Max’s 5th Birthday (part 1)

As I type that, I’m just overwhelmed at the thought that yet another one of my sweet babies is getting TOO BIG!  I can’t even fathom that Max is 5 years old, yet somehow it happened.  Our kiddos are growing up WAY too quickly!

Max turned 5 on August 24, while we were on vacation.  Because of our vacation, we had to delay his birthday party.  This was very confusing for him, and he thought that he wouldn’t get a party or presents because no one would be able to find him!  (But it IS pretty special to spend your birthday in the mountains, meet a far-away friend for lunch, and go swimming in a hotel!)

On his birthday, we assured him that he would definitely have a party for his birthday.  This confused him even more, as he thought he had already turned 5, and if he had another birthday when we returned home, he’d be turning 6 already and catch up to his big brother!  (How cute is that?!)

Although he only gets one birthday, and he has to stay FIVE all year, Max does get TWO parties this year – a family party and his first-ever friend party!

Max had his first party – the family party - on Sunday, September 7th.  We had a slightly smaller crowd than usual, but he still enjoyed his party!  (For us, a small party is still 20 people…we are loved!)

(His second party – the friend party – is coming up next weekend.  He’s VERY excited about it!)

Max chose to have a Captain America/Avengers theme, which we’ll be carrying over for his friend party as well.  Grandma P and Jessica created yet another amazing cake, and they also made a whole bunch of cupcakes that we froze to use for his friend party.  We are so grateful for their talents!  Thank you, Grandma & Jessica!

We had one of our typical party lunches – GFS meatballs and sauce in the crockpot, hashbrown casserole, green beans, pigs in a blanket, fresh fruit, and potato chips.  My mom helped by making a hashbrown casserole, cucumber salad, and pigs in a blanket.  It sure takes the pressure off of me, knowing that there are others helping with the food.  Thanks, Mom!

Max was spoiled with terrific presents…

~ 3 (yes, 3!) Captain America talking action figures – the boys decided to keep two of them, and my sister returned one and gave Max money instead, which he used at Build A Bear to make a Raphael.

(We went to Build A Bear on Saturday, where Max made a TMNT bear and Alex used his garage sale money to buy a Captain America outfit for a bear he already owned.)

~ a Captain America helmet (which he’s worn to bed several times – how uncomfortable does that seem to you?!)

~ Hot Wheels track, which has gotten TONS of use in the past week
~ Planes Fire & Rescue vehicles set
~ Planes Fire & Rescue raincoat, which Max has worn a LOT, whether it’s raining or not…although we’ve had a lot of rain recently, so it HAS gotten some good use for its intended purpose!


~ Transformers Rescue Bots (the boys are VERY interested in Transformers right now)

~ TMNT orange combat set with nunchucks, throwing stars, and bandana (much loved by ALL three children!)

~ Planes Fire & Rescue headset (which Jensyn has claimed as her own – she uses it to sing, ha!)

 

~ We got him a Captain America bike earlier in the summer – he’d outgrown his old one, so we sold it in our garage sale & got him an early birthday present.

~ AND one he doesn’t know is coming – his very own Chicago Bears quilt for his bed, lovingly made by aunt, cousin, and grandma.  Alex already has one, and now it’s Max’s turn!  He’ll be getting it soon; his cousin Emma was sick and couldn’t make it to the party, but she wants to see him open it.

I just love this picture, where the kids are all crowding in to see what Max is opening.  I love the excitement of the younger kids at a birthday party!  (And there sits Alex, reading the instructions…)

Cake Time!

(We are grateful for all the cupcakes, which we froze and are saving for Max’s friend party.)

I thought this card was so sweet that it deserved recognition.  Max’s cousin Cailin (5) made this sweet birthday card for him.  It’s just so cute!

Happy 5th Birthday, Max!  I have no idea how time has flown by so quickly, but we LOVE watching your amazing personality develop year by year.  WE LOVE YOU SO MUCH, and we thank God for blessing us with YOU!

MFW K Creation Unit (Max’s School)

{Phew!  After typing out this whole post, I am reminded of why I split Alex’s creation post into 3 separate posts a few years ago…this was a PROJECT to put this whole post together.  Happy Reading…or skimming…whichever you choose to do!}

Many of you know that we absolutely LOVED My Father’s World Kindergarten with Alex.  For us, it is a perfect year for a late 4 or young 5 year old.  We are THRILLED to be starting “Round 2” of MFW K now with Max.  He’s excited, too!  He feels so special to have this new program!

I love the creation unit, as it gently eases a child into a school routine.  It also gives you a good idea of your child’s coloring, cutting, and gluing skills.  I learned in the past two weeks that Max can cut far better than I realized! 

For those who are just happening upon this post, our oldest (“6, almost 7”, as he says) did MFW K a few years ago.  This year, our 5 year old is doing MFW K and our 3.5 year old is tagging along for fun.  Our oldest is joining in whenever he would like, but we’re not insisting that he participate.

We love using the book God Made It For You (pictured below) as we work our way through the creation week.  It’s a beautifully illustrated account of the creation week.  On Day 1, we read only the Day 1 page.  On Day 2, we read the Day 1 & Day 2 pages.  On Day 7, we read the whole book – which includes an amazing message to remind children of how creation and the cross tie together, and how God created this world AND sent His son for YOU!  I very highly recommend this book if you choose to do MFW K!


Here’s a day-by-day recap of Max’s creation unit:

Day 1 – God Separated Light from Darkness

I was impressed by Max’s cutting skills!  I didn’t know he could do as well as he does with a scissors!  It’s not perfect, but it’s pretty good!  We had chocolate & vanilla pudding for a snack to represent the light and the darkness.

Day 2 – God separated the waters above from the waters below

We did a creation day number strip this time around.  Each child proudly added his/her creation number to the chart each day.  Max did his own cutting; I cut Jensyn’s numbers for her.  We had popcorn and blue Mio (a *VERY* special treat, as we don’t usually give our kids fake sugars) to represent the clouds and the water.  We used cotton balls to make the sky on our daily art project.

We used the alphabet bingo cards that come with MFW K to play bingo with all 3 kids. 
They each chose a snack food to use as their bingo markers.


Alex was helping Jensyn cover her Bingo letters, as she doesn’t know all of her letters yet.
(We do comb her hair.  I promise!)

Day 3 – God made land, trees, and flowers.

This may look like I’m super-amazing mom to come up with such a creative snack.  I’m not.  I was scrounging to find ANYTHING in our cabinets that would be a good snack for Day 3.  We have trees made from grapes and pretzel sticks.  We have flowers made from Trix cereal and crispy breadsticks that I pulled from a snack mix.  The kids thought I was a bit crazy to feed them such a strange snack!

a quick view of the chaos on our kitchen table during school time

Day 3 art project – construction paper trees with apples and oranges, flower stickers

Day 4 – God made the sun, moon, and stars.

A few years ago, we received a fun set of glow in the dark moon and star wall stickers.  We used these for Alex’s MFW K creation unit, and now we used them again for Max’s unit art project.  I have some put away for when Jensyn is ready for MFW K, as well.  This year, we had a little fun.  One night when Max was busy with Daddy, Alex and I decorated the boys’ bedroom walls with glow stickers.  It was a fun to surprise Max at bedtime that night!

We also had some glow in the dark squeeze paint that I purchased for a project at our homeschool co-op.  We used that to outline the sun and stars on our creation numbers.  I’m really impressed by Max’s coloring on this page – every child is different, but Alex would NOT color like this when he was that age!  The whole ‘take time to color’ thing is completely new to me!

This day’s snack was also making use of whatever I could scrounge up in the cabinets – cheddar cheese slices cut into star shapes with a cookie cutter, paired with saltine crackers.

We also used chocolate chips to play a ‘cover the letter’ game with Max.  He knows all of his uppercase & most of his lowercase letters, but he still gets them mixed up on occasion. 

Day 5 – God made the birds of the air & fish of the sea.

We had Nemo fruit snacks.  I only buy fruit snacks for birthday parties or vacation snacks, so this was a special treat!  I’d wanted blue jello (which is also a rare treat in our house) topped with gummy fish, but we found out that our local grocery store doesn’t carry blue jello!  Instead, we used blue plates left over from Max’s b-day party as our ‘ocean’.

We used sea creature and bird stickers for this day’s art project.

(This picture had our first & last name; I blurred out the last name.)

Day 6 – God made animals and people. 

I can’t find the pictures!  Hmm…where do pictures hide?!
But we have our snack – they had animal crackers for 99 cents at our grocery store, so I let the kids each pick a pack. They thought this was great fun!

Day 7 – God rested.

Since the seventh day is our Sunday, we did what many MFW K families do, and we had SUNDAES for our special snack!  We had leftover ice cream from Max’s birthday party, so we finished that off along with chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, and rainbow sprinkles!

coloring 7s
making creation crowns 
(thanks to Heather on the MFW K Facebook group for sharing the crown link!)
separating Man Made/God Made cards

Jensyn shocked me when she traced the numbers on her creation crown just as nicely as Max did on his.  Seriously – she PERFECTLY traced each number.  I have a feeling she will be doing quite a bit of MFW K right along with Max. She won’t put up with being left out!  I am learning that girls are so very different from boys – those fine motor skills seem to develop much earlier!

We’ll be taking all of our art projects from the creation unit and putting them together to make a yarn-bound creation book for each child, and we’ll hang their creation numbers and man made/God made charts on the stairway to our playroom (bonus room over the garage).  That stairway is filled with the children’s artwork, school papers, posters, and school stuff.  Since we school in our kitchen, we need a special place to display their school ‘stuff’…that’s our spot!

We are excited to begin Unit 1 tomorrow!  I look forward to seeing how Max handles this curriculum, and I’m sure we’ll have LOTS of fun together!  We will probably do 3 – 4 days/week, stretching it as long as needed to complete each unit.  I am so excited for the terrific children’s literature, fun art and science projects, cooking and baking, exploring, and learning about God’s creation together this year!

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