Our Starshine boy is growing up so very fast. Here is how we celebrated his fourth birthday.
His special day started with a birthday version of what I call The Clue Game(*).
He got a birthday card, "To the Birthday Explorer..." and in it was his first clue, "Go look under the TV."
Under the TV was his first present (a backpack with some books in it) and the next clue.
Under the piano he found headphones and a clue telling him to get on his boots. In the place where he keeps his boots there was another present, a new pair of boots,
and a clue telling him to look in the sandbox.
Out in the sandbox was a new shovel and a clue telling him to go water the new lilac bush.
At the lilac bush was a little watering can
and a note telling him that his last gift was in front of the garage. There he found a glider bike (no pedals), a special gift sent from Grandma Y and Aunt Alisa.
For dinner Isaac grilled hamburgers (local ground beef) that was very yummy. For dessert Orion requested an angel food cake(**), so that is what I made. He decorated it himself.
A few days later we had our friend party. We all met at a park for lunch. I provided "cupcakes" (chocolate chip banana muffins) and his friends all got to sing Happy Birthday to Orion. I brought chalk and the kids drew roads on the ground and drove matchbox cars on them. Later we all went for a walk around the park with the big kids all on three wheelers. Is was so much fun for the kids and moms, plus very easy and low stress, so I considered it is big success.
Notes:
* Somehow Orion taught himself to read. We have always read to him a bunch and I guess he just picked it up. I think it was mostly because he has such a great memory. Anyway, I started playing the clue game to give him some fun stuff to read that didn't have too many hard words in it. Our everyday version has just a "prize" at the very end, usually a healthy snack.
** The angel food cake took 11 egg whites. What would you do with 11 leftover egg yolks? I made 5.5 batches of pudding. 2 vanilla, 2 butterscotch and 1.5 chocolate. I ate almost all of it myself. It was quite yummy. Maybe next time I should just toss the yolks.
