Happy 5th Birthday, Evan!!

This handsome little man turned 5 over Labor Day weekend!  Can you believe it?!  He's getting so big.

We celebrated all weekend and even the week before with our neighbors for a little Moana themed birthday party.  Since we knew how busy the week would be leading up to his birthday with Scott and I back at work and soccer season starting, we opted to do his birthday party with neighbors on August 24th.  We invited three families on our end of the street and it was so much fun!  We ordered pizza, had cupcakes, broke open a Piñata, bounced in the bounce house, and watched Moana outside with blankets and pillows.

We've really been blessed this summer to make such great friends with our neighbors.  I think it's safe to say that Evan's closest friends right now are Jameson, Nevaeh, and Henry from our street.  But, he made a good friend at Tutor Time when he was in Pre-K, Jacob.  He still counts all his cousins and his brother his best friends too.  I'll be sad when they'll be a time when he most likely won't feel that way anymore.  We're trying to enjoy it while we can.

On his actual birthday, we celebrated with a full day of activities that Evan chose to do.  We started with the Home Depot Kid's Workshop where they built a pencil box.  Afterward, we went to the Plymouth Farmer's Market for muffins and learned that our muffin stand was closing and moving to Texas.  It was their last day for muffins.  It's so sad to think that one of our favorite family traditions on a Saturday morning spring-fall will be gone, but we'll just have to find something new to replace it.

We came home and let him open up his presents and made lunch.  He was pretty excited about the Playmobil beach house because it came with a jet-ski.  He also loved the Power Rangers dress-up items and accessories.  This kid love any and all swords!  His love of motorcycles seems to have morphed into a love of swords.  I'm almost wishing we could go back to motorcycles.  But, since it usually involves dress-up costumes too, it's kind of cute!  He's getting more into Legos, but not really the building aspect of them.  I think he just feels like he wants them to look at it in his room since Sean has so many cool sets in his room.  We bought him a table at Ikea for his room to set them up on and he was excited about that.  Other interests right now including riding his bike without training wheels (yay!), coloring, Sticky Mosaics, and imaginary play.

After presents and lunch, we followed tradition and went to Three Cedars Farm for their opening weekend.  Cider, donuts, and an awesome playground kept the boys entertained the rest of the afternoon.  The icing on the cake was seeing our old neighbors from when we lived in Clawson!  It was great catching up!

The boys came home and wanted to play with Jameson next door.  They ended up being pretty tired so they picked The Grinch on Netflix to watch while Scott picked up dinner at Panera (Evan's choice).  We ate on the patio outside and ate the last of the cupcakes from Evan's party (I froze them since we had so many extra).  A bubble bath, Maui pajamas, and special stories and Evan was tuckered out from a fun day!

Evan's sleep habits have improved vastly over the past year.  He's not difficult to put to bed most nights anymore and he'll sleep until 7am usually, if not later.  Always a snuggle bug, he'll come get in bed with us in the morning, but he's usually too antsy to lay still for long.  He'll grab the iPad and go back in his room for a bit.  We had a nice routine this summer!  He's big into Lego Ninjago and Hungry Shark Evolution on the iPad!  On TV he's usually up for anything that Sean can talk him in to, but if he had his choice he'd choose Masha and the Bear on Netflix or he'd pick out a movie.  He's my movie guy!  Moana was the big hit this year in our family!  But, Over the Hedge (an older movie) was a close second.

He's weighing in around 36 lbs. this summer and measured around 44" the last time he was in the doctor's office.  He's transitioning out of 4T clothes and into 5T (he seems to fill out pants better than Sean...he's got more butt lol).  He just moved into a size 10 shoe also.  We're still on pace with him being able to wear all of Sean's old clothes and shoes that lines up with the season, so we've been lucky with that!

On Sunday, we had my parents over for a birthday dinner for Evan.  My mom brought beef shish-ka-bobs to grill, beefy rice, and a nice loaf of bread.  I made a salad and a broccoli casserole.  Of course, I have two picky eaters.  So, the boys opted to eat some chicken nuggets I threw in the oven with some fruit and veggies.  In fact, Evan has continued to be difficult with eating.  His rotation of food choices include salami (sometimes in a sandwich), PB&J, chicken nuggets or chicken fingers, breakfast foods like pancakes and waffles with peanut butter and bacon, or pizza.  That's pretty much it.  He'll at least eat every fruit we've ever given him, cucumbers, and yogurt.  So, there are some healthy options.

My parents brought a delicious cake from Holiday Market (our favorite bakery in Royal Oak) and we sang, "Happy Birthday" to Evan.  They watched him ride his bike outside and took off shortly after.  It was a really nice evening and a great way to end the summer!

My Evie is such an amazing little guy!  He may be strong-willed 90% of the time, but we wouldn't change it for anything.  He's witty, sharp, creative, passionate, and loving.  I know he's going to thrive in Young 5's this year as he makes new friends and learns how to read, among other things.  He knows all of his letters (both uppercase and lowercase), can count up to 30 and then needs help by 10's, loves doing his Spanish apps on the iPad, and does a decent job writing his name and other letters/words.  He's a hard-worker.  This summer he would sit down to do a workbook page or two and I would turn my back for a minute and he'd be hard at work, doing it without prompting.

We love him so much and we're so blessed to be his parents!!  Happy 5th Birthday, my Ev-monster!!!