Ethan's 4th Birthday!

Update: this post is a little late, my computer crashed last week while I was creating this and I forgot to go back and publish it.

Well, this year for Ethan's birthday, we kept it low key but spread out the fun - starting and ending his birthday week with parties! This year's theme was "Cars 2" - his current obsession!

We started with a cookout/party with our church small group on Sunday night, August 7th. We kept the festivities light - just cake, ice cream, a pinata and no gifts. The kids all had fun pulling their string on the pinata to see which string broke open the pinata.

closeup of "Finn McMissile & Mater cake"

blowing out the "4" candle

the kids all have their pinata string ready to pull

Then, the following Sunday, August 14th, party #2 was a family party. We had hot dogs, lots of great side dishes like 3-bean salad, potato salad, baked beans, chips, homemade slaw, watermelon, canteloupe & blueberries. That was topped off with a homemade "Finn McMissile" cake, ice cream & lots of presents!

"Finn McMissile" cake made by Mom

Ethan received lots of cool presents for his birthday - most of which were toys from the "Cars 2" movie! He is very thankful for all his cool new toys and has spent countless hours playing with all his new stuff this week!

busy opening gifts!

Some of Ethan's favorite things while he was 3 years old:

Food: hot dogs (no buns), cheeseburgers, steak, Red, Hot & Blue pulled pork, "America" cheese, colby-jack cheese sticks, Cars 2 graham crackers, chocolate, ice cream, chocolate milk, grilled/baked chicken (aka "buck buck"), popcorn, did I mention chocolate? (a boy after my own heart!), broccoli, applesauce, and pretty much everything else unless it's breaded/fried (like chicken nuggets)

Toys/Activities: Cars/Cars 2 - especially Finn McMissile, Lightning McQueen Rusteeze, Mater & Mack, he also likes to do 24 piece puzzles, play Memory, Cars Bingo, Candy Land, card games like Go Fish, Slap, Crazy Eights, he also enjoys riding his Red Rider tricycle and playing in the sand box, 24 piece puzzles

TV/Movies: he started to lose interest in Sesame Street & Mickey Mouse Clubhouse last fall after he was introduced to Disney/Pixar Cars DVD, we also got cable this spring so he got hooked on all the Nick Jr. shows like Miss Spider's Sunny Patch, Ni Hao, Kai Lan, Yo Gabba Gabba (cringe - I think this show is creepy so he doesn't get to watch it much), Fresh Beat Band, Wonder Pets, Dora, Diego, Blue's Clues, etc.

Ethanisms: "excuse me" (very polite young man, used for every time he wants a chance to talk) "little biwwit" (for "little bit") "wook" (for "look") "that's my favorite!" (for everything he likes), I'm sure there are more but those are the ones that easily come to mind right now!