So, my
baby turned 4 years old yesterday. It's so hard to believe that the sweet baby boy I rocked around the world and back is already that old! Although he's a mischievious monkey sometimes, he still has a really sweet nature to him that I just adore. He loves his mama and tells me so every day. And you know what? Each time he looks at me with those big blue eyes and says, "I love you, mom," and then reaches up, hugs my neck and gives me a kiss, I simply melt. I wanted him to have the best day and I think we succeeded!
February 17th began with J's usual breakfast--one and half cinnamon rolls.
I must agree, Mrs. Baird does make a heckuva cinnamon roll.
After playing all morning with the girls, Jackson got a visit from Meme!
I asked Jackson where he wanted to go for lunch and he chose McDonalds, so we packed up the minivan and headed over there. He had me order him a cheeseburger, fries, nuggets and apple slices and probably ate a good 80% of all that! Guess he is a growing boy.
Miss Lila got to try out her very first french fry...
and she loved it!
After all that sitting still and eating, a boy's got to get moving, so off to the playground he went.
For the afternoon, I had a little surprise up my sleeve. Since Jackson has declared that he wants to be a fireman when he grows up, I thought it would be fun to arrange for a visit to our local Murphy FD. Right after I told him about my plan, he raced upstairs to get ready. He came back down wearing his fireman jacket, fireman hat and carrying his fireman axe. You gotta be prepared!
Fireman Bill was so nice and gave us a private tour of the entire facility. He let the kids check out the engine. Right here they were looking at all the tools. Jackson was especially impressed by this big axe.
Then the birthday boy got to sit up in the driver's seat.
Of course, Little Miss Thang was right behind him and got to take her turn, too:) She told all the firefighters that she was going to be a firewoman one day and then broke into one of her favorite songs--"Let's do Jackson--Jackson, Jackson bo backson, banana fana fo fackson, me my mo mackson, babababa Jackson! Let's do Lila!" They got a huge kick out of her show!
After touring the whole place, our last stop was the firepole. They both got to check it out from the top...
and then we went downstairs to wait for Firefighter Bill to show us how he slides down it when the bell rings. So cool!
After a short nap (I needed one, but only the kids got one!) we went to Amazing Jakes for Jackson's family bday party. We ate pizza with Gigi
and Memaw and Daddy
and then got to the fun stuff. The carousel was the first ride they did.
The train ride was next and my favorite part, by far, was watching my dad squeeze into the caboose! His rear exit was even funnier:)
After those rides, J chose the fighter planes.
They jerked up and down and then started going pretty fast. Thank goodness both kids were all smiles.
Then we were off for some good ol' go cart racing! Jackson and I raced Jared and Maddie.
Then J took another turn with Daddo in the driver's seat.
After go carts, the boys moved over to the arcade games for a bit. J tried his hand at skeeball and a few other games and got lots of tickets.
Then it was time for some cake! Miss Lila was ready to party with her hat on.
In fact, everyone had on their party hats!
We sang to Jackson and then all got to have some yummy chocolate coke cake.
He got the piece with the "4" on it, as requested!
After eating mostly icing, he was so ready to tear open his presents. Whew! What a day. Happy Birthday, my big guy. Your mom and dad love you to Pluto and back.
I was so happy to get at least one fam pic of our crew before the madness began.
The kids kicked off the party with some tramp time, which was a big hit.
Jackson did take a timeout, though, to welcome one of his girlfriends, Mia, to his party!
While the big kids were jumping and running, Lila practiced her crawling and climbing skills.
She spotted Mia's little brother and crawled right over to say hello, just grinning the whole way.
There were lots of little boys at the party, but here's a pic with J and most of the girls:)
After tramp time, they went over to swing into the pit. Jackson loved this...
and took lots of turns doing it. It took a few tries to get the timing right. The first time he dropped too late and ended up right back where he started on the mat!
Miss Maddie was next and got her share of the pit fun, too.
The huge grin says it all:)
While the big kids played, Memaw hung out with Lila. She did some good crawling up these stairs.
"Well Hello Simeon!" Looks like she found another suitor at the top!
After flirting with Simeon Martinez, she spotted Sawyer across the floor. Thank goodness she refrained from petting him this time!
I think we may need to install a pit in our next house. These kids would have stayed in there all day!
And I'm pretty sure the big kids may have wanted to hop on in, too.
Lila got tired of all that crawling and decided it was time to practice her forward roll. Good thing Gigi was there to spot her.
The last activity was the parachute...
and then it was time for some cake!
Jackson chose a Mickey Mouse theme for his party. Random since Mickey is not really one of his faves. He really liked the Mickey Mouse ears--I'm thinking this is what hooked him into choosing this theme--but when it came time to wear them at the party, he refused. Go figure. His head was a sweaty, hot mess, so maybe that had something to do with it!
Nothing says Happy Birthday like having your face covered in blue icing. He was so thrilled about it!
After chowing down on his cupcake and icing, he attacked his presents with a vigor. I'm pretty sure he got through opening them all in about five minutes. 
I was in the middle of the present opening mania and honestly didn't even know who had Lila. I looked up to see her asleep on my mom's shoulder. Sweet girl just had so much fun and was worn plum out.
By the time we got home all three kids were asleep in the car. Only Madison stayed asleep, though. These two popped right up and had so much fun checking out all the new presents. Happy Birthday, Jackson. I can't believe you are really 4!!
