Birthday celebrations

I received a slap on the wrists from someone at work (a Sisson family blog "lurker") the other day saying "shame on you for not posting any birthday pictures!"... Well L, this one is ESPECIALLY for you. MAYBE, it will even de-lurk you and get you to post a comment! ;-)

Joshua's birthday was a resounding success. He has been so very excited for this that he had started a ritual of "x-ing the day" during our "quiet time" in the evenings each night. He had a countdown to birthday going that went on for about 2 weeks where he would cross off the calendar day, and then count how many days there was left. When Saturday morning finally came around, he was so excited he couldn't sleep and woke up early... and anxious for the day to begin. Saturday morning, the family came over to celebrate with us. Grandparents from both sides as well as aunts and uncles and cousins were present. Joshua had a BLAST! Mark and I had made a summer investment of an inflatable bouncy castle for the kids this year and it was put to the test with all the kids taking turns in it on Saturday! This this is GREAT! It is about 6 feet high and recommends no more then 3 kids at a time for bouncing fun. It takes about 1 minute to inflate (or deflate) and has mesh on 3 of the walls, 2 basketball nets and a huge slide on the open "wall". As you see form the picture below, Joshua LOVES it. By far, it has been our best kids investment thus far and we suspect we will be putting it to much use for years to come!

Sunday was birthday party #2 for Joshua. This time, with his friends at Cosmic Adventure. All the kids seemed to have a great time and the staff were wonderful. For Mark and I, this was an extra special treat since it meant we needed to do nothing except make up some loot bags and show up with the kids. Everything else was taken care of.

A great big thank you to EVERYONE for making our little BIG boy's 4th birthday so very special.

Madie two fisting her way through the birthday cake

Joshua getting ready for his presents at Cosmic

Opening the Batmobile from Grandad and Grandma Gale

Digging in to the Monster truck cake I made for him for Saturday's celebration

Joshua giving thumbs up to the awesome go cart

"trotinette" he got from Mamie.

We also have a video we are trying to upload of a very special gift given to Joshua by his Nan and Gramps - who are currently enjoying the Florida sun. We are having some technical difficulties with that one but will continue to attempt to upload as soon as possible.

UPDATE - CLICK HERE to see video!

I hope this makes up for not being able to post before now - but a small gastro bug which has been making its way through our family has made for busy and tiresome evenings.

J