He's Four Now, you know...

Yesterday was Sam's 4th birthday!

And I think Monday and Tuesday were two of the busiest days in my whole life! Poor Sam has never had a birthday party before. But, to be fair, this is the first year that he's really been old enough to enjoy it. We have celebrated with him and made the day special for him, but this year we decided he could have a party.

Luckily, our subdivision just opened a really nice club house that I was able to rent out for a very reasonable fee! And, even though I only rented 1/4 of the clubhouse, they let us have free reign over the whole thing. Bonus!

Our big present to Sam was redoing his room. We took it from a "little boy room" into a "Big Boy Room." We got a new border for the wall, got him some StarWars Saga sheets and comforters and found some posters for the walls.

Our plan was to quickly strip the old boarder on Monday and get the room sorted for him on Tuesday while he was at school. That was the plan. The old border had other plans. It did NOT want to budge! It took all day to strip that darn stuff off! Sam slept in Josh's room that night. Not only was he excited about his birthday and the mini "sleepover" in Josh's room, but we were making noise getting that wall paper off until after 9:00.

And of course he was up and down all night because he was excited. I tell you, I have never seen such excitement in one little boy in my life!

Tuesday, his actual birthday, we got up earlier than usual (due to excitement) and let him open the present Josh had for him. Then we got Nanny and Grandad on the computer...



So he could open the present they gave him.



Wow! The one thing he wanted more than anything in the world! The GeoTrax Airport!!!! He was sooooo excited... I put it together straight away and it didn't work.

Poor kid. I'm so surprised he didn't throw a tantrum because I sure wanted too! He played with it -- even though it was broken -- before school. I got him off to school and ran back to help Rich get the room sorted out.

Then, because the GeoTrax was broken, I had to run to Target to exchange it for a new one (which works -- yay!).

By the time all that was done, it was time to pick him up from school, have lunch and let him open more presents. I was just about to go get in the shower, when I realized it was 2:30 and I had to get Josh from the bus stop and I still had not finished getting the things ready for the party.

As soon as Josh got home I rushed to the shower. I didn't even have time to blow dry my hair or put make up on -- so forgive the way I look in the picture -- and we ran down to the club house.

Thankfully, everyone had fun. I made a Lego Cake for him. It was lots of fun to make and a HUGE hit! The marshmallows were hard to frost and it was messy, but fairly easy. As you can tell though, I'm not a perfectionist!



I brought a bunch of toys from our house -- mostly Legos and puzzles and just let the kids play. We had pizza and we played one game -- pass the parcel. I used up left over Halloween candy for treats and goody bags (cheap or resourceful, you decide?).



Here he is blowing out the candles...



And here we are, tired and frazzled but very happy!



The party was a huge success! The kids had fun, got fed and tired out. I didn't have to clean the house or cook dinner so that was a bonus. And the party itself, hall rental, goody bags, pizza, cake, decorations... all up cost me $75. Not too bad if I do say so myself!

We even had 2 pizza's left over. I brought one to my neighbor and Rich and I ate the other for our dinner when we got home. And yes, we opened a bottle of wine!