There he is on the first day of his free preschool class in La Habra. Thrilled to be doing letters and numbers with his buddies Bruin, Molly, and others.
We knew this would be our last birthday party with all those buddies of ours ... and perhaps even our last party.
See, at this point Mark began the process of ... well ... haggling with a chiropractor and his landlords in Salt Lake City, Utah. We had visited the failing practice during the weekend of Uncle Adam's wedding and fallen in love. It was beautiful, a great location ... and an incredible price. True, there weren't many people coming in. But if anyone could change that, Mark could. Right?
So with that in mind, we wanted to go all out for our California boy's fourth birthday party.
First things first. It was American Ninja Warrior themed. Ever seen the show? Mac and Mark (and usually Belle and I) watched it faithfully. It's essentially a bunch of people doing extreme obstacle courses in a certain amount of time, winning the title of "American Ninja Warrior". Mac would practice these moves on his way to bed after every show.
And thus we had our theme.
Behold the cake:
And a bit more of the party prep. Chinese takeout boxes (filled with stickers, fortune cookies, chop sticks, candy, ninja stars, and mini nijas ... the girls even got a flower sticker and eyelashes drawn on), and bandanas took up most of the prep time.
Worth every second.
I only almost tore 3 of those named bandannas to shreds out of frustration. But somehow I still ended up with legible names.
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| The guest list above ... Mac circled all the kids names for me so I would know which ones were his buddies, and which were mine. |
We were interrupted.
At around 1 a.m., MacAlister peeked over the top of the stairs all squinty-eyed and whispered, "Is that my birthday?"
Naturally, my heart raced with disappointment as the "surprise" was ruined before it was presentable, but just as naturally Mark had a good laugh and gave him a quick tour. Satisfied, Mac went back to bed.
The morning was still awesome.
And it only got better.
The day was spent at Knott's Berry Farm with our season passes, and Mac got a birthday button to put on his shirt. At first he thought it was weird all these random people were telling him "Happy birthday," so he took it off. When no one said a thing to him, he changed his mind and decided to ignore his shyness in favor of compliments. It was worth it. (I knew he had some of me in him.)
That night we ate hot dogs, opened presents, and finished off that entire ninja cake.
The whole thing was Mac-approved.
Then came party day.
It was to be at Newport Beach.
Mark went to the office that morning while I put on my super-mom undies and got to work. Thankfully, I had a friend there incredibly early, and a whole batch of local teenagers literally looking for service to do. My friend watched my kids while me and those Newport Beach teens unloaded my over-stuffed car.
Mark raced through 20+ patients in two hours with the help of one of his chiro buddies on physical therapy, and picked up a mountain of pizzas on his way to the beach.
Thankfully, 90% of our friends are late-comers. Though Mark and I made it happen, it certainly wasn't in the time frame we told people.
We ate while the kids played and sticker-fied their bandannas in prep for the American Ninja Warrior obstacle course.
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| Seth Bias |
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| Molly Holland & Sienna Leet |
Finally, after a couple hours of top-notch beach play, we decided we were ready for the obstacle course. I set up cones from our camp to the playground behind. I booby-trapped the finish line with bad guys (angry-faced balloons tied to rocks and buried in the sand), and set out a buzzer for the kids to hit once they fought their way through.
Genius, right?
Well I missed one HUGE detail. The balloon men were horrifically tied. By me. And of course, curious kiddos of all kinds wanted to practice their karate skills on them before we actually began the course.
One by one, every single balloon floated away.
It was stressful, but it wasn't until the "Mac" balloon left that we faced nuclear melt-downs.
Earlier, Mac had seen me drawing faces and asked if he could make his very own bad guy. He did the whole thing; even wrote his name on the back. "I'm gonna get this guy, Mom!" he told me.
And when that one flew?
Oh man.
I haven't seen a fit like that since ... well ... I can't even think of another fit like that.
So he sat in his tent and cried and flailed while all his friends ran the course and won medals.
Finally after a solid 20 minutes or so, everyone ran through and we were ready to sing happy birthday and eat cupcakes.
Singing did nothing to stop the tears.
But cupcakes did.
Instead of tossing him in the car, we swallowed our parental-discipline pride and stuffed him with chocolate.
And he was happy.
So we decided he might be in a good enough mood be gracious about all these fantastic presents he received and began to unwrap.
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| One of my personal favorites ... this shirt came with instructions to wear on a date. At the bottom it said, "Mac, will you be my boyfriend? Love, Sienna" Just look at his response. |
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| The very few kiddos we gathered for a group picture. Seth Bias, Mac, Bruin Elrey, and Luke Shaw in the back there. At least I can say the party location was awesome. The kids couldn't be pulled away from the beach. |
The partiers slowly said their good byes and happy birthdays, and we stayed on.
At around four p.m. we decided to start cleaning up. Before taking down the cones, I asked Mac if he wanted to try out the obstacle course.
We ended up staying another hour as he ran it over, and over, and over again, smashing the buzzer each time and throwing his hands in the air. He loved being timed and as soon as I told him his number, he turned around to run the whole thing again.
He loved it.
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| And Belle couldn't even make it through her pizza crust on the drive home. Too much fun. |
Happy birthday my best boy.
Allie, your creativity never ceases to amaze me! What a fun party! I really laughed out loud at the last picture, with the half-eaten pizza crust. Love it!
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