All Four Jonah

Spring in Vegas means many evenings at the park (especially due to baseball season but we'll get to that next post). In the meantime, enjoy these goofballs enjoying the skate park. 

Spring also means we're halfway through birthday season at our house. Next up: Jonah! This little dude turned four! 

He spent the entire morning piling all of these balloons up and then running through them as fast as he could. 

Then we spent the afternoon hanging out at a park while we waited for Carson to get out of school. 

And then it was time for the now-famous birthday scavenger hunt. As always, I hid the first clue in one of the balloons. 

Like a gunshot at the start of a race, the pop of the balloon signalled the hunt was on! I drew pictures for Jonah so he would know where to look for each gift. 

And, of course, Carson was there eager to give hints and assistance. Carson also on repeat was sure to tell me he wanted a HARD scavenger hunt for his birthday. NO PICTURES. 

Before long everything was discovered and opened. I always joke with the boys that I'm going to get them a Barbie Dream Castle whenever their birthday rolls around. When Jonah opened up a legitimate Barbie, the boys all gasped in disbelief and accused me of being so mean. 

HOWEVER! We had just spent the weekend in St. George where there was a little Dora the Explorer doll that Jonah was loving changing the clothes of and he carried that thing around with him the whole time we were there. I'm always on the hunt for different kinds of toys since we have every boy toy there ever was to exist. Dora made me realize we didn't have any toys you could change their clothes and I thought ALL the boys could have fun dressing up a doll.

As the boys started tearing into all the new toys, the Barbies were instantly rejected and cast to the side. After lunch Eli only brought the Barbies out when he needed a target for his bow and arrow. After a few minutes of that, he grabbed the doll, grabbed a shirt, and did a little costume change. And then a little more. And then a little more. And before long all four boys were designing wardrobe changes for their Ken friend for a LITERAL HOUR!

I gave myself a knowing smile and a pat on the back for the successful integration of Barbies into this bunch of boys. 

Jonah didn't just want a garbage truck cake, he wanted to HELP make his garbage truck cake. I enjoy doing most tasks quietly alone, so it took a lot of patience to have the tiny fingers of Lincoln and Jonah poking around all of the cake decorating supplies while we got the job done, but we did it together. Lincoln did prove to be incredibly useful as the resident garbage truck expert. He served as my quality control assistant, making sure I had the correct proportions and accurate anatomy of a garbage truck. 

The word confetti came up while we were cutting the cake. Jeff and I discovered NONE of the kids knew what confetti is. (You might have a clean freak mom if...) We put a confetti loop on the TV to introduce our kids to confetti without the cleanup. And we may have started another tradition. 

Jonah bought himself a "Link sword and shield" with his birthday money from Grandma and I think that was his favorite gift of all. 

For a solid week he had the sword tucked in the back of his shirt wherever he went. 

Jonah was so cute all day on his birthday. Ever since Christmas he's spent every day asking when it would be his birthday, and with it finally here, he genuinely loved and enjoyed every minute of it. After I put him to bed for the night, I walked out and soon heard him crying. His crying quickly turned to sobbing, a cry different than what I've ever heard him cry before. I went in to see what was going on. 

The wailing and sobbing continued as I tried to work out of him what was making him so sad. He finally was able to put into words, "This was my goodest birthday. And now it's OVER!"

And with that we finished the night off with a solid birthday crash and a long night's sleep. 

When Jonah woke up the morning after his birthday, he excitedly said, "What number am I now?" We had made a big deal about him suddenly being FOUR on his birthday that he seemed to be under the impression he would now wake up each new day with a new number assigned to him.

I think he's finally re-stabilized his emotions and daily expectations for his post-birthday life. And I'm left with a year of planning to see if we can make FIVE his goodest-est birthday ever.