Happy Birthday Ian!

Ian turned four last week, which comes as no surprise, as I’ve thought of him as four for a long time.  We had two celebrations – one with family on his birthday on Tuesday, and one with friends on Saturday.  At his request, we went to “the fancy place” on Tuesday for dinner.  It’s actually called Piazza Italia, but Ian calls it the fancy place because when we first started taking him there a couple years ago we told him it was a fancy place where you couldn’t do things like bang your fork on the table.  We celebrated Doug’s birthday there last month, which is likely why Ian chose it for his celebration.  Grandma and Grandpa were able to join us before leaving the next morning, as well as Greg, Danielle, and cousin Leo.  Also, of course, Lukas, who slept through the whole thing except for waking up once to nurse.  Here is Leo all dressed up in a fancy outfit for the occasion:

And here is Ian showing of his special birthday cake (just like the one Daddy got on his birthday, and which Ian declared he would eat all by himself).  Behind them you see the bar, which Ian referred to as a “work bench”:

On Saturday, seven of Ian’s friends gathered at the Fun Zone, a great drop-off childcare place in Durham that Ian frequents on Friday nights.  The kids enjoyed the bouncy house, the resident rabbit, and a lot of games of hide and seek (in which it was hard to convince anyone to hide since they apparently all like counting so much).  The owner was there to help us out as well as some other parents, so it was all quite manageable despite the newborn in tow (who once again slept through the whole thing except for one nursing session).  The promised daily thunderstorms held off so we enjoyed the cake outside:

It was quite a spectacular cake:

And baby Lukas just shutting out the craziness of eight energized preschoolers: