Several months before his birthday Miles announced that he was going to have a Batman birthday. This seemed a little random since Miles knew next to nothing about Batman - pretty much just recognizing the logo. I was sure his desire for a Batman birthday would pass and he would end up wanting a Rescue Bot, Dinosaur, or Basketball birthday. Every time I suggested one of these he would adamantly insist that he was going to have a Batman party. He did find some Batman books that became a favorite of his to read and he began dressing up in our Batman costume more frequently, but it still seemed like an odd choice for his birthday theme. When the day arrived he was sure as ever that his 4-year-old birthday would be a Batman birthday. So I went with it but decided to make it more of a superhero theme instead of strictly Batman. We started off the party by having everyone decorate a superhero cape. While everyone was arriving and finishing their capes we played several different versions of Duck, Duck, Goose like Superhero, Superhero, Vilan or Batman, Batman, Joker. I am always surprised at how much little kids love this game. After all our little superheros were ready it was time to fuel up Ninja Turtle style with some pizza. After the pizza it was time for our superhero training course. This idea was based off of Mason's Transformer Birthday but was a little bit trickier to pull off indoors. Luckily we have a great open basement. The kids started off riding the wiggle car across the room, then they had to crawl through some tunnels, then they had to shoot a basket before fighting off an evil vilan (aka Mason), then they had to jump over some obstacles and finish by "flying" onto the love sac. This last step was the result of Miles' insistence that they needed to practice flying as part of the superhero training. I was grateful that my idea to fly onto the love sac satisfied this requirement because he would have been very disappointed otherwise. After everyone had completed the obstacle course several times then it was time for some target practice with various Nerf weapons. It was about at this point that all the kids lost interest in what we had planned and started wandering off to play with all the toys. It wasn't quite as successful as Mason's party years ago, but the kids were having fun in their own way so I guess that's what matters. We finished off by having cake and ice cream and opening presents.
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| Anderson Hunt, Ben Cook, Miles, Brynn, Norah Hunt, Spencer Petersen, Mason |
Memories of 4-year-old Miles
- Likes all things big and powerful -- construction trucks, rescue bots, monster trucks. The bigger the better.
- Always reminds us to say prayers by shouting "Time for family prayer!" for all to hear. He always offers to say the prayer as well.
- Whenever his glasses get dirty he takes them off and informs us that his glasses are "foggy".
- He is extremely social and has no problem making friends wherever we go. His best friend is Ben Cook, but he enjoys playing with any of his friends. He plays great with Brynn and her friends, too. They are happy to have him be their puppy when playing house or their student when playing school.
- He loves to color and is very meticulous and thorough with his coloring. He colors every bit of white space on the page and doesn't go outside the lines at all.
- He has great fine motor skills and is an excellent writer. He knows all his letters and has very good handwriting. He knows how to spell all the names in our family and writes them all over his papers any chance he gets.
- Still a Sports fanatic -- basketball, baseball, and soccer are his favorites. In his prayers he often asks "Please bless that I will grow big and strong and be able to slam dunk."
- Wears basketball clothes and basketball shoes every day.
- Always asks for 'fresh water', never just water.
- Adores Brynn and will do anything she says.
- Loves attention and immediately goes into show off mode if he has an audience.
- No longer naps but is notoriously grumpy and ornery in the afternoon.
- Favorite shows are rescue bots and paw patrol. Favorite movie is Big Hero 6.
- His favorite color is still Orange, but lately he will occasionally add blue and green in as favorites as well.
Miles is far from a perfect child, but there is something about his personality, no matter how naughty he may be at times, that puts a smile on my face. Without him at home with me each day I don't know how I could have made it through this last year. He will forever be my best little buddy.
