pace's busy day

turns out when you turn 4, your day gets booked up and busy pretty darn quick!!

pace's busy day started a day early when we made banana chocolate chip cupcakes for his school friends.  pace picked out halloween cupcake liners, orange frosting, and candy pumpkins to put on top.  he loves helping out in the kitchen!

for a few months prior to pace's birthday, i prepped him for the arrival of the "binkie fairy".  after a few unsuccessful attempts at binkie weaning, i finally decided to leave the disappearing binkies to someone other than me...i told pace that the binkie fairy visits on someone's 4th birthday, and *poof*, the binkies disappear!  pace's eyes got really wide at that, and i told him not to worry, that the fairy always left something behind in exchange for the disappearing binkies.  this did not go over pace's head...pace weekly changed his wish list of items the binkie fairy would leave behind.  

"mommy, guess what?!  the binkie fairy is going to bring me trucks!"  

"mommy, guess what?!  the binkie fairy is going to bring me doughnuts!"

"mommy, guess what?!  the binkie fairy is going to bring me a new trash truck with a compactor in the back that goes like this!"  (demonstrating with his arm crushing down)

so at bedtime on the night before his birthday, pace set up a glow stick and his elf globe as a landing strip for the binkie fairy...

and as soon as he was asleep, i ran to krispy kreme to get the half dozen halloween-themed doughnuts, and wrapped up the requested trucks... 

(side note about the disappearing binkies:  pace cried the first 2-3 nights, requested i lay down with him and cuddle and sing lullabies to him, but here we are a week later, and no whimpering at all about binkies!  pace is so grown up!)

and the morning of!!  we have a four year old!!  as pace walked down the hallway, he said, "where's the presents?"  then he turned the corner...

thank you, tj maxx, for another bruder truck find!  pace is really into emergency vehicles these days!

and trash trucks!

max had a pretty rough morning seeing pace get all the presents.  so when we dropped pace off at school, max and i played with the fire truck at the park until it was time for our field trip!

max's weeschool had a fieldtrip to the pumpkin patch, so i picked up pace early from his school, and we all tagged along for some fun!

happy birthday pace!!

hayride selfie!

coolest pumpkin patch farm ever! 

foot-pedaled race cars on a track!

20-foot slides!

box maze!  this little maze runner figured out the maze faster than i even knew he was missing!

picking out a cool pumpkin!

best day ever!  when we got home pace promptly went outside to play with his new trucks!

and then came inside to open more presents!

for pace's special birthday dinner, he requested "a cheeseburger with a yucky carrot."  

due to the boy's affinity with cheeseburgers, and my unwillingness to feed them those things every day, i switched to making the boys veggie burgers.  at first they didn't notice a difference, and then pace noticed carrots and spinach in his burgers, and refused to eat them.  i had to switch to a different brand for a little bit (ones that just had stuff like quinoa and walnuts, and nothing colorful...), but on his birthday, the only veggie burgers i had in the freezer were the ones with visible veggies in them.  when he'd asked for a "yucky carrot", i thought he was asking for a carrot stick on the side.  then i pulled out the veggie burgers and realized he was asking for the burgers with visible veggies!  when i brought his plate over, pace asked while making a yucky face, "is there a yucky carrot in it?"  "why, yes, there is."  i replied.  then his face lit up and he said, "oh goodie!"  

for the final birthday activity:  carving the pumpkins!