A Boy and His Tiger

Our handsome Michael Alexander turned the big 0-4 last month.

How convenient--I found a box full of my childhood books on his birthday. He spent at least 45 minutes going through the entire pile. Happy birthday, my little bookworm!

His birthday requests were ice cream, ice cream cake, and corn on the cob. We convinced him to add hamburgers to the menu and spread out the ice cream treats over multiple nights.

A family trip to Coldstone the day after his birthday

My parents visited us for a week in late January, so we postponed Michael's birthday party a week so they could be there for it. I've never felt like entertaining was really my thing, but the party was a huge success, if I do say so myself.

The cousins went on a short treasure hunt. The prize? Glow sticks!

I had so much fun making Michael's ice cream cakes. I used this recipe as a starting point and improvised from there (with my go-to chocolate wafer cookies, of course).

If any treasure is better than glow sticks, it's ice cream cake!

Michael agreed!

For the kiddos: chocolate and vanilla ice cream, with chocolate wafer crumb crust, a crushed Kit Kat layer in the middle, and whipped cream. The Kit Kats were a delicious choice, but ruined any chance of picture-perfect slicing. I don't think the kids minded.

For the grown-ups: chocolate and coffee ice cream, with chocolate wafer crumb layers, whipped cream, and chocolate drizzle.

For the record, we did not actually need two cakes, even with 17 people (I have a deathly fear of running out of dessert at birthday parties... no idea why). But we thoroughly enjoyed the leftovers!

We are thoroughly enjoying our big boy. Michael loves reading as much as ever, and I have high hopes of him reading to the rest of us in the very near future. He's very interested in spelling--he is constantly stringing together letters and asking what they spell. Unfortunately his spelling words rarely contain vowels... "What does x-f-l spell? How about t-s-d-r-l-m?" And whenever Alex and I spell out words to avoid a riot, Michael always tries to join in: Alex: "I think the boys could have an s-h-o-w after dinner, what do you think? M: "How about a h-o-a-w?"

Calvin and Hobbes is still one of his favorite things, which prompted Cici to get him a stuffed tiger for Christmas. Michael promptly christened his new friend Hobbes, of course, and he takes him everywhere around the house.

I'm not always sure Hobbes is such a good influence on Michael...

We love you our handsome, clever, hilarious Michael Alexander. I think 4 is going to be a great year :)