mason turns 4!

what, what?!  (see picture) mason's four!  mason has been looking forward to his birthday all week (well, longer but it just gets more exciting as his siblings start to have birthdays). he was the first one awake (well, after me) and went to see his balloons.  only we didn't put them out!!  i felt horrible.  matt had gone out to pick them up yesterday but we forgot to bring them in out of the car.  thankfully, mason was very forgiving and was just happy to have them and get his breakfast of choice - frosted mini-wheats.  we all ate them in honor of mason this morning.  (he and madelyn had been arguing for the past several days about whether madelyn would eat mini-wheats or cheerios.)

since we didn't have to drive as far for mason's birthday surprise outing, we let him open presents this morning.  as you might guess, he had lots of willing helpers.  listen to his generous heart in the video - so mason...

the best part about watching mason open presents is that he is grateful for everything he receives - every card, every pair of socks, everything.  there is never a single moment that shows any indication of greed.  he is just so humble and appreciative.

when he was all done opening them he commented that he got a lot of presents.  he was a little overwhelmed with how many new things he had.  and we still hadn't given him his 'big' gift yet!

and mason was more than willing to share.  it fact, madelyn helped herself and mason was fine with it.  so generous.

the birthday boy ready to go on his big adventure.

we just love to keep the kids in suspense.  matt and i had a great time offering clues and listening to their discussion and guesses on our hour long drive to the cleveland zoo.  we picked the cleveland zoo because it was fairly close but not somewhere we go very often and they have a dinosaur exhibit for the summer.  once we got off the exit the kids starting seeing the dinosaur banners and were guessing that we were going to a dinosaur park, but maddux held firm at "zoo" for his guess.

they had painted dinos all over the zoo in different themes.

we were disappointed that the elephants where inside today.  it wasn't going to be nearly as warm as it was during our trip to the toledo zoo on saturday.  today wasn't even supposed to reach 80 degrees so we only had to worry about the rain, which held off all day.

maddux couldn't let mason be the only one with a picture with the elephants.

maddux with an 'orange' dinosaur

koala in a tree outside

mason was disappointed to not get to play at the playgrounds at the toledo zoo but since it was his birthday, when he asked today we let him play for a while.

we had to go up (and then down) an 80 feet climb by a zig-zag boardwalk.  maddux thought it was pretty cool that he could run ahead and look up at us.

at the koala house we were told that mason could get a birthday kiss from the giraffes.  not only did he not get a kiss, but when we bought a leaf of lettuce for him to feed the giraffe, they had him feed it before i could even get inside the gate.  i had my camera out and ready too but i still couldn't get a picture.  they tried to get the giraffe to come back over but it wouldn't and then they started to try and rush me out to let someone else have a turn.  oh well, he still got to feed a giraffe.

now for the big exhibit - dinosaurs!  once we got over to it i realized it was the same one that we went to a few years ago at the milwaukee zoo when we lived in wisconsin.  because there was an additional cost, i took the three bigs in while matt went to get manning a clean diaper.

petting a bearded dragon

there were several of these sandbox fossil digs throughout the walk.

t-rex

there were a family of deer behind some of the dinosaurs.  i was surprised that the 'roaring' did not scare them away.

mason asked to have his picture taken with all of these 'babies'.

the kids knew that the dinosaurs were fake, but they were still just a little bit afraid to get too close to them with all the roaring and moving.

the orangutan climbed down the angled 'log' behind it with the burlap it is wrapped up in pulled over its head like it was hiding.

after leaving the zoo we decided to have a 'snack' at chuck e. cheese.  we were going to go for dinner last night since madelyn and mason had both asked to go there for their birthday but the kids were so out of control that we didn't.  but it worked out great for us because we offered it up when the kids were begging for a $3 pretzel at the zoo.  they were all too happy to wait and go to chuck e. cheese instead.

the kids' favorite game at chuck e. cheese.

ooour plan was to suggest the kids ride bikes and play outside for a little bit when we got home so that i could get video of mason's reaction to his present.  manning had a poopie diaper so we went inside to change that and then maddux needed help wiping off.  while we we helping the littles mason came in to ask about something he found in the garage.  oh, no!  we were missing his face.

but you can see he was pleased.  this is my favorite picture of the day.

we were excited to see how he did after having his balance bike.  he did really great!  the part he will have to practice is braking.  i think the brake handles are a little too far for him to reach easily.  here is his first ride on his new bike.

maddux was discussing the bike trade-down to him and manning.

and here is the big 4-year-old riding all on his own!  you can hear him yell that fact down to me if you listen carefully.  the balance bike was totally worth it!  poor madelyn.  i wish we had had one for her.  she might have training wheels for a while longer.

then it was inside for his requested birthday dinner - hot dogs (vegan), "chicken nuggets" (aka tater tots) and bell peppers and onions (raw).  and daddy made everyone fruit and veggie smoothies - yummy.

the birthday cake

sorry for the awkward video but i am carrying the cake and filming.  at least he got to blow out his candles himself.

we had "super kid" ice cream with the cake.  whose idea was it to give maddux only blue?!  not my best choice.  everyone wanted to show their 'messy' faces.

we had a great day and mason said that he had a really great birthday.  we are so blessed to have him in our family.  love.