Ryan's 4th Birthday Party

We had Ryan's 4th birthday party at Monkey Bizness on Saturday night. He's been talking about his birthday for at least a month now - inviting and uninviting everyone daily. Ryan will officially be 4 on July 3rd but we'll be on vacation so we scheduled a little early and just told him that he is now 4. The party was a lot of fun, with the the exception of the thermostat that was stuck on 79 degrees. The kids were HOT and SWEATY by the time the play time was over.

You might notice a theme in several of these pictures - Ryan's mouth seems to be open A LOT!

That's our BIRTHDAY BOY!

Here are three friends lounging in the inflatable obstacle course. One of the party helpers was shaking the side wall and trying to knock them off. This is Caden (a friend of Reid's), Finley (Caden's sister), and Andrew. Finley and Andrew both live on the end of our cul-de-sac.

I missed this happening so I'm not sure what had went on but this is Alyssa, our summer nanny, carrying Ryan somewhere. Alyssa and her mother, Carol, and sister, Taylor, came to help Ryan celebrate his special day.

Andrew and Ryan are playing basketball as Ava (another neighbor friend) goes up the ladder to go down a slide.

Here is Caden climbing the rock wall. Reid wanted to climb it but couldn't because he had worn flip flops and brought socks and tennis shoes were required for the rock wall. He pouted and was upset about it. We suggested that he borrow Caden's shoes to try it but he wasn't having it. By this point the kids were very hot and getting pretty tired.

Ryan, playing solo, in the toddler area. When left alone, this kid can certainly entertain himself.

This was Ryan's cake. To the common kid this might appear to be a Spongebob Squarepants cake... but Ryan wanted a Squidword cake. It was a really cool cake and tasted quite yummy as well!

And here is Squidword...

Here is Ryan attempting to blow out his candles after his friends sang Happy Birthday too him. He was standing so far back he only got one blown out and Reid snuck in before we could stop him and blew out the rest.

This is Maddie - isn't she the cutest!! Her brother, Logan, and Ryan play really well together when Ryan goes to Grandma Cella's day care to play. Chris and Lindsey were so nice to drive down from Holton to allow Logan and Maddie to come to Ryan's party!!

Looks like the cake was good enough for Ryan :)

The party was from 5:00 - 6:30. We served dinosaur shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (you can see in the picture above) with cheetos and then had cake, capri sun, and water. The kids all ate pretty good - I think better than they would have done with pizza. We got home about ten after 7 but Ryan had already passed out in the car (below). Russ carried him up to his bed and he slept in his birthday clothes until 6:45 the next morning. We had put all of his presents out in the living room since he had barely got to see them the night before and he played almost all day with all of them. He LOVES his Mickey Mouse doctor kit (I have been the patient SEVERAL times - and he always wants to be the nurse). We also built and airplane and helicopter from a set that his Aunt Courtney got him from Ikea that only requires one tool - it is pretty neat. We read several good books, carried our tackle box EVERYWHERE all day, and had a huge water park for father's day that included a slip n slide, two water guns, a pool, and the lawn sprinklers. He had quite a weekend!!

Ross got pretty tuckered out at the birthday party too. Aunt Courtney did a lot of playing around with him and letting him crawl around. He eventually fell sound asleep on Alyssa and they were both soaked with his sweat when the party was over. Here's a picture of him playing: