Celebrating Joel at 5!

We had a lot of fun celebrating Joel's 5th birthday with our family. His birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, so we waited to have his party with all of the family until Saturday. But, that didn't stop us from trying to make is big day special. For breakfast the boys and I went to our neighborhood donut shop. Joel doesn't really like donuts, but he is a huge fan of their sausage rolls, so he had 3 sausage rolls and a chocolate milk while the rest of us had donuts.

Nate and I brought him his choice of sonic for lunch and enjoyed sharing the meal with him in his classroom. After lunch he help pass out birthday treats, he chose to bring chocolate covered pretzels (refused cookies, brownies or cupcakes), to all of his classmates and then they all sang him happy birthday. He loved every minute!

giving his best bud Hudson dessert

After school the boys enjoyed popsicles and some play time in the backyard. Then while Levi and Philip went to baseball practice I prepared Joel's birthday dinner of choice; fried catfish, buttered French bread, corn on the cob, watermelon and oven roasted carrots. We all enjoyed his yummy meal and finished off the night with chocolate ice cream and gifts. Joel LOVED his presents and I am pretty proud of myself for knowing my little love so well. He hasn't stopped playing with them in the 10 days since.

On Saturday most all of our family came over to celebrate! Joel had a very specific plans for his party and I think he was happy with the results :) Dinner was build you own pizza for dinner with pineapple and cantaloupe and chocolate cupcakes for dessert. The pizza was a semi disaster because I failed to realize that the dough balls would stick to themselves, the waxed paper and the plate I prepared them on. Luckily with Kate's help we were able to salvage enough so that everyone could make a pizza and they turned out pretty yummy. Joel chose Italian sausage, pepperoni, bell peppers, mushrooms, black olives, onion, tomatoes and mozzarella cheese for toppings. Yum! He also requested his "very own extra big cupcake with 5 ninjas on it" for his cake. He loved the way it turned out even though it really looked kinda crazy.

oops the wind blew out the candle!

We had go-cart rides, ninja masks and a piñata for entertainment (as well as just playing in the back yard). Watching everyone enjoy the go-cart rides was hilarious! Joel kept a very serious face the whole time despite insisiting he was having fun. Levi and Nora had a blast, although Nora seemed a bit concerned when Levi was behind the wheel. Even the uncles jumped in and gave it a go even though it was a bit of a tight fit. So funny! Joel was right, "my family will have so much fun driving the go-cart for my party!"

All and all it was a fun night celebrating our favorite five year old! Thank you to all the family for coming out and for the wonderful, thoughtful gifts. Joel had a wonderful time and felt very loved!