F-I-V-E

Well, like I said in my last post, it was recently birthday celebration week here as a certain boybarian of ours turned five. Drew decided he wanted to do a birthday party at Pump it Up this year and although it went against every party-planning-loving-bone in my body not to throw a party here at home, I did have a brief moment of glee as I thought to myself, "No mess...no cleanup...easy peasy morning, and back home for nap time". And then reality set in as our not-so-big Friday morning party with a few friends turned into a week of celebrating with different groups of people and plenty of planning and cake baking. So fun (especially for our birthday boy!), but I'd be lying if I didn't say that I was exhausted after our marathon week of fun!

Birthday week started the day before Drew's actual birthday with cupcakes at his preschool. His request? Chocolate cake with white frosting and sprinkles. Because his birthday is towards the end of the school year, Drew has watched many of the kids in his class celebrate their birthdays before him. Because of this, he knew just what to expect and was hugely looking forward to the birthday crown and prize from the treasure chest that he knew awaited him that morning. His teacher also had each of the kids as they filtered into class that day, draw a picture for Drew. She then stapled the pictures into a special birthday book for him to take home. He loved coming home and looking through all the notes and pictures his friends had drawn him.

On his actual birthday, this cute Lego loving cheese ball requested pancakes for breakfast at our favorite pancake place here in town.

Not only was Daddy able to join us, but our flight attendant friend Kristen was in town too! Such fun!

The birthday pancake: chocolate, chocolate chip pancake with whipped cream on top and big enough to feed a small army

After breakfast we met up with Noah and Nathan to play at Skywalk.

Noah and Drewski

Preggo Auntie Jenn breaking all the rules as she played "popcorn" with all four boys

It probably goes without saying, but they loved it! "Again! Again!"

And of course, this is about as good as a group shot gets these days. 

Awana awards night also fell on Drew's actual birthday so we gave him the option of going, or having a birthday dinner at home. He of course, chose to go (social child!) so we did, and then headed out for frozen yogurt with friends afterwards.

Drew and Noah

On Friday, we had Drew's birthday party with his friends. I'm trying to stick to having a big birthday party for the boys every other year and then doing smaller parties with a few close friends on the off years, so this year was our first "off" year with Drew. We met up with three of Drew's closest friends and their siblings for some fun at Pump it Up (a local bounce house place). Drew had been wanting to visit for a while, so it seemed fitting to go and play for his birthday and ended up being really fun!

Headed up the stairs to a giant inflatable slide....

....and whooshing back down.

A quasi-climbing wall with all of Drew's friends. The guy that was supervising had told them their name would go on the wall if they could stick the flag at the top of this "mountain" on the star. They all tried for quite some time, but after trying it out myself, even I was left wondering how on earth reaching that silly star was even possible!

Collin wouldn't go down the giant slide on his own. He would climb up, but then would sit there until I would climb up and go down with him. Turned out, being his slide buddy wasn't all that bad...that thing was fun!

Pump it up also had fun cars for the little guys...

...and an air hockey table.

The whole gang

My parents came into town on Friday night and on Saturday the birthday shenanagins continued with a family barbecue at our house. Drew convinced Lala to let him make his own birthday cake. Chocolate cake, white frosting, sprinkles (of every variation) and strawberries. Yep. Strawberries.

The finished masterpiece 

Happy Birthday Big Boy! We love you!