partying his way to 4

Bliss! Here we sit on the couch in our clean house, all the guests gone, Dennis happily playing in his room with his new birthday loot... Nice and peaceful, some excellent relaxing after a week of intense party preparation! What a wonderful day it was! Dennis LOVED every present he got, yelling "WOW COOL!" each time he opened one. This morning (after Sunday school, before the party) Dennis helped complete a project he's waited a long time for: his play tower now has a wonderful metal roof! That was the actual construction that took place at the Construction Party. If you ask Dennis what his favorite part of the day was, he'll tell you "opening my presents!". He made short work of it, tearing through his gift bags and jumping up and down. He had wanted to play outside until he opened his toy cash register, and then we set up a play 'store' (cash register on TV tray, toy shopping cart full of toy food items to scan and put in a reusable shopping bag) which was so popular that it took us quite a while to make it outdoors! Dennis used the attached microphone to occasionally call "I need assistance, please!". He took the play money or scanned the play credit card and thanked us for shopping. I think all the kids took turns with it. Dennis did invite all his classmates and every church member he's seen this month to the party today, but (since I didn't tell anyone where we live or a party date or time) it was just family and close friends. His three cousins were here and so were Chloe and Katelyn--the adults outnumbered the little ones (which is a good thing!). We all had a great time watching them play inside and outside and all around. Dennis got his first pair of roller skates today (along with knee and elbow pads and gloves) and he donned his protective gear and helmet and quickly learned to skate! He's actually quite good at it, and I'm happily surprised by this given the amount of klutz that we know is present in his gene pool. After his first skate, the party kind of concluded with a round of sandbox play, some climbing and sliding on his playground, and a brief round of soccer with his new goal.

We are happily exhausted. Dennis is attempting to stay up until midnight to celebrate turning 4 (thus sleeping late in the morning, we hope), and we don't have much longer to go. What a wonderful day, what a special weekend spent with the people we dearly love! And soon, very soon, we'll be the parents of the most incredible 4 year old ever!