A very special day!

Do you know what today is?

It's Underwear Hat Day!!!!



What, you didn't know?

Groupie

Ever heard of Milkshake? The band - not the delicious ice cream drink.

http://milkshakemusic.com/

Check out their #1 fan ...








Jealous much??

SO f'ing cool.

Okay - so I rarely break out the f-bomb on Jack's blog. Pretty sure I never have, actually. But there is honestly no other way to describe just how cool the gift is that Uncle Paul made for Jack for his birthday.

Uncle Paul is our resident photographer extraordinaire. His specialty is nature photography - and Jack LOVES nature. Over the years Jack has gotten quite excited when Uncle Paul comes over and shows us his photos. So for Jack's birthday Uncle Paul made Jack a special personalized book of all his favs!!!!

Say it with me - you know you want to - f'ing COOL.

I asked Jack to show me his favorite picture and of course he chose ...

The BEAVER TREE! His favorite picture ever. Hence the name of the book (which is "Jack's Little Book of Animals - and a Beaver Tree").

Here are some of my favorite pictures ..



Um - yeah - Paul took those pictures HIMSELF. Seriously!!! And trust me when I say my photographs of his photographs don't do them justice.

Now you understand the need for the f-bomb, right? Right.

THANK YOU UNCLE PAUL!!!!

AlooooooooooHA!

We recently received another one of Uncle Henry's awesome amazing exciting gift boxes! This one arrived in honor of Jack's birthday. And it was filled with treats for both Jack AND Jack's parents. Birthday gifts don't get any better then that!

First .. my favorite ..

Is there ANYTHING cuter then a beer wearing a little shirt? I think not. To the left of my cute beer is my amazing coffee. It's 100% Kona straight from Honolulu and it is so so so good. The package indicated that it's "Royal Kona - Coffee for Royalty". Jack has recently taken to calling me "your majesty" so how perfect is that coffee?!

There was also a keychain and a magnet with Jack's name on it (in English AND Hawaiian) and a lei made out of roasted macadamia nuts. YUM.

Do you know that Jack took the Hawaii magnet over to the USA map on the fridge and placed it directly on Hawaii? Say it with me - GENIUS.

And last but certainly not least ...

That's right - Macadamia Nut Hershey Kisses. Oh.Mah.GOODNESS have you had these things? Of course you haven't - because they don't sell them here. Nah nah nah nah nah.

THANK YOU and MAHALO Uncle Henry. Your generosity never ceases to amaze us.

He's baaaaaack ...

It's the picture you've all been waiting for!

Remember this?


That was May 2006. You can hardly tell Jack and Tad apart! Also, I really need to be-dazzle more clothes for that boy. Rhinestones totally work for him.

And now ....


You've come a loooooooong way (not-so-much-a)baby!

5 second recap

We've had quite the past couple of days - and it isn't even over yet. Yey for 3 day weekends. YEY I say!

More to come - but wanted to do a quick recap in 10 words or less. Starting ... NOW.

Zoo


Picnic


Indy the dog


Pool


Jedi duel


And we still have a whole 'nother day! What will we do next!?

What comes before part b??

Part-A! Get it? Par-TAY? Ha! Thanks folks - I'm here all week. All year, actually.

So this year's birthday extraaaaavaganzzzzza (it totally deserved that many a's and z's) was dinosaur themed. As usual I ran with it and stopped just short of calling the Smithsonian to have them recreate a life-sized model of a dinosaur in my backyard constucted of actual fossils.

Here is the way-too-adorable favor table:

The things in the tall silver container on the floor are dinosaur grabbers. (click me to see)
Which the kiddos LOVED. They especially loved using them to beat everything in my house including each other.

What is that you ask? The cookies? Why yes, I DID make them!

Here is where the kids went to get their tats:

Pteryadactyl, right ahead!

The afternoon started out sunny so we were able to head outside for a few birthday activities. We excavated fossils:

We also had a dino egg hunt. I was all "You guys! LOOK! A dinosaur was in our backyard last night and she laid eggs ALL OVER THE PLACE! Come help me pick them all up before they ruin Jack's Daddy's lawnmower!". Yeah so it was not as much a dino egg hunt as it was a dino egg grab. Thing is we don't have many places back there to hide stuff - besides my thorny rose bushes. And even tho you often associate blood with vicious dinosaurs I just didn't think it would be an appropriate addition to my party theme.

The eggs were impossible to open. People had to put them on the patio and stomp on them to open the egg and get the cheapie little plastic dinosaur out. No, really .....Guess that is what happens when you "score" 72 dinosaur eggs for the low low price of $9.99! Note the dark sky.

And darker yet.

We then all went inside and mere moments later came the downpour. After that it was 12ish toddlers in my house for the rest of the afternoon. And I asked for this utter chaos. TGFB.**

**TGFB = Thank God for Beer

Jake's face was all "It wasn't me!"

The girls - they were way more subdued. Kailey was just like "I have NO idea what is going on in this place!"

And Kyla totally tried to make a break for it.

Mike lured her back in with a promise of cake.

Which brings us to ... CAKE!

YES yes I made it. Stop giving me so many compliments. I'm starting to get embarassed.

Jack was all "You crazy candles are NO match for me!"

The windup ..

And the pitch ...

He needed to call in reinforcements ..

JGif is *not* a big fan of people cheering for him. Who doesn't love that? Seriously whose child is this? Sometimes I walk around the house just cheering for myself.

Jack's future wife, Caroline. Just look at that little smiling face!?!?! Ohhh how I xoxo this little one. And ohhh how she xoxos my cupcakes!Then it was present time. Present time! Present time! Open a present. See what's inside! (I watch way too much "Blue's Clues"):
He got a TON of cool new toys, books and games. I think Mike and I like playing with his stuff almost as much as he does!

After presents the party was winding down and people started to leave. But Jake, he wanted to stay! When his mama told him it was time to go he tried to hide in this drawer. Unfortunately for him, she is a good finder.



A few neighbors stayed around for a little GUnit after party. Here are their princesses and our prince sacked out on the couch watching "The Jungle Book" late night.
A dinosaur extraaaaavganzzzzza and a late night movie with two cuties - do birthdays get ANY better? I think not.

I still can't believe he is 4. And I still can't believe how our days with him just keep getting better and better. Jack is the smartest, sweetest, funniest little guy I have ever met in my life. Mike and I are so lucky to have been able to share our days with him for the past 4 years. And we are SO looking forward to sharing the rest of our lives with him. Every second of every day is a joy because of you, J-Gif-a-roo. Thank you for making our lives so amazingly special.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACK!!!

Do you know how old Jack is today??? Here is a hint.


When JGif came down this morning there was a crowd at the bottom of the stairs waiting to greet him.


We had some milk and then jumped in the car to go pick up the breakfast of Jack's choice in out pajamas. Did you hear that - I said IN OUR PAJAMAS! Are we crazy or what?! Jack brought a friend.


As we were driving Jack says "Mommmy I've NEVER been in the car in my pajamas before. I can't believe it. This is freaking me out." HA! Funny, right? Jack thought it was funny too:


Actually he was laughing because I was rhyming words that we are not supposed to say. This reaction came when I rhymed poopid with stupid. I crack him up.

Jack's breakfast of choice in celebration of the big 4?

Mmmmmmm. I'm totally running on Dunkin today! Jack ate two donuts in the car before we even got home. Should be an interesting rest of the morning.


Off to go prepare for the party of the century. Must go make sure my gown is pressed and confirm the VIP list with the doormen.