July 9

Today my sweet Brown Bear turned 4. For a trip down memory lane, check out these posts:

Caleb's birth day

Caleb's first birthday (and his party)

Caleb's second birthday (and his party)

Caleb's third birthday

I am so, so thankful that Baby Rainbow decided to wait until after Caleb's birthday to make his/her arrival, because it was really important to me that Caleb have his own birthday. Because I wasn't in labor or recovering from delivering a baby, we were able to spend the whole day doing things that Caleb loves.

Caleb woke up to find balloons hanging from his bedroom door.

He thought the balloons were pretty cool.

Then I informed Caleb that I wanted to take a birthday picture of him. His requests?

1. His bow tie

2. Nothing else.

I was all about humoring the birthday boy, so: 

We clearly know how to par-tay, especially at 6:30 in the morning.

He did eventually get dressed, and we took our now-traditional picture in front of the chalk board wall. 

I just noticed the picture of a freshly-born Caleb in the bottom left corner. Aside from the fact that the photo is a little bit terrifying, it's also funny because it looks like he's holding up four fingers in that photo, too!

Then we went out to breakfast, where all of the servers made a big deal of Caleb's birthday. Chris took the day off work to celebrate his boy, and after breakfast the three of them played outside with the neighbor kids and our friends Caleb and Hannah.

After some seriously hot playtime, Chris and Caleb bundled up to go ice skating together, while Daisy and I stayed home. It was Caleb's second time ice skating, and Chris said he did pretty well. He was very nervous about the zamboni, though, so the boys left before it came out to clear the ice.

After naps (or lack thereof - Caleb was too excited to actually sleep), our family began arriving to celebrate Caleb's birthday. After Daisy's big blowout first birthday bash, I realized that I go a little bit overboard if we have an *actual* party, so I resolved to only have parties for milestone birthdays. Every other birthday can be just a low-key family gathering. Somehow, though, this "low-key family gathering" morphed into dinner for twenty people, the day after my due date. 

How do these things happen?

Luckily, I was able to keep things pretty simple. Chris and my mom helped quite a bit, so I didn't overdo things too much. 

We had a simple dinner - a big salad, ensalata Caprese, brown rice, brats and hot dogs. No big deal.

But it was such a joy to see the whole family (minus Grace and Adam - we miss you guys!) around our (much-extended) table, eating and laughing. Caleb and Daisy were absolutely doted on, and it made my heart so happy.

I let Caleb eat an actual hot dog bun, and that made his heart happy. I didn't feel bad about it, because instead of a birthday cake or cupcakes, he asked for a watermelon cake.

I saw a cake like this on Pinterest one day, and Caleb was fascinated. He immediately declared that he wanted it to be his birthday cake. I clarified that it was just fruit - not an actual cake - but he was adamant. So while he napped, I carved a cake-shape out of a watermelon and adorned it with fruit. When he woke up, I asked what he thought. 

Caleb looked thoughtfully at the cake, then declared, "It's missing the brown stuff!"

Panicked, I asked, "What brown stuff?"

"The brown stuff around the bottom that I saw on the monitor!"

So we hopped back on Pinterest, and I realized that the cake in the picture had grapes around the bottom. When I showed Caleb all of the extra fruit we had instead of grapes, he was nearly satisfied. He did insist I add kiwi to the cake, and I agree now that it was a good choice.

Caleb loved his "cake".

Then, present time. Thankfully, the family exercised a lot of restraint with gifts. Caleb loved everything he got, especially that Superman costume!

Have I mentioned that my sister Emily is also pregnant? Very pregnant, in fact; she's due three or four weeks after I am, though clearly my baby is coming late and her boyfriend assures me that their baby will be coming early. Perhaps we'll have babies on the same day!

Caleb had one last gift to open; 

All of his grandparents, Sally, and Chris and I chipped in to buy him his very own big-boy bike. He was so excited!

It's a lot bigger and heavier than his balance bike...

But he was excited to try it out!

Since he has no prior experience with pedals or brakes, there is quite the learning curve.

But I know he'll figure it out!

Meanwhile, Sally helped Daisy, Caleb, and Hannah work the fishing game that Grandmother and Grandad brought for Daisy. The kids were fascinated!

Caleb was eager to show Grandmother and Sally his "catch".

Even Max got in on the bicycling action. He was really good on our friend Caleb's big boy bike!

So, it was a perfect day of celebration for our sweet four-year-old. We are so blessed to have such wonderful family so close by!

Happy birthday, Caleb!