Reed Turns 5

Reed's 5th birthday was on Monday.  I'm sort of emotional and sentimental about my kids birthday's.  Like uncharacteristically so.  I just remember back how ever many years and remember how the entered the world.  Like I'm sure many women feel, giving birth to those kids was a traumatic event in my life.  A very good event, but traumatic.  Especially Reed.  It was my first baby, my first experience in birth, my first born, my son.  It was obviously a very life changing event to me.  So I remember it year after year on his birthday.  This year, though, was hard because I'm kinda at the point that I don't want him to grow up anymore.  He's still young, innocent, sweet.  I am the greatest thing to him, his comforter.  He loves me no matter what I do.  But a five year old?  Five year olds are no longer toddlers, they are little boys.  He doesn't need me as much.  He's getting more independent.  But I need to buck up and deal with it I guess, whether I want him to or not, he's going to grow up.  And he's so excited about it, he wants to grow up and that's ok.

So Monday was his birthday.  I let him play hookie from school as he had his 5 year well check and kindergarten doc appointment in the morning anyway.  We dropped Nora off at school and we headed to the doc (after a donut stop).  He was excited about seeing doctor Tony but that wore off by the end of the appointment when he needed some immunizations.  He was pretty upset about that.  I have never seen him fight and scream like that.  It was sort of funny and sort of sad.  He was screaming "I don't want a birthday anymore, I don't want anymore birthdays!".  He got over it about a half hour later when we went to the pool and he got to jump in over and over again.  He was saying "best birthday ever!".  I found a great indoor pool and waterslide and he had a great time swimming.  After that we met up with Fogg for lunch.

After lunch we went to get some last minute things for his party that afternoon, then picked up Nora.  When we got home, he opened his gift from his sister (it was a wooden learning clock).

Then it was on to the party.  We had a bounce house, a scavenger hunt, pizzas, pinata, cake, singing, presents, and generally just playing.  It was a great party.  I didn't take very many pictures cause I was just enjoying it (also managing a bunch of 2-8 year olds is really chaotic).

Carol got him a new dirt bike jersey, not knowing he was getting a dirt bike!  He wore it for 2 straight days after this.

Off he goes:

then all the kids starting chasing him

Our awesome friends:

Reed got a dirt bike from Fogg.  Fogg has been waiting for 5 years to get him one.  First he mastered the balance bike, then mastered the peddle bike.  Now he gets to ride a dirt bike.  He loves it, said he dreams about it.  It's electric so it's quiet and it is pretty slow to start.  A great first bike.  Here he is trying it out for the first time.

Nora loved the bounce house, she got a star glow stick and started singing "twinkle twinkle little star".  Adorbs!

We headed home to clean up, hit the bath and open a few remaining gifts.  He loved everything he got and was feeling pretty special.  Happy Birthday to my little buddy!  Glad we don't have to do that for another year!