Four

Today, my little boy turned four years old. Four. Whew.

My Mom did a sweet post about him if you would like to see a couple cute baby pictures.

In honor of his birthday, he got to...



Shovel manure with his daddy!



Till the garden!

Hey... no breaks around here. Ya gotta work to eat. (He loved every minute, of course, and cried when Daddy wouldn't let him help mow the lawn.)

We let him play, too, though. He had lots of fun outside with all the kids who came to his party.

And he LOVED having construction trucks on his birthday cake!



In fact, he asked if he could play with it. I told him no, we would cut it and eat it, but he could play with the trucks afterwards. "Is that okay?" I said. No, it was not okay. Then he wouldn't be able to drive the trucks on the road! I explained that the road has too steep a grade for actual driving...

(Hey... Never mind the sloppy frosting. I don't do nearly enough cakes to get good at it, and anyway, it's supposed to be MUD! Mud is sloppy, after all.)






He opened presents and was even excited about new boots from Grandma and Grandpa. The kid lives in rubber boots.




He had lots of friends around to help him try out his new toys, which included a very cool helicopter, airplane, race-car-carrying semi truck, and some fun new games.







Then Daddy brought out the BIG present--



His very own bike! This bike was given to us by someone who had outgrown it (we would never buy a bike like this) and has been out in the barn waiting for summer. It's actually a little too much bike for a little kid-- complete with a heavy frame and three sets of shocks-- but I'm sure he'll make good use of it. It might be a lot of weight to peddle around, but at least it has heavy tires for riding on the dirt roads. Daddy put training wheels on it, but I'm sure he won't need those for long.

While getting ready for bed, Jonah was telling me all about his very fun day. "A fun cake, and a fun bike, and fun playing, and fun toys, and..."

I was so very thankful that a friend of mine came early (with kids to play with Jonah!) and helped me with cake decorating and supper cooking. It's always so much easier to work with a friend. And I only had one minor mishap-- I actually burnt the spaghetti noodles. Can you believe that? I didn't even know that was possible. It was salvageable, though, thankfully, except maybe my pot... I way overestimated the noodles, too, so I think we'll be having spaghetti tomorrow, too. We won't mind that, though.

We might, however, have a serious sugar-crash tomorrow...