Happy Birthday Ian

Well... My sweet Ian turned 4!!!

 We started the day off by opening ONE present!! =) 

 This is his AWESOME Transformers pinata!!  We bought it about four months ago because he saw it at Wal-mart and just had to have it!  It has been tempting him in my closet all this time!

He was so excited about his pinata that we did that very first after our friends arrived!!  Everyone took a good few swings.  We even let Truman (the biggest and oldest) wack it as hard as he could five or six times, but it still didn't crack.

 Then we let each of the kids pull one of the strings on the back (the way it is supposed to be opened) and it still didn't break open so Nik had to just tear it open and dump the candy and prizes out!!

These are our friends!!

 Next we did a little art project.  We painted watercolor pictures with q-tips!  The kids seemed to like this part!

 Next was presents!  He got spoiled that's for sure!

THE CAKE

 This cake:  It was going to be awesome!!  Ian and I made 3 cakes... all different colors.  One green, one blue, and one orange.  We stacked them and stacked them, sticking them together with frosting and raspberry filling.   Nik made a marshmallow fondant and we covered our awesome cake tower.  AND THEN... it started melting because it is so stinking hot here in Arizona!  I put it in the fridge as soon as I could, but it was too late.  So I let Ian put the figurines wherever he wanted them and we decided it was the planet that "Zurg" lives on and Buzz and Woody were saving the day! =)

It still tasted GREAT!!

 Blowing out the candle!!  Ian had a little help! =)

 After our friends left we ate lunch and had a little "family party" where Ian got to open the presents from us and his Grandparents.

 He got a new pair of shoes and when he opened them he said "Yes, I've been wantin these for ever!!!"  I was glad.  I don't know if you remember, but last year his birthday was not so exciting for him.  He had opened all of his fun presents while we were visiting family in Utah and then the presents he had from us were mostly clothes and things he needed.  After opening them he said "those weren't good presents."  I was bound and determined to make this a better birthday for him!!  So as you can imagine I was pretty happy when he got so excited about his new shoes!!

Covering his eyes while we bring his big present in!

 A BIKE!!!!!!!

 The first thing he said when he opened his eyes and saw his bike was "It doesn't have training wheels."  And it didn't.  We decided to get him the bigger size and just buy the training wheels separate so that he would last longer on it!  He opened his training wheels next and then we were set!

 Awesome new helmet from Grandma... it came with a cool bell that we put on his bike too!

 And of course he had to go for a bike ride even though it was SO HOT (like 108 hot) and he loved every minute of it!  Miranda was also excited for Ian to get his new bike because now she gets to ride his little tricycle!!  She also loves riding in the carriage!!

 And we finished the day off by watching Aladdin and making popcorn!  He had a great birthday and I was so relieved!!  Thanks to both sets of Grandparents for helping make it a very special day!!  All of the pictures where he is smiling were for you... I'd say "Ok, this one is for Grandma so smile", and he would!!  He is not big on getting his picture taken lately!

We love this little guy so much!!  He is such a smart, talented, funny kid!!  He makes friends wherever he goes and is always asking questions!  He loves to do projects and can always make Kamryn laugh!  He loves to play transformers with Nik... they are always flying around the house getting bad guys (or being bad guys!!).  He is doing so well in preschool and loves going!  He cries every week because he doesn't want to go to primary, but then every week when we pick him up tells us how much fun he had!  The other day Miranda had done something to him and then apologized and he said "It's ok, I forgive you."  I can't wait to see what he learns and does in this next year.  We love you Ian!!!!!!!!  Happy 4th Birthday!