LOTS of birthday pictures (clever title, eh? It's late...)

Saturday we celebrated Cade's 4th birthday with a costume party and some of his good friends. All in all, it went really well. I was only slightly annoyed when it started snowing (while Kevin was mowing the lawn) and once again cursed global-warming for not working out in our favor here in the (frigid) NW in April (I know, I mean climate change, needless to say, I guess deep-down I was hoping all the hype would result in some slightly warmer temps year-round, making Oregon THE BEST place to live ever. But I digress...).

This was Cade's first real kids party and, therefore, my first kid party to plan. In the past I've gotten away with large park dates and a trip with a couple friends to the Children's Museum, with cupcakes to follow...this was clearly the year for us to make the leap into hosting some friends for a real, old-fashioned birthday party. (Okay, maybe not so old-fashioned, but traditional at least). Up until two days before the party (when Cade received the Superman pjs from Kevin's parents in the mail), Cade was set on being a pirate...or a cowboy, but usually a pirate...Captain Jack Sparrow to be exact and don't freak out, he's never seen the movie or anything (I can barely stomach it, myself). So he settled on Superman and made a super-cute one as you can see! Kevin took over games and played two of Cade's favorites around here: Charades for Kids & the Hokey Pokey (which is really just more of a silly song but took up game time, so it counts).
Presents! I love Bridget's face in this one...genuinely enthused.

Jack and Cade sharing a celebratory high-five.
Sweet Emily made a very pretty princess. By the way, I loved that Cade wanted to dress-up in costumes for his party. I knew right away that meant I would get to have several frilly little princesses and faires and ballerinas prancing around my house. :)

The Hokey-Pokey dance was a hit.

My niece, Kaya, who is 2 and a half, especially loved coloring on the large pieces of paper we taped to several walls so the kids could make murals (we've kept them up this week and the boys have continued adding to their beauty).


All the kids decorated their own chocolate cupcakes & got their faces painted.










Payton loved Uncle Daniel's juggling.

One of my favorite little girls, Bridget, got to stay a little while after the other guests had gone home, which drew the party out a little longer...and let me tell you, the after-party was fun too! Bridget and Cade got the idea to paint my and Auntie Katie's faces.

Works of art, really.