Alex’s 5th Birthday Party (family)

Today we celebrated Alex’s 5th birthday with our extended family.  It was a slightly smaller crowd than usual, but we still had over 20 people here to celebrate.  My dad had to miss the party due to the flu :(

Alex wanted a Spiderman theme this year.  He loves watching the old 1980s Spiderman on Netflix; he’s never watched the new Spiderman movies.

Grandma P and Jessica made another fun cake.  Jessica did much of the decorating this time, as Grandma just had surgery on her fingers.

I felt a bit guilty for not being as creative with the food like I was for Max’s pirate party.  Alex’s requested meatballs and hash brown casserole (just like Max had), and I just couldn’t find any fun ways to tie that in with Spiderman.  The only themed food was this Spider cheeseball that I found on Pinterest.  (It’s rolled in crushed blue corn chips, if you’re wondering.)

opening cards & presents

He received:
lots of money for his savings account
Spiderman playsets
Spiderman hat (which Jensyn, the hat lover, claimed as her own)
a police costume
a magic pen book
a Find It tube (Veggie Tales theme)
Wii Nickelodeon Dance game

Because we did the party on Sunday after church, Max didn’t get a nap.  (Jensyn managed to squeeze in a short nap before guests arrived.)  Oooh, boy, by the time our guests headed for home, he was a wreck!  All 3 kids were fighting over new toys, and lots of tears were shed.  (Early bedtime for all!)

blowing out his birthday candles

I let Alex pick the ice cream at the grocery store earlier this week, and he chose strawberry “because it’s red like Spiderman” and vanilla chocolate chip “because it looks like little spiders in the ice cream.”

Alex LOVED this Spiderman banner.  It was HUGE – we had to cut it into two separate words to hang it in the kitchen.

arresting Max
getting tackled by Uncle Tony

Max and Jensyn trying out the new Wii game
(Alex was too shy to try it out in front of everyone…so much like his mama!)

random guest pictures…

Danny & Cailin

my niece Katelynn and her boyfriend Nathan
(“Kate and Nate”…ha!)

Nana & Leanne, my mom & sister Donna

my niece Alyssa & Jensyn

This is probably Alex’s last big family birthday party – since I come from a large family, a decision was made when the first grandkids were babies that we would buy gifts for nephews/nieces for their first Christmas and first five birthdays.  After this, we’ll likely have a much cozier gathering with Keith’s parents & brother’s family, and my family will simply celebrate his birthday sometime when we’re all together.

We told Alex he could have a friend party this year, and we’ll be doing that next week Saturday. He made the choices on who received invitations.  We attend a pretty small church, so he invited the 5 kids (besides himself  &  Max) in his preschool church class, one of my friend’s daughters, and Grace (who we babysit.)   I was rather surprised that he didn’t want to invite the neighborhood kids, but he was adamant that he didn’t want to do that.  We offered a few other friend suggestions, but Alex was pretty specific in stating that he just wants a small party. (Ahhh, a boy after his Mama’s heart…do it small!)

He’s pretty proud of being 5, and it seems to have increased his confidence in several different things.  He’s suddenly SURE of his ability to read simple words, more willing to talk to strangers (in a good way), and wanting to do more and more for himself.  We’re so proud of who he is becoming, and we enjoyed celebrating FIVE today!