Jett's 4th birthday party

This is the first year that Jett really understood about having a birthday, so I was SO excited and determined to make it a memorable day!! I had been planning in my head for months.  It was supposed to be a Word World party bc that was his obsession for quite awhile. But as July approached, he got over Word World, and moved on to Care Bears. Yes. Care Bears. Check out his video of him singing the song from the carebears movie:

 We think it's adorable, this affection for care bears. But I wasn't about to do a care bears birthday party for my little guy. Fortunately he also liked the new show on PBS The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That. So we decided on a Cat in the Hat themed party.  It was so much fun to put together! I love the colors and style of Dr. Seuss, especially in that book.

I spent irrational amounts of time making things for this party (just ask Pete, he can attest to that {eye-roll}).

I made fabric banners, signs, fabric gift bags, a Thing-4 shirt for Jett, and red and white striped hat-pops (that took forever!).

Here are Stone and Brooklyn enjoying the dipped marshmallows and hat-pops.  Can you tell I'm a little proud of my creations? I got more pictures of them than the party guests. Seriously, I didn't even get pictures of all of the guests. I'm mad at myself for that.  

I sure did get pictures of the hat-pops though, lol.

I planned on making a Thing-1 1/2 shirt for Stone, but never got to it.  I also planned on making red and white striped hats for all the party guests, but ran out of time.  I'm really upset that I never made those :(

Jett was a little overwhelmed by all the action and the number of kids at the party.  He kept to himself a lot. But he had fun.

 Stoney had even more fun though! And of course Brooklyn, my little social butterfly :)

{The cake}

Before his birthday, when asked what he wanted for his birthday he would always reply "a cat-in-the-hat birthday cake!"  He was so excited about this cake!  I once again hired 16 year-old Darcey to do his cake.  It turned out amazing!! Throughout the whole party all Jett wanted was his birthday cake. Finally the moment arrived!  I wasn't able to get many pictures of him being sung to and blowing out his candles because of the cake set-up, but in this one you can see his cute little shy face as everyone sang happy birthday to him.  He was SO happy! Look at that blush!

{side note: See the toy Jett is holding in nearly every picture? This is the coolest toy in the whole wide world. Why? Because Daddy made it for Jett's birthday present! He spent hours on it, and it is amazing!

It's the Thingamajigger from the PBS tv show The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That. Pete made it out of lego 's and then painted it.  It is amazing! Of course at any given time it is missing at least 5 vital pieces that have fallen off somewhere. In this picture it is missing the helicopter rotor & the front wheel. That's what happens when you build something with lego's. And especially when that lego creation is carried around everywhere the child goes, flown around the house, dropped multiple times, and taken to bed with the  child every night. Yeah. Greatest gift EVER. This qualifies for Dad of the year in my book.

Here is what the thingamajigger from the show looks like:

Pretty good, huh?   Jett calls it the "Fimmajigger".  

Gift opening was a new experience for Jett. Until this year he has wanted nothing to do with opening presents. But he REALLY enjoyed opening family gifts that morning, and got in a little practice for his party. 

When Jett opened his first present (a giant Handy Manny building set) he couldn't believe it! He kept saying "Is this for ME?!" and gesturing toward the gift. SO cute.

This numbers book was his favorite gift.  He sat there going through it page by page. He refused to open any more gifts after that. He just wanted his book. So the kids drifted away to more entertaining areas of the yard while Jett sat and went through that book with devout precision beyond his years. I love this composite above- it tells the story accurately. Jett sitting all alone with his new treasure.

Later I noticed that he had disappeared so I went to look for him, and found him upstairs in our bed, bare-bottomed, curled up in a blanket with his book. 

Buddies: Jett, Stone, + Ammon (my friend, Jade's little boy/grandson of our next-door neighbors, the Poultons. We love this little guy! Stone looks over the fence almost every day, points and says "Ami!!"

I just noticed that in the bottom picture Stone is taking off with someone's shoes.  Lol, classic Stone