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!

Field Trip Day

I officially have a five year old. Five!

It was birthday week for a certain someone in our house, so I have a ton of birthday pictures as well as a mound of photos from the past few weeks that I am slowly starting to dig myself out from under. It's been busy in my neck of the woods. So busy in fact, that my faithful blog followers (ok, my mom and Nathan's mom), have begun to gripe. Where are our pictures? Where are our babies? Coming! Coming, I tell you!

Before I pile on the weeks worth of birthday pictures that I have waiting to be shared....a field trip! My time may be a wee bit warped by sleep deprivation and too much time in toddler world, but it really does feel like this field trip took place months ago. In reality, it was just last week. The Discovery Center is a place here in town that is part playground, part science museum, part reptile exhibit and all parts fun for little kids. I had never been (nor did I even know it existed), but I grabbed Drew, the two littlest littles and Auntie Jenn (what would I do without that girl?) and loaded up for a big preschool adventure. The Discovery Center turned out to be quite the hodgepodge of different activities and things to see, but was actually really fun. Drew loved spending the entire day with his classmates and it was cute to see their interactions. They're all very silly. Coll got to feel like a big kid, as Drew's teacher Mrs. Kim, allowed him (and the other siblings) to join in as if they were part of the class, and Tanner...well as long as he was fed, had a smiling face to entertain him, and a place to catnap (check! check! and check!), he was a happy camper!

Our jogger is indeed a double jogger, but where is Collin's favorite place to sit? On the foot rest of the front seat. The foot rest.

The first place we stopped was the cactus garden. Drew's sweet teacher, Mrs. Kim pointed out all sorts of different things in the garden. How tall plants were, those that flowered, those that didn't, why they might have the thorns they did, etc.

Makes cacti actually look pretty, right?

Our next stop was a teepee circle

The teepees were filled with these huge pinecones. All of which had fallen from the huge pine trees all around the teepees. ...Leaving us Mom's to wonder just how much damage those things could do if one were to decide to fall with all of us standing around underneath it.

Coll-brother who still refuses to smile for pictures, was indeed having fun, I promise.

....as was this goon.

A giant dinosaur in the middle of the desert tortoise exhibit (I told you this place was random).

Mrs. Kim explaining the rings of a tree stump

After spending time exploring the things outside, we headed in to explore a room filled with all sorts of discovery stations. A music area...

Amphibious friends

Lizards to touch

A giant operation table 

A reptile room filled with snakes that were far too big for my liking...

 ...muddy lizards...

 ...horned lizards...

...and sunbathing lizards.

A wall filled with stuffed dead things (what?!)

A space room. Say hello to my little storm trooper (I got it Burke and Nathan. It is not a storm trooper).

Magnets

and then back outside to the turtle pond where the kids were encouraged to catch the little fish and tadpoles and take them back to a holding tank where you could examine your catch more clearly. Catch, release, and repeat!

I returned home with three filthy (Tan Tan was the exception), exhausted little boys that had enjoyed a morning and early afternoon filled with all sorts of good fun!