Our Weekend (Mac's 4th Birthday)

I have Mac's 4 year update drafted, but it's going to take me a bit longer to finish as I want to be sure to include as much detail as I can for memory's sake.

Nonetheless, we celebrated his birthday with a full weekend of events to celebrate life and our appreciation for the beautiful gift of our son, Mac.

Saturday morning, we volunteered to clean the nearby creek.  There is a bike trail that runs along the creek and opens up to our street.  The trail leads to the berry bushes we pick blackberries from and a walking bridge that the kids like to run across.  Needless to say, we spend our share of time near the creek (a rather large one) and Aaron and I felt it was important to teach the kids to take ownership.  We regularly talk with them about respecting the Earth and taking care of all living things, but this kind of experience really drives the message home.

While we were cleaning the boys spotted a tiny baby turtle swimming around in the creek below the trail (it is like 8 feet down).  We watched it for a long while and then Aaron explained to the boys that we were cleaning the trail so that all of the animals (like the turtle) would have a clean home.

We were happy to reinforce these lessons as they have all been abstract subjects up til now. It was also special to acknowledge that there is life all around us and we must demonstrate our gratitude by taking care of our environment.

The kids had a nice time during and enjoyed talking about it for the rest of the day.

After the creek clean up, I took the boys to pick up Mac's race shirt and bib in preparation for his first race on Sunday.  He was proud to wear it and Sito was proud of him too.

We rounded out the day with a grocery run and then made cupcakes after naptime.

I took a shortcut and used a box mix by the Immaculate Baking Company

On Sunday, Mac's actual birthday, we started off the day at the race.  Mac did such a great job and carried himself with such a proud yet humble manner which made me extremely proud.  I wasn't sure how he would do in his race.  I anticipated that he might get overwhelmed and quit the race part of the way through, but he ran the whole thing and showed me he's much more mature than I gave him credit for.

He's such a big boy!

After the race, my dad treated us to lunch for Macky's birthday and while at the restaurant, Mac got to play his first video game.

When we got home I gave the kids baths and put them down for a nap.  The boys ended up sleeping for over 3 hours!  I couldn't believe it.

They didn't wake up until dinner time, so I got lots of housework done and dinner made.  We sang Mac happy birthday after dinner and ate the cupcakes that we made on Saturday.  He really enjoyed the trick candles I bought for his cake.  He had to blow it out 4 times for 4 years old!

It was a really fun day!