Cohen Turns Four-Years-Old

As I mentioned in my Pioneer Day post, my baby boy turned four about a week and a half ago. The entire week of his birthday was just one party after another. We had his family party on Pioneer Day. Then on his actual birthday, we kept it simple & just did a few fun things with our little family.  We started out the day by heading to the Splash Pad.  We heard that the one closest to us was closed, so we ended up trying another one which is about ten minutes from our house.  It was really fun & had lots of fun things for the kids to do.  Here's the birthday boy just getting his feet wet to start out...

Then he was off to the races after that...

Viv, as you may imagine, wanted nothing to do with the splash pad for a little while...make that a long while.  She ended up hanging out on the sidelines most the time.  Luckily, another family from our neighborhood came along with us, so Vivvie had a friend to hang out with while she overcame her splash pad fears...

Eventually, she went out to test the waters a few times, but always quickly came running back...

She spent more time trying on the neighbor girls' flip flops than she did running through the water.  I'm telling you, this girl has a serious love of shoes...

Aiden had a good time & got soaked from head-to-toe...

Connor wasn't in much of a splash pad mood & spent most of his day in the shade on the blanket taking pictures of everyone else...

Oh, and he & Cohen got in a wrestling match too.  I'm pretty sure the neighbor girls (who don't have any brothers) thought they were completely insane...

Later that day, when Mike got home from work, we headed out to my kids' favorite place on the planet--Chuck E Cheese...

We always let our kids pick where they want to have dinner on their birthday & 9 times out of 10, they pick this place.  Personally, I'm not a fan.  The food is sub-par, the robotic animals are creepy & everything is waaaaaaaaaaay overpriced.  But, they love it!  After eating dinner, we headed into the game center to play some games.  Here's Cohen playing some game when you try to knock rubber duckies over...

And Aiden playing a racing game...

The birthday boy showing off his tokens...

Cohen decided to play the same race car game that Aiden was playing.  As he was driving the car--in a very crazy way--he said, "Look Mom!  I'm driving like Dad!!"  Yes son, yes you are...

Trying to knock bugs over with a lizard tongue...

Riding one of those lame-o rides where you go up & down about six inches.  Pretty sure Cohen was wondering why he wasted a token on this when it was over...

Virtual Whack-A-Mole.  I like the "old fashioned version" better...

Carousel ride, and one of Cohen's signature cheesy faces...

Connor also played a bunch of games, but I couldn't keep up with him long enough to get a picture.  After it was all said done, the boys turned in their tickets...

And then had the hard decision of what prizes to pick...

We went home with whistles, candy, stickers & pretend spiders.  Awesome!  Just what we needed--more crap...

Once we got home, it was time for Cohen to open his presents from us...

Big surprise--more Ben 10, Power Rangers & Superheroes to add to our collection...

He was in 7th heaven...

Miss Vivienne was loving all the gift-opening goodness...

And, here's the aftermath...

Mike & the boys then spent the next hour getting everything out of boxes & putting them together.  It was a fun day!

The next day, the birthday fun still wasn't over.  We held Cohen's first ever friend party.  Cohen has really been turning into a social butterfly the past few months & has quite the little group of friends.  We decided to keep it simple & just put the slip-n-slide & little pool out in the yard & have a water party.  Here's all the kiddos playing in the pool...

And taking turns down the slip-n-slide...

We let them just play in the water for the first half hour.  Everyone had a good time, and the best part was that I didn't have to plan any crazy party games...

The only party game we did was a pinata.  You *have* to do a pinata...

The kids whacked at it for about 10 minutes before it fell apart.  Then they ran to grab the candy & headed straight back to the pool, with candy in hand of course...

While they were playing, Mike & I got their dinner ready.  We had a nutritious dinner of hot dogs, cheetos, grapes & lemonade...

After dinner, it was back outside to open presents on the tramp...

Once again, the kiddo was spoiled...

And finally, we ended the party with some Spongebob cake & ice cream...

Cheesy birthday boy smile...

Make a wish...

After cake & ice cream, everyone headed home. Voila! The simplest kid party in the history of kids parties. I wish all my kids had summer birthdays! You can do such a simple party compared to the fall & winter parties when you're trying to figure out how to entertain a bunch of kids indoors because it's so cold outside.  It was great & Cohen (as well as his friends) all had a blast!

So, Cohen ended up having a birthWEEK.  Why just have a birthday when you can have birthweek?  It was a busy, but very fun few days.  But, believe it or not, I was kind of sick of cake & ice cream by the end of it all.  I didn't think that was even possible!  Happy birthday to our little Coconut!  Love you!!  --Mom