Erik's 5th Birthday

We are going all out for "Birthday Season" around here. Ben and Erik's birthdays fall 7 days apart, so the end of February and beginning of March are pretty festive for us. Last year, Birthday Season was extremely low-key. Shaun even missed Ben's birthday altogether because he had to work a 24 hour shift in a hospital rotation for school last year. It was less happy than we would have all liked since we didn't have a party with friends and it was just pregnant me trying to take care of everything. The boys wanted to have big parties at Chuck E Cheese last year, but we couldn't swing it. We promised then that we would make it up to them next time. The closest equivalent we have here is the Cache Valley Fun Park, so we've booked two reservations on back to back Saturdays. The boys have invited the kids from their school classes for each party, and haven't stopped talking about it for weeks!

On Wednesday, his actual birthday, we went bowling with the grandparents and had a special birthday supper of pancakes (the only food item he will fairly consistently eat that can be construed as dinner food for adults.) We had sausage and ham and eggs with ours...he had green yogurt. White cake with white frosting and plain vanilla Aggie ice cream followed. Shaun always does a great job decorating the cake!





He got some exciting birthday presents including a much anticipated "Golden Dollar" for his Treasure Box from Grandpa Mike:



He also got a cool telescoping tower of markers from Grandma Joy and Grandpa Steve. He immediately requested some paper and this is what he did to test out his new markers:



Yes, the first thing he wrote with the markers was a math problem he thought up and answered himself. Notice he's moved on to subtraction already...kindergarten is still 5 months away!
He is so into Math and has a real knack for it. I forgot to mention this in the last post, but one of his favorite things to do to pass the time waiting or when he asks me to lay by him when he goes to bed is a game he made up called "Math Questions." I think of arithmetic problems and he answers them, like "What's 17 - 3 ?" and he'll think a minute (or not!) and say "14!" This goes on for several minutes, until I can't think up any more numbers and I tell him I'm tired.

Anyway, the big party at the Fun Park was on Saturday. A few of his friends from preschool came and climbed all over the "SoftPlay" which is a big jungle gym with a two-story tall slide. Think McDonald's Playland on steroids. The kids claim to actually catch air when they hit a bump in the slide. I believe them. Its quite a rocket launcher. Here's a few pics:



The cake was a little slower in coming than we thought it would be, so Shaun entertained the kiddos during the waiting time with his favorite magic trick, the disappearing matchstick. (I did not ask him to do this, he just did. He loves this trick! And, preschoolers love it, too!)



Phew! A good time was had by all, but next year will be back to the low-key parties I'm used to!