T turned four years old this week, and I’m totally serious when I say this: Best Birthday Ever!

First, lucky for him it was a school day. Now while a lot of you might think how sucky to have to go to school on your birthday, I never once got to do that because of the time of year my birthday falls. So let’s just say I built this one up, big time. I told T how he’s so lucky to get to go to school and spend his special day with his friends, have his teachers pay extra-nice attention to him, and how great it is to get to bring a birthday treat for all his friends!

And as an added bonus, there was a field trip scheduled for the big day to the Irvine Regional Park’s seasonal pumpkin patch! While I wasn’t chaperoning this trip (T asked me not to go, and that was a-ok as I had enough to do for his party that night and needed the day to get it done), I did go the year before. Let’s just say he not only got to pick a pumpkin on this trip, but he also got to go on a hay ride AND a train ride, too. So, yeah, best field trip ever on the best birthday yet!

After T’s birthday snack that afternoon at school (he brought in frozen yogurt tubes for his class and raisins for everyone in the school, two of his favorites right now – sadly, his school doesn’t allow homemade or sweet treats for birthdays), his dad picked him up. This was another birthday special as Dad rarely gets the chance to handle any pick-ups or drop-offs. I later heard from the school director that T was excited all day long as he pretty much told everyone that his Dad was coming to get him after school (so sweet).

T and Dad headed then on over to the big party at, where else, Chick-fil-A! Yep, we held his birthday party at one of his favorite spots in town and on his actual birthday! We got about 15 of T’s friends (plus their parents) and our family together to celebrate with T that night; the kids played safely supervised in the restaurant’s indoor play-place as the adults chatted comfortably in a nice sectioned-off spot of the restaurant just for our party (and right outside the play area to boot).

Naturally, dinner was part of the evening. Kids got to have their own meals at their own table as parents and family members had a meal in peace off on their own. This was a nice, well-timed 10-15 minute break in the play and social time for everyone.

After dinner, the Chick-fil-A Cow came to visit the birthday guests. He even later delivered a special birthday present to T after his cake. While not all the kids were into the Cow’s visit at first, most came around in the end, including T. He warmed up once I got him to give the cow “knuckles” over a hug, which seemed to be a good compromise.

Later in the party, a balloon artist came into the restaurant for their regularly scheduled Kids’ Night. I had not planned the party around their Kids’ Night, so once again, another very nice and extra-special treat for everyone.

Before we knew it, it was cake time. While I do love to bake, I just never seem to get it all together nor the time set aside to bake up something for the big day’s events. Thanks once again to Costco for not letting us down in the dessert department.

Allow me to gush and shameless plug for just a minute… once again, the staff and managers at our local Chick-fil-A more than met our expectations. They were pros in how they handled party overall as the flow of everything was just perfect, from order-taking down to the timing between dinner and the cake coming out. Things were kept clean before and during the party, and our representative even decorated the room for us beforehand. I will be writing a letter to the store’s owner and copying everyone whom we dealt with on T’s special day, as it’s important for me to know that they know how happy we were with everything and how much we truly appreciated everything they did for us before and on the big day (and big thanks again to Janique, Jonathan, and Marlen – you all ROCK!).

Once we got home, T happily tore into his gifts. He’d been asking for I don’t know how many different things, but it seems that he got the memos out and T’s wishes were evenly divided up between different folks (read: no duplicate gifts). I’ll chalk that one up more to luck, but I’ll take it as another added bonus for me in that I don’t have to worry about any returns or exchanges.

The day after T’s birthday, it rained, and it rained a lot (for Southern California anyway, a whole inch!). And while C had to go off to work, T, Grandma, and I got to stay home – all day long. Though obviously a completely booze-free birthday celebration, we found ourselves pretty well wiped out and in a post-party hangover of sorts. We were all awake by about 7 am, but we didn’t eat breakfast til around 9 am, stayed in our jammies until Noon, ate cake for lunch, and sat on the floor and played with all of T’s new toys. Playtime was in fact so much fun that T didn’t even ask for the TV to be on until about 2 pm, or when it was time for Grandma to hit the road. A movie, some shows, and more playing rounded out the rest of our day, and we never set foot outside the house. Good times… and pretty much the perfect rainy day for all of us.

All in all, it was one fun and four-tastic birthday. I for one won’t forget this one for a long, long time (ever?), and I don’t think T will either. Thanks to everyone who came out to celebrate with us, too!

Happy Birthday, Little Dude! Hope this is your best year yet!