Lukas' 4th Birthday Party

We were so excited to celebrate Lukas' birthday together with a few families from our church this past weekend.  It was beautiful weather so we were able to hold the party outside.  The kids enjoyed playing games in the yard and the parents actually had a few spare minutes to talk at normal speed with one another--a success all around! :-)

Lukas wanted a train-themed birthday party so I made this cupcake train for him.  It took me longer than I'd like to admit to make and, believe it or not, the most time consuming part was cutting and gluing all of the train tracks onto the board!  It was worth it though to see how excited Lukas was about it.  He chose the toppings--can you tell which is his favorite?

Lukas standing proudly in front of his cupcake train and Thomas and Friends tablecloth.  The "thumbs-up" was his Papa's idea, I think.

Here is the food for the party--I tried to think of healthy finger foods that would also be kid-friendly. Lukas was especially thrilled about the "shaped-cheese" I made for some of the crackers (I cut some cheese with cookie-cutters) and was sure to point them out to his first guests on Saturday morning.  When he was helping me with some of the preparations before our guests arrived, he asked me, "We're doing all this special stuff because we want our guests to have fun at our party, right?" What a great host he'll make some day if at age 4 he already has his guests' feelings in mind.

Some of the kids playing T-ball.  I was a little concerned that someone might get whacked with the bat, but the kids were very orderly about it and the parents ran great interference!

Isabel "praying" that it will be her turn to hit the ball next

The playset in our back yard getting a little use too

Lukas blew out his four candles one by one instead of in one big breath--so cute!

Lukas the morning of his actual birthday after having opened his gifts at breakfast before his first day of school.  The "Bob the Builder" card in his left hand was a big hit and when he opened his Construction Truck Puzzle book from us, he graciously told me, "Wow, Mom, you did a great job on choosing this book!"  Olli and I grinned at each other--it was a no-brainer for us since he borrowed the book from his cousin Julius this summer and had read and re-read it with us and by himself countless times.  It was obvious that he would enjoy having his own copy.