Ho Ho Happy Birthday

I love my boy Kellen. I love so, so much about him. But one of his charms is his love for all things holiday. At the top of his preferred holidays is Christmas. And after Kellen's 3rd Birthday he decided that he wanted his next party to be Santa themed. Well, he did not forget. He kept his plan alive all year long. So come birthday time we made it happen. We had a Santa party in October!

On Kellen's actual birthday he got to pick where we ate for the day and what we did. No surprise, he chose Chuck E Cheese for his lunch. And for dinner we went to Panera so he could have his favorite Mac and Cheese (his second love after Santa!)

That night we had cake and family presents at home. Kellen picked out his own cake from the store. I guess he figured one of his cakes should be halloween themed since it was October. He got a bunch of pirate stuff for his birthday from Mom and Dad, Makenna and Conner and Grammy and Pa. He was in heaven!

 The Saturday following his birthday was the big party. We decked the house with all the Christmas decorations I could find in October. Had I not been 9 months pregnant, I would have gone out even more. I would have loved to get down all our decorations and get the whole house decked out. I also would have loved to make tons of Christmas treats and desserts. But given the fact that I was huge, uncomfortable and in and out of stress tests and triage with the baby and not knowing if she would be arriving any day, we had to go with what worked and what was easy. And it still managed to turn out super cute!

 Kellen's Christmas cake. You should have seen the look on the face of the lady when I ordered this Christmas cake, in October and requested it to read "Happy Birthday Kellen" It made me feel so cool and like I had the raddest son ever!

 Everyone had a blast at the party. We had a Santa pinata....

It amazes me that pinatas do not totally scar children emotionally. But somehow the kids become so wrapped up in gathering their candy that they seem to forget the dangling Santa head right above them...

A very happy Birthday boy!

We played "Pin the fuzzy ball on Santa's hat"...

And we made gingerbread men crafts and decorated papers with Santa stickers.

During cake and presents Kellen was very strict about making sure that people stood in certain places and did certain things. You could tell he had very much anticipated this moment and had envisioned it playing out a certain way and therefore very much instructed people on the way they should behave. It was pretty funny to watch. He reminds me so much of his Daddy's personality!

 I don't know if the party could have been a bigger success. It just felt so good to take Kellen's creative idea, his dream and watch it come to life. When you have a kid that cherishes celebrations, holidays and parties the way that Kellen does it really makes you feel good when something lives up to his hopes and expectations. After this experience it is a party I would be more than happy to do again. All for our boy!

Here are some things I want to remember about
KELLEN AT 4
-Still LOVES (I mean Totally passionate about) any and all holidays and celebrations
-Can count to 30 with a few hiccups here and there (forgets 13 and 15)
-Writes his name Great!
-Wants to be Santa, a Firefighter or an Astronaut when he grows up
-Still loves Spider Man. Also loves pirates
-Favorite Song: Families Can Be Together Forever
-Favorite Food: Mac and Cheese
-Favorite Color: Orange, though he says that red is a close second these days
-Finally sleeps in past 7:00 on most mornings
-Most mornings when I drop him off at preschool he has me kiss him in the class room and then either comes out after me or stops me on the way out the door for just "1 more kiss"
-He always wants to hold my hand when we walk Makenna to and from school
-Favorite snack is fishy crackers and he has a baggy of them Every day
-Best friend is Peter Nelson. He says he is going to marry Makenna's friend Katie
-Loves to cut things out of magazines and make collages