Birthday Bash(es)

*Disclaimer: A long, boring post filled with tons of pictures. So beware. I kept putting off posting it b/c I wanted to do something cute and clever, but it just wasn't happening, so it is what it is.

Will, lucky boy that he is, had several b-day celebrations. The first was while we were in Utah and his darling cousin Beth insisted she throw him a birthday party--even though it wasn't his actual birthday--since he'd always had his birthday in Utah. So she put together a grand shin-dig, complete with games, presents (she took Granny with her to pick out and buy some cute presents--thanks, Gran!), a homemade cake (that she made herself) and even decorations. What a gal that Beans is. Of course, I only managed to snap a few photos (it was a crazy night) and the ones I did manage to take are sub-par (notice both Sam and James in the below photo are missing pants). Thanks, Beth for such a rockin' party. Whatever are we going to do without you?

While in Spokane, Will got spoiled with presents from family and from my parents (they got him the beloved boat from Cars 2--the very boat that would NOT fit in my suitcase on the way home and that Will had to carry on both planes. Yes, the same boat that caused quite the ruckus on our cross-country trip, especially since it is a light up, shooting and talking boat. The other passengers loved that).

Then when we got home, we celebrated his actual birthday (well, a few days late since we were flying on his actual birthday). He had a fun-filled day with pancakes for breakfast, treats and Mama and Dada at his school, out to lunch for chicken nuggets, home to open presents, swimming with Dada, home for a homemade pizza dinner and then friends over to help eat the "cookie cake" with us and celebrate the big day. Boy, this kid is spoiled. But we wouldn't have it any other way because we love him to pieces.

Will woke up to some decorations on the door of his room. Here he is on his birthday morning.

Then he came downstairs to find decorations and presents all for him. If you can't tell, he was pretty jazzed about that.

Here he is doing his pose that he's been striking for the camera as of late. It's like a top model pose.

And Dada and Lucy Goosey were there, too.

One more pose for the camera before he's off to school.

Here he is at school. I brought homemade zucchini muffins (he wanted cupcakes but too many allergies in his class for that, so I made my famous zucchini bread and then just put it in muffin tins) and apples and milk to drink, of course. He loved having both Mama AND Dada there at school.

And now for the favorite part: the opening of presents. I made a scavenger hunt for him, hiding his presents. He was pretty cute figuring out the clues.

He got tools for his b-day as well as the appropriate carpenter attire. And Josh wins father of the year (yet again) as he put together a tool box that the two of them could make together with all his new tools. Will was over the moon about that.

Here he is pretend drilling his tool box pieces.

And here they are in the "shop" actually building the tool box.

And here's the finished product. Isn't that the cutest thing ever?

He also got a Busy Town Mystery game that I adore (and so does he) and we had to play it right then and there. Of course, it was just Will and me since Dada fell asleep, as pictured.

And here he is for the cookie cake and singing of Happy Birthday. He looks pretty excited, no? And we made a cookie cake because that's what Will wanted. He doesn't like cake, and he adores cookies so this is what we came up with. Then to finish the night, Will got to have a sleepover with his dada. And that was quite possibly the best present of all. That boy adores his dada. We love you, Willy Will. Happy 4th B-day!