Happy Birthday Matthew

I can't believe Matthew is 4! He was so excited for his birthday to finally come. We got back from our trip late Monday night, and I spent Tuesday finishing up everything for his birthday. On Wednesday morning I made some treats for his preschool class- I thought the rice krispy pumpkin treats turned out pretty cute, and they were a lot faster than cupcakes.
We had pizza for dinner and then started right into the presents. Matthew was pretty excited about the Lightening McQueen lunch box- now he can carry around all those cars!
I love how eager everyone is to help Matthew open his gifts and how he was totally happy with it.
This Hex Bug Nano Battle game was a hit. I found it in the clearance section at Walmart months before and had saved it until Matthew's birthday. The kids have all had lots of fun with this one.
And we finally upgraded Matthew from his little tractor to a new bike. He was pretty excited about it- now he can finally ride along with his older brothers and friends. Hopefully we get some good use before all the snow comes!
We started everything early that night because Jeff and the kids had to take me to the airport later on for a trip to Vegas. I don't know how it's worked out this way for both Caleb & Matthew's birthday. I really felt bad when Jacob said, "Good thing my birthday is in January- there aren't any races around then." Jeff then joked that maybe he should start looking around. I was just glad we were able to celebrate all day and do some fun things. I sure love this sweet 4-year old of mine.

Can you tell that Emily was excited to have a chance to blow out some candles too?
This picture was taken a few days after- Emily and Matthew love playing together with the Hex Bug battle game. I love that they've gotten to be such good friends- most of the time. Emily loves to follow Matthew around and is interested in everything that he is.
Matthew has really become such a sweet boy. He's had some times where he's given us a run for our money, and sometimes still does (grocery shopping...aah) but as he's grown up, he's really developed a fun personality and sense of humor.

-Matthew still loves his cars and trains. His favorite movie is still Cars and has been since he was two. I thought he would out grow it, but I guess some boys never outgrow their love of cars. :)

He loves lining them up, organizing them, and especially racing them.

-Matthew has been obsessed with numbers, dates, times, days of the week and "What comes after..." It's not uncommon to have conversations for an hour at a time with him asking me what comes after (i.e. Wednesday, Thursday, 37, Christmas, 98, Jacob's birthday, a, b, c, etc). I saw a statistic that said the average 4-year old asks something like 400 questions a day and yes, I believe it!

-He's also got a thing for being first, the fastest, the strongest, and the best. That's made for some interesting times and rough moments. Especially since Matthew happens to be the 3rd of three boys.

-Matthew's favorite book lately has been "The Giving Tree" but he loves reading books in general.

-Every night Matthew still has a routine of hugs & kisses. He'll tell me which one he wants and we usually go through a round of about 12. I love it and hope he never outgrows it.

-He's usually sweet to Emily and they've been such good little buddies. She idolizes him and loves to do everything with him. She usually cries when he goes to preschool and is so happy to see him when it's time for him to come home. The times they're not such great friends is when Emily takes his cars and runs off, or when Matthew takes Emily's blankets and runs off.

-Happy Birthday Matthew. We love you!