The Brothers Bennett: Happy 4th Birthday, Ronan!

Hard to believe our "baby" turned four on March 27. We had a popsicle party at Ronan's preschool on his birthday -- an unusually HOT March day -- followed by cupcakes and a few presents at home. We threw a big party for him at Burgess Park that weekend, with a Cars-themed jumpy house, Spidey cake, tons of food, and lots of friends. It was the first party that we've organized that was more for him than for us; a big shift. He actually had a say in the location ("lots of trees and grass"), the fun ("a jumpy house, a biiiiig jumpy house!"), and the guests ("ALLLL of my friends!") and we did our best to make that happen for him. As usual, I brought too much food but at least everyone was well-fed and tired-out from all that jumping! Ronan and Callum, who were high on excitement since the day before, crashed before all the party guests had left. Which brings us to the perfect ending to the day: while the boys napped at home with Popo, Christian and I got to jump like crazy little kids in the jumpy house until the rental company came to pack it away. Priceless.

Ro's birthday present from us: his first bike, a 16" Raleigh from Talbot's Cyclery.

New wheels for the birthday boy

And he's off!

Every time someone brings popsicles to school (and these are definitely the school birthday treat of choice around here), the kids go wild. Here's the Popsicle Prince of the Day, with his adoring daddy.

Ronan and his pals Lucho and Neil

Making a birthday wish at home...

Daddy bearing the Cupcake

Still wishing....

Singing Happy Birthday

Hooray!

The Birthday Boy says he loves cupcakes. But really, he loves licking the frosting and pushing the cake away for someone else (usually Mommy) to eat.

Mommy and Ro

Bennett family sans Callum (who's sleeping)

Among his first gifts - a Star Wars sticker book

And the quest for light sabers begins...

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PARTY PICS

A superhero theme, of course!

The cake (chocolate with buttercream from Draeger's)

Ronan and all his friends with party hats and blowers. It was cute to see them choose which color hat they had to have...

Ronan and his lady love Gabi

Making a BIG wish!

Yay!

With our friends Brisen and Scott

The entertainment -- a Cars jumpy house! (The Spidey one was a little too... intense-looking for a little kid party.)

Jumping birthday prince. Have you tried to jump in one of these lately? It is a workout! We were sore the next morning! And to think the children spent hours in this thing...