My Baby Turns 5!!!

Today is Alex's 5th birthday!  I can't believe he's 5 already!  Where did the time go?!

We celebrated yesterday since Saturday's work better for most of us.  And because Doug started midnight shift last night (7 p.m. to 7 a.m. - yuk!) and will probably be sleeping the better part of today.  And the rest of the week since he's working that same yucky shift until Friday.

We had a great time.  We ate lunch.  Alex finished quickly because he wanted to get to the good stuff.  He kept asking when he could open gifts.  I told him once everyone was done eating lunch.  So he walked around and politely *ahem* asked each person that was still eating if they could hurry it up so he could open presents.

Finally it was time!

Auntie Bren came up because her husband was going hunting.  So Uncle Stace went hunting and Auntie Bren tagged along with Maw (my MIL) to Alex's party.  I told Maw to tell her she didn't need to get Alex a gift.  We would just be happy she came, but she got one anyway.  Her's was the first gift opened.

Grammy (my mom) has an interesting sense of humor.  Unfortunately it is often lost on my children.  :)  We sent her home from Thanksgiving with some leftovers in one of my Rubbermaid containers.  She returned it wrapped as a gift for Alex.  You can see how confused he is after opening it.

But once she told him to look inside, he discovered 2 mints wrapped in tissue paper.  Then he was happy.

But she didn't just give him mints.  She got him these cool Toy Story books too.  And 3 Toy Story puzzles.  I guess watching Toy Story 3 with her at Thanksgiving made an impression.

He got many other cool gifts also (Thomas the Train stuff, a bridge and more tracks for his wooden train set, a train engineer's outfit [are we seeing a trend here?], a book from Keira, and a game), but I won't bore you with all those pictures.

Once all the gifts were opened and the (verbal) thank you's given, it was time for cake.

As you can see, I made his cake again this year (click here if you want to see last year's cake).  Not because I was ambitious or have cake-decorating aspirations.  But because between sick kids and snow delays and shopping with my husband this past week, I never got out to get a cake ordered.  And I know you can call to order one, but I like to look through the book to see what options there are.

So Friday morning between dropping Alex at preschool and my 6-month dental checkup, I ran to Mary's Cakes and Candies and looked through the cake decorating kits to see what was available.  Alex had mentioned wanting a backhoe on his cake, but the construction equipment kit looked pretty cheesy.  So I decided on How to Train Your Dragon.  The only problem was there was no pedestal in the kit for Toothless and Hiccup - to lift them above the water.  So I improvised by using a drinking straw and a twist tie.  I wrapped the twist tie around Toothless's front feet and around the bent straw and stuck the ends of the straw into the cake.  It worked pretty well.

The picture of the decorated cake in the book had this big island in one corner.  I didn't have the patience to do that.  Plus I wasn't going to buy all the different colors of food coloring just for one cake.  I also didn't have the patience to write out the word "birthday" - hence the "Happy #5 Alex" writing on the cake.  Alex liked the cake though, and that's really all that matters.

Blowing out his candle.  Or spitting all over the cake, whichever you prefer.  :)

I actually had to convince him to have some cake.  For some reason he didn't want any.  I told him he needed to at least pretend to eat a piece so I could get a picture.

He ended up eating the icing, but no cake.

Nicholas showing why he is known as Messy Marvin at school.

Christy discovered the stairs ... and the fact that she got a great deal of attention when she was on them.  (They don't have stairs at their house.)  She was having a good time giving us little heart attacks over and over when she would almost fall.  Of course, someone was always there to catch her.  She figured out how to make her way all the way up so we went into the boys' room to play for a bit.  She loved it!  She's so much fun, but I'm glad I'm done with babies.  They are exhausting!  :)

Alex showing off his train conductor's outfit.  He'll probably be wearing that all the time once Christmas gets here.  We bought the family a Polar Express electric train set for under the tree.  But we're not getting it out until Christmas Eve.  He's going to love it!

One last thing ... Alex has been not waking up dry since ... well ... ever!  We keep encouraging him to get up to use the potty during the night.  We even put the training potty in his room, but I think he's such a sound sleeper that he just isn't even aware that he needs to go.  But ... last night he decided that since he was going to turn 5 over night, he wanted to go bed without a diaper.  I was fully expecting to have to wash his bedding this morning.  But he woke up dry!  He was so proud of himself!  And, of course, we were proud of him too!  Now we're just hoping that he can keep it up.  And we'll be done with diapers forever!

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