on the 21st of april, our angel gabriel turned four years old! he had such a fun birthday this year, and we all had a great time celebrating him. gabriel is our joy boy and man we love him soooo much!
we kicked off the celebrations with a backyard birthday party a few days before gabe’s actual birthday. he invited all of his preschool friends and some neighbourhood friends and his cousin, and we rented a bounce house! we had gabriel’s favourite snacks, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, and a lot of bouncing. it was pretty exciting!
the night before gabriel officially turned four, moses helped me wrap and set up the presents after gabriel had gone to sleep. then after moses went to sleep, daddy built gabriel his new bike!!
it was pretty fun to watch our little gabe come down from his bedroom into the kitchen to see his spoils, and to see him unwrap everything, all the while heavily encouraged by moses 🙂
after present opening and breakfast, i got to snuggle with gabriel and tell him the story of his birth (i love doing this with my kids on their birthdays!). we also got to ask siri one last time “how many days until april 21st?” (gabriel had asked siri or alexa that pretty much everyday for pretty much three hundred days and the anticipation built and built especially when we got down to the single digits! see the answer we got on this particular morning at the bottom of the screenshot? — “it’s today!”)
then gabriel got to go to his deeply beloved and totally magical preschool, with his birthday badge, birthday crown, and treats for his classmates.
after school we had cake! gabes had requested an ice cream cake with fruit snacks, skittles and sprinkles on top.
i love that i was able to capture the birthday boy protecting. hiscandles from his big brother’s blow haha ^^
the babies were pretty into the cake … especially august!
then we had a babysitter for the babies during their nap so we could take gabriel and moses to nickel city – they. are sooo into that chintzy arcade and had a blast.
and then it was time for gabriel’s birthday tradition – swimming in the birth pool he was born in! this was our first venture outdoors with the birth pool and luckily it was warm enough to take a dip. everyone had so much fun.
i had. to pull up photos of gabriel and i from our last four times in that birth pool!
on to gabe’s request for dinner – sausage and peas – and a little lego lesson with his big brother since he got a cool lego set from his preschool teacher!
the day after gabriel’s bday we went to new york city for a few days. when we got back we took gabe’s new bike out for a spin!
happy fourth birthday, gabriel james!
wright now 
Absolutely random comment, but are balance bikes a thing in the US?
My son had one and when we upgraded on a bike, he learnt to ride it in five minutes and has never used training wheels. Might be a good present for the twins.
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And just for the record – I am not judging any child or parent for training wheels.
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Love this! It brought back so many wonderful memories!
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I live in US. Balance bikes are a thing here and been a thing for at least 15 years. And for multiple heights of kids. But also are trikes, big wheels, scooters, plasma cars, skateboards, little tykes cozy coups, sit and scoots, battery operated rideable toy cars, roller skates, etc.. Reading your comment I wish I had tried the balance bike as my teen never rode a two wheel bike. He did trike, big wheel, scooters and plasma car. There was two wheel with training wheels but there some problem with the training wheels as we failed and bought the store model thinking it superior to what we could have put together. But more than that was the safety factor and with every house with a driveway and being on a busier street a bike was less safe than a scooter. Scooter was much more portable. I could follow and keep up with him better on the scooter. Easier to brake. And more compact in the garage for a scooter rather than a bike. There are just so many options. But thinking back a balance bike would have been ideal with a bike transition that easy. The motor room at school had all sorts of ride on’s. He might have rode a balance bike there? He mostly did the trike there. We were surprised at home he favored the big wheel. The scooter he wore a helmet but the big wheel he went without. If his butt higher than his knees he needed to wear a helmet. He would have needed with a balance bike. In PE they had a unit some years in primary of roller skating, some special ones safe for the floor. I think I was the only mom to send his helmet to school. Teaching to ride a bike and graduation from training wheels are still big milestones here.
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