Life in this Zoo: May 2010

Happy Birthday Isaac.

It was so much fun to celebrate Isaac's birthday with him on 3 April 2010. He turned 4 years old, and I am amazed that my little baby is that big and that old.

He didn't make a very big fuss about having a birthday, he just sort of took it as kind of inevitable and natural. I didn't get much input from him on what he wanted for a gift or what he wanted to do for a celebration. If I made a suggestion he would agree or disagree. He was pretty happy about it all though, just kind of quietly. He is so funny.

So the day before his birthday, a Friday, we went as a family to Chuck-e Cheese's and had pizza and fun. And James took Isaac and Jeremiah to see the movie How To Train A Dragon, which they totally loved. As his gift from his family Isaac received a Radio Flyer big wheel. And from Grandma and Grandpa Bryson he got some money, which he took to Toys-R-Us and independently, and thoughtfully (which has always been his way) ended up buying 3 different Play-Doh sets and didn't go over his budget by even a cent! I was very pleased with him.

Then on his birthday, a Saturday, we had a party with his friends. It was 2 hours of noise produced by 11 small children!!! And it was a blast. The kids who came were mostly from his Sunbeams class at church, but he also had friends from preschool and a little neighbor too.

Last year Isaac was totally into Ben 10, this year he's kind of over that and it's all about BATMAN... So we had a superhero party.

We made great invitations, we had so much fun making them and all the kids and their parents loved them too.

Everyone came in their superhero costumes, and we played some serious superhero games...

They played a pass-the-Kryptonite game using a green glow stick.

Then we discovered a super villain had tried to sabotage our party with lots of balloon bombs, so the superheroes had to defuse them all by twisting them into different shapes...

Isaac makes an extremely handsome Batman and he was very excited to be defusing those bombs...

Then they had speed race playing red light, green light and seeing who was the fastest superhero. One of the parents played the traffic light. The little heroes played this game 3 times.

Next they played a Spiderman web game. Taking turns they would use an old measuring tape that we had, holding one end they had to throw the other end into a basketball hoop. They all took turns so patiently and everyone got about 3 or 4 turns before they were done. Here of course is my Batman Isaac demonstrating his spider skills.

Then everyone gathered around the table for birthday cake. We didn't have 11 chairs but the little heroes had no problem with sharing.

Of course he had a Batman birthday cake which he was absolutely thrilled about.

Isaac did a great job blowing out his candle...

Then every one dug right in... there were a few kids who ended up with blue lips and blue teeth after wards...

Then it was present time. They sat in a circle and then one of the little heroes took charge and selected a gift for Isaac to open, I expected him to excitedly bring the one he had himself brought, but he was just so excited about the whole thing it turned out he didn't care which gift it was as long as Isaac was opening something. It was very cute.

Then all the kids caught the spirit of it and started to bring him gift after gift and helping him open them... I expected this to turn into chaotic present-warfare, but these are all superheroes that we are talking about, not a villain among them. So although 3, 4, and 5 year olds were organizing this event it actually maintained an amazing order, and everyone was very thoughtful and happy. I was very impressed. And as you can see Isaac was Super excited about each and every gift he received. I was very pleased with his gratitude. After opening the presents, everyone then had to play with them and that too was actually a very pleasant experience with all the little superheroes taking turns with each toy and sharing beautifully. Wow...