B is for Birthday!

My little guy turned four on Wednesday!  Four is a little bit surreal as far as your child's age goes.  Three years old means he can automatically play with twice as many toys (goodbye choking hazard!) and five years old means he is "school-age."  Four is a combination of dull ache because your baby is officially a child, a big kid if you will, and general excitement because he is starting to read, write, ask critical questions and come to very creative solutions and scenarios for how the world works.

Year after year, Myki's birthday gets more and more exciting.  I thought last year Myki really understood that his birthday was a special day.  But last year pales in comparison to this year's excitement!  He has been asking if it is his birthday for the last three months, ever since we began getting birthday party invites from his classmates.  He couldn't wait until his friends sang for him and gave him presents.  

While we couldn't quite pull-off the large birthday party for all, we managed to have an incredibly special day complete with school friends, home friends, strawberry pancakes (as requested), cake, an abundance of presents and of course, the guest of honor, IRON MAN!

My family never really did birthday parties.  I didn't have any until I was old enough to plan and throw them for myself.  And now that I'm an adult, only the divisible by 5 birthdays really seem to matter and I find that all I'd like to do on my birthday is spend some quality "me" time followed by fancy dinner with the family.

I do hope that Myki always feels extra special on his birthday.  As his mom, each year is a celebration of the accomplishments of the past year and anticipation of the successes yet to come.  Happy 4th Birthday Michael!

Do you throw your kids birthday parties?   Are you big on themes and goodie bags, or more of an "invite everyone over to hang out" kind of host?