Blake was over the moon with excitement for his 4th birthday, and we were too! I woke up to see this sweet sleeping boy cuddled on a makeshift bed in our room, since Nathan and Becca were in town and sleeping on Blake's bed. Immediately I was overwhelmed with joy and gratitude that this special day had arrived. Birthdays are a big deal after cancer.
Showing off his super strong muscles with Papaw, before the party.
It was a beautiful, breezy day at the park. Perfect weather for a hero party!
I got a little busy and didn't get to take many pictures, but it was so fun getting ready for this super hero theme. Bev sent a ton of great decorations all the way from WA too! I'm hoping Mom took more ;)
Uncle Nathan!
Decorating his cape!
Beautiful Sofie working on her "hero training" with Steve.
Hanging like Spidey from his web :)
Sammy doing his best Spiderman pose.
During the party a sneaky villain kept playing tricks :) Here he replaced all of the letters from "Birthday" with a bunch of letter V's...for
villain of course! The little heroes had to run around and find the missing letters that had been taped to all of the balloons.
After that it was time to hand out the mini superhero figurines we'd bought for the kiddos, but the Villain struck again. Each hero had been frozen in ice, so the kiddos had to use squirt guns to melt the ice and free their action figure.
And just when we thought it was time to relax and eat some cake, the kids discovered that the villain had stolen the candles and hidden them in a pinata. Jax was by far the most fearsome pinata buster! I love the look in his eyes!
Once we recovered those candles, it was finally time for some cake! Blake made a good pick this year, chocolate chip cake with a layer of oreo buttercream frosting. It was good!
As the party was winding down, the villain showed up in person to steal Blake's presents. LOL! Run, Nathan, run!!! Blake told me later that this was his favorite part of his birthday.
Chasing down the Villain with their squirt guns :)
Victorious!
This picture was taken while Blake opened gifts, and right before he fell off of the picnic table backwards. After lots of tears, a little blood, and a three hour trip to the ER he was pronounced "just fine." Thank God for supernatural protection! The bump didn't look too bad, but we knew he had a low platelet count and wanted to play it safe. What a way to end a party. As we entered the ER, he was in tears - but didn't want to remove his cape. We heard lots of "Awwww"s as we were taken back to a room.
We arrived back at our apartment to find all of the family waiting for us. Amazingly, Blake was able to rebound and open the rest of his gifts ;) He stayed up until 11 pm, on a party high, playing with his new toys.
And finally, they may not wear capes, but I was so happy to have all of these heroes there to celebrate with us. There's no one like family to stick with you, pray every day, give encouragement, love, and build your faith during a time like this. This Wednesday will be Blake's last chemo, and we are thrilled to celebrate that milestone with family as well!
