I’ve already shared a birthday post for our recent five year old, but his party (parties?) need some documentation as well. This year he was insistent on a rainbow sparkle theme, surprising no one - so we went all in! I did better with the rainbows than I did with the sparkles, but I made sure to get a few of those in there too. His other requests included wanting to go to Jordan’s for his party, and having real candles on his cake that he would get to blow out. Who knew that I was depriving him by not giving a small child fire!
The day before his birthday, we picked him and G up early from daycare, and left little F there so we could have some fun and focus more on the big kids. Yes we’re figuring out how to be a family of 5, but things are also a lot easier without a baby in tow. So we headed off to Jordan,s at E’s request. It’s about as close to an amusement park as E will get, and he loves going there. We met our best friends, and started off slow by eating ice cream and watching the liquid fireworks.
When we planned the day, we were hoping to get everyone on the ropes course (another reason it was easier not to have F there). We figured Nicole and I would take the two big kids on the high course, and Tom would take the littles on the mini course. I also completely expected E to back out at the last minute. He’s not into thrills, and he’s very open about it. No roller coasters, no mini rides, nothing more than a carousel. Even the Maine Trolley is a bit too much. But by planning for every option, I’m ready for anything.
And as expected, E did back out. He told us he just wanted to watch it, but did not want to go on any ropes course - not even the mini one. I ended up with the littles on the mini course while Nicole went on top, but it turned out everyone was a little braver on the ground than they were strapped in. I ended up carrying two terrified children out, and the third didn’t last much longer. That’s okay! We tried!
And then we found something more our speed - the escalators! The joy on everyone’s face as we rode them over and over again was hilarious. But it worked. From there, we went back to our house for a pizza party and to play outside on E’s big gift (well really a gift for the family) - our new climbing dome! I’m hoping this will last us for a while and be fun to climb on.
On E’s actual birthday we told him he could pick any sweet to have, since we weren’t doing a cake on that day. He said he wanted to get 5 Boston Creme donuts, one for each member of the family. (Although, sorry F - we didn’t let her eat a donut). We opened presents, watched a movie, and played with his new toys. We also let him choose anything he wanted for dinner, and he picked pasta and cinnamon rolls.
He did eventually get his birthday cake, candles and all. It was actually the easiest cake I’ve made for him - all I needed to do was make it rainbow colored! No shaping it into some crazy shape or character. Bonus points for the fact that I made it while on vacation, and packing everything I needed to make it! (Including decorations because it wouldn’t really be a party unless it was also decorated rainbow sparkles!). Everyone sang to him, he blew out his candles, and I think we can finally call this a wrap on E’s fifth birthday!
