the birthday weekend

Last weekend, we celebrated Sam's 5th birthday! Grandma and Papa arrived for the milestone on Wednesday night. On Friday, Sam's birthday, Grandma insisted on letting Sam open the first present of the day immediately upon waking up (she's awful about waiting!).

After that and a quick breakfast, they took both kids to the Explorium to keep them busy while Kris and I were at work. Luckily, since Mom is horrible at waiting to give gifts :), Sam had already opened his card from them, too, and placed his giant "I am 5 today!" sticker on his shirt to wear to the Children's Museum. And, as luck would have it, he ended up getting into the museum for free because of that sticker...a nice little surprise for Grandma and Papa. It pays to have a birthday!

When Kris and I arrived home from work, we all hustled back out the door to Monkey Joe's to meet up with Sam's friends, eat pizza and cake and play!

Meeting Monkey Joe himself! Sam was not too sure about Monkey Joe...you'll notice him to the left of the throne, bent over with his tongue out! He really didn't want to give Monkey Joe five, but Grace and some of the other kids were all about it :)

The cake! Made by our friends, Liz & Erin...thanks girls! Sam had pretty big expectations and was sure to go over them in great detail with Mrs. Erin. He was thrilled with the end result :)

Everyone had a blast at the party. Even though it ended right around bedtime, and we had originally planned to let Sam open his family presents on Saturday, we decided to just stay up late and keep celebrating when we got home. Sam was totally spoiled by his family (and "family") and has been engaged in a variety of play with all his new loot since last week.

Grace went with Kris and me to pick out the bike and helmet on Thursday night and, surprisingly, she kept the secret the whole day on Friday! I was so proud of her...and she was so proud to give her brother his new bike. Too cute :)

We love our 5-year-old!