Ephraim's Birthday

Ephraim was counting down the days until his birthday, so it's a good thing he had a fantastic birthday. He was SO EXCITED about everything! It made his birthday really fun for me too.

First thing in the morning Ephraim woke up to find a birthday banner up in the living room. We also had some light sabers made out of pool noodles that he thought were pretty awesome. Isn't this photo just epic?

I don't think he was very excited about the lightsaber and his banner! (hehe)

As you can tell we were going with a Lego Star Wars theme for Ephraim's birthday. He has never seen the Star Wars movies because I think they are too scary for him. However Jacob and Ephraim beg Daddy to play Lego Star Wars on the Wii so they can watch him play. They also get to play with him sometimes.

Ephraim got to open one present right away because I knew he would want to wear it all day:

Isn't this a great shirt? I could not resist it when I saw it at Target. Do you think he liked it?! What a grin.

My first order of business in the morning was to get Ephraim's cake finished and the balloon banner up.


Grandma Heiner helped me out with the balloons, so I got to work on the cake.

Ephraim insisted that he wanted a red R2D2 cake. What do you think?

I actually made the cake the night before and had it in the refrigerator, so all I had to do was make the fondant and get it on the cake.

I was actually pretty proud of the way the cake turned out. I used two six inch round cakes, and then made the dome part using a glass Pyrex bow. I made fondant and did my best approximation of a red R2D2. I think he turned out pretty well! Ephraim LOVED his cake, so that was good enough for me!

I got it done just in time to have lunch and get the party started. Ephraim only wanted to have three people come to his party; Clara, Ty and Grandma Heiner! How fun

First we played a fun game with the pool noodle lightsabers.

Each little Jedi had a cracker tied on a string around his neck that represented his "life force". The object of the game was to keep your cracker safe and break everyone else's cracker. I may even have had a little fun with this game!

The funny thing is that none of the kids actually broke each other's crackers. They really spent more time running away from each other. It was a crack-up!

After they got tired of running around, they asked to play in the sandbox. That was fine by me!

Next we played a game where the goal was to traverse the lava pit (red table cloth) using the rocks (grey felt) without falling in. The kids thought this game was great and played it over and over again. I got some really fun action shots too!

I love this action shot of Ty jumping from the "rock" to safety on the other side of the lava pit.

They all had to take turns being the Jedi in front who laid down the stones for everyone else. It was really hilarious! Amelia was a good girl and had fun hanging out with Grandma Heiner during the party.

Soon enough it was time for opening presents. Ephraim really loved the gifts his friends got him. They even got a little carried away and opened the present that Aunt Emily sent. It was a pair of purple courdoroy pants that Ephraim loved! He actually took his pants of right them and put on his purple pants. Then he told me that he loved them and he would never pee in those pants! (hehe!). When I told Joe about this later, he said maybe we should put Ephraim to bed in those pants so he wouldn't have to wear a diaper at night!

After the purple pants, it was time for cake and ice cream!

I was a little sad to carve into my droid cake, but at least it tasted good!

When we finished with the ice cream it was time for Ephraim's friends to go home... but the fun didn't end there. After Daddy got home from work it was time for Ephraim to open his presents.

Ephraim was excited to get to open his presents. He got several lego sets. He got the Star Wars ship that he wanted, and was excited that it came with a droid (R2Q2).

As you can see, he was also excited by the other Lego set that he got from Grandma and Grandpa Devereaux.

What can I say, he was excited about all his presents. It was really fun.

Amelia got to ope a present too. Since Grandma Heiner would not be here for Amelia's birthday, we let her open the weebles playset that Grandma got her. She really had fun playing with it!

And of course for Daddy, Lego birthday presents mean "some assembly required". Joe managed to get Ephraim's Lego Star Wars ship done so Ephraim had time to play with it before bed. What a good Daddy!

Ephraim had a great birthday. I really enjoyed watching him have so much fun. I can hardly believe that my little boy is already four! What a big boy!

We love our Ephraim and we are so glad he is part of our family. He is such a fun and energetic kid! He makes our lives so much more exciting and fun! We love you Ephraim!