Has another year really come and gone? Is my baby really 5 years old? Time really does speed up as I get older. For some reason Mason has been looking forward to turning 5 pretty much since he turned 4. I don't know what makes 5 years old so special to him. Maybe it's that he gets to start Kindergarten, something he has been looking forward to for a very long time. Or maybe it's just that almost all of his friends are a year older than him and he just can't wait to be 5 like them. Whatever the reason, this was a very exciting day for Mason, so naturally we had to celebrate with a super fun party. Mason is crazy about any kind of creature these days. Some of his favorites include poison dart frogs, crocodiles, combtooth blennies, whales, sharks, and black widows just to name a few. So we decided to have a Creature Party. We didn't get too carried away with the theme this year, just tried to incorporate some of Mason's favorite creatures into the activities we did. We used Mason's favorite picture of a blue poison dart frog for the invitations. Nothing fancy, but he thought it was the coolest.
The cake was Mason's idea and super easy. I just frosted a cake like the ocean and let him adorn it with all his little creatures.
We started off the party with a fishing pond where the kids each got a couple of sea creatures like the ones on Mason's cake.
Then we got a visit from our friends at the Bean Museum. Mason loves the live animal shows at the Bean Museum so when I found out we could have them come do a private show at his party (thanks for the idea Coralie) I knew it would be perfect. We got to learn about all sorts of different animals and where they live. There were even 4 special animal guests that the kids got to learn about, touch, and get their pictures taken with: Houdini the box turtle, M.J. the tarantula, Mo Jo the bearded dragon, and Elphaba the corn snake.
We didn't get a picture of the entire group, but here are most of Mason's friends with the animals. (Top to Bottom L to R) Jackson Dastrup, Cache McCann, Tanner Ferrin, Daniel Glaun, Benson Sommerfeldt (we were so happy he was visiting from Maryland and could come), Mac Christiansen, Benson, Cy Berge, Korbin Bascom, Cannon Hale, Jackson, Cy, Tanner, Benson, and Jackson. Kennedy was there but didn't want to get near any of the animals.
Brynn held the tarantula with no hesitation.
Miles liked the turtle
And Mason of course loved them all. His favorite is the tarantula, but he liked letting the bearded dragon climb on him.
After our special guests left we broke the Crocodile Pinata!
By this time the kids were all ready for cake and ice cream. I made little ice cream cups for everyone with oreo dirt and gummy worms, but it was hot hot hot outside and the kids all devoured them before I got any pictures.
I love seeing what Mason's friends chose to give him for presents. Each of the them chose things that totally reflect their friendship with Mason. For example his friend Cache is Mason's lego buddy, those two can play legos together for hours, and he got him a transformer lego set. Jackson and him play star wars every time they get together, so Jackson gave him some Star Wars fighter pods. I could keep going with all of his friends. Mason got so many wonderful gifts. I was very proud of him when he gladly let all of his friends dive in and open and play with all of his new gifts until their parents came. He really is growing up.
The present that topped all other presents came from Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Val. Mason is a huge fan of The Octonauts show and books. If you're not familiar with it then the rest of this might sound like a foreign language to you. Mason loves playing Octonauts on the computer (*warning: do not let your kids look at Octonauts on disneyjunior.com unless you are willing to use an entire cartridge of ink printing things out). While doing this he saw an advertisement for an octopod toy and decided that was the one and only thing he wanted for his birthday. After looking into it I found that all octonaut toys came from the UK and were ridiculously priced. I didn't want Mason to be disappointed on his birthday, but there was no way I was paying $120 for an octopod that wasn't that cool. So I told Mason those toys were only in another country and too expensive to get in America, so we couldn't get one. He was perfectly accepting of that, but still longed for an octopod. When his aunt Kacie asked him what he wanted them to get him for his birthday he asked her very seriously, "could you go to another country to get me an octopod?" We all got a good laugh out of it. So my mom and I went to work searching online for a deal and were able to find the Gup-A, Gup-B, and Gup-C toys for a reasonable price. So my mom ordered them all for him. We saved her presents for last and when Mason opened the first one and saw the Gup-A his voice raised to an octave only dogs can hear and exclaimed, "YOU WENT TO ANOTHER COUNTRY?!!" He was the happiest boy in the world. Oh how I wish I would have recorded it.
For the record these are the funnest and best quality toys we have gotten in a long time. They can go in the water and each one has all sorts of little "tricks" it does. They were a little pricey (even when we got them like 40% off), but actually worth it, I think. Thanks Grandma Nancy!
Mason is very proud to be a 5 year old now. The day after his birthday we went to the park. I looked across the playground to see Mason going across the rings all by himself. I was shocked!! Mason has never even come close to doing monkey bars or rings or anything and definitely doesn't try things like that on his own. I waited until he successfully crossed then ran over to praise him. When I got there he exclaimed, "I AM FIVE!" I love how now that he's five he knows he is capable of so much more.
These last five years have been so much fun! I am even more excited for all the great things in store for Mason in the next five years.
Mason is a very curious boy who likes to know how things work. After I had my c-section he had so many questions, including:
