Zoinks! What a party!

Last week, Chris and I had the absolute pleasure of celebrating the day our little man came into this world. To say his has brought blessings to us for the past four years would be a gross understatement.

He made us parents.

He made us love more than we imagined possible.

He made our house a home.

He made our lives abundantly filled with joy and laughter.

He made us a family.

As tradition, I stayed up most of the night decorating Josh's birthday cake. This year, I even got Chris and his tools involved. Yep, I used a level on the cake; you can't be too precise when it comes to a 4 year-old's cake. No worries, I properly sanitized the tool. When I asked Josh this year what kind of birthday party he wanted (ok, ok.... I asked him about 6 months ago because I was so excited) he said Scooby Doo. Hum?Not sure how he knows about Scooby Doo, but I let it fester for a good while. Months later, he was still sticking with Scooby, so here I am... writing about his Scooby Doo party.

Part of my little cake decorating tradition is to bribe my dear friend, Tricia, to come from Austin to help me. She is such a trooper and was my extra set of creative eyes when it came to this project. We sipped on wine, giggled, decorated, and ate too many licks of brightly colored icing. It was the party before the party and it was darn fun. Until about 1 am when my mixer went hay-wire and splattered bright blue icing all over me, my kitchen, and my dear husband. Oopsy.

The morning of Josh's birthday, we woke the boys up to a big pancake breakfast. Actually, they woke US up at 5:00 am, but we still fed them pancakes. You would think from this picture we were lining them up for a firing line, but I promise, it was just pancakes.

After birthday pancakes, we let Josh open a few presents. Matthewjones and William gave Josh this awesome Rock and Roll Guitar that he absolutely loves. He sleeps with it at the foot of his bed and refers to it, not as his "guitar," but as his "Rock and Roll Guitar from Matthewjones."

?

"Mommy, where is my Rock and Roll Guitar from Matthewjones?"

"Daddy, do you want me to play you a song on my Rock and Roll Guitar from Matthewjones?"

"Who wants to party????"

We had to wait all day, but finally it was time for Josh's Bounce-errific party.

We had the party at a bounce house factory, or at "Bounce House Land," as Josh calls it.

26 4 year olds + siblings.

Thank goodness we had the place to ourselves!
I only wish the kids had fun.

Oh well, maybe next year.

Here is the final product.

Jeepers, was it so much fun decorating Scooby and the gang's groovy Mystery Machine van.

Mini brownies topped with Scooby snacks (gram crackers).

Scooby's dinner (and breakfast and lunch).

Really, they are just CoCo Puffs. At one point during the party, I caught Josh sticking his face in the bowl and eating the puffs. I truly believe in the "It's my party, I can do what I want to," adage, but that was going a little too far. I quickly stopped him, but he defended himself by saying, "But, that's how Murphy and Jackson eat their dinner!"

Such high standards to live by.

CoCo Puffs are really good, by the way.

Doggy Bag Favors.

The grand moment when all of Josh's best buddies sang him his favorite song. Followed by the moment he spit all over the cake. Ahhhh, precious memories.

Once home, Matthewjones, Will, and Josh ripped into the presents with the passion and zeal only three boys can muster up. I love this picture of Josh opening John M.'s gift. He was equally excited about all the presents. Such generous and kind friends my sweet boy is blessed with in his life.

Ahh, the sweet life of a 4 year old.