Our birthday boy!

Good morning, birthday boy!!

It's party time!

Lovin' those gifts!

Getting ready to open one of his gifts from my best friend & her family. Zoe looks on...

Whoa! Awesome praying mantis glasses! Here he is, in praying mantis position...

On our way for the day...insect glasses on, bug "catcher" on his lap...yes, that is some of my plastic ware...

Helping make his cat...Oreo.

Checking out the birds...looking more like a big kid these days!

He ASKED me to take a picture of him on this...too funny!

All smiles checking out some interesting critter...

Hmmm...interesting sign, don'tcha think?

He loved feeding the goats.

Fountain fun at the zoo! It was SO hot...I was tempted to jump in too!

Checking out his rocket balloons...

So fun!

Ribbit! Frog cupcakes for my frog scientist! :)

Bear Cub had a great birthday -- a great birthday WEEKEND, really! :) On Friday, he woke up to find his door decorated and the downstairs with balloons and best of all, a stack of presents on the table. We headed to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and to my disbelief...he ate an entire donut and FOUR donut holes! This is a LOT for him! Maybe a sign of a new appetite with his old age? I sure hope so! After Dunkin, it was on to the mall to Build-a-Bear. Just that morning a coupon came to my email for a free build. I couldn't pass it up! He chose a cat and had fun making it -- although it wasn't AS cool as it was the first time he did in the Fall. So by this point, it was about 10:30 and we were on our way to the zoo...the original plan for the day. BC konked out in the car on the way...early for him! After a quick snooze, we headed in to the zoo and had a fantastic day together! I LOVE to take him to the zoo because he is so interested and inquisitive about all of the animals and exhibits. His love of nature and animals is pretty amazing. The big exhibit that we were anxious to see were the Geckos. I guess it's a traveling one, so our zoo is about to lose it. BC loves lizards so this was a great thing for him to see!

Once home, we let Bear Cub open his presents from us and he was SO excited to do that! The boy LOVES presents! :) He later went to the pool with Daddy, while I stayed back and baked the frog cupcakes for his party. OH! And then, that evening, his bounce house arrived! We had a blast jumping until it was time for bed. Needless to say, after his BUSY and FUN birthday, he fell asleep immediately. Me too! :)

Enjoy the pictures from Friday! I'll post about his party next...that was a success and lots of fun for the kids. Another busy day though!

I am SO thankful for July 9...and the fact that our precious boy was brought into this world on that day. I wish I could have held him and loved on him in person on that day, four years ago. But I like to hope and think that I had a moment of happiness wash over me when he was born. And I sure hope that he felt loved by us, all the way around the world...on that very special day.

I've loved him from the beginning...and I will love that birthday boy of mine forever! :)