Happy Birthday Henry!

Henry just had his 4th birthday!  Growing up my parents always sang Happy Birthday to us first thing in the morning.  I carry on that tradition.  Unfortunately Henry inherited my extreme dislike of mornings so he got mad at me for singing at him.  He said he didn't want his birthday, he didn't want his friends, and he didn't want his pirate party.  Luckily most of Henry's bad mood disappears once he has eaten something.  

He wanted to have dinosaur chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast.  I did my best; but Henry was happy and that was all that mattered.

Henry wanted a pirate party.  He was a pirate for Halloween so we decided he could wear his pirate costume and I would dress like a pirate too and we would do some pirate "things."  The problem was Henry is very impressionable and I made the mistake of letting him watch 'The Incredibles' the day before so he didn't want to be a pirate or wear his pirate costume, he wanted to be a "super".  So I dressed like a pirate and he wore his cape and his bike helmet (I didn't ask...).  I felt a little silly being the only dressed-up pirate, but I went along with the plan.

We played "pin the eye patch on Skinny Bones Jones" and "shoot the cannons" (knock around black balloons), and went on a treasure hunt.

I really get into the cakes on birthdays so I wanted to make a cool pirate-themed cake.  I went online and found instructions on FamilyFun.com for a pirate ship cake.  It was so easy and I was pretty proud of myself with the finished product.  I had way too much fun with that cake; seriously, I was almost sad to cut it.  (The following picture is for bragging purposes mainly.)

The kids might have been impressed with how the cake looked, but really, all they cared about was eating it.  "Cake, yumm..."

I had to put this picture in.  I love how I caught the "Ahh" look on Henry's face when opened this.

Finally after everyone went home he decided to put on some of his pirate costume and take a picture with me.

Later that evening we had a family party.  Henry got some more (boy) dress-up stuff.  He loves playing make believe and hero stuff so he got some more options to choose from for his daily world-saving adventures.

I also made him a cape.  He now has his own cape (yeah!).  But he still mostly wants to wear Kincaid's old one (boo).

Kincaid had a little bit of a hard time missing Henry's party and then watching Henry get all the new cool stuff.  But Henry is a great sharer and let Kincaid play with his new stuff (which later led to the new remote control car taking a bath. Lovely!)  And we reminded Caid not to worry, because in a few months it will be his turn to get new stuff and for his brothers to take it and break it too.

Officer Caid is on the watch!

My parents came later that evening to celebrate with us.  The boys and them had a great indoor football game.

Henry got to have an extended celebration also.  Sam's mom came over the next day to celebrate and tell Henry happy birthday also.  

We had a lot of fun celebrating Henry's birthday.  Thanks to everyone who helped him have such a great day. At the risk of getting mushy I will say that we are so happy to have Henry in our family and all the fun and adventure and "flammy snuggohs" that come with him.