Our Big Boy is FOUR!!

Well, it's official. We now have a FOUR YEAR OLD!! I honestly can't even believe it...

Austin turned FOUR yesterday, on September 8th. We had a big party (Lightning McQueen from "Cars" themed, of course!) on Monday (Labor Day) for him. The day started with filling up his pinata (his request -- a new thing he wanted this year) with lots of candy. Justin got LOTS of help from both kids on this little task...

At 2:00, the party started, and boy, did the kids have fun!! There were 19 kids who were able to come & their parents (15 others), which made us have a VERY full house. The kids played in the back yard for about an hour before the festivities officially began. We had the sandbox ready for them all (as you can see below), the pool filled up & the inflatable water slide ready for action. The kids had a blast & we basically had to drag them in for snacks around 3:15...

After some quick snacks, it was cupcake time!! I usually have the tradition of making & decorating the kids' birthday cakes myself, but Austin requested cupcakes this year. That was totally fine with me since it usually takes me half of a day to frost & decorate a cake, and these cupcakes took me hardly no time. He had Lightning McQueen cupcakes & also cupcakes with "rocks" on them (little chocolate pieces made to look like rocks). They were all a hit with the kids!!

We all sang "Happy Birthday" to him before we dug into the cupcakes. (The video of us singing to him is at the very bottom of this post...I couldn't get it to cooperate & fit into the space right above this next picture, so I gave up...)

We have four friends who just completed an Ironman competition in Louisville, KY a couple of weekends ago, and two of them were at Austin's party with their kids. I made them special cupcakes with the Ironman logo on them -- I told them that the McQueen cupcakes were not worthy of their Ironman status!! (For those of you who don't know -- which I didn't until about 6 months ago when Brian Wade started training -- an Ironman is a 2.4 mile swim followed by a 112 mile bike ride then followed by a 26.2 mile run! Yikes!!) Congrats, Jeff & Brian!!

Austin & his friends devoured the cupcakes. I had made close to 50 of them, and by the time the party was over, I think there were only 5-6 left...

Next, it was presents time! Austin had plenty of help & support from all of his friends during him opening presents. (ha) He got some great new toys & art supplies...

...and even a tall basketball goal from our neighbors, the Crooks!

We busted a pinata after the presents episode, but I didn't get any great pictures or videos, but needless to say, the pinata did get busted & candy did go everywhere... kids went home with plenty of sugar to cause cavities, that's for sure!!

After the party, we let Austin open his presents from us & from the rest of the family who had mailed him stuff over the past week. He was VERY excited about this since there had been presents sitting around the house for a few days leading up to this big day. Below are a few of the best pictures of him opening his gifts...

This video is awesome... Justin managed to sneak in Austin's "big" present (a new "big boy" bike) while I was busy talking to him, and he was so surprised to turn around & see it!

The party (and his birthday, as a whole) was a total success. I'm still wondering how 4 years has seemed to fly by so quickly. Before we tucked him in last night, I was looking at the newborn picture of him from the hospital & couldn't believe that that same little guy in the picture was the one that I was tucking into his big bed with all of his big toys. Time does fly by too quickly, so I'm trying to enjoy life one day at a time...

(Don't forget to watch this video of his "Happy Birthday" song....)