James Turns 5

 Our new tradition is to let the kids decorate for the other kid's birthday. (Heaven knows I've hung up my fair share of crepe paper.) They get to stay up and help as long as they don't argue and keep their voices to a whisper.

Sarah made a web for his door.

Up in my room I pulled out all of James's presents and the stack of gift bags and told them to "wrap" his presents too and bring them down. Here's what it looked like that morning.

Since he and Sarah both leave at 8am on his school days, we had to get an early start on the morning's festivities. I can't think of the last time I had to wake him up before 7:30 but he was snoozing.

We played some loud music but it took Justin to pick him up and carry him down.

He opened presents while Justin made pancakes. Every year until my kids are 5 I write them a story using pictures of them. This was "Mr. Jamestache and the Evil Alien from Outerspace" It's also my final book as he's now 5. I'm mostly relieved because they take a lot of time to make but also a little sad that that tradition is over.

He also got a Julia Donaldson book we didn't have, cereal, a sled, a book of mazes, orange soda, Oreos, Doritos, Reese's puffs.

And a remote control motorcycle. He asked for a real motorcycle.

I don't remember what was in this bag but I like his face.

Then he went to school and when I picked him up I asked him where he wanted to go and he said Chick-fil-a so we went! 

They gave him this crown at school and he wore it pretty much the rest of the afternoon.

In true James style he changed his mind of what he wanted for his birthday cake every day. He wanted brownies, a chocolate cake, a cake shaped like a tiger, brownies with tiger faces on them, a cake shaped like a doughnuts, a brownie mountain with monster trucks driving up it, a big Oreo, a big chocolate chip cookie, back to chocolate cake frosted with orange colored frosting, a cake from the grocery store bakery, a box of doughnuts that he got to choose, and then back to brownies again. He saw this sprinkle idea on one of my pinterest boards and settled on that. Well I don't know if he really decided on that or if that was just what he liked at the moment I began making stuff and stopped asking.

That's an entire box of sprinkles, ladies and gents.

 

If you're wondering how I made it, I cut out a 5 in paper then set it on the fresh frosting. I put folded tape on a few spots on the paper to use as handles to lift it up. Once the sprinkles were dumped, I used a pastry brush to spread them around and brush off of the paper. Then I slowly peeled the paper number off the frosting by grabbing my tape loops.

Wa-la!

That afternoon his friend Luca came over and played and stayed for dinner. James chose Kraft macaroni and cheese and fishsticks. (He doesn't really like ANY dinner)

Then he chose to go to Coin Crazy.

You know you're old when all you think about is how loud an arcade is and how it's training kids for casinos.

We dropped off Luca at his house because it was getting late. We got home in time for grandparents to come over for cake and presents.

He got birthday money from my parents.

And a Yoda squishamallow and pistachios from Justin's parents.

Erica had a little squishmallow envy.

Cake time!

Here's his birthday interview

And some photos of him. The struggle is real with him for a natural smile.

My 5 favorite things about James

1. He's really smart. It's fun to teach him to read because he picks it up super fast. And he says such smart things that surprise me every day.

2. He's very creative with Legos, drawing, or making stuff out of cardboard or other stuff he finds.

3. He loves to help Justin with any project he's working on. He doesn't get bored and wants to learn.

4. He likes to help me too--but only if it's making cookies.

5. He asks to print a coloring page every day. He asks for ninjas, motorcycles, ninjas on motorcycles, or superheroes.

6. He has a lot of pajama sets but never wears the matching sets together unless by accident. He just grabs any shirt and any pants. ie, Batman on top, Avengers on the bottom.

7. He has a great Mario impression. "It's-a me, Mario!"

He is my buddy and goes with me on all the errands. It would be nice if he actually liked going to the store with me. "Is our next stop our house?" "I hate driving around in the car." He's my little complainer. "I never said I wanted to go to preschool." (He did.) "I don't even like sandwiches." (He does.) He cried a lot as a baby, whined as a toddler, and now full-blown complains like an old man. I have to threaten to take him shopping to get him to go to preschool every morning. He is definitely our baby.