Graham's birthday...almost minute-by-minute

Graham began his day by opening presents from our family in his jammies.

Bea liked the wrapping paper the best!

Graham's 'big' present from us was a bike. Here's his reaction when he opened the garage door and saw it parked there!

He was a pretty confident beginner and soon asked to go for a ride down the street.

Way, way, down the street...

'This is fun, Daddy!'

Piece of cake, Mom.

Let's go back down the road again.

After a quick lunch we waited for Graham's friends to arrive. Jack and Louisa, Andrew, and Ava all came to celebrate with Graham.

We launched stomp rockets in the front yard.

We launched balloon rockets in our living room.

There was lots of love going on....

And lots of sugar-y cake.

Lots of cool presents...

And then, a sad accident. The kids went out to play after presents. More rockets were launched and Graham rode around on his bike. Unfortunately, he had a little trouble dismounting and skinned his hand. It really was a small scrape, but it led to a really big meltdown before Graham crashed. His party guests continued to play. That's the beauty of four. There weren't any awkward pauses when Jack and Andrew noticed that Graham was asleep. They just said, "Oh. Graham's asleep. Let's play cars."

Bea and Inga had a bath during Graham's nap.

And then it was lego time with Daddy.

David and Graham are outside for one last ride around the patio before it gets dark. When the kids are in bed, we're going to pour ourselves a glass of wine and sit on the couch and sigh and say, "I can't believe we have a four year old." And then we are going to crash in bed, completely exhausted.
One party down, one to go.