Luke is 4!

Luke is 4 years old today. I can hardly believe it. But actually the realization I had today was not disbelief at how old he is, but disbelief at how I have thought of him as a 4 year old for a while now. I guess I realized that because he is my oldest I might be a little too hard on him sometimes. He is only 4 years old! Lately I feel like I've been expecting quite a lot out of my little guy but maybe I should ease up and just let him be 4. But this topic is a post for another day.... on to the birthday festivities...

Remember this post about the tradition I wanted to start on birthdays? Well I was late last time but this time I was on my game and had the poster ready to go on his actual birthday. I am currently glowing with pride in case you're wondering. Are you ready for the many faces of Luke Stacey?

He is showing me how old he is in case you were wondering what the weird hand signal is all about.

I am crazy about this kid. He makes me so happy and sometimes drives me crazy, but mostly makes me SO SO HAPPY. I don't have time to write out a true dedication to this marvelous boy but the older he gets the more excited I am to see who he is becoming.

I think this year was my favorite birthday celebration for him yet. We've tried a party in our home with our friends, we've tried a party at the park with his friends, we've even tried going on vacation and leaving him behind with his grandpa on his birthday (still feel a little guilty about that one :) oops!). But this year we just had a simple little celebration with only our little family. We didn't invite anyone over even though it was SO tempting because there are so many cool people that we would love to share this day with. There were no themes or major party decorations and the birthday cake was just brownies with oreos baked into them (because all he really wanted was a chocolate brownie for his birthday). I did take him and his cousin to a indoor playhouse that he loves and that was pretty much it. Simple. Stress-free. Happy Mom. Happy Kid.

(I don't usually let him sit on the table like this...in case you think we're hooligans around here. But yes, it is quite common for him to not be wearing a shirt at some point during the day :)).

Happy Birthday Luke! I am going to try and load a video which will probably only be interesting for family who have to miss way too many of these birthdays :( . Hopefully it will be up by tomorrow.