Gavin is 5!

Today Gavin turned 5!  This morning he came to our room and said, "I think I feel different". :)  

Gavin's birthday breakfast: oatmeal with toppings (his 2nd choice since I was unable to locate pumpkin puree at the store to make his first choice which were pumpkin pancakes).  This was our usual oatmeal but he added dried cranberries, shredded coconut, and almonds to it.  He loves toppings.  

 Below is Liam showing off his gift, a new lightsaber.  We figured Liam could get a little sad watching Gavin getting all the gifts and attention so we got him a little something.  He loved it and wasn't bothered one bit by Gavin opening up all kinds of presents later in the day.

Gavin's birthday party was at the Rock Hill Children's Museum, his choice.  This is the museum that Nick takes the kids to every Wednesday for storytime and art class.  I thought that since they go so often, it would not be "special" enough for a birthday but Gavin said that's the only place he wanted his birthday party.

Captain Ellie

 
Ellie stole the show a bit when Nick dressed her up as a knight.  We were surprised she didn't mind the costume and she just strutted around the museum taking all the "aawww's" in.  

  I think this costume really highlighted her CHEEKS!

 So, once we went into the party room, I had all the kids take a seat including Liam.  Nick was out making sure we'd gotten everyone in the room.  As soon as Liam sat down, he said,"I want cake" and I told him he had to wait for daddy to come in so we could sing happy birthday and then we would all have cake.  He replied, "I don't want to wait, I want cake." I again told him we had to wait until we sang happy birthday to Gavin and then Liam just gave me a dead look and said, "I want cake. GIVE ME THE CAKE!" and every one had a laugh because even in his most defiant voice, it still sounds so darn cute. I think he may have taken a bite before we sang but Nick got back soon enough.

 The girls really enjoyed the dress-up room vault (it's an actual vault since the museum used to be a bank a long, long time ago).

It was such a great time!  We all enjoyed ourselves.  For the most part, Gavin's party took over the museum. We had 35 people come and at one point my friend asked me if I had rented the whole place out for ourselves because we were the only ones inside!  

What I did forget to do AGAIN was have someone take a family photo or at least a picture of Nick and I with Gavin.  I also meant to take a picture of our 3 kids together in their matching outfits but forgot to do that too.  We also never took out the video camera. :(  

After the party, we went to lunch with a couple of the parents and Gavin's friends to the pizza place next to the museum.  Then we came home and Gavin opened presents.  This is the first year where we've allowed people to bring presents and oh my, Gavin got a lot of awesome gifts.  

 Star Wars everything.....he loves them!  I really don't understand what it is about Star Wars that he finds so fascinating (or anyone for that matter).  He still hasn't seen the movies except for episode 2 and the first half of episode 5 but he has so many Star Wars books that he knows the entire story line and every darn detail about it.  I can no longer speak to him about Star Wars because he knows way more than I do.  One of these days, I'll have to sit with him and watch the movies so I can learn what he's talking about .

 Ellie enjoyed helping Gavin open presents.  She particularly liked the Star Wars Lego "planets" because she could shake them and make noise.  She also liked the gift that the museum gave Gavin, a pirate hat for his dress-up corner.

Everyone had an early bed time today.  We were all pretty tired from all the celebration.  Gavin said he would have sweet dreams because he would be dreaming about playing with all his new toys. Tomorrow is like the day after Christmas.  We're not going anywhere so he can open and play with his toys.