John Burke turned 5 years old on April 28th. That Thursday afterwards we had an "animal party" to celebrate. He changed his mind SEVERAL times over the last few months - a Build a Bear, a baseball party (we don't play baseball?), and I can't even remember what else, but we landed finally on an animal party. We booked our youth room at church, because John Burke is my child and wanted every single person in his class plus extra friends plus siblings to come, and I didn't have the energy to do that at my house!
He helped with the table decorations:)
We had Ed's Pet World come, with their star Sebastian to entertain and enlighten the kids about all the animals. About a week before, I also called a local balloon man to come for the party favors. The ambiance was unreal:)
I set up a mask drawing station for them to work on while everyone got there, and Collins and her buddies never left there.
Sebastian shared a couple of lizards, a snake, a bird and even an alligator!
Watching Mr. Sebastian pull the animals from his magic suitcases
Heath may be smiling, but he was REALLY uncomfortable and I was glad I was able to catch him facing his snake fear. Hilarious.
This is Mr. Tyrone, the head maintenance man at church. This was as close as he would get to the party - staring thru the window in disbelief. He thought I was insane.
Mr. Sebastian even gave John Burke his own betta fish for his birthday. More on that in a minute.
After the animal show and a lot of hand sanitizer, the kids settled in for pizza and cupcakes with animal gummies and animal crackers, of course.
Finally, the kids gathered their balloon man party favors and then played a game outside called "Chase my tail", much like Capture the Flag.
Our sweet next door neighbors came for all of the excitement, and that was very kind of them to participate in the chaos!
We sure do love our wild animal 5 year old!!
Funny story about the betta fish. When we came home, I let the kids open all of the presents while attempting to record who they were from. I made them do this outside because it was such a pretty day. Meanwhile, the new fish was hanging in his tank inside. John Burke and I walked into this scene, Goldie Red Fish (or whatever his name is today) was on the floor and Collins was looking very guilty. Turns out, she had knocked him on the floor but didn't want to tell anyone. John Burke began panicking and screaming and eventually punched Collins in the back, because it had probably been 20 minutes and she wasn't talking. I was trying to calm everyone down, and darn it if John Burke didn't poke the thing and he started moving!! He put it back in his bowl, added some water, and the thing is still happily swimming almost a month later!!
Heath's dad got John Burke a much less emotional-roller-coaster kind of gift, a new bike! Collins somehow weaseled me into getting her one, too, while we picked it out. They have been loving them!!
His birthday was a week-long celebration. The night before his birthday, the boys had a tennis showcase. They have taken tennis all year and were able to show us their moves, hence the medals on their necks. Afterwards, John Burke picked Chuy's for his family dinner, and I was happy with that!
On his actual birthday, Heath had to go out of town. So we headed to "the place where they cook the food on the table" for his birthday dinner with GiGi, Pop Pop and Uncle Derek.
That weekend, pretty unrelated to his birthday, we finally decided to bite the bullet on a play set for our backyard. We have this lovely hill that Turner is posing in front of, so we have been ignoring putting one in the yard, hoping to save space. Finally, Heath figured out a way that we could get it built into the hill and not take up the whole yard, and John Burke thinks it was for his birthday, so we went with that:) In reality, I started looking into it at Christmas and then sort of got lazy, so Heath took over and got it done!
Tada!! We are in love! Backyard Adventures, a local place, was able to build it into the hill, and we are all enjoying it!
A couple of mornings ago, it was about 6:20 and I heard a noise in our backyard. I knew Turner was up (that is early for him luckily), and this was what I saw in the yard. He is so crazy! Swinging in his pajamas, blissfully enjoying the sprinkler!!! Pure joy for him!
Anyway, our new 5 year old is loving the play set - we all are!!
In other exciting news, Turner graduated 5 year old kindergarten on May 13th! He actually still had school until yesterday, but that was his big graduation day. Of course my big camera was out of battery, but I was able to get some good ones on my phone.
Here he was with a speaking part - he had a speaking part and a small solo and they were so sweet!
Dancing with friends on stage
After a wardrobe change - they were so cute in their cap and gown
Turner's cheering section. They had a lunch for the graduates right afterwards. I definitely teared up the entire program, because I was so proud of these kids. I have known a majority of them since they were babies, and they are getting so big! They were able to quote Scripture, sing to the Lord and look old in their caps and gowns!
Turner with his precious teachers, Cami and Melanie. Thankful for them!!
And a sweet one with his buddy, Alex right after the ceremony
A picture of Turner from September of 2009, his first day of Mother's Day Out. And then as a big 6 year old, heading to first grade. I don't do change well, but he is so excited and so am I! We were blessed beyond measure to have a phenomenal preschool that pointed him to Christ and fostered his growth in such great ways! Glad I still have 2 more there, not done with Covenant Day School yet!
Finally, a last picture of all 3 being at the same school for a while. We took this yesterday to commemorate the last day of 2K, 4K and 5K. They are getting big, and I definitely have mixed emotions about that!! Thankful for my "biggish" kids and SO glad it is SUMMER!!!!
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