Alex's 4th Birthday Party!!

Since we were gone the previous weekend, we celebrated Alex's 4th birthday with his classmates and friends at Lookout Farm in Natick, MA on May 17.  We had such a great experience at this place last year and Alex requested that he have his party here again.  He also wanted to have a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle party.  (Fun fact:  Alex has never watched the ninja turtles at home, and we've never talked about them, either.  This is solely because his friends talked about them at school, so he immediately said he liked them.)    
The weather started off as dreary, overcast, and with sprinkles.  We were prepared for the kids to basically be sliding around in the mud and to be drenched.  Thankfully, by 9 a.m., the clouds cleared, the sun came out, and it was a beautiful 70 degrees!  It turned out to be a perfect day! 

Even William Billiam was a bit on the grumpy
side on the way to the party.  Check out
the look that he gave me after I told him not
to chew on his boots and put them in his mouth.

I'm such a terrible mom for not letting him do
that, huh?

Here's Alex's super awesome ninja turtle cake that my sister Kristen
and her fiance Pete got for Alex this year.  Alex was beyond thrilled
with it.  It was a delicious red velvet cake (without the red dye) with
cream cheese frosting in between each layer and marzipan on the outer layer.
It was divine.

Here's the other side of the cake.  The ninja turtles were adorable, huh?

William Billiam wanted to get a closer look at the cake.

Our birthday boy and his brother at the farm with the cake.  :)

Our little family at Alex's 4th birthday party....I swear it's next to
impossible to get everyone happy and looking at the camera at the same time.

Ok kids....go ahead and run around the farm!  They were dying to explore the playground and jump in the bouncy house.

Kristen and the boys, bouncing in the bouncy house.

Woo hooooo!

Pete and Joseph helped to push the caterpillar ride out of the mud
in order to set it up for the kiddos.

William Billiam!  He had SUCH a great time running around that morning.

Joseph and Alex, checking out the goats.

There was one very friendly goat that was talking to us for a while.

I love their faces in these pictures.  :)

William thought they were hilarious!

William was very intimidated by the alpacas.

Woo hoo!  The guests have arrived!  Since we were hosting the party, we were able to drive our car up to the farm house.  However, everyone else who was coming to the party had to get on a little train and take the train to the area where we were.  So, here's Alex, running up and greeting all of his buddies who just got off of the train.  It was so sweet to see Alex so excited and happy to see his friends.

It's like he couldn't run fast enough.

There they go!

William kept picking up wood chips and giving them to me.  I would
have had a bucket full of wood chips if I had kept all that he had given
me that day.  :)

The kids in the bouncy house turned into a free for all pushing and shoving
match.  But the funny thing about that was, they loved it!!  They
just kept running into each other and laughing hysterically.

The kiddos with more bouncy playground equipment.

Alex and his buddy.

There they go again!  There was one girl at the party and she held
her own with the boys.  As Alex ran past, Joseph heard him say,
"We'll save you, princess!"  So adorable!

The day was absolutely beautiful and sunny without a cloud in the sky.
It was about 72 degrees...it couldn't have been a more perfect day
to be outside at the farm.

Kristen and Pete :)

Kristen, sneaking up behind William...

Surprise!!!!!

These kiddos seriously ran around the playground allllllll morning.

Kristen and William at the playground.

William, Kristen, and Pete, enjoying themselves.

Caterpillar ride time!!

It was sooooo cute that William and Alex sat together on the ride.
This was William's first ride like this.  I'm so glad that they could share
this together.

Annnnnd they're off!

So cute!

The families had lots of fun that day, too.

More running around!

After the big boys got off, William wanted to ride again.  So,
Kian's younger brother Kamrin got strapped in and went on the
ride with William.  They were so adorable together!

Oh my goodness....I love Kamrin's little face in this picture!

William was super excited to go again!

Here's our neighbor Kate with her darling son, Becket.  We were
happy that they could join in on the celebration.

Annnnnd the little ones are off!!

After that ride....William wanted to go again!  He kept saying,
"Gen, gen, gen!" (Again, again, again!)  So, he rode this round with Becket.

Becket was very sweet with William.

After that, a magician came to the big tent and put on a magic show for us!  It was so great and the kids loved him.

Alex was called up to help participate in a magic act!

He was a great participant.

Alex's buddies from school, watching the show.

Woo hoo!  Alex did such a great job!

Lunch time!!!  We had pizza, fruit, cake, and chocolate chip gelato for the kids and adults.  After all of that running around, everyone was hungry.

Here they come!

A bunch of ravenous kids and parents, ready to chow down!

Alex and William sat together at the head table along with a few of
Alex's friends.

And there's everyone else!  We had a great turnout!  36 people
(adults and children combined) attended.  Alex was so happy to
be with so many of his friends.

Alex, Kristen, Pete, and William chowing down on some pizza.  :)

Pizza time!

We had a hungry, hungry William on our hands!

Look at the little guy, go!

And now it's time for the birthday boy to blow out his candles!  It really warmed my heart to see Alex smiling from the inside and out when everyone started singing, "Happy Birthday," to him.

Happy 4th birthday, dearest Alex!

Kristen lit the candles.

Look at those dimples!  He was so happy. :)

Look at William, happily watching his brother.  So sweet.

Time to blow out the candles!

He was having a bit of a tough time, so I stepped in to help him out.

William loooooves fruit!

"Om nom nom nom nom!"

Joseph holding William down while Kristen helped feed William cake.

Our birthday boy, enjoying some cake and chocolate chip gelato.

After the kids were done eating, they went back onto the playground and ran around some more!  Luckily, the person who does face painting had just set up her stand and was ready to paint the kids' faces.

Kristen had the girl put two hearts on
William's cheeks.  So cute!

Alex requested a spider (for Spider man...
something else we don't watch or talk about)
and a skull.  Very manly choices.

William, running around!

Kristen, Alex, William, and Pete on the
see saw.

Our sensitive, little bruiser William,
making a "guilty face" after I caught
him hitting Kamrin in the face.
He held this look for a solid minute.

Since Alex was still running around
with his friends, William decided
that he wanted to go on the monkey bars.

Precious!

The boys on the slide right before we left the farm.

Happy birthday, big boy!!

Alex had such a wonderful birthday party and was so happy to share that day with all of his friends.  We were so happy that the weather was perfect for the kids to run around and play.  Big thanks to Kristen and Pete for all of their help during the party!  We really appreciated it. 
After we got home, we put William down for a nap (because he was exhausted).  Alex was still on an adrenaline high from all of the fun he had at the party (and I'm sure the sugar didn't help either).  So, after William was down, we let Alex open up all of his birthday presents.

Our big 4 year old with all of his presents.  Oscar was very curious about
the boxes.

Alex got quite the haul!

Oscar thoroughly enjoyed helping Alex rip the wrapping paper
to open the gifts.  Alex would even hold the gift up to Oscar so
that Oscar could help out.  It was very sweet.  They were both
very respectful of each other.

See?  :)

One of the parents even got William a gift so that William wouldn't
feel left out.  How sweet was that?!

William loves his new board book!

It seems like just yesterday I was blogging about Alex's 3rd birthday party.  Now, here we are, already at his 4th birthday party.  Where has the time gone?  I know it's cliche, but boy oh boy, does the time ever fly. 
Happy birthday, dearest Alexander.  We're so proud of you and you continue to impress and surprise us each day with your capabilities and also with your big heart and ability to love.  Keep being the amazing little being that you are, but maybe...just maybe...slow down on growing up, ok?  ;-)
Until next time...

Love and kisses,
Nikki