THE BIG 4 ~ Our week long celebration of Nathan

On January 2nd, Nathan turned four years old, but the celebrations began on New Year's Eve and continued on for about a week!  On the one hand, it seems like yesterday since Nathan was born, but on the other, we've been through so many changes in our life that it seems hard to believe that so much could happen in such a short period of time.  

Like the Hebrew meaning of his name:

 Nathan is truly a gift of God, so each year, we honor of our son and His precious gift to us.   

On New Year's Eve, Nathan's Aunt Domenica and Aunt Charly honored him with his very first jello cake, which is also Daddy's favorite flavor!  He even managed to blow out his own candle, which as most of you know is a major challenge for Nathan. We're still working on the technique for blowing bubbles, so he's definitely getting it!

On Nathan's actual birthday, we took him to explore the caves of Howes Caverns, which if I'm not mistaken, are prehistoric caverns about 150 feet below the earth's surface.  Neither Danny or I, had been there since we were young, so it was a fun and new experience for us all.   

Our math lesson for the day ~ we were in group 4 at the caverns. We got off exit 22 to get there (2+2=4).  And, we took Nathan to 16 Handles for dessert that night after pizza (4x4 = 16) and if we purchase a specified number of sundaes, we'll receive $4 off our next visit.  Just a little something we noticed along the way on his special day. :-) 

This was the only stalagmite that any one's allowed to touch because the oils on your hands can damage their surface.

We were even treated to an underground boat ride, which I thought might be disastrous.  For those of you have yet to visit the Caverns, at the end of your journey, you take a boat ride to the literal end of the public section of the caverns, where your guide, shows you how dark it actually is without the modern conveniences of lights.  It was pitch black. There's no natural light in the caves, so your eyes never adjust. Creepy. She kept the lights off long enough to prove that point and I thought Nathan would have gotten upset, but he didn't. Thank God! 

Do you see Nathan and Danny down there?

The next phase of the caves turned out to be Nathan's favorite part of the exploration ~ the very narrow and sharp s-turns. I'm not claustrophobic and it was a little unnerving. :-) Danny just let Nathan run, so he thought that was cool.

 

Good thing there are these areas that I'm not suppose to touch, so when I'm tired I can sit down! No oils on my butt! :-)

Given that Nathan's birthday was on a Monday, the day after a Holiday, we opted to plan a fun family night away the weekend after his official birthday, at the indoor water park at the Great Escape Lodge.  Nathan's Grammie and Nonnie spent the day with him too. 

We had signed Nathan up for sundaes with Spruce the Moose, but we waited so long in line to get our room, that he unfortunately missed the event.  However, he was signed up for some other fun character visits, so we weren't concerned.  Unfortunately, Nathan played a little hard and was too tired for them, so the Welcome Dance party and a quick visit with Scooby Doo were the only times he interacted with these silly friends.

I caught this picture while Nathan was in mid-dance.

He's got to keep all that hair dry! :-)

As most of you probably know, we are in the process of moving and have been for a very long time now.  We should have moved twice by now, but have continually been delayed.  To say this has been an inconvenience would be putting it lightly.  We rescheduled our Christmas plans, our vacation plans, and Nathan's birthday plans.  When we found out that we were yet delayed again, we put together a last minute family bowling party for him.   

Look at his little bowling shoes!

Like his dad, Nathan loved bowling!! We're going to go more often, now that he's old enough to roll the ball and beginning to understand the cause and effect relationship of the game.   Roll the ball ~ pins fall down.

Nathan's Sesame Street Cake

There were lots of candles on Nathan's cake, so he needed some help from his cousins!

   

I wasn't aware of the fact that Nathan was going to be given a bowling pin, but it made a nice personal keepsake.  Everyone at the party left Nathan a little birthday message. 

Nathan had a great time bowling and on all of his birthday adventures!  Thank you to everyone for their birthday wishes, generosity, and for making yourself available on such short notice.  Next year Nathan's going to be five ~ can you believe it?!   We're already thinking about his big day, and if it's up to me, we'll be going back to visit Mickey.