NG N SG +3: Liam is 5 years old!

Liam turned 5 today and he wanted a Lego themed birthday so we went to the Lego Discovery Center in Schaumburg, IL (a north western Chicago suburb). We started the day off with chocolate, chocolate chip pancakes per Liam's request. His siblings did not complain one bit about this request. :)

Nick and I decorated his bedroom hallway with crepe paper and Happy birthday signs and we also placed a banner in the kitchen and around the kitchen door frames. I thought it looked pretty festive. Liam was beaming from ear to ear and then he said, "I wish there were more decorations." Duly noted, son. Duly noted. I will keep that in mind for next year. :)

We arrived at the Lego Center before they opened. The kids were pretty excited. The location reminded me of the Crayola Experience in Orlando. The Lego Center is located in the middle of a shopping center (with fancy stores).

Liam, being Liam, chose not to pose with his siblings for the picture outside the center. :)

This picture below, captures something new. I don't know where Ellie got the hand on the hip pose from b/c it's not something that we have actively shown her but as soon as I closed-up for a picture, she propped her hand on her hip. Nick and I looked at each other and laughed.

Lego Albert Einstein welcomed us to the Lego Discovery Center. The kids were curious as to how his eyes moved from side to side.

A model of downtown Chicago (part of it, the other part is on the other side of the wall)

the other side of the downtown Chicago models

Building with giant legos

She wanted to "meet Batman"

Lunch at Noodle Bowl where we had some tasty dishes. It was probably the best Pad Thai I've ever had. The kids loved their orange chicken, chicken satay, and the fact that they had pineapple juice.

I was so proud that the kids wanted to give chopsticks a try (with the rubber bands of course). Liam got the hang of it quickly.

More Lego center after lunch....

The Marlin's Apprentice ride all by themselves.

Nick gave the kids a mission to build a Lego pyramid and they went right to work.

Here's the "finished" product but after looking at it, they thought what if there was another pyramid on the bottom....

So they built another pyramid to attach to it.

Daddy had to do the heavy lifting.

We left it leaning against the wall so others could "appreciate" it....that was until two kids came and destroyed it in 2 seconds. :)

After a long day at Lego Discovery Center, we had to convince the kids it was ok to leave. We bought annual passes so we assured them that we would return another day. Once we reminded Liam that there was cake and presents back home, he was game and the others followed.

Liam had requested a "5" candle for his cake. Nick tried to find one but there were out of stock everywhere so I thought a 5 made out of Trader Joe's "M&M's" would please him. It semi-did. He looked at the candles and said, "I wanted a 5 candle" in a very sweet voice. Once we pointed to the 5 in "M&M's" he seemed content.

Presents....from us, Grandma/Grandpa and Abuela/Abuelo.

Legos, legos and more Legos

Happy Liam

The one gift that we thought would "wow" him, did not. He looked at it, didn't say much and later said that Gavin could have it. He was plenty happy with his small Lego sets. His favorite was probably the Shadow Troopers.