He's 5!!! The Celebrations!

I gotta be honest here. While I am absolutely amazed that Benjamin was born 5 years ago his age isn't all the surprising. I've mistakenly told people he was 5 for months now. Of course, he would correct me every single time. He is our precocious child and has a vocabulary and mannerisms that do not match to his young age!

We had a weeklong celebration for him starting with his actual birthday when he got to choose what we did for the day. This was his plan:

6:00 get up and open presents
6:30 have the ipads and play Minecraft / watch Minecraft videos on Youtube
7:00 have pancakes and bacon for breakfast
8:00 have "free time" (translation: play more Minecraft)
12:00 have sandwiches for lunch
1:00 play games
3:00 more "free" time / watch the final episodes of the new season of Just Add Magic
6:00 have hamburgers, fries and milkshakes for dinner
6:30 have cake!

Here's what happened in reality:

5:45 wake up and get up everyone else
6:00 open presents / play with presents
7:00 pancakes and bacon for breakfast
7:30 put together Legos
10:00 trip to Target to purchase new Sun & Moon Pokemon deck
11:00 Pokemon tournament with Julia
12:00 sandwiches and chips with ranch dip for lunch
12:30 play games
1:30 free time to play on iPads
3:00 Cake!!! for snack
4:30 start watching Just Add Magic
5:30 burgers, fries and shakes for dinner while finishing Just Add Magic
7:00 bedtime!

annual gift from Dad - bucket-o-cheese balls!

It was a Pokemon / Minecraft / Lego birthday

Pika Pika CHU... it talks!

delighted and a little nervous about the sparkler candles

but the cake was approved!

That was Sunday. On Monday we headed to Great Wolf Lodge to spend 3 days playing at the indoor water park to celebrate both kids birthdays. We took advantage of a rate through our homeschool group so we had lots friends there as well!

Julia and her friends loved having free rein in the waterpark and made the trip up to waterslides many times. Benj was blissed out by the hot tub and spent quite a few hours just chill-axing! The most amazing experience was the first day when we arrived, and were in the outdoor hot tub while it was snowing - so much fun!

We got back home Wednesday afternoon and then Friday had one last celebration of Benjamin with our close friends during their monthly Minecraft club! We had cake and the kids recreated their Great Wolf Lodge experience in Minecraft, water slides and all. very impressive.