Lennon is 4!

It's hard to believe that Lennon is 4--I look at him more and more (and even pictures I see of him) and think, "He's a boy, not a toddler!"  I would have to say that the 3's were the hardest in the life of Lennon (and in the life of his parents, too).  He spent that year learning how to be himself in a world that sometimes overwhelms him and sharing his life with a sister (who is not at all inclined to leave him in peace).  He's becoming more confident in who he is as we are showing our confidence in who he is. Going into his birthday, with my parents coming into town and his party that I was preparing, I was a bit unsure of how to plan his party.  I wanted to make it a big deal and was planning it so, but I was worried that he might be completely overwhelmed by everything, as he was last year--tons of people and activity stress him out and when he's overwhelmed and stressed, he retreats into his shell.  However, I went forward, planning on taking cues from him.  To be honest, I was amazed at how much fun he was having at his party--I knew that he was growing up and becoming more adaptable in situations, but it was fun to see him not worry about all the activity and actually join in on the fun!

Here's Grandma and Tesla making Lennon's solar system shirt for his birthday.  Last year, Lennon picked out the design he wanted, but on the day of his party decided against it (in fact he only started wearing his "3" shirt a couple months ago!).  However, we were all thrilled when he decided to wear it on his birthday!

We let Lennon open up his gifts from Auntie Em and Jordan a couple nights early--here he's thrilled with his new t-shirt that has a cape attached to it--he knows he's so cool!

Trying out his brand new skateboard from them: 

Right now he prefers to be pushed around on it:

After Lennon went to bed on his birthday-eve, I hung all the stars and the planets I made.  It was fun to see his eyes light up as he came downstairs on his birthday.  One of the first things he checked was whether there was a Pluto--and was relieved that I made him one (he doesn't like Pluto to be excluded!)

 

Pin the Sun on the Solar System!

 

Lennon did great with "Happy Birthday" and his cake.  He isn't always thrilled with being the center of a celebration--last year he would have preferred to not have "Happy Birthday" sung to him. But this year he was silently singing along and had fun blowing out his candles.

 

Eating his "Earth" oreo pop.  When asked what his favorite planet is, he had a look on his face that read, "that seems like a silly question, because the answer is obvious..." and he said, "Earth."

The Saturn Pinata...which had some issues.  I ended up making it a pull-string pinata because there was a hole in the paper mache.  I thought it would work out perfectly because it would be quick and less dangerous doing it in the house since the weather was snowy and cold.  However, when they all pulled on their strings, the pinata came crashing to the floor because the hook (that was supposed to hold 100 pounds) broke.  It didn't come out of the ceiling as a whole, the screw part actually broke.  But I don't think the kids ever care too much about whether a pinata works or fails--all is forgiven when the candy and goodies come flying out!

Tesla having fun with the left-over candy

Lennon and Aunt Shay--his eyes light up whenever he sees her.  I think he was most excited to have her at his party!

Tesla was pooped after all the activity--she skipped her afternoon nap (not that she would've gone down anyways with a party going on downstairs--she doesn't like to miss out on the fun).  She went and went until she couldn't stay awake anymore.

After most of the guests left, we had round two of presents.  You can see how excited is was to get his new Packers hat from Grandma & Grandpa:

Checking out his new telescope from Grandma & Grandpa.  We saw Venus next to the moon the other night and Lennon kept saying that he needed his telescope to really see it--we keep waiting for the weather to warm up a bit for us to have a sky-gazing adventure.

Aunt Shay got him No Stress Chess, which is awesome (I'm excited about learning as well)--here, Aunt Shay and Lennon are learning together:

After dinner (he requested Mac & Cheese, which is no surprise), we headed to Magill's for his birthday ice cream--he knew it was a special day because we let him get the sprinkle waffle cone!

Sleepy Tesla with Grandma:

Lennon was extremely attached to Grandpa (as he always is).  He made sure to request that Grandpa sat next to him at the ice cream shop.

As he was going to bed that night, he asked me, "Mama, is tomorrow still my birthday?"  I said no, not technically, but that we could still celebrate...and we did, by heading to the pirate ship pool.  It's been a long time since we've been to the pool (last summer maybe? yikes)  He asks to go every once in awhile, but I haven't felt brave enough to venture to the pool with two kids.  So we started off the day by going out to breakfast and then heading to the pool--it was a fun day to celebrate Adam's first day of spring break as well!  This was Tesla's first time in the pool and we thought she would love it because she loves baths and is pretty adventurous, but I guess going during nap time wasn't a good plan.  She was not thrilled about being in there, but eventually she warmed up and started enjoying herself!

 

 It's fun to see Lennon come out of his shell on his own.  He loves the slide, but when we first got there, he wanted to go down with someone else.  Then he got braver and decided to go down on his own, but was pretty slow about it.  We told him he could take his time, but that if he wasn't going to go down right away, he had to step aside to let the others go down.  After several times of letting others pass, he got quicker and he would slide immediately--he even became the one that others were letting go in front of them (which doesn't happen too often with him, if you know Lennon at all!)

We spent the rest of the week just hanging out and having a good time.  It finally warmed and dried up towards the end of the week so we got to do Lennon's other request...mini golf!

 

Lennon kind of did his own thing the entire time, he was usually one hole ahead of us.  He tried to use the putter for the first stroke, but then would usually pick the ball up and put it in the hole.

 Loving the dinosaur hole: