Happy Birthday Tobey
Tobey turned four years old on April 6th! Wow, and they sure went fast! Still seems like yesterday when I was able to hold him in my arms for the first time. However, I would not say that much has been missed along the way - there are just a couple of pictures of him on Flickr and stories of him growing up here. 
Tobey conveniently had no Montessori school on the day of his birthday - last Friday. Carrie and I both worked from home (partially) that morning so we had some breakfast and opened presents. Grammy and Gramps came down for a fun birthday lunch at Red Robin’s. Then, Tobey went to Boulder with them for the remainder of the day, and the next. They opened gifts and enjoyed plenty of fun projects together - building and painting a wooden space shuttle among other things. On Easter, we all met up in Boulder and enjoyed a jellybean hunt (Tobey had already hunted easter eggs and jellybean’s several times at this point… okay, so we had been practicing since March!) together and a wonderful Easter lunch. Thanks again Mom and Dad!
On Monday, Tobey was responsible for the “snack” at school and we provided a pizza party for all the kids that day at lunch - a fun tradition for the birthday kid in his Montesorri class. For the afternoon snack, Tobey took cupcakes that he and Carrie had decorated together the night before.
Finally, we had the party with Tobey’s friends this past Saturday. This had been planned for months - we had the red Caboose at the Colorado Railroad Museum reserved for the afternoon. Carrie and I were fully aware that April in Colorado can bring a multitude of different weather conditions so we watched the weather reports all week with a mixture of prayer and hope that all would work out. We were prepared to cancel the event way out in Golden and have everyone at our house if needed. As the week unfolded, we watched a big storm that was coming on Friday, with sun and 50 degree weather coming the next day, on the day of the party. Well, as it worked out, the storm ended up missing Colorado to the south, and we ended up a perfect day - sunny, clear skies, and the temperature ended up in the mid-to-high 60’s during the party. We had to wear sunscreen, and we were happy to do so!
We ran around the morning of the party, getting last minute items for party games, snacks for the kids, and some ice cream to go with the cake provided by the railroad museum. We got to the museum early so that we could direct the party attendees to the red caboose where we would start. The caboose was authentic - no big table in the middle, so we served cake from the table on the side, and the kids sat on the wooden bunks where the caboose workers must have slept or lounged on back when the caboose was being used. It wasn’t ideal, but it was fun, and everyone seemed to enjoy the spirit of it. The kids especially liked the fact that they could climb up to a second level and sit and look out windows on either side. Dan Waldheim and several other parents helped shepherd the kids up and down to make sure they were safe. Once we were done with party games, cake, and opening presents, we went and enjoyed the rest of the museum for awhile. It was a unique and memorable party, just as we had hoped. We are thankful to the parents, grandparents, and friends that made the trek out to Golden for it, and every single parent or grandparent stayed the whole time. No one other than Tobey, Carrie and I had been to the museum before, so it was fun to share. I think everyone had a good time!
One last thing to add. I chose “Thomas-themed” clothes for Tobey to wear for this party. Right before it was time to leave, Carrie asked Tobey if he wanted to wear the Nuggets hat I had set out for him, or a railroad engineer hat he had. He chose the railroad hat, and then asked if he could wear the rest of the outfit that went with it. So, as you can see from the pictures, he was decked out from head to toe in train clothes. Cute… yes, but his idea… which made it all the more fun.
So, Tobey’s “birthday week” is over, and needless to say, I think he truly feels celebrated.