and if I did that time would just slow down just a little.  I'm so thankful for you each day.  I say this every year but you are the little boy I never knew I needed.  You are so obsessed with your "story" lately and want me to read it over and over.  I'm still in awe of God's plans for you and I can't wait to see what the next year has in store for us.  We love you Alexander Brooks, happy birthday!!