Happy Birthday Ethan!

Ethan is 5 years old!  He is so excited to be 5, and he says he feels older now.

For his birthday he got to start it out right with a few presents from the family:  clothes, a couple Bob the Builder vehicles, and a bike helmet. 

As you can figure out for yourself, but I'll state the obvious anyway, he had wanted to have a Bob the Builder party.  Here is his awesome cake.

Luckily the weather cooperated, because we invited way too many kids.  We invited all the kids he plays with fairly regularly, but the list ended up huge. I thought about not inviting some, but there wasn't really anyone I felt good about not inviting, so we just had a big group - 10 of the 11 invited came.  Add that to my own 5 kids, and we had 15 kids at my house.  Devon was late getting home from work... you can imagine a little of my panic.  But it all worked out.  I just turned on an episode of Bob the Builder to keep them busy while we waited for everyone to arrive, then just as we were finishing with that and ready to go outside, Devon made it home.   I think this is the first time we have had a party outside, and it was so nice!  If the kids didn't want to play the game, no big deal - they could just jump on the tramp or play on the play set.  It was great! We used a robot claw like a crane and built a block tower.  Then the kids had fun building walls of boxes and knocking them down with a "wrecking ball."  Of course I think the kids wrecked the ball more than a wall. I had just used string taped on to the ball like a net - but not very strong. It was good enough for the intended use, but not good enough to hold up to the kids hanging on with it and using themselves along with the ball to wreck the wall.  They had lots of fun, even if I was a bit tired of fixing the "net" on the balls.   The kids also tried to throw bean bags into a tractor and dump truck.  After that all wore off, we did a wheelbarrow races and let the kids see who could make it all the way across the yard. 

While Ethan unwrapped presents, Austin had fun unwrapping the boxes for the brick walls.  It worked out perfect.  He was entertained, and there wasn't a problem of him wanting Ethan's presents.  Who knew those bricks would serve a dual purpose?

Back row: James, Ethan, Graham, Abbie, Michael, Jayden
Front row: Sam, Graysen, Ethan, Cade, Austin, Cole, Austin

Ethan:

• Loves Bob the Builder, Jay Jay the Jet Plane, Phineas and Ferb, Blues Clues
• Best friends are Ethan and Graham
• Loves to eat carrots, celery and peanut butter, apples and cheese, spaghetti
• Loves trains (Thomas and GeoTrax)
• Loves to play with friends
• Loves to ride his TWO WHEELER (he just learned how)
• Is learning to read
• Is good at coloring in the lines
• Loves to sing
• Does not love to be laughed at
• Loves to tease
• IS LOVED BY OUR FAMILY!!

Happy birthday, Dear Ethan boy!