Cole was so excited. So excited that he had been counting down the days since before we went to Disney World. So excited that he had been driving me up the wall with all of his talk about the birthday party during the last week. So excited that he was up at the crack of dawn. Fortunately, so was I. (Dang loud birds outside!)
Birthday pancakes were of course the first item on the agenda.
Pancakes always taste better with sprinkles. And just a leeeetle bit of melted blue wax.
Notice the balloons on the chair? There's also streamers around the kitchen. Even though I had spent the previous day doing last day of school treasure hunts and getting everything ready for his party (including the cake, always a battle), at 10pm I remembered the streamers in the kitchen. And I knew, just knew, that if I didn't put them up there would be a sad little boy. So up they went. I have started to question whether or not all of these traditions are a good thing... (But only just a little. And only because I really was tired!)
Quite a while ago Cole had declared that he wanted a chocolate party. The boy loves chocolate, and who can blame him? A couple of weeks ago I had an epiphany and made this invite.
HAHAHAHA! ChoCOLElate!!! I felt pretty clever.
I decided to only invite 4 friends, mainly because at the time I was planning the party I decided I really didn't want a house full of 5 and 6 year olds on my own. Instead, I would invite their moms to come with them, giving me some much needed back up. But then I remembered that school would be out, and I couldn't expect the moms to get babysitters. So, siblings were invited, too. As it turned out Lance ended up taking the day off from work, so I could have gotten away with just a bunch of 5 and 6 year olds, but it turned out to be really fun.
First, the cake. And for once, this cake was not too stressful! Cole declared he wanted chocolate with chocolate sprinkles, so that's what the boy got.
It was extra chocolatey and pretty good, if I do say so myself! The piping is a little bigger than I planned, but whatever.
In fact, this was a fairly drama free cake. I had to make a second batch of frosting, but that wasn't so bad. Hooray for easy cakes!
We decided to have the party outside because who wants a ton of kids running through the house if you don't have to have them there? We used and decorated our new canopy; it was way cuter in person, I think. The weather was great; a little warm at times, but there was a good breeze.
And of course we had a pinata. Dang pinatas. I kinda wish I'd never allowed one at Josh's 6th birthday, but I did and here we are. So in the past I've just used paper bags to make the base of the pinata, and while that made it easy, it was really hard for the kids to break. (Lance always ended up tearing them apart.) So this time I did the paper mache route, which is why this pinata looks like a balloon because that is exactly what it was in the beginning. Cole had no requirements for how it looked other than it had to be orange and had to have a big blue 6 on it. Done and done.
First we had lunch, which consisted of pizza, fruit kabobs, chocolate milk, and banana-cicles. When I was first planning the party I had grand designs of an all-chocolate lunch: chocolate pizza, chocolate zucchini bread, everything dipped in chocolate... and then I came back to my senses and just went the easy route. Although, in my defense half of the fruit did have chocolate drizzle on it. Oh, and the banana-cicles? They were pieces of banana dipped in chocolate and frozen. Great idea in theory, and still a great idea for the first 30 minutes. But once they started really melting? Um, gross. Lesson learned.
I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures of them, but one of our games involved punch boards. (You know, like on the Price Is Right.) Each child got to punch the hole, take out a piece of paper with a number on it, and then get a wrapped gift with the corresponding number on it. The gifts were fabulous prizes that I had found mostly around the house. (Like old Dollar Spot finds, bags of marshmallows, and, my personal favorite, a bunch of candy canes left over from Christmas. Josh got those!)
We also did corn hole, only we threw bags of M&Ms into Cole's mouth instead.
Then it was time for the pinata. I didn't get many pictures because I was the blindfold and bat girl. But here's all the kids lined up, oldest to youngest. I thought for sure we'd get through the line, but we only made it to Josh and it broke. My pinata actually broke - without adult help! Hooray! (But also, boo. Because this means that my pinatas will be paper mache from now on. Not exactly the easiest or cleanest method.)
Finally it was time to blow out the candles and serve the cake. Cole was super excited and happy. What a handsome boy I have!
I'm not quite sure what he's doing here. Contemplating the mysteries of life, probably. Oh, and do you like his shirt? I totally made it. Love my Cricut!
Then it was time for presents. As per usual with kids, Cole tore through them, barely taking time to look at the one he just opened. His friends were very generous and he spent most of today playing with them!
I had party favors all ready for the guests - and then completely forgot to hand them out. So now I have 20+ Hershey bars with wrappers like this. Perhaps I'll get around to handing them out during the summer. Perhaps they will be sacrificed to the s'mores gods. Either way, I'll be a happy girl.
After clean up we all took a long, well-deserved nap. Ha! I wish. No, we spent the rest of the afternoon at the neighborhood pool. It was a pretty warm day, but that water sure was cold! Not that it stopped the kids at all. I swear Cole jumped into that pool at least a hundred times. That boy loves water.
At six years old Cole is still definitely my hardest child. He can be very belligerent, demanding, and angry. But he can also be very loving, very mindful, and really, really funny. (He still refers to Mars as that planet we went to at Disney!) When he makes friends he really makes friends. His two best friends are Evan (from preschool) and Ruth (from church). He loves them both and will behave if they are around to keep him in line!
I know all parents think their kids are geniuses, but Cole really is too smart for his own good. I think school will be really good for him this year on many levels - academically, socially, and behaviorally. He has a fun, quirky personality. He has a hard time sitting still. He's a stickler for rules - unless I'm enforcing them. I joke that he's our little super-villain in training because he has all the characteristics for making one: really smart, really motivated, really stubborn, and really interesting. I have yet to find his weakness, which is a little alarming...
Cole is a GREAT traveler. He loves to go anywhere. He loves to run errands and loves to play at the park even more. He loves to read, although if I ever catch him reading he throws the book and runs away. I have no idea why. He knows all the words to all the songs from Frozen. I catch him singing pretty often, but heaven forbid if I ever sing around the house! He's recently become obsessed with the planets; his favorite is Uranus because "it has a summer and a winter". Cole is the king of non-sequiturs. He's always coming up to me or interrupting conversatiosn with totally random facts or statements, about half of which make sense. Yesterday he claimed we HAD to go to the pool because "when there's a ring around the moon that means it's gonna rain". He said this as if he were really angry about it, too.
Cole is slightly afraid of the dark, but getting over it. He sleeps with a ton of stuffed animals and other random (and hard) toys, all of which MUST be covered by the blanket so they don't get cold. He's still not a huge fan of church, but getting a little better. (Although last week I had to take him out - twice - before the actual Sacrament. The joy.) He has memorized everyone it our family's birth dates, including grandparents. He's working on birth places now. Because, you know, that's useful info. (If he asks for your SSN, don't give it to him. Re: Super Villain in Training.)
Cole would spend all day outside if he had kids to play with and games to play. He's convinced that sunscreen gives him sun burns, which makes putting it on him pretty fun. (But we must. Have you seen how fair that kid is?!) He's really proud about the watermelon he planted in the garden. He LOVES to eat watermelon. He's a watermelon eating machine. In fact, he's an eating machine, often easily eating far more than his bigger brothers. (Which is not hard since Josh still refuses to eat most of what I serve for dinner.) I'm pretty sure he's going to be the biggest brother.
Cole is curious, almost to his detriment. I caught him playing with knives today. And then he got mad at me for making him stop and there was a big to do about it. He wants to do everything his brothers do and gets really upset when told he's not big enough. He's an adrenaline junky and I can't wait to take him to Cedar Point for the first time because I know he will lurrrrrve it. He wants to be independent and brave, but his mommy was always his first choice for who he sat next to on the big rides at Disney. (Kinda made my heart smile.)
Cole is a struggle and a joy. He is hard work. But I find that those things you work hardest for are those that you appreciate and love the most.
2 comments:
What a fun party. Happy birthday Cole!
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