Belated Birthday Blogging

I don't know what's worse. The fact that I never wrote a blog about Louis's birthday--which was in mid-November--or the fact that my friend Amy beat me to it.

One way or another, when I read her post this evening, I figure I'd better get this long overdue blog done. After all, one day Louis might notice that his little brother's birthday blog was posted during his birthday weekend, not two months after the fact.

As it turns out, Louis had a fantastic birthday. He wore a birthday crown he found at the dollar store--and which I expect will be in birthday photos for years (and maybe generations) to come.

To celebrate our boy's 4th birthday, we invited some of his friends to join us at our local fire museum.

 

The museum is one of our favorite spots, and Louis has been there more often than his parents have. He doesn't exactly act like he owns the place, but he's certainly comfortable there.



When we sent the invitation, we never thought some of the faraway out-of-town cousins would come.


But Julia, Gregory, Mary, and Paul adore the fire museum, and they managed to persuade their mother to make the trek to town. Having the cousins there is an automatic party.



When Louis, Michael, and I were shopping one day, Louis had spotted a fire engine cake pan. Louis loves for things to match, and he picked up the pan and gave a pretty convincing argument for needing a fire engine cake for a fire museum party.

A little creativity and a few arguments about crooked ladders and crumbled cookies later, and Aunt Treasa, Grandma, and I managed to make a passable fire engine--all while avoiding large amounts of red frosting. We try to avoid artificial coloring around here--and by "we," I don't mean the male members of my household.

The cake wouldn't win any awards, but it made Louis smile.



We also found a bag of plastic fire fighters at the dollar store, and they were perfect cupcake toppers.


 

How were the cupcakes? Just ask Michael. But keep in mind that this is a child who thinks rubber tires and wallpaper are tasty.

Michael thought the party was loads of fun.


He got plenty of attention from his godmother.

And if you look at our family photos from the day, you'll notice that Michael is front and center.

It isn't that we didn't try to include Louis in the photos.

It's just that he had an aversion to the whole group photo attempt. So I returned to my usual tactic--snapping candids when I could.

The boys had a wonderful time. Their friends all got along like a house on fire, trying on firefighter outfits, climbing in the fire engine, pushing toy fire trucks across the floor, and generally running around in circles.



Louis assures me his favorite vehicle is a train--and I wouldn't dispute that. But I think Michael's passion lies elsewhere in the vehicle world. He's more into school buses, cement mixers, tow trucks, motorcycles, or maybe fire trucks. We're not sure yet.

Louis took the partying seriously. It was a lot of attention for our boy to handle, but he came through just fine, and I hope he made a fantastic wish before he blew out the candles on his cake.

As hard as it is for us to believe, it was only our second birthday celebration with Louis. Last year's was much simpler. This year we had an extra voice to sing "Happy Birthday to You," although Michael didn't do much singing. He does sing, but that's not a song he knows yet. He'll have it down next year.

Turning 4 meant a fun outing at the fire museum, a cake, cupcakes, wonderful presents, and time with friends and family. Because we had had such a big party the weekend before Louis's birthday, his actual birthday was fairly low-key.

I was going to make a cake, but we were all kind of caked out. And Louis doesn't like cake. So I offered him something else--and he accepted, quite happily: a tall glass of strawberry ice cream.

 

He blew out his candle, ate some ice cream, and then asked for some Cheerios and raisins--and a few M&Ms--all served in his new Lunchbot, a gift from Julia & Co.

  
Today if you ask him about his 4th birthday, Louis can probably barely recall it. When people ask how old he is, he is already saying, "I am going to be 5." Which I suppose he is. He can also tell you what's on his Santa list for next Christmas.

Apparently our boy plans ahead. With that approach, maybe he should take over the family blogging.

If he does, maybe one day you'll get to read that post I never wrote on Christmas 2010.

Better late than never.