Man Alive, Michael's Five!!!

On Wednesday, we celebrated Michael's 5th birthday. How has time gone by so fast?? So very, very fast...

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Michael decided he would love to have a sports party. And I think that, with all that has been going on around here, Paul and I were able to pull together a pretty darn good party (if I do say so myself)...

Michael woke up to a house full of sports decor for his birthday party. He walked around exploring, the house in anticipation of his birthday party.






This picture captures his excitement as he looked around the house:


He loved the cake:






He could hardly contain his excitement until 10 am when party guests arrived.

They painted sports balls...


I had shirts for them to put over their clothes so they wouldn't get covered in paint. Abby entertained herself by trying most of them on...


They ran a sports obstacle course...


Played some soccer and a "ball mania" game (the "mixed fruit" game... only with sports balls). While it all went well and everyone had fun, it is still a little early for big organized activities, it seemed. Mostly they just wanted to play in the playroom.

But everyone was ready for cake and presents.






Michael really loved having his friends over, and here is his account of the party:

"I painted a basketball, a wooden basketball. Red and black instead of orange and black, because a real one is orange and black. And I got to play a sports course with golf and soccer and *basketball*!! My cake was a basketball and a court with a basketball game. Back then, we handed out the invitations that said "come have a ball " on the front, and in the middle it said "Michael's turning five." I had ten friends there."

Afterwards, we all crashed for naps. Paul took Michael, Abby and Bekah swimming that afternoon (and I stayed behind with Ella to do disaster clean-up and prepare for our family celebration). We had a nice, low-key birthday dinner... just the 6 (woah!?!) of us.

When I asked Michael what he wanted for his birthday dinner, his eyes got wide and he exclaimed "CHEESE!" He is a self-declared "cheese maniac." But with a little guidance, he decided to have something that has cheese *in* it. So we had grilled cheese and tomato soup... with broccoli and cherries.

We sang again with cupcakes...


Abby daintily ate the frosting from the top of her cupcake...


While Bekah thoroughly enjoyed digging into hers...



And I can't believe I just wrote a post about my oldest child's 5th birthday. Where has the time gone?? It seems like yesterday we were calling him "Schmibbers" and coaxing him to take his first steps. It reminds me to treasure these young years of innocence and new wonders.

Michael has been a complete joy to me as a mother. He is not only my son, but... just after Paul... he is my best friend. I remember my dad telling me that he enjoyed me more and more with each passing year... and that is how I feel about Michael. He is just fun to talk to and I love the excitement he musters up for the simplest joys of life. In so many ways, he infuses joy into mine.