The Great Nemo 4th B day Party

Our big event started in the afternoon. After a bit of playtime outside, the boys (yes, it was all boys, this year Jake chose the list), came inside and we did some Finding Nemo-themed crafts. Making little aquariums in baby food jars was a huge hit - I think Gram made 5 of them!

And on the sidelines, Abby woke up and started to flirt, especially with Vicki, Aidan's mom.

There was also a large outside water pistol fight, which reportedly had most of the boys in tears at one point or another. They liked to squirt much more than being squirted, apparently!

Abby agreed, it was time for dinner. Mike made burgers and hotdogs, and we also had pesto tortellini, my beans and rice salad, and veggies. It was delicious!

Jake was super excited about the blue Nemo cake he and I had made the day before, and insisted that we lower the lights so the candles could be seen.

The boy has a lot of air, but his aim was not so good. It took him about 5 tries to blow out his candles. He declined to make a wish this year. He was excited to tell everyone that the Nemo and Dorrie on the cake were squirters that he was going to use later in his bath.

Ah, finally success, and clapping.

And the reward, as expected, getting to eat the spoils!

And Vicki kept Abby nice and happy.

Here are Amee and Matthew, both looking radiant, but for different reasons! She's about to have a baby girl and he's just happy to be eating cake!

The present opening was a grand occasion, it turned out, for the 4 boys to cooperate. Jake had lots of helpers and opinions about the order in which to open everything. They were super respectful - moving packages around for him, observing closely, but never opening any of them. And of course, they did help test out a few key items once they were opened!

Finally, everything was done, and the parents looked relaxed again. We gave all the boys little Nemo treat bags and thanked them for coming. Jake was actually pretty gracious!

Then the fun continued today. Mike and I were completely wiped out, but Jake informed us that the big pile of presents was waiting for him this morning! First out was his huge new crane. He and Mike put it together and Jake played happily with it all day long, in three different rooms of the house and on the back deck. You just never know what needs lifting until you have a crane around!

The second and only other item for today was his excavation dinosaur kit. He used a hammer and chisel to dig out plastic dinosaur bones and then assembled the dinosaur afterwards. This was a very cool toy and he LOVED doing it!

So, there's my little budding archeologist /builder. 4 years old already. I cannot believe it!