Happy Birthday to Walker

Walker Elijah Dudish was born April 4, 2007. He turned 4 years old on Monday. Time is flying by...he should be the size that Sawyer is! We celebrated his birthday with friends and family this past Saturday. He wanted a Toy Story party so I did my best to come up with some fun Toy Story party ideas! I stayed up way too late making his cake, but I am very pleased with how it turned out.

When our guests arrived, they each got a cowboy hat, a bandanna and a sheriff's badge in honor of Woody. Next we played a version of hot potato...I had the "You've got a friend in Me" song from the movie on our ipod and the kids sat in a circle and passed a Mr. Potato Head. I changed the rules a little for our game and when the music stopped and they were holding the potato head, instead of being out, they got to add one of his pieces(I had all the pieces in the middle). They built a pretty silly Mr. Potato Head with a big yellow mustache and long purple eyelashed eyes! We had lime green balloons with one toy story balloon that Tony tied to the mailbox...or at least he thought he tied it to the mailbox. Sometime during the party, the balloons set sail and ended up in a tree at the edge of our neighborhood. The kids walked over the next day and visited them! (We should've taken a picture of that!)

Next, they got to be Buzz Lightyear. Walker got this for Christmas and it worked out perfectly for our party purposes! One kid got to wear the Buzz Lightyear wings, while another got to sit in the spaceship wearing the Buzz Lightyear gloves. The one in the wings tried to shoot the balls into the spaceship, while the one with the gloves tried to block the balls (with their sweet heads down, of course)

Finally, my friend Christa had made this big Mr. Potato Head for our Christmas Show at school and I knew it would be great for the party. We played it kinda like pin the tail on the donkey. The kids were blindfolded and they got to choose a piece to try and velcro onto the potato head!

We had hotdogs for lunch and then had the birthday cake, our second birthday with real cake made with eggs and from a regular cake mix.

After most of the guests had left, Walker opened his gifts from our family members. He was so excited to play with his Toy Story things and wasn't going to share with Hudson. Of course that wore off, or Hudson wore him down and he did share the toys!

Things we love about Walker at 4:

1. He is stinkin' hilarious. He has us laughing all the time. That boy is just plain funny!

2. He just had his hair cut in the last 6 months and it fits his little spunky personality!

3. He has the cutest dimples around and is so precious when he smiles.

4. He will stop everything he's doing to come say an "I Love You!" that will melt your heart!

5. He loves Hudson and wants to keep up with him and he and Finley are becoming great buddies when Hudson is at school.

(I should've done four things we love about Walker at four, but I got carried away, so there's one to grow on!)

The night after his party, this is how he wanted to sleep! with the big Woody, Buzz Lightyear gloves and the cowboy hat...how stinkin' cute is that?

On his actual birthday, Monday, he had his birthday streamers on his door when he woke up that morning, and he got a bike from us. To surprise him, I had the bike hidden in the garage and Tony took the kids to the backyard to play hide and seek. I got the bike ready by tying on a new toy story balloon. When I went to get them, they were all standing at the top of the cross ties looking hesitantly at something. Hudson then points and screams, and I see it, a snake. Tony was kinda freaking out as he said, "Hudson ran right by it, twice!" Apparently, Hudson had run down to get a soccer ball, Tony saw the snake and said come back come back...thus, Hudson ran by it and then back by it, all the while, Tony was freaking out! I threw a few things at it and he didn't budge, so I had to get up closer to see if that thing was alive...all the while, Tony stayed at the top of the cross ties with the kids. I took a few pictures and saw that our little friend was indeed quite alive and sticking that tongue out and in, out and in! After all that excitement, we ran back up the hill and of course, Hudson noticed the bike first. Walker was super excited and wanted to get right on! He drove around for a while and then came in to have the lunch of Walker's request...sandwiches! We sang happy birthday and had the bottom of his cake with the "4" candle on top! I think it was a happy birthday for that sweet boy!

Seriously, I CANNOT believe this boy is FOUR! Time sure needs to slow down! Walker Dudish...we love you up!