We feel blessed to have had the opportunity to celebrate Gavin's fourth birthday. I think the majority of parents are delighted when their child's big day arrives. When your child happens to also have cancer, the day is that much sweeter. We were also pleased to celebrate Gavin's birthday outside of the hospital and without any medical appointments. His runny nose and cough persisted. As if that's going to slow him down. Cancer's made him tough as nails! He otherwise felt great and truly enjoyed being the birthday boy. Every now and again he would start singing Happy Birthday to himself and we'd all join in.

We hated that he wasn't able to have a party, but he never even asked about it. Jeff took the day off and a day spent with Daddy home too is a wonderful day in Gavin's eyes. We let him open some presents early in the day and then some more in the evening. Thank you to those that sent him presents. Some of them even came from strangers. Very sweet!

While there was no party, we still went with a bit of a theme. Gavin loves Cookie Monster right now. So, we had a Cookie Monster poster, a cookie monster COOKIE cake, and two dozen blue balloons.


We went to see the movie Madagascar 2. This was Garrett's first movie in the actual theater and Gavin's fourth. Gavin decided he was "all done" with the movie about an hour into it and so we ended up leaving early. Garrett was the one we were worried about. Of course, I don't know why. We joke about Garrett being a future couch potato. That boy would watch TV all day long if we let him!

As a sidenote, if you haven't seen Madagascar 2 yet, I will warn you that the zebra threatens another animal early on by saying, "I'm going to kick your butt!" I know a lot of people don't consider that to be a horrible word. It happens to be one we haven't taught the boys yet. The phrase is definitely not one we throw around the Smith household. I was disappointed that a children's movie felt compelled to use such language. Luckily, the boys haven't started using it in their own language yet, so perhaps it flew right over their heads.

Okay...off my soapbox and back to the celebration.

What do you do with a child that wants a birthday cake but has absolutely no interest in eating even a small bite of it??? Well, you light the candles FOUR times instead of only once. Gavin had a blast. I think the candle blowing received more smiles than we have seen in months. Pure joy! And to prove that Gavin can be a wonderful older brother, despite the occasional knocks Garrett takes from him, Gavin let Garrett blow a candle out a couple of times as well. (Garrett needed some practice. He's going to turn 2 in January.)

It's safe to say that Jeff and I were honored to celebrate Gavin's 4th birthday. We look forward to celebrating them for the rest of our life. For now, enjoy some pictures.

Daddy and Gavin

Before Gavin started ripping into his presents. Check out the artful wrapping in the picture on the right. Hats off to Dawn Murphy! It's a paint can -- so impressive!

Lots of present-opening fun! Gavin even let Garrett help out on a few of them.