ethan is four years old!

this little boy had quite a birthday last week! his official birthday party is not until this coming saturday, but ethan's actual birthday was completely filled with celebration. i'm not exaggerating. from sun up to sun down, this boy partied hard! i thoroughly enjoyed singing happy birthday to him all day. i thoroughly enjoyed telling him that we were so thankful to God for the gift of him four years ago. i think i had more fun celebrating his birthday than celebrating my own. while we really didn't want his birthday to be all about what he was getting, it was really really exciting giving ethan gifts that we knew he'd love. ok, well, on with the day! ethan's birthday started a little differently than planned because ethan woke up before we could go in to surprise him. no big deal... i just made him wait in his room until we were ready. so when we went in to sing and deliver his birthday muffin, i was armed with the muffin and the video camera... and brian had the camera. here's a peek into the start of ethan's birthday...


as you can see, i had no idea that ethan was right in front of me! :) but wasn't that one excited little birthday boy?! he was so stinkin' cute. in this next picture, i love how happy caroline is for ethan...



after blowing out his candle, he ran to the kitchen and was so surprised to see his presents waiting for him! in the past, we have given him our presents at his party, but i'm so glad we did it this way. they were a special way to kick off his birthday vs. getting lost amongst his friends' presents at his party. brian planned on going into work an hour later this day so that he could spend time with ethan the morning of his birthday... so we loved daddy being there too!


ethan was thrilled to open his very own copy of charlie & lola. this adorable cartoon is my kids' new favorite, and for the summer, it is only on disney at an unheard of early hour on saturdays and sundays. so they have missed this british brother and sister these last couple of months. my favorite thing about charlie and lola (besides the british accents and vocabulary!) is that charlie is extremely patient and loving to his little sister (who is small and very funny). this show does not have the typical whining and sibling rivalry that is too commonly seen on childrens' shows today. this cartoon gets the daddy approval, which is rare!! so anyway, ethan was so happy about this gift. and daddy overlooked the fact that the one i bought was pink.


when ethan peeked into the gift bag to find two sand trucks for the beach, his face lit. up. i missed the shot with my camera, but it is frozen in my mind. he has been dragging this huge bulldozer to the beach to play with, so these two trucks will be much easy to carry! and what boy doesn't like one more truck, anyway?!


he also loved the die-cast trains we got him for his big carnival train track, but he put the trains in front of his face in all the pictures... now moving on to the big surprise gift...

when some sweet friends of ours moved a few years ago, the mom passed down some of her boys' rescue heroes for when ethan was older. the bag of action figures sat in the back of our closet for a long time, and several months ago, i thought that these would make a great birthday present for ethan this year. well, i saw that there was an old tv show and a movie about these rescue heroes, so i ordered the movie for ethan. i wanted him to get good and familiar with these guys so he'd know what he was opening on his birthday... well, mission accomplished! ethan and caroline have both grown to love billy blazes, rocky canyon, jake justice, and all the other characters. (their names are hilarious... my favorite are "maureen biologist" and "bob sled".) after a few viewings of the movie, ethan could be found jumping off the couch shouting, "ethaaaaaan to the rescue!" my mom asked, "ethan, what does rescue mean?!" he said, "i don't know. ethaaaaan to the rescue!" all of that to say, he had no idea that the people in the movie were also toys. so when he opened this box and saw billy blazes and crew, he was so surprised! and he knew them by name as he pulled them out of the box. here he is with his favorite, jake justice.


this boy was having quite a great birthday already, and it wasn't even 9:00 yet! here is ethan with his four new rescue heroes...


caroline couldn't let ethan have all the fun. she grabbed billy blazes and pressed his button, and i kid you not, that action figure yelled, "mayday! mayday!" that is one smart toy.


so after the morning birthday excitement, the kids went into the living room to watch charlie and lola and to play with trains, action figures, and whatever else was scattered across the room. as soon as i pressed play on the dvd player, the phone started ringing. that boy is loved. family and friends called off and on for the next hour to wish ethan a happy birthday. and ethan talked politely to all of them, though i knew he really wanted to be watching his new movie! but as you can see, he was happy to chat with those that love him so much.


aunt kristie and karina stopped by to deliver a fun, huge golf club. it's really a shame that this boy doesn't love his aunt kristie.


and shortly after they left, my mom came over with a birthday lunch of chick-fil-a. (i'm tellin' you, the fun did not stop!) while the kids ate their lunch, i got busy setting up ethan's HUGE birthday surprise in his room. it really was gigantic. see, my mom asked the innocent question, "what should i get ethan for his birthday?!" since i knew we were giving him the rescue heroes, i told her i'd see what other stuff was out there for them on ebay. famous last words, right!? there was this one cool command center that was a buy it now auction for a reasonable price. well, i kept looking (because i love ebay), and i found an auction for a similar starting price... and it was for a TON of rescue heroes stuff! TWO command centers, a bunch of guys, animals, and vehicles! it was really neat! so that is the one i bid on, and i won it without going too high. (anybody else LOVE the ebay thrill as you win at the last second!? please tell me it's not just me!) well, to make a long story short, the shipping ended up being 3x the "estimate" from the bidder, but after it arrived, i could see why it cost so much to ship. all of this stuff was HUGE. i did not expect one of the command centers to be nearly as big as it was. but i just had to laugh. i knew ethan would love it. and i brought this all on myself. we probably should have just ordered the single, simple command center, but really, my mom got a steal on all of this stuff. and she never really saw it till it was set-up, as you will see in the video! SO when the kids finished eating lunch, my mom had ethan open up a box that had a little poem in it about the rescue heroes needing help. it said something about finding them behind his door, and he was supposed to run to his room to find the big display. well, he went to the front door first, but after some help, he came running into his room....


my mom said that his reaction was worth $40 in shipping costs! and this is what he saw...


there is so much to do and play with on this thing. the head guy talks to you, and you can hook up the different guys to have them talk to the head guy... the smaller command center has a record & play feature, which caroline LOVES to shout gibberish into and then play it back all. day. long. can i get a rescue hero to rescue me from that!? :)


they are having a blast and are in rescue heroes heaven.

this is what ethan is doing pretty much every second of the day now.

and it all began when cara handed down one medium-sized bag of forgotten toys. they are surely the star of this house now! (and as i stared at the rescue heroes world that has overtaken my living room, i told myself that if this all gets to be too much, i can sell some of it back on ebay. because really, he doesn't need 19 rescue heroes. i mean, three are billy blazes. but i can hear it now...but mo-o-o-o-m, one billy talks, one has a robot side-kick, and one shoots real water out of his hose! they're all different! anyway, some of it may eventually go. i just keep telling myself that. :) but for now, he's having a blast.)

the birthday miracle is that ethan even took a nap after such an exciting morning! it wasn't a long nap, but it was sufficient. after his nap, my dad and joy came by. ethan was so happy to see them and to open avalanche, the fun marble game from the 60's that we played at avery's house. (another ebay success!) here's papa with ethan and caroline... and jake justice.


and here's the debut of avalanche at our house...

we have played avalanche more times in the last week than caroline has recorded gibberish into the command center. so i'd say he loves it! we all love it! brian and i even played it one night after the kids went to bed. :) and brian is really good at it. and i hate to lose.

after opening presents from papa and grandma joy (which also included an announcement that a sno cone maker was being delivered to our house the next day!), they took us out to eat for ethan's birthday (with rescue heroes in hand). ethan really loved being sung to, though he did this smirky shy bit while he was getting all the attention...


after loading up on chocolate cake, we came home from dinner to find nana and pappy at our house! i told you this was one celebrated birthday!! they had a present for ethan and more cake and ice cream! and it was almost bedtime! :) but you only turn 4 once, right!? ethan was so excited to open a box of trio blocks from nana and pappy. we had never heard of these, so you know ethan and his daddy were thrilled to have one more thing to get to build. here is the birthday boy with nana and pappy.


and here is ethan with his final present for the day. any toy that is described using "build" and "airplane" in the same sentence will get this boy excited!


brian wasted no time getting to work with these blocks. they are easy enough for caroline to use but exciting enough for ethan (and brian) to enjoy. :)


this may be my longest post yet...we packed a whole bunch of celebrating into 12 short hours! we are looking forward to continuing ethan's birthday celebration this weekend at the beach. he has been talking about having a beach party forever, so i am really hoping the weather will cooperate. until then, we are caked out. and you know that says a lot coming from me!


we'll be rewinding back to my birthday next! and, well, i'm warning you. it's a lot of cake.