Tyler's 4th Birthday: Part 1

Whew!  Tyler's birthday festivities are over and I have several posts worth of material.  (I know, I know...I am behind....again!)  Tyler has been talking about it for at least 3-4 weeks.  It has been Thomas the Tank Engine extravaganza at our house. 

 

He took Thomas cookies (thanks to Schulte's Bakery) to school with him on the Thursday prior to his birthday.

 

There is no way I was going to have time to make and ice 40+ Thomas cookies. 

Tyler's favorite part about his party at school was he got a birthday hat.  On his first day of preschool, it was a girl's birthday that is in his class and he talked about the birthday hat she got to wear for several days.  One of his teachers, Ms. Ashley, said Tyler loved his birthday hat and she had to convince him to take it off for nap.  Since they played outside 3 times that day (it was nice out) she said it was completely destroyed.  She was sweet to send him home with another birthday hat for his party.  There will be photos of the infamous birthday hat coming - the second one too was destroyed. ;)

 

The day of his birthday was a busy one.  He woke up to balloons in his room and streamers hanging on his door.  He was pretty excited and came into our bedroom to wake Jeff and I up with "Mommy, Daddy...it's my birthday and I have ribbons and balloons already."

 

We had breakfast at the Rotary Pancake Breakfast.  Tyler LOVES pancakes, it was for a good cause and Rotarian Great-Grandpa Wood had given us tickets so it worked out perfectly!  Next on our agenda was Tyler's first soccer practice and "game."  He was excited and had practiced in the back yard with Dad for a bit before hand.  We had to explain shin guards to him as he had never worn them before. 

 

Enjoy photos of soccer practice/game #1:

Warning: there are a LOT of photos!

 

Getting some practice in before meeting his team.

Rule #1: You cannot touch the ball with your hands...unless you raise your hand to become the goalie first (more on that later). 

Nathan's photography skills.  He wanted to take pictures.  There were also several of the trees and sky. :)

Nathan wanted to get in on the action too. 

Watching 3-5 year olds do attempt jumping jacks may have been my favorite part of the practice.  It was very comical. 

I love this one!

Like I mentioned earlier, Tyler was very eager and raised his hand first to play goalie.  Much to his dismay, there was not any action on his side of the field when he was in goal.  I went behind the goal to talk to him and make sure he was still paying attention.  Tyler said "Mom, you need to go sit down.  You can't be here." 

Dad and Nathan walked around the field though and they could stand by Tyler when he played goalie.  Dad must have played it more cool than I did.  :)

 

We brought cupcakes for his team to celebrate Tyler's birthday.  While it wasn't exactly the "healthy" snack the YMCA suggests, I did get permission from the director and the kids sure liked the idea. 

 

After soccer, it was home to take naps and then the birthday festivites continued...stay tuned! :)