Andy Amy and 4 crazy kids: Happy Birthday Ethan!

Ethan reminded me how exciting a birthday can be for a young child. The days leading up to his birthday were filled with lots of birthday chatter from him. "Are you still planning to hang the balloons up in the family room like you always do?" "Are you remembering I want chocolate cake?" "Have any cards come in the mail for me?" "Can I please go check the mailbox one more time?" "What do you think Grandma is going to send me?" (referring to both grandmas) "Have you bought my birthday present yet?" (he didn't really like when I told him I had and knew he'd have lots of fun playing with his new barbie house!)
The night before his birthday he hardly slept. He woke up several times in the night wanting to know if he could open his presents. Later he came in to tell me his stomach hurt. I told him to go potty and go back to bed because I think he was more excited than sick. About 10 minutes later he woke me again to tell me that indeed i was right and he was just excited - not sick. By the time morning rolled around I was worried with all the excitement he might be let down. However, he seemed to have a great birthday. Isn't it nice to be a kid?
We did a family birthday this year and took the kids out to eat for E's bday. But, before dinner we took Ethan to spend some money he got from Grandma S. and then we headed to Build-A-Bear which was our gift to him. He knew exactly what he wanted and had fun picking out an outfit for his wolf and stuffing it. The other kids were so so good to wait for Ethan to make all of his decisions in both stores!

After shopping we went out to eat.....his choice. And of course we found ourselves in McDonalds which is a big treat for our kids.

You don't need to look too hard to see that I really have 5 kids....not 4! (oh and you also might notice a couple of chic-a-filet bags on the McDonalds table! Andy and I had no desire to eat McDonalds so smuggled in our own goodness! I must say that was a good call Andy!)