5 Years Old

I can't believe I'm the mother of a 5-year-old!! Wow. Dean woke up on the morning of hi birthday, December 6th, to find a wall of balloons greeting him that he had to walk through - he loved that!


We didn't have a large "Friends" birthday party for him this year. We gave him the choice between a party and the weekend at the Grand and he chose the weekend at the Grand. We were happy with that!! We did have a little celebration at school on the day of his birthday. It's so cute what they do at school!! I made some little treat bags for all of his classmates - basically I just cut the tops off of paper lunch bags with pinking shears, folded the top over, and added a fun little handmade decoration to the front. I filled them with a small playdoh, bubbles and a pack of crayons. The school asks that we avoid sugary treats or candy when sharing gifts with friends, which was fine with me - but it did make it a bit more difficult to figure out something to do. The kids seemed fine with their treats though! And I have to say, I thought the bags turned out super cute! Joel of course thinks I'm crazy for putting so much effort into them when the kids probably throw them in the trash as soon as they leave school, but I can't help it. It would be physically painful for me to pass out a plastic bag or a plain paper bag. I just can't do it.


So anyway, back to the school celebration. I arrived at school with the treat bags 20 minutes before the end of the day. Mrs. Smith had the class come to the front of the room and line up on either side of the carpet, with Dean at one end. The kids dug deep down in their pockets to find their best wishes and then they sang a really cute version of the Happy Birthday song while Dean skipped back and forth between the two lines of kids with the kids singing and throwing their best wishes on Dean. It was so cute!! I seriously teared up a bit! They also sang another really cute song about how old you were yesterday and how old you are today. My introverted little Dean seemed to do great in the spotlight! I was so proud!!


After the singing and birthday wishes, we passed out treat bags and then the school day was over. Dean got to stand at the door and receive Birthday high fives from all his friends as they filed out of the classroom. It was so cute!!


After school, we went home and waited for Daddy to get home with cake. He called from Costco and gave Dean his choices - a clown with balloons or Christmas flowers. Dean chose the Christmas flowers.


We pretty much had cake for dinner and then opened a few presents from family - more Legos from Mommy and Daddy and a few other fun gifts that had arrived in the mail that week. But the highlight was definitely the Break your own Geodes and Rocks and Minerals book from Grandma Jo and Grandpa CR!! Dean was SUPER excited about that!!


We broke a few geodes and then Dean wanted me to get out the mini muffin tin for him to use to sort them to make a "Rock Collection", so he sorted them all out and then spent about half an hour looking through the book to research and try to figure out what kind of geodes he had. So much fun!!