Nicholas is FOUR!!!

Nicholas turned 4 this past Saturday. Where has the time gone? This was the first birthday where he really knew what was going on (he knew last year too, but not to the same degree). He actually requested certain presents this year and it was fun to try and fulfill his dreams. We had a great day being able to spend it as a family (it's very rare as of late that we get a whole day to ourselves).

We started off the morning by sleeping in. When Nicholas woke up he found streams decorating his door, hallway, family room and the table where he sits to eat. He quickly found his presents on the table and brought them over to the couch and waited patiently for everyone in the family to be present for present opening.

Look at that smile!! Can you just tell he is excited to open his presents. He was SOOOO giddy.

The first one...

Kung Fu Panda (isn't Emilie cute just standing there watching him. She so wanted to be a part of the action, we assured her she would get her chance at Christmas)

Present from Grandpa and Grandma Ashton

Legos

Present from Grandpa and Grandma Barker

Foam Gliders to put together and fly and an Airplane book.

And the one he's been waiting for....

His very own laptop!!! He originally wanted a remote controlled car or a robot, but then he found this Vtech laptop and kept telling us that is what he wanted. He has been so cute with it. On Sunday he said to me: "I'm going to go work on my laptop, I'm going to make a video like dad!" And he took it in the car with us to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch (we asked him if he could go anywhere he wanted to eat on his birthday where would it be and he told us Sweet Tomatoes). He saw some of our neighbors outside and all he said to them, as he lifted it up: "I've got my laptop." What a silly boy. Fun to see what brings joy to these little people.

After present opening he got a haircut to look handsome on his birthday and then we headed to Sweet Tomatoes for lunch. Back home for nap for Emilie and Dad, Nicholas and Mom watched part of Kung Fu Panda. Here's a funny story about watching that: As we were watching I said about one of the kung fu fighter animals (which was one of the bad ones): "He's good." And Shay said, "No, he's bad." Nicholas pipes in: "Dad, what I think what mom is saying is he's good at fighting." What a smart little 4 year old!

After nap time, Nicholas' cousin came over and we took the boys and Emilie to Kangaroo Zoo. A place with a bunch of blow up slides and bouncy things. At first we thought it was going to flop. None of the kids wanted to go on anything, but then they found a slide that no one was on and they began there. By the end of the night both Nicholas and William went down the biggest slide and kept wanting to do it because the discovered it was fun.

Afterward's we came back to our house for pizza and ice cream cake. Nicholas requested the same design on his cake as last year. So we made mud pie on the bottom and used colored vanilla ice cream on the top to make a dinosaur scene. This year there was even a mud pit with a dinosaur covered in mud (Shay wanted me to make it look like the dinosaur was dying in the mud pit by having just it's legs sticking out, but I decided to keep it rated G).

We had a great day of celebrating and now we're on to the next year of Nicholas' life. We are sure it will bring many more moments of joy and fun as this little boy brings so much entertainment to our lives. We love you Nicholas!!

I had to include a few pictures of Emilie being cute on his birthday too.

Fuzzy, but a cute face!