Sammy turns 4

So, my Sam-Sam turned 4 this week. One of my favorite things about little boys is when they wake up from a nap with pink cheeks and bedhead hair; hence, the picture above. We were actually with Matt in Milwaukee (he was there for business) on Sam's actual birthday, so we waited until Friday to do his family birthday at home with Matt.

I made make-your-own taco salad and bought each of the kids a Jarritos to drink with dinner. Sammy loves the idea of having a soda, which we rarely let him do, so I thought he'd be excited if I bought him one to have with dinner.

Supposedly, this Mexican soda is more natural because it has sugar rather than corn syrup, or something like that, but mainly it was just a fun bottle. Matt had to teach him how to drink out of a bottle, but he caught on pretty quickly.

                 

Claire and I had mango and Matt and Sam had lime. Sammy ended up wanting a little of both, so he had about half of mine. I had kinda decided to just let him do whatever he wanted on his birthday night, which was weird because I'm used to correcting him alll....the.....time......so it was kinda refreshing to just let him have som un-reigned-in fun.

                   

I made regular birthday cake out of a box, but then put real whip cream and strawberries on top. Sammy loves whipped cream AND strawberries, but we're both a bit lactose intolerant, so we both regreted it later a little bit.

            

            Sometimes it scares me how much this kid is like me.

      

Claire made Sammy a cute present.

She sewed 6 beanbags, one for each letter of his name, and then we ironed-on the letters. We put the bags in a new sand bucket so that he could have a game of throwing them  into the bucket.

Claire told him the rules to the game, and one is that you get 100 points for each beanbag that gets into the bucket. He LOVED it.

We also got Sammy some tools that are "real". A hammer, level, manual drill, tape measure, and sanding block came with this little red tool box. He was very happy with that as well.

I got him this book as well, which I highly recomend to anyone who has a child interested in all the construction work they see along the road. Sam asks me all the time how the "worker guys" build houses, and this book has simple step-by-step illustrations of how a house is built from the foundation up.

Claire and Sam hammered and drilled things into some boards and boxes for a good hour after the birthday dinner.

Sammy, of course, had to test just HOW hard he could bang things. This box didn't last long.

He kept carrying his stuff around like this saying "I'm a worker guy. Do you need me to build you a house?"

The Big Guy made it through most of the party, but since he had been in Milwaukee all week, he was pooped. The kids didn't care...they kept talking to him and showing him stuff even though he was asleep on the couch,

Oh, on Sammy's actual birthday, we happened upon this kids snowboard at the Salvation Army for a few dollars. He was so pumped.

The guy who lives above us skateboards and snowboards, so he came down and showed Sammy some moves. Here is Sammy doing a trick of jumping over the board with his snowboard. He's pretty good, actually!

Happy Birthday Sammy. We love you.