Collin-ardo turns five!

My sweet boy, who it seems like was our newborn months ago, somehow turned five last month.  On his last night as a four-year-old, we were cuddling on his bed discussing highs and lows of the day.  He asked me, "isn't your high that I'm going to be five tomorrow?"  And with tears running down my face I told him no, that it was going too fast.  I try to remember that when most nights at dinner, I have him leaning against me and Maya climbing in my lap, and I want just a few inches of personal space - that I should enjoy this "too loved" stage because I'll blink and they'll be too independent!

This year from four to five has been so fun to watch Collin grow.  He's much more confident, a bit less shy, and remains a sweet boy unless he's pretending to be a villain.  He started to learn to swim and read, he discovered a love of coloring, he climbs areas of the playground that used to scare him, he loves going to school each day and always asks to stay a bit longer when I come to pick him up.  He loves his action figures, jumping on the trampoline, and reading.  

For his fifth birthday, we had some sweet family friends over, had make-your-own pizza and green cupcakes, and luckily got the prettiest day in January to burn energy outside on bounce houses.  I learned that make your own pizzas sounded cute, but was much more effort than it was worth, so I spent almost all of the party inside.  

I did grab my camera for the birthday song - 

And for the silly string battle -

Just because it's your birthday doesn't mean you're exempt from silly string to the face.

Do you see the bounce houses?  I went on them once.  They came to get them earlier than we expected on Saturday afternoon, and so this is the main documentation of the backyard fun.  Also, I don't think I'll do a 10:30am birthday party at our house again, or if I do, I'll take the day off beforehand.  We were up super late getting ready, and then I failed to pick up dog poop in our backyard, which was less than ideal when we had 25 people running through the grass!

Sweet Lorenzo didn't know how to defend himself, so he was the perfect target!

Grammy was caught up in the silly string battle . . . and Maya transferred dog poop she stepped in to Grammy's pants when she picked her up, so she learned not to wear nice clothes to our house!

Right before Maya's nap and Collin's rest time, we slid with Nico and Lorenzo.  Maya thought it was a scream!

Silly boys - Collin climbing up the rail, Lorenzo walking down the slide -

Happy, ninja-turtle-loving, birthday boy!

He was the self-proclaimed king of the slide!  Our brave five year old - definitely wouldn't have done this a year or two ago!

Lorenzo and Nico -

He and I raced on the obstacle course.  I missed a stake in the ground and face planted on the way to the obstacle course start . . . and then laughed at myself so hard that he smoked me on the course, having a 2 minute head start!

This is as "pinterest-y" as we got - I thought we'd get a lot more decorated, but Cas came home from the store at 10:35, so we got two balloons wrapped and then handed the rest of the green balloons to friends to decorate for us!

A few days after his birthday, we conducted our annual birthday interview:
1.  What makes you happy?  watching movies, playing with fighting men, coloring
2.  What is your favorite animal?  wolves
3.  What is your favorite toy?  Action figure - specifically, a transformer villain
4.  What is your favorite thing to eat?  peanut butter & jelly
5.  What is your favorite thing to drink?  Gatorade [which he only gets when he has a stomach bug, and coincidentally, complains often of stomach aches with the follow-up "may I have some Gatorade?"]
6.  What is your favorite thing to do?  jump on the trampoline
7.  What is your favorite movie?  Hercules
8.  What is your favorite game?  Candyland
9.  What are you really good at doing?  Building with legos, coloring in coloring books
10.  What is your favorite part of being a big brother?  getting hugs from Maya every morning
11.  What is your favorite color?  turquoise and green
12.  What is your favorite song?  the Joseph song from the Joseph movie
13.  Who is your best friend?  Cooper G. [at school]
14.  What do you and your mommy do together?  Play games, go grocery shopping, cuddle, color
15.  What do you and your daddy do together?  Cuddle, watch tv, sword fight with foam swords, tumble and wrestle
16.  What is your favorite sport?  Football - New York Giants
17.  Where is your favorite place to go?  movie theater, aquarium, WonderWild
18.  What is your favorite book?  The Big Orange Splot
19.  What is your favorite restaurant?  Ruggles Green and Chick fil A [unchanged from last year]
20.  What did you do on your birthday? Had friends over, jumped on the bounce houses and trampoline, ate pizza, watched The Incredibles
21.  What do you want to be when you grow up?  A taster of only desserts 
22.  What do you know about God and Jesus?  They can do whatever they want.  They created everything.  Jesus died on the cross to forgive our sins.

What a joy it has been to parent this boy for the last five years!

Oh wonderful Collin, we could not love you more.  You are just what we always wanted!!