Bretten's Birthday!!!

Bretten is now 4 years old!!! He had a fun birthday and an exhausting day! What a special little boy he is. It's so fun watching him grow up and we're so lucky to have him in our family! We love you Bretten and hope you had a wonderful birthday!!!


We woke up early so Bretten could open his presents before Jaylee left to school and before Dad left to work. Bretten doesn't have pre-school on Tuesdays, so he was excited that he got to stay home and play with his presents before his party!


Jaylee and Bretten opening presents! He was one excited little boy!


**Bretten and Jaylee both wanted birthday parties this year and since I've never done a party for them, I decided I better do it now because I know next year (with a little baby) I'm not going to want to deal with it! I never realized how much work it it just to throw a simple little party. I have a whole new appreciation for my parents and all the fun birthday parties they threw for me over the years!
Bretten is so into pirates right now, so we chose to have a pirate party for him! He has been so excited about it. We had to order everything on-line pretty much since there isn't anywhere in this town to by party specific items. We got the stuff in the mail a week and a half ago, and he has been talking non-stop about it ever since! On Monday night we started decorating and made his cake and everything else and he was so excited I thought I was going to have to lock him up because he couldn't contain his excitement! Jason was in the other room listening to us and all the questions and comments Bretten was making and I could hear him start laughing once in a while because he thought it was pretty comical.
Anyways, the party was a lot of fun. We had some friends and a few people that we've met through the local Mom's group come and we had pizza for lunch and then played games and made pirate hats. My little kitchen and living room area were pretty crowded (my house isn't designed for entertaining!), but we survived and we had a lot of fun! I think I planned too much because we didn't even finish all the games we had. I guess it was good to have too much prepared than not enough though, and since it was my first time throwing a kid's party, I guess it went as good as you could expect! Bretten loved it and kept telling me afterwards how perfect his day was, so that made it all worth it!


Holly, Annie, and Lily helping their girls make their pirate hats!


Jaylee and Bretten working on their pirate hats!


Bretten posing as a jolly little pirate!


The kids had a lot of fun going around the house looking for the cluse to find the treasure. This is Bretten holding the treasure after they found it!


Jaylee giving the pinata a nice big hit!


Bretten taking a hit at the pinata!


The pinata wouldn't break, so I finally had to make a fool of myself and get in on the action and tear it apart! The kids were all ready to jump in to get the loot!


Everyone getting soome of the tresure!


Jaylee and Bretten wanted to change into their pj's after the party (I guess they were pretty worn out- although they didn't go to sleep early). They played with Bretten's pirate tent and all the left over party decorations for the rest of the day!


Some left over cup-cakes from the birthday party! Bretten loved helping me decorate the cupcakes and putting a gummy fish on the top of every single one!


We waited for Jason to get home from work before singing Happy Birthday and blowing out Bretten's candles.


Bretten Blowing out his candles!


Well, I'm no chef or cake decorator, but I really don't care much for the over-priced nasty-tasting cakes you can buy at the store, so I decided to just do it the old fashioned way (lol) and bake a cake myself. Bretten was pretty excited about it and loved helping me decorate it, so I think it was definitely worth it. Plus the kids ate more than just icing with this cake...they actually ate the cake part too!