Nathan's Birthday Party

We celebrated Nathan's birthday on his actual birthday this year since September 1st fell on a Monday which was of course Labor Day so Dad had the day off as well as Uncle Brad. Anyway it worked out great since this next Saturday is the West Texas Fair and Rodeo parade so we wouldn't have been able to do it then. We met with family and friends at our church's Fellowship Hall and had a great time.

I decided not to purchase as many helium balloons this year (just four instead of my usual ten) and have some on the ground for the kids to play with instead. Nathan and Benjamin were both excited to have balloons to play with.

You can see the four helium balloons on Nathan's table here. The top balloon has Lightning McQueen on it.

The boys were very glad to see Uncle Brad, Kathryn, and Daniel. There were lots of hugs all around for the birthday boy... and the little brother too!

Soon Nathan was tearing into all his great gifts - even with a significantly smashed finger! You can see in this top pic that the middle finger on his left hand is black. It looks like he's probably going to lose that nail - yuck! One week prior, on August 25th, he and Benjamin were playing in their room when Nathan ran out and Benjamin thought he had run on down the hall (so did I) but instead he was waiting just outside the door for Benjamin. Well Benjamin went up and slammed the door shut only to find out that Nathan had had his hand (really just one finger tip) in the door way. Ouch!! Anyway, back to more pleasant things - presents!

As Nathan opened the presents Benjamin was quick to check out the loot!
Who me?

Nathan and Benjamin each got a soft stuffed snake - they were an instant hit.

After the opening of the gifts and prior to the arrival of the pizza there was some time for the kids to enjoy the new toys.

Nathan is playing with his new LarryBoy video player. You look in the back of the toy and it shows a short LarryBoy snippet. Pretty cool!

Nathan also got this big mat to drive his cars on with his brother. It is very fun!

Our friend Renee, who we call NeNe (pronounced Nay-Nay), got down on the mat to talk with Nathan for a moment.

Nathan is giving BoBo, a friend from Daddy's work, a big hug for her birthday which just happens to be the same day as his - so I guess the birthday hugging is actually mutual!

Finally the pizza arrived - it was so late that they even gave us a discount! As always the pizza was a big hit with both boys.

After pizza came the Birthday Ice Cream Sandwiches (since Nathan does not like cake). I laid the sandwiches out in the shape of the number four and put candles on it. It worked just fine.

Once again Benjamin is very interested in his share of the goodies!

Ice cream sandwiches are one of Nathan's very favorite foods!

It was a great celebration of a great day. I cannot believe I have a four year old. Wow!