Owen's 4th Birthday

Unlike his past birthdays, Owen actually understood what was going on this year, and was very excited to have a birthday party with his friends. In the invitations Beki told everyone that it was going to be "low key," but apparently her idea of low key and mine are a little different. Case in point, the cake:

We had decided that we were going to do cupcakes, which got me thinking about what I could do with cupcakes to make them a little more "party cool." (Really this is all my sister Carisa's fault, as she is the one who showed me all of her cupcake decorating books while I was in Idaho.) I figured that I could use an Oreo cookie for the face, Beki came up with Charleston Chews for the smoke stacks, and I make the cupcakes look like the trains from Thomas and Friends. But it would be boring just to have the cupcakes by themselves, so I made a train out of Graham Crackers, wafers, and mini Oreos. But the train needed a backdrop, so I made one out of salt dough. In the end the awesomeness was pretty intense, and the kids thought it was just about the greatest thing ever....which is true!

Speaking of trains, there was lots of playing with Owen's trains while Beki and I were outside setting up the water fun.

Owen's friend Maddy had gotten this water park for Easter and her family had never used it. They told us about it, and we though that it would be perfect for the party. The kids LOVED it!

They also loved the cooler full of water balloons. When we first brought them out they were like, "Wait, you WANT us to throw stuff at each other?"

Owen really liked dropping them on the ground and watching them explode.

I, on the other hand, was safely out of range taking care of the grilling. See I think ahead about things like this.

There was also playing with the Swingset...sniff...here is the last picture of the Swingset intact.

There was much eating, at least by the adults, we couldn't get the kids to sit still for long, until it was time to eat...

cupcakes! They were a big hit...of course!

After cupcakes came the Presents. Owen got a wide variety, a swimming pool, legos, play dough, and a giant puzzle. Here he is opening a crowd favorite - two take along Thomas the Train sets!

Last, but not least, came the present from Mom and Dad, his very own Big Boy Bike!

Once everyone realized that they would not be riding the bike inside the house, they turned their attention to the trains.

Once everyone went home it was time to wind down with some National Geographic for Kids with Papa.

Then some more train playing....where he fell asleep...

The next morning he picked right up where he had left off, and went to work on the Play Dough with mom.

He was proud of the car!