Patrick's 6th Birthday

Patrick turned six at the end of May.  We gave him a few options for parties, but in the end he chose to celebrate by taking his best friend Nathan to the fire station for some special fire training.  We actually traveled on his birthday this year, so we gave him his presents and cake a few days early:

 All he wanted was Legos.  He built them all within the week.

I told Patrick his cake was a surprise.  His only request was that it have 80 tons of icing. It only had about 60 tons.

I think he was a bit underwhelmed by the cake - until we cut into it.

Beacause we were traveling through New Jersey the day after his birthday, we lied and told him we had to stop at a mall along the way and buy him some socks.  We detoured off the turnpike to King of Prussia Mall and led him straight to the Lego Store.  We don't have one here in Pittsburgh, so he had never been before.  He was allowed to pick out one set (he actually ended up with a Lego Superhero set).

The next weekend we convened at the fire station to begin the birthday training. 

 The kids got to use the remote to raise and lower the spotlight on the roof of the truck.

 There were a few rescue demonstrations using the back board, and of course, for fun, the mask.

 Uncle Mike (also a firefighter at the same station) came by to help out with training.

Patrick is still our thoughtful one, more than ever obsessed with building Legos.  He doesn't like to just build and leave them together though- he re-creates ships and vehicles out of the original model.  He prefers his own version.  He is cautious, and can be overly pensive sometimes, to the point where he talks himself out of trying new things.  He was fearful of taking off his training wheels, swimming with his head under the water, and going on the roller coaster.  His brother usually steps up first and then P tries it, maybe out of pride?  He loves school, is still a rule follower, and is an awesome big brother to Kaya (he and Tommy are still arguing too often over Legos).  He is a talker. He loves golf, and has the patience for it.   Everything about him exudes sweetness.  Happy Birthday, Patrick.

Tommy's 4th Birthday

Still known as Ten Second Tommy.  My darling T is FOUR. Wow.  He is as stubborn as I am, and all kinds of funny.  he inherited Tom's quirk of being able to recite lines from movies.  All the time.  He is into Legos like brother P, but he really loves super heroes.  He picked a super hero party at a little bounce/climbing place near our house and invited his preschool class.  As favors, each child picked a favorite superhero ahead of time, and were given a cape with that super hero's emblem when they arrived at the party.  Great in theory, but as you can imagine, most kids ended up wanting the cape another kid had picked.  Most of the kids wore their capes for at least part of the party.  All except one, who refused to put it on for even a nanosecond (It was Tommy, of course).  I ordered the capes from ThePartyMomma on Etsy.  For the price, they were fine, and the kids liked them.  I ordered matching felt masks from her shop for just my kids, and those were much nicer.  Tommy picked Captain America.

Kaya was Batgirl -

I made Captain America Cupcakes out of fondant and the pre-colored Pillsbury Funfetti cake mix colors they sell at the Super Walmart - the Aqua blue color was perfect for Captain America Blue.
 

 Kaya was at the party, but to accommodate the preschool class, we had Tommy's party on a weekday during school hours.  That meant big brother was not there.

Pap Pap was brave enough to venture in.

I bought sparkler candles thinking they would be fun, but they kept re-igniting after Tommy blew them out and got really upset.  Oops. they weren't supposed to be trick candles.

Since Patrick missed the party, I promised him a second cake and candles so we could sing to Tommy after school, too.

The extra addition on the far right, M, is the little brother of one of our party attendees, E.  E got hurt during the party and we thought he may have broken his arm.  We watched M while mom and dad took E to the E.R., where they found out his elbow had just been dislocated.  He was good as new.  

Tommy continues to perplex me.  He has zero interest in bikes and is content to just dig and collect "treasures" when outside.  He is my highest ranking "Timeouter" because he gets so angry and frustrated at the drop of a hat that he throws toys or hits.  But he is also so incredibly sweet.  He stashes his treasures all over the house (and hides Patrick's things as well).  He gets so attached to little Lego crystals (because they give him his super powers) that he smuggled them to school in his underwear after I started checking pockets outside of his preschool classroom.  He has one, big imagination.  Boopy, his blankie, is still a constant sleeping buddy. 

Happy Birthday, Tommy!