Ethan's 5th birthday party

Yesterday Cory's parents, and his sister Mindy and her boys all joined us at Ross park for the afternoon.  It was really busy but Cory's parents, who arrived a few minutes before us, found us an awesome spot right in front of the kiddie pool.  I don't know why it's taken all these years to discover this spot!  The kids had a great time running in and out of the pool and back and forth eating chips, and licorice.  And we had a shaded spot to sit and watch.  

The licorice Saga...

goes on...

and on...

Brooklyn, I'm sure, about to splash Grandma

Sterling hanging with Grandpa

When I first learned that Ethan wanted an Optimus Prime cake I decided that I would just get a nice gift bag, cut out the front, place it on the cake and then do some black spray frosting around it to blend it in.  (Had I planned early enough I could have bought an edible picture... next time)  I thought it would be super and simple and really quite genius.  

Cory thought it was kind of lame.  Maybe it was just a little bit?!?!?

My other idea, which I discounted a few times during my brainstorming, was to have an Optimus Prime toy breaking out of the cake.  

So I went to Toys R' Us and purchased the toy and went home and began the cake.  I bought too big of a toy so it wasn't going to fit into the cake pieces that I already made.  I didn't think that through that well I guess, so I just had him stepping into the cake (unfortunately no picture of the finished product).  

Well, as luck would have it there was a teeny little accident involving a green cooler and the cake, and the cake didn't fare to well.  So we came up with a sub-plot to tell Ethan.  It went something like this:  

"While you were off playing, Optimus Prime's mortal enemy, Megatron came and tried to destroy him and during the process destroyed the cake."

I guess if it was going to happen to any cake, on any year, this was the one.  It was meant to be.  So in the end I guess I kind of got the look I was going for.  The cake tasted the same to the kids and as you can see below it didn't seem to bother him ONE bit! 

He is just so happy!  This is him dancing while they are all singing to him!  Love that boy!

Him with his siblings and cousins, Rigdon, Connor, and Ronin.  Do you know how hard it is to get the kids to look at you all at once.  Apparently pretty tough since this is the best one I got ;-) and only two people are looking at me!

Happy Birthday hugs

So happy!  

 He got some cool transformers, perplexis (Cory spent a LOT of time trying to beat this; it is actually pretty fun!), Ben Ten watch and characters and Brooklyn was all about the pink bubble tape.  I had to practically pry it from her arms.  She insisted it was hers because it was pink.  Silly girl

More birthday hugs

Sterling loved getting kisses from Grandpa!

He looked so laxy lax.  He loved it!
Kind of makes me want to go wake him just so I can kiss those soft cheeks of his!

Ethan and Ronin.  Being silly!

Briggs just looks so old to me.  Where has the time gone?!?!?!

Tired and cold little girl

I think, without fail, every time we go to Ross park, around 4 o'clock the dark clouds start rolling in.  Every time.  It's really quite incredible.  I wonder if it rains every evening in Pocatello?

So by 5, we had cold kids (Ethan with blue lips... always!), kids with tummy aches (no doubt from all the junk they ate), and tired kids.  We took off and went to Costco for a few groceries, some dinner, and then headed home.  It was a fun day!

Until next year!