Celebrating My Favorite 4-Year Old

This year we struggled with what to do for Jaxon's 4th birthday. After last year's HUGE birthday bash I knew we did not want to do that again. It was fun, but a lot of work. Work that I have no energy for. So I thought we'd do it somewhere else. The problem with that is it's expensive and I wouldn't be able to invite everyone we wanted to. See, now Jaxon has his own friends, not just my friend's kids.

So what to do? I decided to keep it simple. Keep it within the family. Fine. Done.

Nope. Not done. About a week before I started to feel guilty. Once again, another special occasion was going to be low-key because of a baby. At least I thought this is how Jaxon would feel. So I decided to have a school party. Invite only his best friends from school. And our favorite triplets of course. I started calling around and by the grace of God Old Pueblo Gym was available the day before his birthday. We invited less than 10 kids to keep the cost reasonable and had a very 'stress-free' party.

The party it self was stress-free. The days leading up to it, not so much. The party favors, the homemade (from scratch) cupcakes & frosting, the guilt over not inviting close friends. Ugh! Too much! But, Jaxon had a fantastic time. He loved spending extra time with his school friends and being the center of attention. It was a great start to his birthday celebration.

My camera died a few weeks ago and these were taken with my phone, so most of them are blurry. Ami's Brian took pictures and so did the twin's dad, so once I get those pictures maybe I'll upload them.

The Old Pueblo Gym lobby

It was a Shark party

The dreaded cupcakes!
White cupcakes from scratch. Chocolate from a box. Still 'homemade' right?

Thank goodness for Amazon & 1 day shipping!
They sent me the toppers

Birthday Express sent me the party favors
Personalized name tags, Mua

Let the party begin! The kids had free reign of the gym. It was hard to get pictures of running kids on my phone. This is the best I could do. 

Portia (Jaxon's girlfriend) Jake & Hunter (yes, twins)

Zane

Joaquin

Portia

Party guests enjoying pizza

Birthday kiss from Abu

My favorite part is always singing Happy birthday. 

Hope you're sitting down for this! Ami drinks WATER! GASP!

Jaxon's birthday present from us was a fish! Brian & I were really excited to take Jax to the pet store & let me choose his own fish, bowl, rocks & decorative item.

I thought this process was going to take hours. But no. He knew exactly what he wanted. It took him all of 2 minutes to find a fish he wanted and he had no interest in picking anything else. It was Brian and me who couldn't decide what was best.

Hmmm. Not that one

This one

This is the one!

Jaxon fell asleep on his bucket. He had a nice dent in his forehead when we got home.