Birthday Bash, Take 1

As a kid, I always loved my birthday more than any other holiday all year long. It was the one day of the year that was all about M.E. Later in life, I chalked some of that up to the Aries in me. Sawyer — who is supposed to be a Cancer but is clearly a Leo (cusp baby) — has been talking about his fourth birthday since March. He decided then, well before Toy Story 3 was released, and for reasons I still don't quite understand since we don't catch the movie trailers on T.V., that he wanted a Buzz Lightyear and Woody birthday party this year.

He has been counting down the days ever since. My kid who just wants to grow up so fast. He's already bummed that all his friends are moving up to kindergarten and he's always talking about how things are going to be when he gets big. Every morning he comes downstairs and asks his dad to inspect his limbs to see how they've grow. Quite literally, some days, it seems he's grown overnight. Three inches of ankle peek out of pants that fit just yesterday.

So we went big this birthday. We opened some presents this morning and more presents this afternoon. We took pumpkin muffins to school and the whole day at school was Sawyer Day. We even took him out to a German restaurant with Scott's good friend Jim (Milt) who drove up from Leadville for the occasion (or maybe just the German food – it's his favorite restaurant). And, tonight, all the boys are camping downstairs on the floor (Sawyer in his new sleeping bag), eating popcorn and watching movies.

The celebration continues Saturday when I've taken the opportunity to invite half of Granby over to our house for a real party (adult beverages included). It's a good excuse to have some people over who we've been wanting to get to know a little better. We'll block off the street and the kids will ride bikes and play with sidewalk chalk and the such while us adults get our buzz on – Sawyer did say he wanted a "Buzz" party. I figured we'd have more fun doing that over beers and barbecue than playground and cake.

Oh, but there will be a cake. A Scott cake. With Buzz Lightyear and Woody. Somehow. He always pulls off the magical cake decorations, no matter how challenging (remember the Double Backflip Cake and the Lightening McQueen Cake).

Sawyer was perfectly wiped and overwhelmed tonight, but he did have a few more things to say: