JARED IS 4!

We started decorating for his birthday party at about 1 pm, and by 3, he had strapped on his party hat and was patiently sitting in his seat of honor at the table. The only problem is that his party wouldn't start for 3 more hours! He didn't care, he said, but three hours of anticipation wore the poor little guy out.
The party's theme was CARS, with Mater being the car of honor. We made construction paper decorations for two weeks leading up to the party, which was a fun thing to do for craft time. We made lightening bolts, caution cones, road signs, tires, a Piston Cup, Sally, and Mater.
His cousins, aunt & uncle, and grandma & grandpa celebrated with us. Jared was a bit overwhelmed by it all, and opened his presents a bit mechanically. But after the party, when he had time to really look things over, he was very happy with all his presents.
Kate gave him some fun wind-up bath toys; Mitch gave him a cool camouflage Cars tee-shirt; Grandma & Grandpa Eagar got him a dry erase activity book and a MegaBlocks semi with a race car that rides on the back; Uncle Mark & Aunt Kelly gave him a giant firetruck floor puzzle; Grandma & Grandpa Lancaster sent him Cars stickers and Toy Story 2 (the movie).
I spent a lot of time sewing in the past week! I sewed him a new, bigger, and long-awaited hooded towel that makes Jared looks like a dog. I also made and then painstakingly appliquéd planets and a comet on a navy blue pillow sham, then added decorative stitching, hand-embroidery, and white rhinestones for stars. I didn't have time to work on the other planned bedroom accessories, including matching appliquéd curtains and a few planet-, star-, and rocket-shaped throw pillows (perfect for imagining space flight, I hope). And sometime we'll get him a bright quilt to go with it all. Oh, and he also got a very cool glow-in-the-dark set of the planets in our solar system that will hang from his ceiling!
He also got a bike helmet and tire pump, plus a really cool bike bell (with flames to match the bike he got for Christmas). But the coolest part is that the bell has lights that spin when you ring it!
Suddenly worried he might get embarrassed, I set aside the gift that held new Incredibles underwear so he could open it after the guests went home. But he liked those, too.
Check out the rest of the pictures here.