Joe Turns Four!

Joe's been looking forward to today for several weeks!  I think this is the first year he really understood what birthdays are all about and we did our best to make the day special for him.  He picked out our dinner menu (pizza) and requested a train cake.  Specifically, he asked for a red train and clever me thought I could add red food coloring to pink strawberry frosting to make red.  But instead it made dark pink.  Duh.  When Joe saw the frosting he brought me a jar of red paint and said he wanted "this red".  I assured him I'd do my best and as you can see I used red candy to try to disguise the pink.  Special thanks again to the Baker's Cut-Up Cake Party Book (copyright 1973) for providing inspiration for the cake.  The majority of train cakes online required either outrageously expensive pans or were three-dimensional and would have taken a minimum of 5 hours to decorate.

As I was wrapping Joe's presents Billy said, "You know what would be fun?  You should hide the biggest present and make picture clues for him to find it."  My response, "What a great idea!  Why don't you get started on that?"  He did, it was a hit, and we plan on doing it again for all of the children.

So our oldest is now four.  We're asked a lot if we're sending him to preschool this year.  The shortest answer and explanation I can give is no, because even though he is four Joe has only been in our lives for 2 years and 9 months, and I'm not ready to send him out into the world just yet!