Levi's Five!!

Levi turned 5 last month!!  He had a super fun birthday. I took cupcakes to his class, and we had a little family birthday that night.

We had a few gifts for him to open, and we asked him if he wanted to open them all that day (since he would later have a party with my family as well as a friend party). He thought about it and said he wanted to spread out his birthday and just open one present each day. That's some amazing discipline for a 5 year old! Interesting story about this Batman robot. I took Levi to Target for him to point out things he liked. Then I went back while he was at school and bought this. It was reasonably priced and looked really fun. A couple days later, I was cleaning out receipts and noticed that I had paid $65! That's more than twice what it was supposed to be. It was cool and all, but not $65-cool. I called the store, and they said to go in, and they would reimburse me. Apparently it had happened to several other people. So make sure you always look at your receipts!

I didn't have time to frost the rest of the cupcakes, so I had everyone decorate their own after dinner. Levi told me that was his favorite thing about his whole birthday. I love how easily amused he is!

I made a s'more cake for the big family party. I started with a graham cracker crust, covered it with chocolate cake, and topped it with marshmallow frosting. Then we torched the top. I've wanted to make it for awhile, and it turned out delicious! 

 He's always so good at posing for my pictures!

 

He wanted to have a skeleton birthday party (he was also a skeleton for Halloween), and we added a pirate element to make it extra fun. Spencer had a pirate party when he turned 4 that his friends still talk about. This was more low-key, but I made similar invitations. 

I printed them out, stained them in tea, burned the edges, rolled them up and tied them with twine. Cute!!

The cake was very similar to the one I made for Spencer's doctor party - just added the skull and decorations. The black fondant turned out very dark - I was worried it would stain everyone's clothes!

As you can see, my boys really get into dressing up for the theme.  

Luke and Parker

Tessa and her little sister Ivy

Braeden, Noah and Levi 

Levi chose a big "5" pinata. 

We had his party on a Friday night, since our Saturdays were all so busy.  

I love how excited Luke was for him to open his present! 

About a week later, he borrowed Luke's old bike (which is smaller than any of ours) and learned how to ride it! It's a great bike for learning, and he was able to do it his first try.

He's getting better and better and can now start and stop on his own and ride uphill and around the block. He loves it!

I'm going to close with a few words about Levi. First of all, he's hilarious! He says the funniest things and finds humor in everything. He's just a happy kid. He had his 5 year check up last week, and he was cracking up the nurse and the doctor. Then he didn't cry AT ALL when he got his shots. He still has a bit of a speech impediment, which we love! He puts an "f" in front of a lot of words; our favorite is "fwazy," instead of crazy. He has stopped sucking his thumb and needing his special blanket (he did that all on his own). He doesn't want a lot of stuff. For example, when I took the kids school shopping, I asked him what clothes he liked. He said, "I have a lot of clothes in my drawer. I don't need any." He loves Chloe and plays really well with her. I just thoroughly enjoy hanging out with him. This is an awesome age for Levi!

Cross Country

I couldn't believe it when Spencer said he wanted to run Cross Country in high school. First of all, he loves hockey, and he really only liked the actual games (practice was boring). Plus he never wanted to run track in middle school. He just finished his season, and he's really glad he did it. It was hard but very rewarding.

Dave and I went to most of his races - we just missed one. There were a lot of friends from church on his team, and I had fun visiting with the other moms.

The little kids and I mostly stayed in one place and cheered him a couple of times when he ran by. But Dave did what HIS cross country coach did and ran to multiple places throughout the course. He averaged about 5 spots per race. It really took him back to his high school and college races, and he loved it.  

I was a little worried that his asthma would get in the way, but it never did. He did puke after 2 of the races, though. They were after lunch.

Morro Bay Invitational  - this was his favorite race. The weather was cool, and he passed a lot of people on the sand. 

 There's Dave, cheering him on! He always looks up the course the night before or got a map when we arrived so he'd know where the best spots were.

Although he's glad he ran, he is really enjoying coming home right after school. He's got all kinds of time on his hands! He and Dave are trying to run together now. They're gearing up for a turkey trot next week.

Last night was the awards ceremony. All the runners talked about their highlights from the season. Spencer was funny, of course. The varsity boys and girls are both on track to go to state. If they both go, it will be the first time in the school's history. They have some great coaches!