Okay, well, I cannot believe it has been almost a month since my last post. Yikes! It’s certainly not from a lack of sessions–I’ve been super busy catching up! I just have been spending any extra time on some family projects and celebrations, namely a certain four-year-old birthday.

And, preparing for this post, I have to admit that maybe I’m going a little overboard. You can be the judge if you hang in there!

Okay so everything started with the theme of the party. Even before we were having a party, my big guy started discussing the theme. For a loong time, it was going to be a “Batman+fish” theme. “Holy, carp, Batman! Zane’s turning FOUR!”.  He really wanted to get some fish again for his birthday. And to continue being Batman. Have I told you he went through a phase where he introduced himself as Batman to everyone? Some people seriously refer to me as “Batman’s mom”. But I digress. . .

As the big day approached, he had a change of heart and wanted a Star Wars theme. And when we (finally) decided to have a party at a venue (many thanks to my husband for coming up with that solution!), they also decorated with Star Wars theme if you wanted. Sweet! It was awesome. Here’s the invitation I spent a whole afternoon designing. A whole morning begging, pleading, and cajoling for him to pose for the tiny portraits. Oh, how callous youth can be!

Okay, my watermark stamp snuck in on the left side. Obviously not supposed to be there, but if I lose momentum posting this to go back and change the file I may never post again, so pressing on!

We had the party at the Pearland Recreation Center and Natatorium. It was a great experience, and I highly recommend it! You can do the play room like we did, the pool, or some other older kid options. Very fun and EASY!

So I had this vision of creating a photo booth for Z and his friends at the party and they could wear silly glasses or smiles or Star Wars masks. Of course, I had to SEW the silly thing before I could use it. And then do some individual portraits with the Z-man before the party:

Here he is embracing his inner cheese smile.  He’s wearing his matching “robot” shirt that I sewed a patch on to match the background.  Which he absolutely loved to wear for one day. That he treasured it for that long meant the world to me.

His favorite toy (up until the party, when he got a “real” Clone Trooper blaster and now it has been replaced). As you can see, this toy of his own creation has had some wear and tear over the past year and a half or so since it became the “lovey”. And I might have changed him out of his swimsuit for this portrait, but chillaxin’ in the swim trunks is so him at this age.

Of course, we had to try out the silly masks before the party.

Then it was time for the good stuff. The baking, I mean.

I am pretty bizarre about baking and feel like it should all be from scratch. I’m nuts like that. I went through seven sticks of butter making a small cake, cupcakes, and then banana nut bread (when I realized we did not have enough cupcakes). I also realized I had donated most of my baking pans when we moved so my gorgeous two-layer cake turned into cupcakes and a small pitiful cakelet for the boy. Oh well! It all tasted good!

Anakin and Ahsoka were defending the yummy icing from little fingers!

Cupcakes. They do not travel well in slippery aluminum pans!

And then it was time to party!

The venue had a party room and then a huge area with tons of balls and mats and hula hoops and fun stuff for the kids to play with. Kids of all ages had a great time!

Then time for photo booth pics. I don’t have model releases, so I’ll keep this short. This one is particularly special:

We have a pictures of these two droids, er, kiddos, from the night Zane was born.  We’re lucky to have such great friends!

And then, the moment everyone was waiting for:

CAKE!

Making a wish…

Certain all his dreams will come true!

And in the final moments of the party, one of my good friends asked if anyone had taken a picture of me with Zane. Umm, no! So we rocked it on auto and got a shot! Of me!

Of course, I can’t forget about #2. He was in full swing for the party as well.

The poor second child. Oh the shame we subject him to! And, yes, if you remember, this is the same yoda hat he wore last year for Halloween. Slightly tighter on that noggin this time around!

So we wrapped up the party and then it was time for his actual portraits on his birth-DAY.

We braved the fire ants and heat for these:

I just had this made into a 20X30 gallery wrap. My husband asks: “Do you think we are making our children narcissistic?”  Umm…probably not. Maybe?

This was a new location. Worked pretty well.

I think this was right before the fire ants attacked.

So we went over to a bridge to try to escape them.

I think the yawn makes this image perfect.  For me, it does.

And this is the last one, I promise.

Well, kiddo, I sure hope your fourth birthday was a good one.  It was a lot of fun for me!