Leo's Birthday

We celebrated Leo's birthday this weekend.  I can't believe that our boy is four.  For the party, I hung up a bunch of pictures from throughout his life.  I hardly recognize his sweet little two year old face and the newborns, well, it just seems like a lifetime ago.  When did he become not that little boy anymore?  When did he start telling me stories?  When did it all change from toddlerhood to this boy?

I said that I wasn't going to throw a party this year.  We'd thrown a big one last year and the year before and with it so close to Thanksgiving, it wears me out.  About two months ago, Leo started talking about what his party was going to be like, that there would be a blue cake.  How could I not throw a party?

He has been really excited about the movie Planes lately and asked for a Planes party.  It was actually pretty fun to sit with him and have him look through pinterest with me and to point out what he'd like for his party.

For the first time in my life, I bought a cake.  I'm not sure why it's taken me so long to buy one but usually I throw together some cupcakes and call it good.  When Leo started asking for a Dusty Crophopper cake that was blue (and the fact that we've been hosting company all week and had a horrible cold), I knew it was time to call in reinforcements.  So, we ordered a blue cake. 

We continued on with our new tradition of birthday boxes.  I ran onto this idea on a blog and thought it was so fun.  In a box, you put some little presents and special treats.  Leo's had fruit loop cereal, a carton of little goldfish, a couple cars and of course a small Dusty airplane.  It's been a fun tradition to think about and he loved the box even more than the big birthday presents.  I think we'll keep doing this.

On the birthday day, we invited some friends for a playdate.

In four years, so much has happened.  Leo is our joyful, excited guy.  He is so happy to be alive and takes such joy in the simple things like driving his cars.  We were lucky to have his Grandparents in town to join us for the celebrations too.