The Big 4!

I can't believe Peyton was born 4 years ago! Life sure has been interesting with him, and I can't believe how quickly time has gone. Seems like just yesterday that I spent 3.5 hours trying to push him out and then spent the next 3 months trying to get him to stop screaming.

We celebrated his birthday this past weekend with a small party that was supposed to be at the playground where all of the kids could run around and wear themselves out. But for a few short hours on Saturday morning, Mother Nature decided it should rain down on our little patch of North Carolina right in the middle of party time. Did I mention the rest of the weekend was beautiful? So, we moved the party to our house and I was immediately grateful that we lived in a much bigger place that could accommodate the party animals. But the question was what to do with all of the kids. Then I saw a side of Patrick that I didn't know existed: Kids Party Extraordinaire!

He led the kids in the Hokey Pokey (you can see Elliana taking part as well):




And the chicken dance:



He also did a story time with them, which they loved. And a pinata, which was apparently made of steel.

We finished the festivities with food and cake, and I think all the kids had a great time!

For his actual birthday, I let him stay home from school for the day with me. We had a day of fun, with a trip to the library and the observation park at the airport. Then I took him to lunch at the General Aviation Terminal cafe, where we could sit and watch all of the private planes come and go. We even got to see the Hurricanes Hockey team plane as the players boarded it for a trip away. Of course Peyton expressed his desire to ride on one, but I explained to him that those were fancy planes and we needed to have a lot of money to ride on one. He asked if we had a lot of money and I told him no. Then came the question, "Why don't we have a lot of money?" Oh, it must be nice to be a kid and be so naive. We finished the afternoon off with a nap and soccer practice.

As he opened his birthday cards from family that night, a bunch of bills came pouring out of one. To him, the denomination didn't matter - it just mattered that there was a lot of them. He suddenly exclaimed, "Look, Mom! A lot of money! Now we can ride on the fancy airplane!" I tried to explain that it wasn't quite enough, but he wasn't buying it. According to him, there was a lot of money in that birthday card of his - enough to buy him a ticket on the fancy airplane. I hope he always dreams big.....