Sunday, July 1, 2012

Sing Ho! for the life of a bear . . . or boy!

Henry is 4!
This year he requested a Winnie the Pooh party so we
Sang Ho! for the life of this boy!
Oh, we love this little--I mean BIG--boy so much and we feel so lucky to have him and watch him grow.

We celebrated with friends Saturday. This is how it went down, Winnie-the-Pooh style:

2 pm
at which friends arrive for games and a treasure hunt

2:45 pm
at which Henry leads an "Expotition" to the swimming pool

3 pm 
at which friends arrive at the pool and swim 

Games included:
Piglet, Piglet, Eeyore (our version of Duck, duck, goose)
Musical Bear (the kids pass around Pooh-bear to music, when the music stopped the child with the bear received a treat)
Bouncing Tigger--outside (the children held on to the edge of a blanket and we tossed, bounced, and launched Tigger all around

Then it was on to the treasure hunt (one of Henry's favorite activities and something we do fairly often). The children were split into two teams, Todd managing one, me the other. They bound around the backyard in search of picture clues.
(Some of the picture clues)

 one leading to the next, until they arrived at the treasure--Henry's birthday cake! 

Henry's best buds
Top, L-R: Benjamin, Henry, Anders, Vincent, Zayd, Landon
Bottom, L-R: Alaster, Spencer, Esther, and Andrew

After cake and opening presents we handed out musical instruments and Henry lead the gang to the pool. He wore a drum like Christopher Robin and we attempted to sing "Sing Ho! for the life of a bear! Sing Ho! for the expedition!"

The kids made an awesome parade.
Henry was intent on marching up just like Christopher but, and you can't blame them, a couple kids wanted to haul as fast as they could to the swimming pool. We did our best to stay together.
They sure were a cute--and boisterous--crew.

We did get stopped by a police car on the way up and Henry got a special "whoop whoop!" from the police car in honor of his 4th birthday. The kiddos thought that was pretty exciting.
I think the officer felt pretty special, too.


Once at the pool Todd entertained the kids and we all had a ball. 


Theo and Landon yuckin' it up

Sunday--Henry's actual birthday--we had friends over for dinner, and Henry loved that. He always loves "having guests for dinner." Actually, almost every night he asks, "Who are we having over for dinner tonight?" Most nights it's just us but for his big day he wanted a friend.

So we had one of his best buds, Benjamin!

We enjoyed Mac N Cheese (Henry's request) and hotdogs, butternut squash (for Theo), quinoa and lentil salad (with tomatoes, cucs, and feta cheese), cherries, peaches, and cookies and leftover cake for dessert. 
I think my most memorable part was when Henry blew out his candles. 
Instead of blowing them out he sniffed them out.
I've never seen a kid do that, and it was so funny. We all got a good laugh. 
(I'm glad it was just on his piece, wink, wink.)
We had a wonderful time celebrating Henry-boy.
Happy birthday, sweetheart!!

Thank you all for your kindness and generosity to Henry! He loved his birthday and all his gifts. 
Here's Henry playing with one of his birthday gifts that arrived early:

Nice follow-through, son!
Can you tell he's a lefty?

3 comments:

Ashlee said...

Too cute! I can totally picture him snuffing the candle out :) That Henry! He's one in a million!

The party looked darling!

Alysa Stewart said...

Hehe what cuties they all are! And you forgot the part about us basically inviting ourselves over. Thank you so much!

mildred said...

Such cute party!!! Someone is going to steal this party, put it in a box, and make some monies with your ideas. You and Todd are such great parents.