Last Saturday we had Logan's 4th birthday party at the house. We made the alien masks, played games in the basement followed by pizza, more games in the basement (led by my brilliant husband who was equipped with a small parachute, a bunch of balls and his great imagination). Finally, everyone enjoyed cake and we finished off with the present opening (which is always surprisingly fun for the other kids who ooh and ahhhh and tell everyone in the room that they or a sibling or a friend have or want that particular gift). I think everyone had a good time! Thankfully, auntie Denna arrived last Wednesday, led in the development of a super fantastic time table and project plan for the party set up & execution and helped prep everything. Nana arrived on Friday and basically ran everything behind the scenes. THANK YOU GUYS!!!!

Today (Tuesday) was Logan's "birthday day" at preschool. Mrs. Jen made him his "4" necklace and he decorated it with lots of stickers.

On the drive home from school, he told me about the stickers. "There's a boat and a fire truck, one of those O things you throw at people in the water and a race car!"
Back up to Saturday morning. I woke up thinking it would be a bad thing for Logan to open ALL of these awesome new toys right at 7pm when he would only have a couple hours to play with them. So...we decided to open family gifts after breakfast. Brady was goofing around during the meal and we took a couple snap shots of him.

We set Logan up in his chair and let him open all the presents the family brought. He got an Optimus Prime costume from Auntie Denna, Uncle Tom & Ryan (awesome!) He got a giant Wall-E from Nana and Papa that has to be taken back to be fixed (bummer, but it's worth the wait!) plus a talking Woody to go with Buzz from Valentine's Day. Mommy, Daddy & brothers gave him a couple little things including the mini sandbox, Transformer flip flops and a Bakugan shooter.

Aiden helped carry the trash to the kitchen (his own idea!) I thought he made quite a colorful trash man! :)

After Naps it was finally....Party Time!! We had 2 big tables set up for the craft. Here are a bunch of the party-goers making alien masks :)

Then we had all the kids descend (in disguise!) into the alien arcade (lit by black lights that daddy purchased that morning). Are you wondering why Optimus Prime is with them?? Let the birthday boy do what he wants was the moto :)

Here is Planet Darts, one of the 5 games the kids played downstairs...manned by Connor and Ashley's mom Anna.

Papa started drawing Mickey Mouse on the Spray the Comet board after most of the kids went through. Several came back around after they were done with all the games and got to choose between spraying a tail on a comet or spraying Mickey's face off the board...

Moon Bounce Basketball. Prize = cool bouncy ball.

Logan hung out with Daddy and played games intermittently. He wore his new soccer shirt for his party.

The kids started in a circle and played Pass the Comet to some fun party music that we found (all space, rocket or planet-themed songs like "Rocketship Run" by Laurie Berner and "9 Planets" by Justin Roberts...plus maybe Spaceman by the Killers) They stood in a circle around our sign on the floor. This picture may or may not include a shot of my cute blue shoes. The other feet are daddy's!

This was my favorite sign! We didn't end up having enough room to do the Orbit Rides (one kid sits in the middle of the parachute we borrowed from Aunt Diana while the dads spin them in a circle). Brian used the parachute for other games in between pizza and cake (we had some time to kill)

Big Party = BIG cake!! Did I mention that this was supposed to be a Wall-e cake? Logan changed his mind when I went one day to modify my order from a 1/2 sheet to a full sheet cake. He found the picture in the book next to the cake counter while I was talking with the bakery staff. We had to let him check out the various toys that would come on the cake so he could decide between Eve & Wall-e or Optimus Prime....that stinker chose the boring red and blue cake ;) Look how tiny the toys looks! This is my favorite cake - chocolate with the whipped frosting that actually tastes like cool whip and not like Crisco.

Time for presents! Grandpa and Uncle David move the goods over to the birthday boy....

...who did not need to be coaxed into his chair. He ran around the party yelling "ok everyone - present time!"

While the kids ate, played and watched Logan open his fun new stuff, Nana decorated the goody bags we collected before the kids left the basement (small toy control....Brian had a fear that all the stuff would be taken out and spread from one end of the house to the other...he knows children well!) It's hard to see, but in the background we had the cool "glow in the dark" coloring toy. It flashes between two screens and lights them up alternately with a black light. Auntie Denna did an awesome job making a little sign that flashed "welcome to" and then "Logan's 4th birthday party"

After most of the kids had gone home, I finally caved and let Logan open the awesome gift that the Kelly kids brought - a color changing car station - sooooo cool! Logan, Connor and Aiden all started playing, but Logan found something more interesting....the left over fruit salad (he requested pizza and fruit salad for his birthday party!) He was standing up there shoveling massive amounts of fruit into his face with two different giant spoons! As you can see, there were many cameras going off as all the moms and dads were dying with laughter....Logan was oblivious in his own happy place! It reminded me of Aiden and the bread on New Year's.

Monday morning - REAL birthday morning. Daddy took a late flight to New York and we had our favorite breakfast....McDonald's pancakes. We sang and lit candles...of course.

Our darling (spoiled rotten) child even got a couple more gifts....a Bakugan storage tin and an "easy transforming" Optimus Prime..."from his brothers".

Bakugan!

Here are Logan and Aiden playing with one of L's new favs....the mini sandbox (go mom!) He named one of the garbage cans scoopy or sandy....something like that. He played for about an hour straight, ate lunch, and went back to playing. Too bad we lost some of the sand on the floor...it's messy, but oh so worth it to find a toy that makes our active little man sit still.