Wow, our oldest son is another year older.  He has grown so much in the past year and as cliche as it sounds, birthdays are bittersweet reminders of how quickly time goes by.  Seeing him grow makes me so proud of him, yet it makes me want to grab him tight and not let go!

He chose a Buzz Lightyear theme for his party so we bought invitations, banners, streamers, balloons, plates, table cloths, hats, party favors, cups, and blowers all with Buzz Lightyear on them.  We bought a solar system to hang around the room for decoration, and we got the pictures that he just took at Disney World of him with Buzz Lightyear and put them on a photo board which we displayed in the room.  For some craft projects, together we made felt stars to hang on ribbons from the chairs, a rocket ship to hang from the ceiling, and a poster of outer space which he made himself.  And of course we had a Buzz Lightyear birthday cake.  It was fun to put together, but more importantly it was wonderful to see how special he felt seeing it all come together just for him.

For the kids to play, we set up a bunch of tunnels and a ball pit outside and inside we had lots of toys.  Then after the cake we had someone come to give each kid their own cake to decorate.  All of our son’s friends were given a chef’s hat and an apron to decorate.  They then put those on and had a small cake that they got to frost in different colors and put sprinkles on.  When they were done, all the kids got to take home their hat, apron, and decorated cake.  No one got nearly as messy as I expected!  In fact, even their aprons stayed clean!

Also there to entertain the kids was Buzz Lightyear himself!  He gave the other parents there a laugh as well.  Jason is such a great dad.

After the party, we watched our son open presents and then had a birthday dinner before heading to home to give him one last gift.  Jason had set up a play area in the back yard with a sand box, water table, play house, slide, and the new birthday present we got him, a spinning teeter totter!  Before all the outside toys were scattered around the yard and lanai so both boys were excited to see a play area set up with all their stuff.

Happy Birthday my beautiful boy.  I hope your day made you feel even a fraction of as special as you are.  You are God’s gift to me and I love you so much!

Some of the decorations:

To Infinity, and Beyond!

It was around this time, looking at my boy so happy surrounded by his friends and family and people who love him, that I started crying.  I was also singing Happy Birthday so I’m sure I sounded horrible, but I couldn’t help it.  It is an amazing gift to be a mother and seeing a smile like this fills my heart.

He takes after Jason.

Cake decorating:

Some of Zurg’s helpers:

The aftermath in the backyard:

My mom is awesome and knows birthdays can be hard for the brother who isn’t getting all the gifts, so she got our youngest a little present that he could open and play with while the birthday boy was opening all of his own gifts.

It looks like he liked his present!

His brother had fun on it too:

Playing in the new back yard play area Jason set up:

Someone really needs a bath:

This was taken the next day, but I thought it was so cute!