Five

Parker turned five this month and oh boy did we celebrate! I really wanted to make sure it was a special day for him because he's been looking forward to this birthday for so long. Five is a big deal, you know? I'm still having a hard time believing that he is so grown up. But it is so fun to watch him be such a big boy. He still loves to be a big helper, do chores and he's really loving to do his schoolwork as well. That's another of his favorite big boy things. And of course, anything involving tools, projects and Dad. He really loves helping Dad to mow the lawn and I keep telling Brandon that he's going to have himself worked out of a job here in a couple of years when Parker doesn't need his help to do it anymore. He also loves to help his brother and sisters.

So here's how we celebrated our big boy. Parker woke up to find his present - a brand new big boy bike and all of his favorite birthday decorations, (complete with the crown) ready and waiting for him. Then at his request we had a special birthday breakfast of crepes.

This is what Paige thought of it all.

(By the way, that bag of sunglasses from the party favor section at Wal-mart was probably the best two dollars ever spent. They kept them all entertained all day.)

After breakfast we headed over to the Wal-mart because the big boy had birthday money to burn. His choice? A new helmet and a HORN for the bike.

This is the part where I need to apologize to the neighbors for the horn. It's LOUD and pretty much honking constantly every time he rides. But it's oh so cute. He's wanted a horn for his bike for quite a long time and every time we'd go shopping we'd have to test them out. He was very serious about his choice. Did you know that super cool new helmet helps him to ride super fast? It must be the flames on it.

In the afternoon we headed to the splash park for some hot weather fun. I haven't posted any pictures of Claire recently and I want to show off what a big girl she is. She's walking now!! She is such a fun girl. So full of sunshine, she's always happy.

When we got to the splashpark, we had her walk under the rainbow while it was misting. She thought that was all well and good, but while she was standing under it the full blast started. Claire was NOT a fan of that and refused to walk back under any of the water toys for the rest of the time we were there.

So she sat with Mom and had snacks, or cuddled with Dad.

All of the other kids had a fabulous time and ran until they were too cold and just plain worn out.

After the splash park we hit happy hour at Sonic for some slushies, relaxed for a bit, had some dinner and then the CAKE! You know how we all feel about chocolate birthday cake around here.

Parker had a hard time deciding how he wanted his cake this year....I showed him all sorts of designs on the internet he could choose from, but he wasn't interested. For a while he thought he might like a dump truck again like last year, but he ended up settling on a "circle cake". I guess he's like his Dad and thought why mess with a good thing, huh? So the boys set to it and decorated the cake together. I think they did a pretty good job.

We had such a fun day celebrating our Parker P Doodle. He certainly does hold a special place in our family as the big brother and in my heart as my first baby. Love you Buddy!