The Mugwump turns 4!

Well, I said that my next post would be a continuation of the last. I lied. I need to do a family post and now is a good time. The continuation will come next time.

Yesterday we had a party for the Mugwump. We asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday months ago and he said that he wanted to climb "Y mountain" (that's the hill overlooking the town with a big Y on it). It's a steep hike of about 2-3 miles (I'm guessing, I really don't have a clue). So, for the Mugwump's birthday the Mugwump invited two of his friends (and their families) to go "hike the Y". All of the kids fared pretty well with just a little complaining. Although there wasn't much complaining from the parents, I think that there will be some sore parents. Especially Jacob who spent the entire descent jogging behind his 18 month old, holding on to the back of her shirt so she didn't fall (that meant he was leaning over and jogging. That would have destroyed me.

At the Y, we had cupcakes, sang Happy Birthday and played around on the rocks. Nobody brought gifts (as the invitations indicated). There was no clean up (although we packed out our trash). We got to spend time with our families and with our friends (grown and young). I could think of no better birthday party. Brian, Nate, Reid, Kevin, AJ, and Jenn you need to fly out for my party in June. We'll climb something bigger since I"m older. (I'm not anticipating that anyone will show up for my birthday, but that's OK).

The highlight yesterday was asking the Mugwump what he was excited about for his birthday (which is actually today). He said that he was excited to get a horsey. I was a little taken back because my mom got him a toy horse and a pass to go to a local park where he'll be able to ride a pony. How in the world did he guess that? So I asked how he knew he was getting a horse and he told me that he wrapped it himself, it was the present he was getting for himself. Sure enough, it's in the pile. The Mugwump did have to explain to me that really it was a stuffed bear, he's just pretending that it's a horse.

Yesterday my wife and I spent some time making a cake for his birthday (I thought we climbed Y mountain so that we wouldn't have a mess to clean up... Oh well). The cake that the Mugwump chose was shaped like a Euoplocephalus. Do you have any idea how hard it is to make a cake shaped like a Euoplocephalus? Do you have any idea how embarrassing it is when your 4 year old can say Euoplocephalus and you can't? Anyway, I won't describe the cake making process, I think the pictures are more telling. Just 7 pounds of sugar and a couple of pounds of margarine and you can shape it into almost anything. I think we may have added flour too, but I'm not sure.