4 years old

Our little guy is...growing up! Binbin's current fascination with all things robots inspired a birthday cake design. Apart from that, he recalled that Coco's birthday cake had gumdrops, and he would like those on his cake, too. Those of you who know Binbin's favorite color is green won't be surprised to hear that his favorite part of the robot is the robot's left arm.



A little Martha Stewart (or maybe Rachel Ray?) kicked in as Binbin determined the table seating arrangement and, importantly, the table settings...there must be large, medium, and small cups, with napkins and plates in the middle. Tah-da!



Naturally, the luncheon menu included noodles, with choice of sauce. Binbin prefers just butter, and Coco followed suit. Ian was persuaded to eat a little, with prompting from his mommy.



Most of the time together was spent racing around the house, up the front stairs, down the back stairs, through the kitchen, through the play room...do it all over again while screaming as loud as possible. But we did catch the kids in a brief pause... (left to right) Sara, Cordelia, Amy, Coco, Everett, and Binbin.



At last, the piece de la resistance: birthday cake! Four green candles for everyone to blow out together! Then, eat it up, yum!!





After the guests left, Binbin retired to open presents. Yeye and Nainai participated via iChat, which was not only fun, but also offered photo opps as Binbin held gifts up for Yeye and Nainai to see. From Auntie Debbie, Uncle Kevin, and cousin Ronan: robot stickers (and there was also a Giant Robot DVD --which never has to be returned to the library--hurrah! and robot legos...very cool!)



From Ah-po and Ah-gong, the Jenga game that Binbin always admired when Joey played it at Miss Donna's house.



From Uncle Randall, a stomp rocket...way fun! Uncle Randall has a knack for reading into the mind of a child...need proof? look no further than the fact that...after looking through today's snapshots and ones from exactly one year ago...Binbin asked to sleep inside his Thomas the Train tent, which Randall got him for his 3rd birthday!



And from optimistic Baba and Mama...skates! We are going to conquer winter this year! Icy cold temps and snow and ice storms...come what may...we are going to get fresh air and exercise and have fun!



Binbin's birthday comes close on the heels of Thanksgiving, and the holiday weekend tends to run away from us. We are so thankful this year for our friends, including Keena who raised our turkey and Zach who cooked it for us, and the Horches, who joined us, too, and shared our meal. We are thankful for family, friends, good health, and the list goes on, for we truly are very, very fortunate in so many ways.