Birthday Party #3: Simple Fun

So, this is the third weekend in a row celebrating Grady Lee's birthday. The dear child is beginning to think every Friday and Saturday involves presents and cake. But, today is his actual birthday so I still wanted to make it special.

Yesterday I asked Grady what he wanted to do for his birthday, and without a second of hesitation he said, "Go swimming!" I called a friend and made plans to meet her and her kids at a pool this morning.


The kids swam and jumped and splashed for a good hour and a half. When they were completely tired and wiped out, we headed home and they crashed for 2 1/2 hour naps.


Grady woke up from his nap asking if it was time for presents yet. I told him not until after dinner, and speaking of dinner, I asked him what special birthday dinner he wanted me to make. Again, without a second thought, he said "Macaroni and meat on the grill and lots of fruit!" Not wanting to deny the birthday boy his wish, we grilled steak, had dinosaur shared macaroni & cheese, and a big fruit salad.

The dinner dishes were hardly cleared and he was tearing into presents. He was e-l-a-t-e-d to get the movie Cars and wouldn't put it down for the rest of the night.







The birthday boy then talked to Nana and Grandma and Grandpa on Skype... making a point to let them all know he got the movie Cars.

Remember the frog cake from the birthday party last weekend? The face was left-over so I stuck it in the freezer and pulled it out this afternoon. We, once again, lit candles and sang Happy Birthday and then dug into our green cake and frosting.


And now, now my big four year old is camped out on the couch watching his new movie, while holding the case, and while wearing some swim goggles and looking through binoculars he also got as a gift. He is a sight ot behold, let me tell you.

P.S. Unless you're a grandparent of my kids, you're probably not going to want to endure the eight minutes of Grady opening gifts.