4!

We celebrated this crazy kid's birthday a couple of weeks ago.  

These pictures make me laugh every time I see them!  What a funny boy.

  

This ridiculous dinosaur greeted the birthday boy in the morning.

I saw the idea for these adorable party hats here

He opened this small present in the morning:

 I hope these are the first of many legos to come.

Went to Krispy Kreme for breakfast.

 This is Ethan's good friend Eric.  I watch him Tuesday-Friday. 

They have a lot of fun together.

I love this picture of Leah.  

They each got to pick out a balloon for his birthday lunch.  I tell ya, nothing makes people smile like a small child walking around the grocery store with a balloon tied to his/her wrist.  Instant happiness.

This kid makes the best faces.

 Ross made THE coolest rocket shaped birthday cake.  This is it only half-way done, and I never got the final product!  Darn it.  We ate birthday cake and ice cream at the park with friends over lunch.  My camera didn't make it out there either. I was a little frantic trying to serve cake and keep track of the three kids.  Luckily I had help watching them.  Thank goodness.

 We went to this fun train restaurant for dinner.  Ethan loves it there.  Leah fell asleep on our way there and slept in my arms the whole time!  It was kind of nice.  That doesn't happen too often anymore.

And then we stuck some candles in what was left of his birthday cake from lunch.  

For a long time I felt like Ethan and I were constantly at a face-off.  It was always a question of who would yield first.  He is one of the most strong-willed kids I know.  But I think we're through the worst of it (at least until he's a teenager :)).  He has grown out of it a bit, and I've grown up a bit as a mom.  It hasn't been super easy to parent him, but I think a lot of it has as much to do with my impatience as it does his personality. He has a temper, and probably always will.  But he is sweet, and so smart, and so fun and quirky.  I love watching his sense of humor come out.  I love his shy proud smile after he accomplishes something difficult.  He still gives the best hugs.  I love him so.

P.S. I also really love my iphone. :) Ross surprised me Christmas morning with it. We randomly qualified for an upgrade.  I was trying my hardest to patiently wait until later this year to get one.  But now I don't have to. Yay!  Most of the iphone pics were taken with the app called 'ShakeIt'. FYI