Two 4 year old Birthdays

Hey, having two four year olds isn't so bad! 

I really thought I would have a hard emotional time with my babies turning four.  But it is fine.  It is what is next.  It comes after three.  You can't stop it from happening so acceptance is the next best thing.

Oh I love these boys!

The boys "puddling" their boat

Yesterday the kids were off from school.  So unfortunately they had to accompany me on all my party planning business.  I thought maybe 90 minutes for 3 stores.  Well it turned into 4 hours of frustration and fatigue.  My already scaled down ideas had to be scaled further and scrapped because of lots of different reasons.  It was not a good morning.

The rest of the day was getting ready for a party that evening with some good friends.*

*Note to self.  No one cares about party games.  No one cares about your fun ideas.  Just let the kids play.  And let the adults talk.  It is not worth the stress and running around to get things ready to what you think people will like.

This was an interesting birthday.  It was the first birthday Felix and Miles were interested in friends coming over.   Miles invited Oliver's friend Benjamin, our Korean friend (well one of them).  We invited a friend from Church, Daniel, for Felix.  And only later he threw a tantrum that he only wanted people who spoke English and he didn't want to speak Portuguese, because he hates Portuguese.  Oh, well, you can't un-invite.

What is also interesting is that Felix and Miles at 4, although they want friends, they don't really need friends because they have each other. 

I felt bad. I just wanted to enjoy their birthday. I just wanted to play with them and make it a special day. The last thing I wanted was to be busy running around and frustrated.

But I decided about having a birthday party too late and so everything was last minute. I do regret that.

Jamison probably thinks everything was just fine. So I will report on the birthday from his perspective. "Just the facts, ma'am," forget the emotional conflict.

My Hero!

We opened presents in the morning. We wanted everyone to be there so we did it before Jamison went to work. It was great. And they had their new toys all day. Hero Factory Iron Man and Captain America. Batman and Thor figure. And Super Hero Squad Spider Man and Captain America. Do you sense a theme? Super Heroes are the best.

We had two cakes. They looked identical on the outside (a first for us) but one was chocolate and one was strawberry. The chocolate cake was amazing. The strawberry one had jello as an ingredient and was tasty (better the second day). Both with chocolate frosting.

I later explained to Jamison that the cakes were on the wrong side!  But I forgot to take a picture of the Right Way.

We had friends from our neighborhood, and from our church come. We played super hero don't eat Pete. We did super hero bingo. We tried a super hero photo booth.

 We had a villain and his assistant steal the cup cakes.

We chased them down and tied them up with toilet paper.

We tied balloons to our legs and tried to pop each others and keep others from popping ours. We watched family pictures on the TV. We were travel consultants about where to go in Brazil to Brazilians.

Miles just played computer games with Oliver. Felix just wanted to play the iPad.

Miles tore himself away from the computer in order to see what was happening on the iPad

They obliged us by coming to blow out their candles.

I love Felix's sweet expression, he really loved being sang to

 

(please note the correct placement of cakes)

We sang Happy birthday first in English then in Portuguese. Video Here.

Felix was so tired he just asked that I sit with him back in my room and be quiet together. (I did spend some time but I also had to balance some hosting duties.)

I think for Felix next time we will just have a special date or something.  He really doesn't like parties.  And we will take Miles to the movies, we will think it is special and he can watch a movie (he did LOVE his cake though).